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4 @settitle Pterodactyl Gnus 0.68 Manual
9 @c * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
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264 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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273 Copyright \copyright{} 1995,96,97,98 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
275 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
276 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
277 are preserved on all copies.
279 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
280 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
281 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
282 permission notice identical to this one.
284 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
285 into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
294 This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
296 Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
298 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
299 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
300 are preserved on all copies.
303 Permission is granted to process this file through Tex and print the
304 results, provided the printed document carries copying permission
305 notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
306 (this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual).
309 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
310 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the
311 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
312 permission notice identical to this one.
314 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
315 into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
321 @title Pterodactyl Gnus 0.68 Manual
323 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
326 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
327 Copyright @copyright{} 1995,96,97 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
329 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
330 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
331 are preserved on all copies.
333 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
334 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
335 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
336 permission notice identical to this one.
338 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
339 into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.
348 @top The Gnus Newsreader
352 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news
353 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@sc{nntp}, local
354 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
357 This manual corresponds to Pterodactyl Gnus 0.68.
368 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
369 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
371 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
372 being accused of plagiarism:
374 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
375 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
376 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you can
377 even read news with it!
379 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
380 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
381 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
382 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
383 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
390 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
391 * The Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
392 * The Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
393 * The Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
394 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
395 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
396 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
397 * Various:: General purpose settings.
398 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
399 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
400 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
401 * Key Index:: Key Index.
405 @chapter Starting Gnus
410 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus
411 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
414 @findex gnus-other-frame
415 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
416 If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
417 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
419 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
420 variables in your @file{~/.gnus} file. This file is similar to
421 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when gnus starts.
423 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
424 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
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 @node Finding the News
442 @section Finding the News
445 @vindex gnus-select-method
447 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where Gnus should look for
448 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
449 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
450 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
453 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @sc{nntp} server is where
454 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
457 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
460 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
463 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
466 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
467 certainly be much faster.
469 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
471 @cindex @sc{nntp} server
472 If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
473 @code{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
474 Gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
475 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
476 that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an @sc{nntp} server. That's a long shot, though.
478 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
479 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
480 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
481 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
483 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
484 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
485 You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
486 @sc{nntp} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
487 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
488 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
489 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
490 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
491 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
494 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
496 However, if you use one @sc{nntp} server regularly and are just
497 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
498 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
499 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
500 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
501 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
503 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
505 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
506 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
507 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
508 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
509 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
510 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
513 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} backend to read your mail, you
514 would typically set this variable to
517 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
522 @section The First Time
523 @cindex first time usage
525 If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should
526 be subscribed by default.
528 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
529 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, Gnus
530 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
531 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
534 Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
535 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
536 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
538 You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should
539 help you with most common problems.
541 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, Gnus will just
542 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
546 @node The Server is Down
547 @section The Server is Down
548 @cindex server errors
550 If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some
551 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
552 the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.
554 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
555 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
556 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
557 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
558 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
559 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
560 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
562 @findex gnus-no-server
563 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
565 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
566 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
567 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start Gnus. That might come in handy
568 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
569 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
570 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
575 @section Slave Gnusae
578 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
579 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
580 are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers),
581 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
583 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
586 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus
587 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
588 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
589 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
590 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
591 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
592 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
594 Anyways, you start one Gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
595 however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
596 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
597 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
598 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus
599 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
600 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
601 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
603 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
604 information in the normal (i.e., master) @code{.newsrc} file.
607 @node Fetching a Group
608 @section Fetching a Group
609 @cindex fetching a group
611 @findex gnus-fetch-group
612 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
613 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
614 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
615 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
616 It takes the group name as a parameter.
624 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
625 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
626 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
627 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
628 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
629 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
630 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
631 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the backends for new groups even
632 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
635 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
636 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
637 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
641 @node Checking New Groups
642 @subsection Checking New Groups
644 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
645 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
646 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
647 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, Gnus will ask the
648 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
649 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
650 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
651 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
652 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
653 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
655 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
656 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
657 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
658 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
659 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
660 work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server
661 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
662 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
663 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
664 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
665 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
667 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will
668 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
669 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
670 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
671 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
672 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
675 @node Subscription Methods
676 @subsection Subscription Methods
678 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
679 What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
680 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
682 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
683 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
685 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
689 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
690 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
691 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
692 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
693 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
695 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
696 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
697 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
698 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
700 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
701 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
702 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
704 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
705 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
706 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
707 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
708 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
709 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into it's
710 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
711 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
712 up. Or something like that.
714 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
715 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
716 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask
717 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
718 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
720 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
721 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
726 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
727 A closely related variable is
728 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
729 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you in a
730 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
731 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
734 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
735 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
736 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
737 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
740 @node Filtering New Groups
741 @subsection Filtering New Groups
743 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
744 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
745 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
748 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
751 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
752 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
753 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
754 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
755 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
756 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
757 subscribing these groups.
758 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
759 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
761 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
762 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
763 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
764 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
765 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
766 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
767 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
768 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
770 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
771 Yet another variable that meddles here is
772 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
773 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous, but I
774 thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more
775 meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used
776 more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups
777 that come from mail backends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
778 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, and @code{nnmh}) subscribed. If you
779 don't like that, just set this variable to @code{nil}.
781 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
782 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
785 @node Changing Servers
786 @section Changing Servers
787 @cindex changing servers
789 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @sc{nntp} server to another.
790 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
791 very flaky and you want to use another.
793 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
794 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
798 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
799 @sc{nntp} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
800 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
801 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
804 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
805 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
806 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
807 functions more than absolutely necessary.
809 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
810 @findex gnus-change-server
811 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
812 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
813 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
814 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
815 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
817 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
818 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
819 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
820 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
821 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
823 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
824 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
825 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
826 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
827 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
828 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
830 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
831 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
832 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
836 @section Startup Files
837 @cindex startup files
842 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
843 information is traditionally stored in this file.
845 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
846 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
847 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
848 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
849 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
850 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
851 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
853 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
854 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
855 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
856 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
857 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
858 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
860 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
861 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
862 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
863 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster.
864 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
865 Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right?
867 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
868 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
869 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
870 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
871 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
872 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
873 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
874 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
875 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
876 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
877 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
878 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
880 @vindex gnus-startup-file
881 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
882 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
883 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
885 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
886 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
887 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
888 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
889 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
890 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
891 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
892 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
893 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
894 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
897 (defun turn-off-backup ()
898 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
900 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
901 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
904 @vindex gnus-init-file
905 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
906 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
907 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
908 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
909 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
910 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
911 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
912 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
913 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
922 Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles,
923 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
924 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
925 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
926 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
929 If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
930 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
933 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
934 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, Gnus won't create and
935 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
937 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
938 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
939 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble
940 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
941 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
942 file permissions as the @code{.newsrc} file.
944 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
945 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
946 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
949 @node The Active File
950 @section The Active File
952 @cindex ignored groups
954 When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
955 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
956 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
958 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
959 Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the
960 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
961 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus
962 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
963 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
964 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
967 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
968 @c if you set it to anything else.
970 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
972 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
973 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
974 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
976 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
977 you actually subscribe to.
979 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
980 variable to @code{nil} will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At
981 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow Gnus down
982 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
984 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
985 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
986 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
987 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
988 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
989 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
991 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will ask for group info in total
992 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
993 @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
994 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
995 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
996 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
998 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
999 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1001 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1002 secondary select methods.
1005 @node Startup Variables
1006 @section Startup Variables
1010 @item gnus-load-hook
1011 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1012 A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1013 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1014 times you start Gnus.
1016 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1017 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1018 A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.
1020 @item gnus-startup-hook
1021 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1022 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1024 @item gnus-started-hook
1025 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1026 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus
1029 @item gnus-started-hook
1030 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1031 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1032 generating the group buffer.
1034 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1035 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1036 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1037 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1038 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1039 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1040 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1041 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1043 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1044 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1045 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1046 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1047 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1048 @file{.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @code{.emacs} instead.
1050 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1051 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1052 Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.
1054 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1055 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1056 If non-@code{nil}, play the Gnus jingle at startup.
1058 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1059 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1060 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1061 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1066 @node The Group Buffer
1067 @chapter The Group Buffer
1068 @cindex group buffer
1070 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1071 is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1072 long as Gnus is active.
1076 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1077 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group.ps,height=9cm}}
1078 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1079 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1080 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1081 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1082 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1083 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1089 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1090 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1091 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1092 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1093 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1094 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1095 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1096 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1097 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1098 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1099 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1100 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1101 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1102 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1103 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1104 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1105 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1109 @node Group Buffer Format
1110 @section Group Buffer Format
1113 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1114 * Group Modeline Specification:: The group buffer modeline.
1115 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1119 @node Group Line Specification
1120 @subsection Group Line Specification
1121 @cindex group buffer format
1123 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1124 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1126 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1129 25: news.announce.newusers
1130 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1135 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1136 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1137 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1138 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1140 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1141 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1142 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1143 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1144 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1145 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1147 @samp{%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1149 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1150 the colon after performing an operation. Nothing else is required---not
1151 even the group name. All displayed text is just window dressing, and is
1152 never examined by Gnus. Gnus stores all real information it needs using
1155 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1156 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1157 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1159 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1164 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1167 Whether the group is subscribed.
1170 Level of subscribedness.
1173 Number of unread articles.
1176 Number of dormant articles.
1179 Number of ticked articles.
1182 Number of read articles.
1185 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1186 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1189 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1192 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1201 Newsgroup description.
1204 @samp{m} if moderated.
1207 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1216 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1220 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1223 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1224 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1225 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1226 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1227 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.emacs.gnus}.
1230 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1232 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1236 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1240 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1241 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1242 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1243 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1244 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1245 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1250 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1251 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1252 group, or a bogus native group.
1255 @node Group Modeline Specification
1256 @subsection Group Modeline Specification
1257 @cindex group modeline
1259 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1260 The mode line can be changed by setting
1261 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1262 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1266 The native news server.
1268 The native select method.
1272 @node Group Highlighting
1273 @subsection Group Highlighting
1274 @cindex highlighting
1275 @cindex group highlighting
1277 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1278 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1279 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1280 that look like @var{(form . face)}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1281 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1283 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1287 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-1
1288 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))))
1289 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-2
1290 '((t (:foreground "SeaGreen" :bold t))))
1291 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-3
1292 '((t (:foreground "SpringGreen" :bold t))))
1293 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-4
1294 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))))
1295 (face-spec-set 'my-group-face-5
1296 '((t (:foreground "SkyBlue" :bold t))))
1298 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1299 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1300 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1301 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1302 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1303 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1306 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1308 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1315 The number of unread articles in the group.
1319 Whether the group is a mail group.
1321 The level of the group.
1323 The score of the group.
1325 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1327 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather, MAX-NUMBER minus
1328 MIN-NUMBER plus one.
1330 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1331 topic being inserted.
1334 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1335 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus
1336 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1338 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1339 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1340 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
1341 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
1342 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
1345 @node Group Maneuvering
1346 @section Group Maneuvering
1347 @cindex group movement
1349 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
1350 expected, hopefully.
1356 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
1357 Go to the next group that has unread articles
1358 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
1364 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
1365 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
1366 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
1370 @findex gnus-group-next-group
1371 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
1375 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
1376 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
1380 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
1381 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
1382 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
1386 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
1387 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
1388 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
1391 Three commands for jumping to groups:
1397 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
1398 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
1399 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
1404 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
1405 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
1406 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
1410 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
1411 Jump to the first group with unread articles
1412 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
1415 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
1416 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
1417 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
1418 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
1422 @node Selecting a Group
1423 @section Selecting a Group
1424 @cindex group selection
1429 @kindex SPACE (Group)
1430 @findex gnus-group-read-group
1431 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
1432 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
1433 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
1434 this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
1435 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{N}, @var{N}
1436 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{N} is
1437 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{N} newest articles, if @var{N} is
1438 negative, Gnus fetches the @var{abs(N)} oldest articles.
1442 @findex gnus-group-select-group
1443 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
1444 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
1445 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
1446 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
1450 @kindex M-RET (Group)
1451 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
1452 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
1453 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
1454 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
1455 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
1456 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
1457 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
1458 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
1459 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
1462 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
1463 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
1464 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
1465 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
1466 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
1469 @kindex M-C-RET (Group)
1470 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
1471 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
1472 doing any processing of its contents
1473 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
1474 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
1475 manner will have no permanent effects.
1479 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
1480 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should consider
1481 to be a big group. This is 200 by default. If the group has more
1482 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user
1483 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles
1484 should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative
1485 number (@code{-n}), the @code{n} oldest articles will be fetched. If it
1486 is positive, the @code{n} articles that have arrived most recently will
1489 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
1490 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
1491 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} control whether any articles are selected
1492 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
1497 Don't select any articles when entering the group. Just display the
1498 full summary buffer.
1501 Select the first unread article when entering the group.
1504 Select the highest scored article in the group when entering the
1509 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function will
1510 be called to place point on a subject line, and/or select some article.
1511 Useful functions include:
1514 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-subject
1515 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article, but
1516 don't select the article.
1518 @item gnus-summary-first-unread-article
1519 Select the first unread article.
1521 @item gnus-summary-best-unread-article
1522 Select the highest-scored unread article.
1526 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
1527 binary group with Huge articles) you can set this variable to @code{nil}
1528 in @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
1532 @node Subscription Commands
1533 @section Subscription Commands
1534 @cindex subscription
1542 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
1543 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
1544 Toggle subscription to the current group
1545 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
1551 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
1552 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
1553 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
1554 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
1560 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
1561 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
1562 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
1568 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
1569 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
1572 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
1573 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
1574 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
1575 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
1576 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
1582 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
1583 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
1587 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
1588 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
1591 @kindex S C-k (Group)
1592 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
1593 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
1594 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
1595 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
1596 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
1597 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
1598 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
1599 @file{.newsrc} file.
1603 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1613 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
1614 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
1615 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
1616 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
1617 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
1618 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
1623 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
1624 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
1625 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
1629 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1630 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
1631 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1633 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1634 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1635 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1636 If you have switched from one @sc{nntp} server to another, all your marks
1637 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
1638 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
1645 @section Group Levels
1649 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
1650 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
1651 can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
1652 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
1653 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1655 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
1661 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
1662 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
1663 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
1664 prompted for a level.
1667 @vindex gnus-level-killed
1668 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
1669 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
1670 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
1671 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
1672 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
1673 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
1674 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
1675 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
1676 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
1677 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
1678 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
1679 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
1680 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
1681 reasons of efficiency.
1683 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
1684 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
1686 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
1687 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
1688 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
1690 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
1691 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
1692 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
1693 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
1694 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
1695 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
1696 relevant valid ranges.
1698 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
1699 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
1700 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
1701 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
1702 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
1703 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
1706 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
1707 All groups with a level less than or equal to
1708 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
1711 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
1712 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
1713 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
1714 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
1717 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
1718 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
1719 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
1720 use this level as the ``work'' level.
1722 @vindex gnus-activate-level
1723 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
1724 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
1725 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
1726 to 5. The default is 6.
1730 @section Group Score
1735 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
1736 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
1737 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
1740 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can assign a score to each
1741 group. You can then sort the group buffer based on this score.
1742 Alternatively, you can sort on score and then level. (Taken together,
1743 the level and the score is called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group
1744 that is on level 4 and has a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group
1745 on level 5 that has a score of 300. (The level is the most significant
1746 part and the score is the least significant part.))
1748 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
1749 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
1750 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
1751 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
1752 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
1753 action after each summary exit, you can add
1754 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
1755 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
1756 slow things down somewhat.
1759 @node Marking Groups
1760 @section Marking Groups
1761 @cindex marking groups
1763 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
1764 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
1765 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
1766 bidding on those groups.
1768 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
1769 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
1770 with the process mark and then execute the command.
1778 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
1779 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
1785 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
1786 Remove the mark from the current group
1787 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
1791 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
1792 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
1796 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
1797 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
1801 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
1802 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
1806 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
1807 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
1808 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
1811 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
1813 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
1814 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
1815 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
1816 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
1817 the command to be executed.
1820 @node Foreign Groups
1821 @section Foreign Groups
1822 @cindex foreign groups
1824 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
1825 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
1826 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
1827 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
1834 @findex gnus-group-make-group
1835 @cindex making groups
1836 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
1837 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
1838 to subscribe to @sc{nntp} groups, @pxref{Browse Foreign Server}.
1842 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
1843 @cindex renaming groups
1844 Rename the current group to something else
1845 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
1846 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
1852 @findex gnus-group-customize
1853 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
1857 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
1858 @cindex renaming groups
1859 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
1860 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
1864 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
1865 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
1866 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
1870 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
1871 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
1872 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
1876 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
1878 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
1879 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
1884 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
1885 Make the Gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
1889 @cindex (ding) archive
1890 @cindex archive group
1891 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
1892 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
1893 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
1894 Make a Gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
1895 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
1896 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
1897 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
1901 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
1903 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
1904 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
1905 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
1906 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
1910 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
1912 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
1913 @code{nneething} backend (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
1914 @xref{Anything Groups}.
1918 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
1919 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
1921 Make a group based on some file or other
1922 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
1923 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
1924 Currently supported types are @code{babyl}, @code{mbox}, @code{digest},
1925 @code{mmdf}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{clari-briefs},
1926 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, and @code{forward}. If you run
1927 this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file type.
1928 @xref{Document Groups}.
1932 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
1933 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
1934 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
1935 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
1939 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
1944 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
1945 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
1946 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
1947 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
1948 include @code{dejanews}, @code{altavista} and @code{reference}.
1949 @xref{Web Searches}.
1951 If you use the @code{dejanews} search engine, you can limit the search
1952 to a particular group by using a match string like
1953 @samp{~g alt.sysadmin.recovery shaving}.
1956 @kindex G DEL (Group)
1957 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
1958 This function will delete the current group
1959 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
1960 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
1961 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
1962 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
1963 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} group), though.
1967 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
1968 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
1969 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
1973 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
1974 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
1975 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
1978 @xref{Select Methods} for more information on the various select
1981 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
1982 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
1983 Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
1984 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
1985 groups from different @sc{nntp} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
1986 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
1990 @node Group Parameters
1991 @section Group Parameters
1992 @cindex group parameters
1994 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
1995 Here's an example group parameter list:
1998 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2002 We see that each element consists of a "dotted pair"---the thing before
2003 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2004 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2005 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2007 The following group parameters can be used:
2012 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2015 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2018 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2019 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2020 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2021 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2022 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2024 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2025 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2026 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2027 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2028 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2029 list address instead.
2033 Address used when doing a @kbd{a} in that group.
2036 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2039 It is totally ignored
2040 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2041 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2043 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2044 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2045 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2046 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2047 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2049 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you don't have a
2050 @code{to-list} group parameter, one will be added automatically upon
2051 sending the message.
2055 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2056 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2057 of whether it has any unread articles.
2059 @item broken-reply-to
2060 @cindex broken-reply-to
2061 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2062 headers in this group are to be ignored. This can be useful if you're
2063 reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted
2064 @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv itself. This is
2065 broken behavior. So there!
2069 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2070 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2074 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, Gnus
2075 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2076 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2081 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2082 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2083 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2084 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2085 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2086 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2087 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2091 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2092 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2093 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2096 @cindex total-expire
2097 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2098 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2099 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2100 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2105 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2106 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(expiry-wait
2107 . 10)}, this value will override any @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and
2108 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} when expiring expirable messages.
2109 The value can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or
2110 the symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2113 @cindex score file group parameter
2114 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2115 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2116 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2119 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2120 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2121 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2122 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2125 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2126 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2127 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2128 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2131 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2132 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2136 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2139 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2144 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")}
2145 are arbitrary comments on the group. They are currently ignored by
2146 Gnus, but provide a place for you to store information on particular
2150 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2151 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2152 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2154 @item @var{(variable form)}
2155 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
2156 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
2157 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
2158 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
2159 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
2160 @code{eval}ed there.
2162 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like.
2163 If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put
2164 something like @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that
2165 group. @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the result of the
2166 @code{(ding)} form, but who cares?
2169 You can store additional posting style information for this group only
2170 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2171 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2172 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2173 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2175 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2176 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2177 like this in the group parameters:
2182 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2187 Use the @kbd{G p} command to edit group parameters of a group. You
2188 might also be interested in reading about topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
2192 @node Listing Groups
2193 @section Listing Groups
2194 @cindex group listing
2196 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
2204 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
2205 List all groups that have unread articles
2206 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
2207 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
2208 only lists groups of level five (i. e.,
2209 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
2216 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
2217 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
2218 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
2219 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
2220 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
2221 unsubscribed groups).
2225 @findex gnus-group-list-level
2226 List all unread groups on a specific level
2227 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
2228 with no unread articles.
2232 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
2233 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
2234 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
2235 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
2240 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
2241 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
2245 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
2246 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
2247 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
2251 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
2252 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
2256 @findex gnus-group-list-active
2257 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
2258 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
2259 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
2260 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
2261 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
2262 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
2263 Take the output with some grains of salt.
2267 @findex gnus-group-apropos
2268 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
2269 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
2273 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
2274 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
2275 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
2279 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
2280 @cindex visible group parameter
2281 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
2282 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
2283 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
2284 get the same effect.
2286 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
2287 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
2288 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
2289 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
2290 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
2293 @node Sorting Groups
2294 @section Sorting Groups
2295 @cindex sorting groups
2297 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
2298 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
2299 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
2300 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
2301 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
2302 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
2307 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2308 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
2309 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
2311 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2312 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
2313 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
2315 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
2316 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
2317 Sort by group level.
2319 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
2320 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
2321 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
2323 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
2324 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
2325 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
2326 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
2328 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2329 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
2330 Sort by number of unread articles.
2332 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
2333 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
2334 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
2339 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
2340 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
2344 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
2345 some sorting criteria:
2349 @kindex G S a (Group)
2350 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
2351 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
2352 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
2355 @kindex G S u (Group)
2356 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
2357 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
2358 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
2361 @kindex G S l (Group)
2362 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
2363 Sort the group buffer by group level
2364 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
2367 @kindex G S v (Group)
2368 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
2369 Sort the group buffer by group score
2370 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2373 @kindex G S r (Group)
2374 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
2375 Sort the group buffer by group rank
2376 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2379 @kindex G S m (Group)
2380 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
2381 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by backend name
2382 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
2386 All the commands below obeys the process/prefix convention
2387 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2389 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
2390 commands will sort in reverse order.
2392 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
2396 @kindex G P a (Group)
2397 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
2398 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
2399 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
2402 @kindex G P u (Group)
2403 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
2404 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
2405 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
2408 @kindex G P l (Group)
2409 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
2410 Sort the groups by group level
2411 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
2414 @kindex G P v (Group)
2415 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
2416 Sort the groups by group score
2417 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2420 @kindex G P r (Group)
2421 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
2422 Sort the groups by group rank
2423 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2426 @kindex G P m (Group)
2427 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
2428 Sort the groups alphabetically by backend name
2429 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
2435 @node Group Maintenance
2436 @section Group Maintenance
2437 @cindex bogus groups
2442 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
2443 Find bogus groups and delete them
2444 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
2448 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
2449 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
2450 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
2451 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
2452 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
2456 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
2457 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
2458 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
2459 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}).
2462 @kindex C-c M-C-x (Group)
2463 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
2464 Run all articles in all groups through the expiry process
2465 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
2470 @node Browse Foreign Server
2471 @section Browse Foreign Server
2472 @cindex foreign servers
2473 @cindex browsing servers
2478 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
2479 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
2480 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
2481 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
2484 @findex gnus-browse-mode
2485 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
2486 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
2487 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
2489 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
2494 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2495 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2499 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2500 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2503 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
2504 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
2505 Enter the current group and display the first article
2506 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
2509 @kindex RET (Browse)
2510 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
2511 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
2515 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
2516 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
2517 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2523 @findex gnus-browse-exit
2524 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
2528 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
2529 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
2530 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
2535 @section Exiting Gnus
2536 @cindex exiting Gnus
2538 Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.
2543 @findex gnus-group-suspend
2544 Suspend Gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit Gnus,
2545 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
2546 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
2550 @findex gnus-group-exit
2551 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
2552 Quit Gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
2556 @findex gnus-group-quit
2557 Quit Gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
2558 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
2561 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
2562 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
2563 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend Gnus and
2564 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit Gnus, while
2565 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
2570 If you wish to completely unload Gnus and all its adherents, you can use
2571 the @code{gnus-unload} command. This command is also very handy when
2572 trying to customize meta-variables.
2577 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
2578 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
2579 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
2585 @section Group Topics
2588 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
2589 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
2590 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
2591 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
2592 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
2593 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
2597 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
2598 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=tmp/group-topic.ps,height=9cm}}
2609 2: alt.religion.emacs
2612 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
2614 8: comp.binaries.fractals
2615 13: comp.sources.unix
2618 @findex gnus-topic-mode
2620 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
2621 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
2622 is a toggling command.)
2624 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
2625 dum... Nice tune, that... la la la... What, you're back? Yes, and now
2626 press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed under
2627 @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Hot and
2630 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
2631 the hook for the group mode:
2634 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
2638 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
2639 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
2640 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
2641 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
2642 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
2646 @node Topic Variables
2647 @subsection Topic Variables
2648 @cindex topic variables
2650 Now, if you select a topic, it will fold/unfold that topic, which is
2651 really neat, I think.
2653 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
2654 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
2655 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
2668 Number of groups in the topic.
2670 Number of unread articles in the topic.
2672 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
2675 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
2676 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
2677 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
2680 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
2681 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
2683 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
2684 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
2685 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
2688 @node Topic Commands
2689 @subsection Topic Commands
2690 @cindex topic commands
2692 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
2693 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
2694 definitions slightly.
2700 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
2701 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
2702 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
2706 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
2707 Move the current group to some other topic
2708 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
2709 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2713 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
2714 Copy the current group to some other topic
2715 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
2716 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2720 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
2721 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
2722 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
2723 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
2724 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
2725 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
2726 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
2729 This command uses the process/prefix convention
2730 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
2734 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
2735 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
2736 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
2740 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
2741 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
2742 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
2746 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
2747 Toggle hiding empty topics
2748 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
2752 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
2753 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
2754 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}).
2757 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
2758 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
2759 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
2760 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}).
2764 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
2766 @findex gnus-topic-indent
2767 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
2768 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
2769 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
2772 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
2773 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
2774 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
2775 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
2779 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
2781 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
2782 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
2783 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
2784 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
2785 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
2786 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
2789 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
2790 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
2791 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the expiry
2792 process (if any) (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}).
2796 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
2797 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
2798 topic will be removed along with the topic.
2802 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
2803 Yank the previously killed group or topic
2804 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
2809 @findex gnus-topic-rename
2810 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
2813 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
2814 @findex gnus-topic-delete
2815 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
2819 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
2820 List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
2821 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
2825 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
2826 @cindex group parameters
2827 @cindex topic parameters
2829 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
2830 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
2836 @subsection Topic Sorting
2837 @cindex topic sorting
2839 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
2845 @kindex T S a (Topic)
2846 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
2847 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
2848 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
2851 @kindex T S u (Topic)
2852 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
2853 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
2854 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
2857 @kindex T S l (Topic)
2858 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
2859 Sort the current topic by group level
2860 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
2863 @kindex T S v (Topic)
2864 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
2865 Sort the current topic by group score
2866 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
2869 @kindex T S r (Topic)
2870 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
2871 Sort the current topic by group rank
2872 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
2875 @kindex T S m (Topic)
2876 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
2877 Sort the current topic alphabetically by backend name
2878 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
2882 @xref{Sorting Groups} for more information about group sorting.
2885 @node Topic Topology
2886 @subsection Topic Topology
2887 @cindex topic topology
2890 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
2896 2: alt.religion.emacs
2899 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
2901 8: comp.binaries.fractals
2902 13: comp.sources.unix
2905 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
2906 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
2907 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
2912 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
2913 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
2917 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
2918 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
2919 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
2920 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
2921 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
2922 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
2924 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
2925 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
2926 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
2929 @node Topic Parameters
2930 @subsection Topic Parameters
2931 @cindex topic parameters
2933 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and
2934 ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic
2935 parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
2937 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
2938 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
2939 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
2940 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
2946 2: alt.religion.emacs
2950 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
2952 8: comp.binaries.fractals
2953 13: comp.sources.unix
2957 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
2958 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
2959 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
2960 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
2961 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
2962 . "religion.SCORE")}.
2964 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
2965 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
2966 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
2967 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
2968 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
2970 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
2971 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
2972 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
2973 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
2974 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
2975 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
2976 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
2977 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
2980 @node Misc Group Stuff
2981 @section Misc Group Stuff
2984 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
2985 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
2986 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
2987 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
2994 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
2995 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
2996 @xref{The Server Buffer}.
3000 @findex gnus-group-post-news
3001 Post an article to a group (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a
3002 prefix, the current group name will be used as the default.
3006 @findex gnus-group-mail
3007 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}).
3011 Variables for the group buffer:
3015 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
3016 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
3017 is called after the group buffer has been
3020 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
3021 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3022 is called after the group buffer is
3023 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
3026 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
3027 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
3028 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
3029 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
3031 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3032 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3033 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
3034 whether they are empty or not.
3039 @node Scanning New Messages
3040 @subsection Scanning New Messages
3041 @cindex new messages
3042 @cindex scanning new news
3048 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
3049 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
3050 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
3051 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
3052 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
3053 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
3058 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
3059 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
3060 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
3061 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
3062 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
3063 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
3064 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
3066 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
3067 @cindex activating groups
3069 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
3070 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
3075 @findex gnus-group-restart
3076 Restart Gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
3077 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
3078 Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.
3082 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
3083 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
3085 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
3086 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
3090 @node Group Information
3091 @subsection Group Information
3092 @cindex group information
3093 @cindex information on groups
3100 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
3101 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
3104 Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group
3105 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from
3106 @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on a
3107 remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In
3108 that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
3109 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be used
3110 for fetching the file.
3112 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go
3113 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
3117 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
3119 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
3120 @cindex describing groups
3121 @cindex group description
3122 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
3123 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
3124 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
3128 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
3129 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
3130 prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
3137 @findex gnus-version
3138 Display current Gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
3142 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
3143 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
3146 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
3149 @findex gnus-info-find-node
3150 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
3154 @node Group Timestamp
3155 @subsection Group Timestamp
3157 @cindex group timestamps
3159 It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a
3160 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
3161 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
3164 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
3167 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
3169 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
3170 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
3173 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3174 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
3177 This will result in lines looking like:
3180 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
3181 0: custom 19961002T012713
3184 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
3185 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
3189 (setq gnus-group-line-format
3190 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
3195 @subsection File Commands
3196 @cindex file commands
3202 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
3203 @vindex gnus-init-file
3204 @cindex reading init file
3205 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
3206 @file{~/.gnus}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
3210 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
3211 @cindex saving .newsrc
3212 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
3213 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
3214 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
3217 @c @kindex Z (Group)
3218 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
3219 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
3224 @node The Summary Buffer
3225 @chapter The Summary Buffer
3226 @cindex summary buffer
3228 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
3229 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
3231 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
3232 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
3234 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
3237 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
3238 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
3239 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
3240 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
3241 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
3242 * Canceling and Superseding:: ``Whoops, I shouldn't have called him that.''
3243 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
3244 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
3245 * Threading:: How threads are made.
3246 * Sorting:: How articles and threads are sorted.
3247 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
3248 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
3249 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
3250 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
3251 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
3252 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
3253 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
3254 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
3255 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
3256 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
3257 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
3258 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
3259 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
3260 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
3261 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
3262 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer.
3263 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
3264 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
3268 @node Summary Buffer Format
3269 @section Summary Buffer Format
3270 @cindex summary buffer format
3274 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
3275 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary.ps,width=7.5cm}}
3276 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-article.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
3282 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
3283 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
3284 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
3285 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
3288 @findex mail-extract-address-components
3289 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
3290 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
3291 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
3292 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
3293 @code{From} header. Two pre-defined functions exist:
3294 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
3295 fast, and too simplistic solution; and
3296 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works very nicely, but is
3297 slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the
3298 cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:
3301 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
3302 'mail-extract-address-components)
3305 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
3306 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
3307 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
3308 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
3311 @node Summary Buffer Lines
3312 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
3314 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
3315 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
3316 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
3317 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
3318 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3320 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%) %s\n}.
3322 The following format specification characters are understood:
3330 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
3331 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
3332 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
3334 Full @code{From} header.
3336 The name (from the @code{From} header).
3338 The name, code @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header
3339 (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
3341 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
3342 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
3343 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
3344 may be more thorough.
3346 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
3349 Number of lines in the article.
3351 Number of characters in the article.
3353 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
3355 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
3356 pushes everything after it off the screen).
3358 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
3359 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
3361 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
3362 for adopted articles.
3364 One space for each thread level.
3366 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
3371 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
3372 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
3376 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
3378 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
3379 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
3380 default level. If the difference between
3381 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
3382 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
3390 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
3392 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
3398 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
3399 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
3401 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
3402 article has any children.
3408 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
3409 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
3410 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
3411 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
3412 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
3413 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
3416 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
3417 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will
3418 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
3419 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
3420 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
3421 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
3423 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
3424 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
3426 This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
3429 @node To From Newsgroups
3430 @subsection To From Newsgroups
3434 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
3435 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
3436 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
3437 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
3438 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
3442 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
3443 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
3444 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
3448 (setq gnus-extra-headers
3449 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
3452 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
3453 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
3456 @findex gnus-extra-header
3457 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
3458 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
3459 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
3462 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
3466 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
3467 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
3468 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
3469 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
3470 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
3471 headers are used instead.
3475 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
3476 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
3477 to include extra headers when generating overview (@sc{nov}) files.
3479 In summary, you'd typically do something like the following:
3482 (setq gnus-extra-headers
3484 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
3485 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
3486 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20f%]%) %s\n")
3487 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
3491 Now, this is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
3492 the @sc{nov} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
3499 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
3500 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
3503 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
3504 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
3506 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
3507 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
3508 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
3509 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
3511 Here are the elements you can play with:
3517 Unprefixed group name.
3519 Current article number.
3521 Current article score.
3525 Number of unread articles in this group.
3527 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
3530 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
3531 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
3532 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
3533 and no unselected ones.
3535 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
3536 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
3538 Subject of the current article.
3540 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
3542 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
3544 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
3546 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
3548 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
3550 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
3554 @node Summary Highlighting
3555 @subsection Summary Highlighting
3559 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
3560 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
3561 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
3562 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
3563 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
3565 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
3566 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
3567 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
3568 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
3570 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
3571 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
3572 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
3573 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
3575 @item gnus-summary-highlight
3576 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
3577 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
3578 list where the elements are of the format @var{(FORM . FACE)}. If you
3579 would, for instance, like ticked articles to be italic and high-scored
3580 articles to be bold, you could set this variable to something like
3582 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
3583 ((> score default) . bold))
3585 As you may have guessed, if @var{FORM} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
3586 @var{FACE} will be applied to the line.
3590 @node Summary Maneuvering
3591 @section Summary Maneuvering
3592 @cindex summary movement
3594 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
3595 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
3597 None of these commands select articles.
3602 @kindex M-n (Summary)
3603 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
3604 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
3605 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
3606 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
3610 @kindex M-p (Summary)
3611 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
3612 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
3613 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
3614 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
3619 @kindex G j (Summary)
3620 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
3621 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
3622 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
3625 @kindex G g (Summary)
3626 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
3627 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
3628 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
3631 If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
3632 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
3633 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
3634 to the group buffer.
3636 Variables related to summary movement:
3640 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
3641 @item gnus-auto-select-next
3642 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
3643 no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to
3644 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
3645 empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
3646 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, Gnus will select the
3647 next group, no matter whether it has any unread articles or not. As a
3648 special case, if this variable is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the
3649 next group without asking for confirmation. If this variable is
3650 @code{almost-quietly}, the same will happen only if you are located on
3651 the last article in the group. Finally, if this variable is
3652 @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n} command will go to the next group
3653 without confirmation. Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
3655 @item gnus-auto-select-same
3656 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
3657 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
3658 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
3659 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
3660 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
3661 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
3663 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
3665 @item gnus-summary-check-current
3666 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
3667 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
3668 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
3669 Instead, they will choose the current article.
3671 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
3672 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
3673 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
3674 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
3675 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
3676 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
3677 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
3678 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
3681 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
3682 the given number of lines from the top.
3687 @node Choosing Articles
3688 @section Choosing Articles
3689 @cindex selecting articles
3692 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
3693 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
3697 @node Choosing Commands
3698 @subsection Choosing Commands
3700 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
3701 and they all select and display an article.
3705 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
3706 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
3707 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
3708 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
3713 @kindex G n (Summary)
3714 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
3715 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
3716 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
3721 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
3722 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
3723 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
3728 @kindex G N (Summary)
3729 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
3730 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
3735 @kindex G P (Summary)
3736 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
3737 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
3740 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
3741 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
3742 Go to the next article with the same subject
3743 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
3746 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
3747 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
3748 Go to the previous article with the same subject
3749 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
3753 @kindex G f (Summary)
3755 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
3756 Go to the first unread article
3757 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
3761 @kindex G b (Summary)
3763 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
3764 Go to the article with the highest score
3765 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}).
3770 @kindex G l (Summary)
3771 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
3772 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
3775 @kindex G o (Summary)
3776 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
3778 @cindex article history
3779 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
3780 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
3781 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
3782 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
3783 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
3784 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
3788 @node Choosing Variables
3789 @subsection Choosing Variables
3791 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
3794 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
3795 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
3796 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
3797 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
3798 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
3799 the server and display it in the article buffer.
3801 @item gnus-select-article-hook
3802 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
3803 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
3804 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article.
3806 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
3807 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
3808 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
3809 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
3810 @findex gnus-unread-mark
3811 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
3812 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
3813 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
3814 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
3815 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
3816 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
3817 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
3818 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
3819 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
3824 @node Paging the Article
3825 @section Scrolling the Article
3826 @cindex article scrolling
3831 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
3832 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
3833 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
3834 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
3835 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
3838 @kindex DEL (Summary)
3839 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
3840 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
3843 @kindex RET (Summary)
3844 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
3845 Scroll the current article one line forward
3846 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
3849 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
3850 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
3851 Scroll the current article one line backward
3852 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
3856 @kindex A g (Summary)
3858 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
3859 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
3860 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
3861 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
3862 the way it came from the server.
3867 @kindex A < (Summary)
3868 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
3869 Scroll to the beginning of the article
3870 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
3875 @kindex A > (Summary)
3876 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
3877 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
3881 @kindex A s (Summary)
3883 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
3884 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
3885 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
3889 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
3890 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
3895 @node Reply Followup and Post
3896 @section Reply, Followup and Post
3899 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
3900 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
3904 @node Summary Mail Commands
3905 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
3907 @cindex composing mail
3909 Commands for composing a mail message:
3915 @kindex S r (Summary)
3917 @findex gnus-summary-reply
3918 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
3919 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
3920 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
3921 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
3926 @kindex S R (Summary)
3927 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
3928 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
3929 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
3930 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
3931 command uses the process/prefix convention.
3934 @kindex S w (Summary)
3935 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
3936 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
3937 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
3938 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
3939 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers.
3942 @kindex S W (Summary)
3943 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
3944 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
3945 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
3946 the process/prefix convention.
3949 @kindex S o m (Summary)
3950 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
3951 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
3952 Forward the current article to some other person
3953 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
3954 headers of the forwarded article.
3959 @kindex S m (Summary)
3960 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
3961 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
3962 Send a mail to some other person
3963 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}).
3966 @kindex S D b (Summary)
3967 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
3968 @cindex bouncing mail
3969 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
3970 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
3971 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
3972 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
3973 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
3974 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, Gnus will try to fetch
3975 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
3976 very well fail, though.
3979 @kindex S D r (Summary)
3980 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
3981 Not to be confused with the previous command,
3982 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
3983 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
3984 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
3985 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
3986 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
3987 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
3988 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
3990 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
3991 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
3992 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
3993 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
3994 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muß sein!
3996 This command understands the process/prefix convention
3997 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4000 @kindex S O m (Summary)
4001 @findex gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward
4002 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
4003 result using mail (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command
4004 uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4007 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
4008 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
4009 @cindex crossposting
4010 @cindex excessive crossposting
4011 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
4012 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
4014 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
4015 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
4016 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
4017 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
4018 command understands the process/prefix convention
4019 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
4023 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4026 @node Summary Post Commands
4027 @subsection Summary Post Commands
4029 @cindex composing news
4031 Commands for posting a news article:
4037 @kindex S p (Summary)
4038 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
4039 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
4040 Post an article to the current group
4041 (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}).
4046 @kindex S f (Summary)
4047 @findex gnus-summary-followup
4048 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
4049 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
4053 @kindex S F (Summary)
4055 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
4056 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
4057 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
4058 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
4059 process/prefix convention.
4062 @kindex S n (Summary)
4063 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
4064 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4065 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
4068 @kindex S N (Summary)
4069 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
4070 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
4071 message through mail and include the original message
4072 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
4073 the process/prefix convention.
4076 @kindex S o p (Summary)
4077 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
4078 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
4079 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
4080 headers of the forwarded article.
4083 @kindex S O p (Summary)
4084 @findex gnus-uu-digest-post-forward
4086 @cindex making digests
4087 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
4088 (@code{gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward}). This command uses the
4089 process/prefix convention.
4092 @kindex S u (Summary)
4093 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
4094 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
4095 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
4096 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
4099 Also @pxref{(message)Header Commands} for more information.
4102 @node Canceling and Superseding
4103 @section Canceling Articles
4104 @cindex canceling articles
4105 @cindex superseding articles
4107 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
4108 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
4110 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
4112 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
4114 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
4115 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
4116 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
4117 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
4118 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
4119 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4121 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
4122 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
4125 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
4126 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
4127 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
4129 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
4130 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
4131 your original article.
4133 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
4135 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
4136 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
4137 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
4140 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
4141 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
4142 have posted almost the same article twice.
4144 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
4145 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
4146 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
4147 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
4148 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
4149 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
4150 header by substituting one of those words for the word
4151 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
4152 you would do normally. The previous article will be
4153 canceled/superseded.
4155 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
4158 @node Marking Articles
4159 @section Marking Articles
4160 @cindex article marking
4161 @cindex article ticking
4164 There are several marks you can set on an article.
4166 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
4167 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
4168 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
4170 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
4173 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
4174 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
4175 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
4179 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
4183 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
4184 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
4188 @node Unread Articles
4189 @subsection Unread Articles
4191 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
4196 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
4197 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
4199 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
4200 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
4201 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
4202 tick it. However, articles can be expired, so if you want to keep an
4203 article forever, you'll have to make it persistent (@pxref{Persistent
4207 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
4208 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
4210 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
4211 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
4212 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
4215 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
4216 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
4218 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
4223 @subsection Read Articles
4224 @cindex expirable mark
4226 All the following marks mark articles as read.
4231 @vindex gnus-del-mark
4232 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
4233 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
4236 @vindex gnus-read-mark
4237 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
4240 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
4241 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
4242 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
4245 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
4246 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
4249 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
4250 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
4253 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
4254 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
4257 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
4258 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
4261 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
4262 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
4265 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
4266 @sc{SOUP}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
4269 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
4270 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
4274 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
4275 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
4276 (@code{gnus-duplicated-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
4280 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
4281 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
4283 One more special mark, though:
4287 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
4288 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
4290 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
4291 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
4292 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
4293 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by Gnus at
4299 @subsection Other Marks
4300 @cindex process mark
4303 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
4309 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
4310 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
4311 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
4312 in the article, and Gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
4313 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
4316 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
4317 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
4318 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
4319 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
4322 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
4323 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
4324 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
4327 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
4328 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
4329 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
4330 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
4333 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
4334 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
4335 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
4336 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
4337 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
4340 @vindex gnus-process-mark
4341 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
4342 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
4343 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
4344 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
4345 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
4349 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
4350 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
4351 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
4353 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
4354 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
4355 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
4359 @subsection Setting Marks
4360 @cindex setting marks
4362 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
4367 @kindex M c (Summary)
4368 @kindex M-u (Summary)
4369 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
4370 @cindex mark as unread
4371 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
4372 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
4378 @kindex M t (Summary)
4379 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
4380 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
4381 @xref{Article Caching}.
4386 @kindex M ? (Summary)
4387 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
4388 Mark the current article as dormant
4389 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
4393 @kindex M d (Summary)
4395 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
4396 Mark the current article as read
4397 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
4401 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
4402 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
4403 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
4408 @kindex M k (Summary)
4409 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
4410 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
4411 and then select the next unread article
4412 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
4416 @kindex M K (Summary)
4417 @kindex C-k (Summary)
4418 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
4419 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
4420 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
4423 @kindex M C (Summary)
4424 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
4425 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
4426 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
4429 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
4430 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
4431 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
4432 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
4435 @kindex M H (Summary)
4436 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
4437 Catchup the current group to point
4438 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
4441 @kindex C-w (Summary)
4442 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
4443 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
4444 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
4447 @kindex M V k (Summary)
4448 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
4449 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
4450 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
4454 @kindex M e (Summary)
4456 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
4457 Mark the current article as expirable
4458 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
4461 @kindex M b (Summary)
4462 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
4463 Set a bookmark in the current article
4464 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
4467 @kindex M B (Summary)
4468 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
4469 Remove the bookmark from the current article
4470 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
4473 @kindex M V c (Summary)
4474 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
4475 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
4476 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
4479 @kindex M V u (Summary)
4480 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
4481 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
4482 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
4485 @kindex M V m (Summary)
4486 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
4487 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
4488 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
4489 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
4492 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
4493 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
4494 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
4495 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
4496 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
4497 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
4498 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
4499 The default is @code{t}.
4502 @node Setting Process Marks
4503 @subsection Setting Process Marks
4504 @cindex setting process marks
4511 @kindex M P p (Summary)
4512 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
4513 Mark the current article with the process mark
4514 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
4515 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
4519 @kindex M P u (Summary)
4520 @kindex M-# (Summary)
4521 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
4522 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
4525 @kindex M P U (Summary)
4526 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
4527 Remove the process mark from all articles
4528 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
4531 @kindex M P i (Summary)
4532 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
4533 Invert the list of process marked articles
4534 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
4537 @kindex M P R (Summary)
4538 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
4539 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
4540 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
4543 @kindex M P r (Summary)
4544 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
4545 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
4548 @kindex M P t (Summary)
4549 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
4550 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
4551 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
4554 @kindex M P T (Summary)
4555 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
4556 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
4557 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
4560 @kindex M P v (Summary)
4561 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
4562 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
4563 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
4566 @kindex M P s (Summary)
4567 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
4568 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
4571 @kindex M P S (Summary)
4572 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
4573 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
4574 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
4577 @kindex M P a (Summary)
4578 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
4579 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
4582 @kindex M P b (Summary)
4583 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
4584 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
4585 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
4588 @kindex M P k (Summary)
4589 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
4590 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
4591 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
4594 @kindex M P y (Summary)
4595 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
4596 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
4597 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
4600 @kindex M P w (Summary)
4601 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
4602 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
4603 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
4612 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
4613 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
4614 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
4617 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
4618 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
4619 additional articles.
4625 @kindex / / (Summary)
4626 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
4627 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
4628 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}).
4631 @kindex / a (Summary)
4632 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
4633 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
4634 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}).
4638 @kindex / u (Summary)
4640 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
4641 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
4642 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
4643 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
4644 dormant articles will also be excluded.
4647 @kindex / m (Summary)
4648 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
4649 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
4650 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
4653 @kindex / t (Summary)
4654 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
4655 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
4656 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}). If given a prefix, limit to
4657 articles younger than that number of days.
4660 @kindex / n (Summary)
4661 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
4662 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
4663 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
4664 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
4667 @kindex / w (Summary)
4668 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
4669 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
4670 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
4674 @kindex / v (Summary)
4675 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
4676 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
4677 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
4681 @kindex M S (Summary)
4682 @kindex / E (Summary)
4683 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
4684 Include all expunged articles in the limit
4685 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
4688 @kindex / D (Summary)
4689 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
4690 Include all dormant articles in the limit
4691 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
4694 @kindex / * (Summary)
4695 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
4696 Include all cached articles in the limit
4697 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
4700 @kindex / d (Summary)
4701 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
4702 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
4703 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
4706 @kindex / T (Summary)
4707 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
4708 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
4711 @kindex / c (Summary)
4712 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
4713 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit
4714 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
4717 @kindex / C (Summary)
4718 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
4719 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
4720 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
4721 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
4729 @cindex article threading
4731 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
4732 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
4733 hierarchical fashion.
4735 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
4736 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
4737 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
4738 or simply missing. Weird news propagation excarcerbates the problem,
4739 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
4740 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
4741 @pxref{Customizing Threading}.
4743 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
4747 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
4750 A tree-like article structure.
4753 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
4756 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
4757 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
4758 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
4759 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
4760 called loose threads.
4762 @item thread gathering
4763 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
4765 @item sparse threads
4766 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
4767 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
4773 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
4774 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
4778 @node Customizing Threading
4779 @subsection Customizing Threading
4780 @cindex customizing threading
4783 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
4784 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
4785 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
4786 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
4791 @subsubsection Loose Threads
4794 @cindex loose threads
4797 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
4798 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
4799 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
4800 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
4801 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
4802 read or killed the root in a previous session.
4804 When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
4805 something. This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
4806 There are four possible values:
4810 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
4811 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-adopt.ps,width=7.5cm}}
4812 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-empty.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
4813 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-none.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
4814 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/summary-dummy.ps,width=7.5cm}}}
4819 @cindex adopting articles
4824 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
4825 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
4826 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
4827 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
4830 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
4831 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
4832 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
4833 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
4834 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
4835 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
4836 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
4839 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
4840 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
4841 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
4845 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
4846 display them after one another.
4849 Don't gather loose threads.
4852 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
4853 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
4854 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
4855 variable is @code{nil}, Gnus requires an exact match between the
4856 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
4857 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
4858 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
4859 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
4860 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
4861 variable to a really low number, you'll find that Gnus will gather
4862 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
4864 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
4865 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, Gnus will
4866 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
4869 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
4870 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
4871 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
4872 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
4873 simplification is used.
4875 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
4876 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
4877 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
4878 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
4880 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
4882 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
4888 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
4889 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
4890 "answer" "reference" "announce"
4891 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
4896 (mapconcat 'identity
4897 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
4899 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
4902 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
4905 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
4906 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
4907 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
4908 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
4909 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
4910 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
4912 Useful functions to put in this list include:
4915 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
4916 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
4917 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
4919 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
4920 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
4923 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
4924 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
4925 Remove excessive whitespace.
4928 You may also write your own functions, of course.
4931 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
4932 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
4933 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
4934 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
4935 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
4936 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
4937 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
4938 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
4940 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
4941 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
4942 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
4943 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
4944 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
4945 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
4946 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
4947 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
4948 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
4952 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
4953 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
4954 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
4955 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
4957 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
4958 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
4959 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
4962 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
4966 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
4967 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
4973 @node Filling In Threads
4974 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
4977 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
4978 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
4979 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
4980 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you
4981 would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still
4982 connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable
4983 to @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than
4984 that number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case,
4985 fetching old headers only works if the backend you are using carries
4986 overview files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and
4987 @code{nnml}. Also remember that if the root of the thread has been
4988 expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can do about that.
4990 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
4991 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
4992 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
4994 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
4995 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
4996 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
4997 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
4998 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
4999 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
5000 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
5001 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
5002 lines. If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
5003 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, Gnus will display all these
5004 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
5005 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, Gnus won't cut
5006 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
5007 @code{nil} by default.
5012 @node More Threading
5013 @subsubsection More Threading
5016 @item gnus-show-threads
5017 @vindex gnus-show-threads
5018 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
5019 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
5020 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
5021 slower and more awkward.
5023 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
5024 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
5025 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
5028 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
5029 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
5030 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
5031 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
5032 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
5033 threads are expunged.
5035 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
5036 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
5037 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
5040 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
5041 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
5042 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
5043 this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subject change is ignored. If it
5044 is @code{nil}, which is the default, a change in the subject will result
5047 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
5048 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
5049 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
5055 @node Low-Level Threading
5056 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
5060 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
5061 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
5062 Hook run before parsing any headers.
5064 @item gnus-alter-header-function
5065 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
5066 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
5067 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
5068 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
5069 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
5070 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
5071 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
5072 meaningful. Here's one example:
5075 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
5077 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
5078 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
5080 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
5082 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
5089 @node Thread Commands
5090 @subsection Thread Commands
5091 @cindex thread commands
5097 @kindex T k (Summary)
5098 @kindex M-C-k (Summary)
5099 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
5100 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
5101 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
5102 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
5107 @kindex T l (Summary)
5108 @kindex M-C-l (Summary)
5109 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
5110 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
5111 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
5114 @kindex T i (Summary)
5115 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
5116 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
5117 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
5120 @kindex T # (Summary)
5121 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
5122 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
5123 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
5126 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
5127 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
5128 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
5129 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
5132 @kindex T T (Summary)
5133 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
5134 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
5137 @kindex T s (Summary)
5138 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
5139 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
5140 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
5143 @kindex T h (Summary)
5144 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
5145 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
5148 @kindex T S (Summary)
5149 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
5150 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
5153 @kindex T H (Summary)
5154 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
5155 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
5158 @kindex T t (Summary)
5159 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
5160 Re-thread the current article's thread
5161 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
5162 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
5165 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
5166 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
5167 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
5168 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
5172 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
5173 understand the numeric prefix.
5178 @kindex T n (Summary)
5179 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
5180 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
5183 @kindex T p (Summary)
5184 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
5185 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
5188 @kindex T d (Summary)
5189 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
5190 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
5193 @kindex T u (Summary)
5194 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
5195 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
5198 @kindex T o (Summary)
5199 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
5200 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
5203 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
5204 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
5205 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
5206 a command like `T k' (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
5207 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
5208 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
5209 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
5210 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
5211 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
5212 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
5213 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
5214 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
5221 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
5222 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
5223 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
5224 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
5225 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
5226 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
5227 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
5228 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
5229 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
5230 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
5231 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
5233 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
5234 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
5235 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
5236 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score}, and
5237 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
5239 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
5240 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
5241 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
5243 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
5244 last function in the list. You should probably always include
5245 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
5246 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
5247 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
5248 ascending article order.
5250 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
5251 by number, you could do something like:
5254 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
5255 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
5256 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
5257 (reverse gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
5260 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
5261 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
5262 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
5263 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
5264 which the articles arrived.
5266 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
5270 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
5272 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
5273 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
5276 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
5277 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
5278 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
5279 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
5282 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
5283 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
5284 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
5285 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
5286 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
5287 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
5288 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or other,
5289 you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions} variable.
5290 It is very similar to the @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that
5291 it uses slightly different functions for article comparison. Available
5292 sorting predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
5293 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject},
5294 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date}, and @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
5296 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
5300 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
5301 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
5302 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
5307 @node Asynchronous Fetching
5308 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
5309 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
5310 @cindex article pre-fetch
5313 If you read your news from an @sc{nntp} server that's far away, the
5314 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
5315 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
5316 article appears. Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
5317 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
5319 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
5320 article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.
5322 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
5323 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
5324 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
5325 article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
5326 connection is blocked.
5328 To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
5329 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
5330 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
5331 extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.
5333 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
5334 the link between your machine and the @sc{nntp} server will become more
5335 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
5336 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
5339 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing... unless
5342 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
5343 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
5344 happen automatically.
5346 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
5347 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
5348 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
5349 that when you read an article in the group, the backend will pre-fetch
5350 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the backend will
5351 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
5352 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
5354 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
5355 @findex gnus-async-read-p
5356 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
5357 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p} variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This function should
5358 return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is to be
5359 pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which returns
5360 @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an article
5361 data structure as the only parameter.
5363 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter than 100 lines, you could say something like:
5366 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
5367 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
5368 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
5369 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
5372 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
5375 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
5376 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
5377 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
5379 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
5380 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
5381 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
5382 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
5386 Remove articles when they are read.
5389 Remove articles when exiting the group.
5392 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
5394 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
5395 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
5396 @c from the next group.
5399 @node Article Caching
5400 @section Article Caching
5401 @cindex article caching
5404 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @sc{nntp} connection, you may
5405 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
5406 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
5407 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
5408 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
5410 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
5412 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
5413 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
5414 @vindex gnus-use-cache
5415 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
5416 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
5417 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
5418 cache is flat or hierarchal is controlled by the
5419 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
5421 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
5422 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
5423 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
5424 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
5425 as dormant, and don't worry.
5427 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
5429 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
5430 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
5431 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
5432 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
5433 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
5434 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
5435 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
5436 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
5437 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
5438 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
5440 @findex gnus-jog-cache
5441 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
5442 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
5443 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
5444 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
5445 command if 1) your connection to the @sc{nntp} server is really, really,
5446 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
5447 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
5448 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
5449 not then be downloaded by this command.
5451 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
5452 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
5453 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
5454 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
5455 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
5456 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
5458 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
5459 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
5460 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
5461 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
5462 variables, the group is not cached.
5464 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
5465 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
5466 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
5467 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
5468 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
5469 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
5470 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
5471 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @sc{nov}
5472 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
5476 @node Persistent Articles
5477 @section Persistent Articles
5478 @cindex persistent articles
5480 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
5481 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
5482 useful in my opinion.
5484 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
5485 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
5486 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
5487 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
5488 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
5489 the expiry going on at the news server.
5491 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
5492 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
5493 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
5499 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
5500 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
5503 @kindex M-* (Summary)
5504 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
5505 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
5506 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
5510 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
5512 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
5513 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
5514 interested in persistent articles:
5517 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
5521 @node Article Backlog
5522 @section Article Backlog
5524 @cindex article backlog
5526 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
5527 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
5528 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where Gnus will buffer
5529 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
5530 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
5531 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
5532 that, turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and
5533 increase memory usage some.
5535 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
5536 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, Gnus will store
5537 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
5538 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, Gnus will store
5539 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
5540 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
5541 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
5543 This variable is @code{nil} by default.
5546 @node Saving Articles
5547 @section Saving Articles
5548 @cindex saving articles
5550 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
5551 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
5552 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
5553 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
5554 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
5556 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
5557 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will not delete
5558 unwanted headers before saving the article.
5560 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
5561 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
5562 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
5563 deleted before saving.
5569 @kindex O o (Summary)
5571 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
5572 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
5573 Save the current article using the default article saver
5574 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
5577 @kindex O m (Summary)
5578 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
5579 Save the current article in mail format
5580 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
5583 @kindex O r (Summary)
5584 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
5585 Save the current article in rmail format
5586 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
5589 @kindex O f (Summary)
5590 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
5591 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
5592 Save the current article in plain file format
5593 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
5596 @kindex O F (Summary)
5597 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
5598 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
5599 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
5602 @kindex O b (Summary)
5603 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
5604 Save the current article body in plain file format
5605 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
5608 @kindex O h (Summary)
5609 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
5610 Save the current article in mh folder format
5611 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
5614 @kindex O v (Summary)
5615 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
5616 Save the current article in a VM folder
5617 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
5620 @kindex O p (Summary)
5621 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
5622 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
5623 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
5626 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
5627 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
5628 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
5629 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
5630 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
5631 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
5632 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
5633 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
5634 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
5635 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
5636 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
5637 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
5641 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
5642 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
5643 Gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
5644 functions below, or you can create your own.
5648 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
5649 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
5650 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
5651 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
5652 This is the default format, @dfn{babyl}. Uses the function in the
5653 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
5654 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
5656 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
5657 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
5658 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
5659 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
5660 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
5661 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
5663 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
5664 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
5665 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
5666 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
5667 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
5668 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
5669 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
5671 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
5672 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
5673 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
5674 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
5675 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
5677 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
5678 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
5679 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
5680 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
5681 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
5684 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
5685 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
5686 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
5687 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
5688 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
5690 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
5691 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
5692 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
5693 reader to use this setting.
5696 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
5697 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
5698 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
5699 @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
5702 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
5703 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
5704 available functions that generate names:
5708 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
5709 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
5710 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
5712 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
5713 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
5714 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
5716 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
5717 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
5718 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
5720 @item gnus-plain-save-name
5721 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
5722 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
5725 @vindex gnus-split-methods
5726 You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
5727 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
5728 save articles related to Gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
5729 related to VM in @code{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
5733 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
5734 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
5735 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
5736 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
5739 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
5740 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
5741 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
5742 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
5743 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
5744 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
5745 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
5746 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
5747 called returns a string or a list of strings.
5749 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
5750 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
5751 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
5752 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
5754 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
5755 means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
5756 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
5759 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
5760 lots of mail groups called things like
5761 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
5762 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
5763 following will do just that:
5766 (defun my-save-name (group)
5767 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
5768 (substring group (match-end 0))))
5770 (setq gnus-split-methods
5771 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
5776 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
5777 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
5778 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
5779 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
5780 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
5781 all the files in the top level directory
5782 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
5783 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
5784 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
5785 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
5787 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
5788 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
5789 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
5790 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
5791 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
5794 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
5798 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
5799 (setq gnus-default-article-saver 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding
5802 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
5803 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
5804 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
5805 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
5808 @node Decoding Articles
5809 @section Decoding Articles
5810 @cindex decoding articles
5812 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
5813 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
5816 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
5817 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
5818 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
5819 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
5820 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
5821 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
5825 @cindex article series
5826 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
5827 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
5828 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
5829 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
5830 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
5832 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
5833 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
5834 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
5836 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, Gnus
5837 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
5838 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
5840 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
5841 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
5842 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
5845 @node Uuencoded Articles
5846 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
5848 @cindex uuencoded articles
5853 @kindex X u (Summary)
5854 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
5855 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
5856 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
5859 @kindex X U (Summary)
5860 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
5861 Uudecodes and saves the current series
5862 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
5865 @kindex X v u (Summary)
5866 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
5867 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
5870 @kindex X v U (Summary)
5871 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
5872 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
5873 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
5877 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
5878 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
5879 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
5880 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
5881 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
5883 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
5884 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
5885 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
5886 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
5889 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
5890 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
5891 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
5892 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
5893 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
5894 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
5898 @node Shell Archives
5899 @subsection Shell Archives
5901 @cindex shell archives
5902 @cindex shared articles
5904 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
5905 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
5906 some commands to deal with these:
5911 @kindex X s (Summary)
5912 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
5913 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
5916 @kindex X S (Summary)
5917 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
5918 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
5921 @kindex X v s (Summary)
5922 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
5923 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
5926 @kindex X v S (Summary)
5927 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
5928 Unshars, views and saves the current series
5929 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
5933 @node PostScript Files
5934 @subsection PostScript Files
5940 @kindex X p (Summary)
5941 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
5942 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
5945 @kindex X P (Summary)
5946 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
5947 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
5948 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
5951 @kindex X v p (Summary)
5952 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
5953 View the current PostScript series
5954 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
5957 @kindex X v P (Summary)
5958 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
5959 View and save the current PostScript series
5960 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
5965 @subsection Other Files
5969 @kindex X o (Summary)
5970 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
5971 Save the current series
5972 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
5975 @kindex X b (Summary)
5976 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
5977 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
5978 doesn't really work yet.
5982 @node Decoding Variables
5983 @subsection Decoding Variables
5985 Adjective, not verb.
5988 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
5989 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
5990 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
5994 @node Rule Variables
5995 @subsubsection Rule Variables
5996 @cindex rule variables
5998 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
5999 variables are of the form
6002 (list '(regexp1 command2)
6009 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6010 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6012 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
6013 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @samp{.au} sound file, you could
6016 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
6017 (list '(\"\\\\.au$\" \"sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio\")))
6020 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
6021 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
6022 This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from the
6023 user and default view rules.
6025 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
6026 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
6027 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
6032 @node Other Decode Variables
6033 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
6036 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
6038 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
6039 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
6040 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
6041 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
6042 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
6046 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
6047 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
6050 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
6051 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
6052 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
6055 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
6056 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
6057 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
6058 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
6059 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
6062 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
6063 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
6064 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
6066 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
6067 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
6068 Files with a @sc{mime} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
6069 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
6070 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @sc{mime} package (yet), so this is slightly
6073 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
6074 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
6075 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
6077 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
6078 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
6079 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
6080 looking for files to display.
6082 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
6083 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
6084 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
6087 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
6088 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
6089 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
6092 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
6093 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
6094 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
6097 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
6098 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
6099 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
6102 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
6103 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
6104 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
6105 decoded articles as unread.
6107 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
6108 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
6109 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
6110 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
6112 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
6113 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
6114 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
6116 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
6117 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
6119 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
6120 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @sc{mime}
6121 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
6122 @code{metamail} for viewing.
6124 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
6125 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
6126 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
6127 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
6128 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
6129 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC1153---no easy way
6130 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
6131 simply dropped them.
6136 @node Uuencoding and Posting
6137 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
6141 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
6142 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
6143 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
6144 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
6145 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
6146 for you when you post the article.
6148 @item gnus-uu-post-length
6149 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
6150 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
6151 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
6153 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
6154 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
6155 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
6156 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
6157 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
6158 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
6159 think that counts...) Default is @code{nil}.
6161 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
6162 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
6163 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
6164 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
6165 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
6166 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
6167 Default is @code{t}.
6173 @subsection Viewing Files
6174 @cindex viewing files
6175 @cindex pseudo-articles
6177 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will attempt
6178 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
6179 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
6180 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, Gnus will
6181 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
6182 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
6183 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
6185 Finally, Gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
6186 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
6187 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
6188 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
6190 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
6191 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
6192 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
6194 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
6195 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
6196 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
6197 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
6198 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
6200 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
6201 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
6202 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
6203 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
6204 a list of parameters to that command.
6206 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
6207 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
6208 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
6210 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
6211 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
6212 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
6215 @node Article Treatment
6216 @section Article Treatment
6218 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
6219 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
6220 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
6221 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
6222 these articles easier.
6225 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
6226 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
6227 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
6228 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
6229 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
6230 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
6231 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
6235 @node Article Highlighting
6236 @subsection Article Highlighting
6237 @cindex highlighting
6239 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
6240 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
6245 @kindex W H a (Summary)
6246 @findex gnus-article-highlight
6247 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
6248 Do much highlighting of the current article
6249 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
6250 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
6252 Most users would prefer using @code{gnus-article-maybe-highlight} in
6253 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} (@pxref{Customizing Articles}) instead.
6254 This is a bit less agressive---it highlights only the headers, the
6255 signature and adds buttons.
6258 @kindex W H h (Summary)
6259 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
6260 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
6261 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
6262 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
6263 variable, which is a list where each element has the form @var{(regexp
6264 name content)}. @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
6265 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
6266 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
6267 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
6268 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
6271 @kindex W H c (Summary)
6272 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
6273 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
6275 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
6278 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
6280 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
6281 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
6282 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
6284 @item gnus-cite-prefix-regexp
6285 @vindex gnus-cite-prefix-regexp
6286 Regexp matching the longest possible citation prefix on a line.
6288 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
6289 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
6290 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
6292 @item gnus-cite-face-list
6293 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
6294 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
6295 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
6296 Gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
6297 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
6299 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
6300 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
6301 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
6303 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
6304 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
6305 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
6307 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
6308 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
6309 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
6310 that it's a citation.
6312 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
6313 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
6314 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
6316 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
6317 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
6318 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
6320 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
6321 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
6322 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
6323 cited text belonging to the attribution.
6329 @kindex W H s (Summary)
6330 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
6331 @vindex gnus-signature-face
6332 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
6333 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
6334 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
6335 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
6336 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
6341 @xref{Customizing Articles} for how to highlight articles automatically.
6344 @node Article Fontisizing
6345 @subsection Article Fontisizing
6347 @cindex article emphasis
6349 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
6350 @kindex W e (Summary)
6351 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
6352 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*}. Gnus can make this look nicer by
6353 running the article through the @kbd{W e}
6354 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
6356 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
6357 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
6358 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
6359 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
6360 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
6361 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
6362 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
6363 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
6367 (setq gnus-article-emphasis
6368 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
6369 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
6372 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
6373 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
6374 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
6375 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
6376 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
6377 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
6378 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
6379 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
6380 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
6381 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
6382 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
6383 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
6384 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
6386 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
6387 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
6388 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
6392 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
6395 @xref{Customizing Articles} for how to fontize articles automatically.
6398 @node Article Hiding
6399 @subsection Article Hiding
6400 @cindex article hiding
6402 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
6403 too much cruft in most articles.
6408 @kindex W W a (Summary)
6409 @findex gnus-article-hide
6410 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
6411 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
6412 headers, PGP, cited text and the signature.
6415 @kindex W W h (Summary)
6416 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
6417 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
6421 @kindex W W b (Summary)
6422 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
6423 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
6424 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
6427 @kindex W W s (Summary)
6428 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
6429 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
6433 @kindex W W p (Summary)
6434 @findex gnus-article-hide-pgp
6435 @vindex gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
6436 Hide @sc{pgp} signatures (@code{gnus-article-hide-pgp}). The
6437 @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook} hook will be run after a @sc{pgp}
6438 signature has been hidden. For example, to automatically verify
6439 articles that have signatures in them do:
6441 ;;; Hide pgp cruft if any.
6443 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-pgp)
6445 ;;; After hiding pgp, verify the message;
6446 ;;; only happens if pgp signature is found.
6448 (add-hook 'gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook
6451 (set-buffer gnus-original-article-buffer)
6456 @kindex W W P (Summary)
6457 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
6458 Hide @sc{pem} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
6459 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
6462 @kindex W W c (Summary)
6463 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
6464 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
6465 customizing the hiding:
6469 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
6470 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
6471 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
6472 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
6473 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
6474 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
6475 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
6480 Starting point of the hidden text.
6482 Ending point of the hidden text.
6484 Number of characters in the hidden region.
6486 Number of lines of hidden text.
6489 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
6490 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
6491 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave shown.
6496 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
6497 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
6499 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
6500 following two variables:
6503 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
6504 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
6505 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
6506 50), hide the cited text.
6508 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
6509 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
6510 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
6515 @kindex W W C (Summary)
6516 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
6517 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
6518 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
6519 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
6520 in @code{gnus-article-display-hook} (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
6524 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
6525 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
6526 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
6528 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
6529 citation customization.
6531 @xref{Customizing Articles} for how to hide article elements
6535 @node Article Washing
6536 @subsection Article Washing
6538 @cindex article washing
6540 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
6541 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
6543 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
6544 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
6550 @kindex W l (Summary)
6551 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
6552 Remove page breaks from the current article
6553 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article} for page
6557 @kindex W r (Summary)
6558 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
6559 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
6560 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
6561 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
6562 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
6563 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
6565 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
6566 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
6567 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
6568 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
6571 @kindex W t (Summary)
6572 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
6573 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
6574 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
6577 @kindex W v (Summary)
6578 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-header
6579 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
6580 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-header}).
6583 @kindex W m (Summary)
6584 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-mime
6585 Toggle whether to run the article through @sc{mime} before displaying
6586 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-mime}).
6589 @kindex W o (Summary)
6590 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
6591 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
6594 @kindex W d (Summary)
6595 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
6596 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
6598 @cindex M******** sm*rtq**t*s
6600 Treat M******** sm*rtq**t*s according to
6601 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
6602 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
6603 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
6607 @kindex W w (Summary)
6608 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
6609 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}). If you use this
6610 function in @code{gnus-article-display-hook}, it should be run fairly
6611 late and certainly after any highlighting.
6613 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
6617 @kindex W c (Summary)
6618 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
6619 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
6620 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
6621 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
6622 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
6625 @kindex W q (Summary)
6626 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
6627 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
6628 Quoted-Printable is one common @sc{mime} encoding employed when sending
6629 non-ASCII (i. e., 8-bit) articles. It typically makes strings like
6630 @samp{déjà vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu}, which doesn't look very
6634 @kindex W f (Summary)
6636 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
6637 @findex gnus-article-x-face-command
6638 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
6639 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
6645 Look for and display any X-Face headers
6646 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}). The command executed by this
6647 function is given by the @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable.
6648 If this variable is a string, this string will be executed in a
6649 sub-shell. If it is a function, this function will be called with the
6650 face as the argument. If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which
6651 is a regexp) matches the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
6652 The default action under Emacs is to fork off an @code{xv} to view the
6653 face; under XEmacs the default action is to display the face before the
6654 @code{From} header. (It's nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with X-Face
6655 support---that will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native
6656 X-Face support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
6657 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and friends.) If you
6658 want to have this function in the display hook, it should probably come
6662 @kindex W b (Summary)
6663 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
6664 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
6665 @xref{Article Buttons}.
6668 @kindex W B (Summary)
6669 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
6670 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
6671 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
6674 @kindex W E l (Summary)
6675 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
6676 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
6677 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
6680 @kindex W E m (Summary)
6681 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
6682 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
6683 lines with a single empty line.
6684 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
6687 @kindex W E t (Summary)
6688 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
6689 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
6690 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
6693 @kindex W E a (Summary)
6694 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
6695 Do all the three commands above
6696 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
6699 @kindex W E A (Summary)
6700 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
6701 Remove all blank lines
6702 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
6705 @kindex W E s (Summary)
6706 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
6707 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
6708 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
6711 @kindex W E e (Summary)
6712 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
6713 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
6714 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
6718 @xref{Customizing Articles} for how to wash articles automatically.
6721 @node Article Buttons
6722 @subsection Article Buttons
6725 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
6726 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
6727 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
6728 button on these references.
6730 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
6731 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses and Message-IDs. This is controlled by
6732 two variables, one that handles article bodies and one that handles
6737 @item gnus-button-alist
6738 @vindex gnus-button-alist
6739 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
6742 (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
6748 All text that match this regular expression will be considered an
6749 external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches embedded URLs:
6750 @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}.
6753 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
6754 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
6755 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
6758 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
6759 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
6760 avoid false matches.
6763 This function will be called when you click on this button.
6766 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
6767 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
6771 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
6774 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
6777 @item gnus-header-button-alist
6778 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
6779 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
6780 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
6781 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
6784 (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)
6787 @var{HEADER} is a regular expression.
6789 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
6790 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
6791 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
6792 default values of the variables above.
6794 @item gnus-article-button-face
6795 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
6796 Face used on buttons.
6798 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
6799 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
6800 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
6804 @xref{Customizing Articles} for how to buttonize articles automatically.
6808 @subsection Article Date
6810 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
6811 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
6812 when the article was sent.
6817 @kindex W T u (Summary)
6818 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
6819 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
6820 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
6823 @kindex W T i (Summary)
6824 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
6826 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
6827 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
6830 @kindex W T l (Summary)
6831 @findex gnus-article-date-local
6832 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
6835 @kindex W T s (Summary)
6836 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
6837 @findex gnus-article-date-user
6838 @findex format-time-string
6839 Display the date using a user-defined format
6840 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
6841 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
6842 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
6843 for a list of possible format specs.
6846 @kindex W T e (Summary)
6847 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
6848 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
6849 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
6850 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
6851 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). If you want to have this line
6852 updated continually, you can put
6855 (gnus-start-date-timer)
6858 in your @file{.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
6859 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
6863 @kindex W T o (Summary)
6864 @findex gnus-article-date-original
6865 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
6866 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
6867 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
6868 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
6869 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
6873 @xref{Customizing Articles} for how to display the date in your
6874 preferred format automatically.
6877 @node Article Signature
6878 @subsection Article Signature
6880 @cindex article signature
6882 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
6883 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
6884 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
6885 that says what is to be considered a signature is
6886 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
6887 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
6888 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
6889 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
6890 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
6893 (setq gnus-signature-separator
6894 '("^-- $" ; The standard
6895 "^-- *$" ; A common mangling
6896 "^-------*$" ; Many people just use a looong
6897 ; line of dashes. Shame!
6898 "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
6899 "^________*$" ; Underscores are also popular
6900 "^========*$")) ; Pervert!
6903 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
6906 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
6907 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
6912 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
6915 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
6918 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
6919 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
6921 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
6922 in question is not a signature.
6925 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
6926 listed above. Here's an example:
6929 (setq gnus-signature-limit
6930 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
6933 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
6934 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
6935 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
6936 signature after all.
6940 @section MIME Commands
6941 @cindex MIME decoding
6945 @kindex M-t (Summary)
6946 @findex gnus-summary-display-buttonized
6947 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
6948 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
6951 @kindex W M w (Summary)
6952 Decode RFC2047-encoded words in the article headers
6953 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
6956 @kindex W M c (Summary)
6957 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
6958 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
6960 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
6961 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
6962 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
6963 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not include
6964 MIME headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic parameter to
6965 the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
6968 @kindex W M v (Summary)
6969 View all the @sc{mime} parts in the current article
6970 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
6977 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
6978 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
6979 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
6980 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
6983 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
6986 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
6990 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
6991 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
6992 This is a list of regexps. @sc{mime} types that match a regexp from
6993 this list won't have @sc{mime} buttons inserted unless they aren't
6994 displayed. The default value is @code{(".*/.*")}.
6996 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
6997 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
6998 For each @sc{mime} part, this function will be called with the @sc{mime}
6999 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
7000 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
7001 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
7002 save all jpegs into some directory).
7004 Here's an example function the does the latter:
7007 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
7008 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
7010 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
7011 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
7012 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
7013 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
7014 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
7020 @node Article Commands
7021 @section Article Commands
7028 @kindex A P (Summary)
7029 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
7030 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
7031 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
7032 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will be
7033 run just before printing the buffer.
7038 @node Summary Sorting
7039 @section Summary Sorting
7040 @cindex summary sorting
7042 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
7043 can't really see why you'd want that.
7048 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
7049 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
7050 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
7053 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
7054 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
7055 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
7058 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
7059 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
7060 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
7063 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
7064 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
7065 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
7068 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
7069 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
7070 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
7073 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
7074 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
7075 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
7078 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
7079 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
7080 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
7081 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
7082 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
7086 @node Finding the Parent
7087 @section Finding the Parent
7088 @cindex parent articles
7089 @cindex referring articles
7094 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
7095 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
7096 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
7097 if the current group is fetched by @sc{nntp}, the parent hasn't expired
7098 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
7099 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
7100 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
7101 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
7102 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
7104 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
7105 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
7106 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, Gnus will fetch the parent, the
7107 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
7108 @kbd{-3 ^}, Gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
7112 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
7113 @kindex A R (Summary)
7114 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
7115 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
7118 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
7119 @kindex A T (Summary)
7120 Display the full thread where the current article appears
7121 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
7122 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
7123 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
7124 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
7125 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
7126 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
7128 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
7129 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
7130 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
7131 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
7132 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
7133 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
7136 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
7137 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
7139 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
7140 You can also ask the @sc{nntp} server for an arbitrary article, no
7141 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
7142 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
7143 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
7144 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
7145 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
7148 The current select method will be used when fetching by
7149 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
7150 by giving this command a prefix.
7152 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
7153 If the group you are reading is located on a backend that does not
7154 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
7155 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @sc{nntp} method. It
7156 would, perhaps, be best if the @sc{nntp} server you consult is the one
7157 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
7160 Most of the mail backends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but do
7161 not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox} and
7162 @code{nnbabyl} are able to locate articles from any groups, while
7163 @code{nnml} and @code{nnfolder} are only able to locate articles that
7164 have been posted to the current group. (Anything else would be too time
7165 consuming.) @code{nnmh} does not support this at all.
7168 @node Alternative Approaches
7169 @section Alternative Approaches
7171 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
7172 Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
7175 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
7176 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
7181 @subsection Pick and Read
7182 @cindex pick and read
7184 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
7185 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
7186 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
7187 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
7189 @findex gnus-pick-mode
7190 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
7191 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
7192 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
7193 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
7194 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
7196 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
7201 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
7202 Pick the article or thread on the current line
7203 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
7204 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
7205 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
7206 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
7207 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
7208 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
7211 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
7212 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
7213 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
7214 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
7218 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
7219 Unpick the thread or article
7220 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
7221 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
7222 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
7223 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
7224 the thread or article at that line.
7228 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
7229 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
7230 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
7231 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
7232 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
7233 will still be visible when you are reading.
7237 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
7238 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
7239 which is mapped to the same function
7240 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
7242 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
7245 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7248 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
7249 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
7251 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
7252 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
7253 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
7255 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
7256 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
7257 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
7258 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
7259 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
7260 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
7261 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
7265 @subsection Binary Groups
7266 @cindex binary groups
7268 @findex gnus-binary-mode
7269 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
7270 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
7271 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
7272 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
7273 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
7274 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
7277 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
7278 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
7279 command, when you have turned on this mode
7280 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
7282 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
7283 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
7287 @section Tree Display
7290 @vindex gnus-use-trees
7291 If you don't like the normal Gnus summary display, you might try setting
7292 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
7293 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
7296 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
7299 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
7300 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
7301 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
7303 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
7304 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
7305 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
7306 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
7307 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
7309 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
7310 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
7311 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
7312 default is @code{modeline}.
7314 @item gnus-tree-line-format
7315 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
7316 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
7317 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
7318 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
7319 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
7320 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
7326 The name of the poster.
7328 The @code{From} header.
7330 The number of the article.
7332 The opening bracket.
7334 The closing bracket.
7339 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
7341 Variables related to the display are:
7344 @item gnus-tree-brackets
7345 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
7346 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
7347 ``sparse'' articles. The format is @var{((real-open . real-close)
7348 (sparse-open . sparse-close) (dummy-open . dummy-close))}, and the
7349 default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
7351 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
7352 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
7353 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
7354 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
7358 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
7359 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
7360 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will try to keep the tree
7361 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other Gnus
7362 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
7363 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
7364 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
7365 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
7366 other windows displayed next to it.
7368 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
7369 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
7370 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
7371 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
7372 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
7373 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
7374 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
7378 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
7381 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
7391 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
7395 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
7396 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
7398 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
7400 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
7405 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
7406 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
7407 following to your @file{.gnus.el} file:
7410 (setq gnus-use-trees t
7411 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
7412 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
7413 (gnus-add-configuration
7417 (summary 0.75 point)
7422 @xref{Windows Configuration}.
7425 @node Mail Group Commands
7426 @section Mail Group Commands
7427 @cindex mail group commands
7429 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
7430 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
7432 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
7433 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
7438 @kindex B e (Summary)
7439 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
7440 Expire all expirable articles in the group
7441 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}).
7444 @kindex B M-C-e (Summary)
7445 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
7446 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
7447 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
7448 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
7449 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
7452 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
7453 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
7454 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
7455 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
7456 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
7457 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
7460 @kindex B m (Summary)
7462 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
7463 Move the article from one mail group to another
7464 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}).
7467 @kindex B c (Summary)
7469 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
7470 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
7471 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
7472 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}).
7475 @kindex B B (Summary)
7476 @cindex crosspost mail
7477 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
7478 Crosspost the current article to some other group
7479 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
7480 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
7481 be properly updated.
7484 @kindex B i (Summary)
7485 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
7486 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
7487 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
7488 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
7491 @kindex B r (Summary)
7492 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
7493 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
7494 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
7495 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
7496 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
7500 @kindex B w (Summary)
7502 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
7503 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
7504 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
7505 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
7506 (@kbd{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
7507 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, Gnus won't re-highlight the article.
7510 @kindex B q (Summary)
7511 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
7512 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
7513 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
7514 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
7517 @kindex B t (Summary)
7518 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
7519 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
7520 when repooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
7523 @kindex B p (Summary)
7524 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
7525 Some people have a tendency to send you "courtesy" copies when they
7526 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
7527 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
7528 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
7529 article from your news server (or rather, from
7530 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
7531 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
7532 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
7533 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
7534 just not have arrived yet.
7538 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
7539 @cindex moving articles
7540 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have Gnus
7541 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
7542 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
7543 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
7544 suggestions you find reasonable.
7547 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
7548 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
7549 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
7550 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
7554 @node Various Summary Stuff
7555 @section Various Summary Stuff
7558 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
7559 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
7560 * Summary Generation Commands:: (Re)generating the summary buffer.
7561 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
7565 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
7566 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
7567 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
7569 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
7570 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
7571 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
7572 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
7573 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
7574 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
7577 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
7578 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
7579 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
7580 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
7581 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
7583 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
7584 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
7585 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
7588 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
7589 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
7590 When Gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
7591 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
7592 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
7593 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
7594 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), Gnus will rename the
7595 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
7596 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
7597 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
7602 @node Summary Group Information
7603 @subsection Summary Group Information
7608 @kindex H f (Summary)
7609 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
7610 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
7611 Try to fetch the FAQ (list of frequently asked questions) for the
7612 current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the
7613 FAQ from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory
7614 on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
7615 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
7616 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will probably
7617 be used for fetching the file.
7620 @kindex H d (Summary)
7621 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
7622 Give a brief description of the current group
7623 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
7624 rereading the description from the server.
7627 @kindex H h (Summary)
7628 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
7629 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
7630 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
7633 @kindex H i (Summary)
7634 @findex gnus-info-find-node
7635 Go to the Gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
7639 @node Searching for Articles
7640 @subsection Searching for Articles
7645 @kindex M-s (Summary)
7646 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
7647 Search through all subsequent articles for a regexp
7648 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
7651 @kindex M-r (Summary)
7652 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
7653 Search through all previous articles for a regexp
7654 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
7658 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
7659 This command will prompt you for a header field, a regular expression to
7660 match on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
7661 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If given a prefix, search
7665 @kindex M-& (Summary)
7666 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
7667 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
7668 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
7671 @node Summary Generation Commands
7672 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
7677 @kindex Y g (Summary)
7678 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
7679 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
7682 @kindex Y c (Summary)
7683 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
7684 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
7685 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
7690 @node Really Various Summary Commands
7691 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
7696 @kindex C-d (Summary)
7697 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
7698 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
7699 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
7700 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
7701 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
7702 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
7703 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
7704 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
7708 @kindex M-C-d (Summary)
7709 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
7710 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
7711 several documents into one biiig group
7712 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
7713 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
7714 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
7715 command understands the process/prefix convention
7716 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
7719 @kindex C-t (Summary)
7720 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
7721 Toggle truncation of summary lines
7722 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
7723 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
7724 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
7728 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
7729 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
7730 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
7733 @kindex M-C-e (Summary)
7734 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
7735 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
7736 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
7739 @kindex M-C-g (Summary)
7740 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
7741 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
7742 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
7747 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
7748 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
7749 @cindex summary exit
7750 @cindex exiting groups
7752 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
7753 group and return you to the group buffer.
7759 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
7761 @findex gnus-summary-exit
7762 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
7763 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
7764 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
7765 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
7766 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
7767 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
7768 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
7769 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
7770 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
7771 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
7775 @kindex Z E (Summary)
7777 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
7778 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
7779 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
7783 @kindex Z c (Summary)
7785 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
7786 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
7787 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
7788 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
7791 @kindex Z C (Summary)
7792 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
7793 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
7794 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
7797 @kindex Z n (Summary)
7798 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
7799 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
7800 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
7803 @kindex Z R (Summary)
7804 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
7805 Exit this group, and then enter it again
7806 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
7807 all articles, both read and unread.
7811 @kindex Z G (Summary)
7812 @kindex M-g (Summary)
7813 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
7814 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
7815 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
7816 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
7817 articles, both read and unread.
7820 @kindex Z N (Summary)
7821 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
7822 Exit the group and go to the next group
7823 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
7826 @kindex Z P (Summary)
7827 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
7828 Exit the group and go to the previous group
7829 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
7832 @kindex Z s (Summary)
7833 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
7834 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
7835 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
7836 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
7837 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
7840 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
7841 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current
7844 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
7845 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
7846 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
7847 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
7848 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
7849 If you do that, Gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
7850 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
7851 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
7852 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
7853 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
7854 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
7855 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
7857 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
7859 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
7860 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
7861 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
7862 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
7863 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
7864 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
7865 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
7866 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
7867 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
7870 @node Crosspost Handling
7871 @section Crosspost Handling
7875 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
7876 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
7877 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
7878 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
7879 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
7880 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
7883 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
7884 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
7885 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
7886 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
7887 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
7889 @cindex cross-posting
7892 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
7893 correctly is if you use an @sc{nntp} server that supports @sc{xover}
7894 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
7895 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @sc{nov} lines. This is
7896 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
7897 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
7898 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
7899 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
7900 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
7901 the cross reference mechanism.
7903 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
7904 @cindex overview.fmt
7905 To check whether your @sc{nntp} server includes the @code{Xref} header
7906 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
7907 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
7908 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
7909 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
7910 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
7913 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
7914 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
7915 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
7920 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
7923 @node Duplicate Suppression
7924 @section Duplicate Suppression
7926 By default, Gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
7927 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
7928 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
7929 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
7934 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
7935 is evil and not very common.
7938 The @sc{nntp} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
7939 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
7942 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
7943 different @sc{nntp} servers.
7946 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
7949 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
7950 well, but these four are the most common situations.
7952 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
7953 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
7954 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
7955 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
7956 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
7957 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
7958 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
7961 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
7962 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
7963 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
7964 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
7965 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
7969 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
7970 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
7971 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
7973 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
7974 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
7975 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
7976 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
7977 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single Gnus
7978 session are suppressed.
7980 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
7981 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
7982 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
7983 suppression list. The default is 10000.
7985 @item gnus-duplicate-file
7986 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
7987 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
7988 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
7991 If you have a tendency to stop and start Gnus often, setting
7992 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
7993 you leave Gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
7994 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
7995 so that means that if you stop and start Gnus often, you should set
7996 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
7997 to you to figure out, I think.
8000 @node The Article Buffer
8001 @chapter The Article Buffer
8002 @cindex article buffer
8004 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
8005 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
8006 tell Gnus otherwise.
8009 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
8010 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @sc{mime} before reading them.
8011 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
8012 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
8013 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
8017 @node Hiding Headers
8018 @section Hiding Headers
8019 @cindex hiding headers
8020 @cindex deleting headers
8022 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
8023 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
8025 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
8026 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
8027 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
8028 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
8029 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
8030 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
8031 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseum---and you'll probably want to get rid
8032 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
8033 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
8035 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
8039 @item gnus-visible-headers
8040 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
8041 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
8042 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
8043 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
8045 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
8046 the article and the subject, you'd say:
8049 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
8052 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
8055 @item gnus-ignored-headers
8056 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
8057 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
8058 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
8059 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
8060 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
8062 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} line
8063 and the @code{Xref} line, you might say:
8066 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
8069 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
8072 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
8073 variable will have no effect.
8077 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
8078 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
8079 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
8080 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
8081 the headers are to be displayed.
8083 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
8084 and then the subject, you might say something like:
8087 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
8090 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
8091 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
8093 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
8094 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
8095 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
8096 You can hide further boring headers by entering
8097 @code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers} into
8098 @code{gnus-article-display-hook}. What this function does depends on
8099 the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a list, but this
8100 list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead is lists various
8101 @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove from sight.
8103 These conditions are:
8106 Remove all empty headers.
8108 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
8109 @code{Newsgroups} header.
8111 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same address as the
8114 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
8117 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
8120 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
8122 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
8125 To include the four three elements, you could say something like;
8128 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
8129 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
8132 This is also the default value for this variable.
8136 @section Using @sc{mime}
8139 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
8140 while people stand around yawning.
8142 @sc{mime}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
8143 while all newsreaders die of fear.
8145 @sc{mime} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
8146 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
8147 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
8149 @vindex gnus-display-mime-function
8150 @findex gnus-display-mime
8151 Gnus pushes @sc{mime} articles through @code{gnus-display-mime-function}
8152 to display the @sc{mime} parts. This is @code{gnus-display-mime} by
8153 default, which creates a bundle of clickable buttons that can be used to
8154 display, save and manipulate the @sc{mime} objects.
8156 The following commands are available when you have placed point over a
8160 @findex gnus-article-press-button
8162 @itemx BUTTON-2 (Article)
8163 Toggle displaying of the @sc{mime} object
8164 (@code{gnus-article-press-button}).
8166 @findex gnus-mime-view-part
8167 @item M-RET (Article)
8169 Prompt for a method, and then view the @sc{mime} object using this
8170 method (@code{gnus-mime-view-part}).
8172 @findex gnus-mime-save-part
8174 Prompt for a file name, and then save the @sc{mime} object
8175 (@code{gnus-mime-save-part}).
8177 @findex gnus-mime-copy-part
8179 Copy the @sc{mime} object to a fresh buffer and display this buffer
8180 (@code{gnus-mime-copy-part}).
8182 @findex gnus-mime-pipe-part
8184 Output the @sc{mime} object to a process (@code{gnus-mime-pipe-part}).
8187 Gnus will display some @sc{mime} objects automatically. The way Gnus
8188 determines which parts to do this with is described in the Emacs MIME
8191 It might be best to just use the toggling functions from the article
8192 buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance, you enter the
8193 group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it, @sc{mime} has
8194 decoded the sound file in the article and some horrible sing-a-long song
8195 comes screaming out your speakers, and you can't find the volume button,
8196 because there isn't one, and people are starting to look at you, and you
8197 try to stop the program, but you can't, and you can't find the program
8198 to control the volume, and everybody else in the room suddenly decides
8199 to look at you disdainfully, and you'll feel rather stupid.)
8201 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
8204 @node Customizing Articles
8205 @section Customizing Articles
8206 @cindex article customization
8208 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
8209 The @code{gnus-article-display-hook} is called after the article has
8210 been inserted into the article buffer. It is meant to handle all
8211 treatment of the article before it is displayed.
8213 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
8214 @findex gnus-article-maybe-hide-headers
8215 By default this hook just contains
8216 @code{gnus-article-maybe-hide-headers},
8217 @code{gnus-hide-boring-headers}, @code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike},
8218 and @code{gnus-article-maybe-highlight} (and under XEmacs,
8219 @code{gnus-article-display-x-face}), but there are thousands, nay
8220 millions, of functions you can put in this hook. For an overview of
8221 functions @pxref{Article Highlighting}, @pxref{Article Hiding},
8222 @pxref{Article Washing}, @pxref{Article Buttons} and @pxref{Article
8223 Date}. Note that the order of functions in this hook might affect
8224 things, so you may have to fiddle a bit to get the desired results.
8226 You can, of course, write your own functions. The functions are called
8227 from the article buffer, and you can do anything you like, pretty much.
8228 There is no information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can
8229 change everything. However, you shouldn't delete any headers. Instead
8230 make them invisible if you want to make them go away.
8233 @node Article Keymap
8234 @section Article Keymap
8236 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
8237 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
8238 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
8239 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
8242 A few additional keystrokes are available:
8247 @kindex SPACE (Article)
8248 @findex gnus-article-next-page
8249 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
8252 @kindex DEL (Article)
8253 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
8254 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
8257 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
8258 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
8259 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
8260 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
8261 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
8264 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
8265 @findex gnus-article-mail
8266 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
8267 given a prefix, include the mail.
8271 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
8272 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
8273 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
8277 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
8278 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
8279 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
8282 @kindex TAB (Article)
8283 @findex gnus-article-next-button
8284 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
8285 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
8288 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
8289 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
8290 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
8296 @section Misc Article
8300 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
8301 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
8302 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
8303 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
8306 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
8307 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
8309 Hook used to decode @sc{mime} articles. The default value is
8310 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
8312 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
8313 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
8314 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
8315 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
8316 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
8317 the contents of the article buffer.
8319 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
8320 @item gnus-article-display-hook
8321 This hook is called as the last thing when displaying an article, and is
8322 intended for modifying the contents of the buffer, doing highlights,
8323 hiding headers, and the like.
8325 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
8326 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
8327 Hook called in article mode buffers.
8329 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
8330 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
8331 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
8332 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
8334 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
8335 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
8336 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
8337 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
8338 accepts the same format specifications as that variable, with one
8343 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
8344 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
8347 The number of @sc{mime} parts in the article.
8350 @vindex gnus-break-pages
8352 @item gnus-break-pages
8353 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
8354 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
8355 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
8356 paging will not be done.
8358 @item gnus-page-delimiter
8359 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
8360 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
8365 @node Composing Messages
8366 @chapter Composing Messages
8367 @cindex composing messages
8370 @cindex sending mail
8375 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
8376 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
8377 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the article
8378 by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Top, message, The Message
8379 Manual}. If you are in a foreign news group, and you wish to post the
8380 article using the foreign server, you can give a prefix to @kbd{C-c C-c}
8381 to make Gnus try to post using the foreign server.
8384 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
8385 * Post:: Posting and following up.
8386 * Posting Server:: What server should you post via?
8387 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
8388 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
8389 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
8390 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
8391 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
8394 Also see @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
8395 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
8401 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
8404 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
8405 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
8406 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
8407 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched.
8409 @item gnus-add-to-list
8410 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
8411 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
8412 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
8420 Variables for composing news articles:
8423 @item gnus-sent-message-ids-file
8424 @vindex gnus-sent-message-ids-file
8425 Gnus will keep a @code{Message-ID} history file of all the mails it has
8426 sent. If it discovers that it has already sent a mail, it will ask the
8427 user whether to re-send the mail. (This is primarily useful when
8428 dealing with @sc{soup} packets and the like where one is apt to send the
8429 same packet multiple times.) This variable says what the name of this
8430 history file is. It is @file{~/News/Sent-Message-IDs} by default. Set
8431 this variable to @code{nil} if you don't want Gnus to keep a history
8434 @item gnus-sent-message-ids-length
8435 @vindex gnus-sent-message-ids-length
8436 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the history
8437 file. It is 1000 by default.
8442 @node Posting Server
8443 @section Posting Server
8445 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
8446 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
8448 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
8450 @vindex gnus-post-method
8452 It can be quite complicated. Normally, Gnus will use the same native
8453 server. However. If your native server doesn't allow posting, just
8454 reading, you probably want to use some other server to post your
8455 (extremely intelligent and fabulously interesting) articles. You can
8456 then set the @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
8459 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
8462 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
8463 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
8464 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
8465 the ``current'' server for posting.
8467 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
8468 Gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
8470 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
8471 If that's the case, Gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
8474 Finally, if you want to always post using the same select method as
8475 you're reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
8476 groups from different private servers), you can set this variable to
8481 @section Mail and Post
8483 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
8487 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
8488 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
8489 @cindex mailing lists
8491 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
8492 gatewayed to the @sc{nntp} server, you can read those groups without
8493 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
8494 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
8495 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
8496 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
8497 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
8498 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
8499 still a pain, though.
8503 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
8504 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
8505 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
8508 @findex ispell-message
8510 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
8514 @node Archived Messages
8515 @section Archived Messages
8516 @cindex archived messages
8517 @cindex sent messages
8519 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
8520 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
8521 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
8522 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
8525 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
8526 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server Gnus is to
8527 use to store sent messages. The default is:
8531 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
8532 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
8533 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
8534 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
8537 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
8538 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likeable select method
8539 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
8540 directory chosen, you could say something like:
8543 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
8544 '(nnfolder "archive"
8545 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
8546 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
8547 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
8550 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
8552 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
8553 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
8554 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
8556 This variable can be used to do the following:
8560 Messages will be saved in that group.
8561 @item a list of strings
8562 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
8563 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
8564 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
8566 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
8571 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
8573 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
8576 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
8578 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
8581 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
8583 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
8584 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
8585 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
8586 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
8591 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
8592 '((if (message-news-p)
8597 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
8598 messages in one file per month:
8601 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
8602 '((if (message-news-p)
8604 (concat "mail." (format-time-string
8605 "%Y-%m" (current-time))))))
8608 (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
8609 use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
8611 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
8612 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
8613 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
8614 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
8615 Gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
8616 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
8617 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
8618 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
8619 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
8620 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
8622 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
8623 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
8624 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
8625 this will disable archiving.
8628 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
8629 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
8630 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
8631 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
8632 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
8635 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
8636 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
8637 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
8640 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
8641 but the latter is the preferred method.
8645 @node Posting Styles
8646 @section Posting Styles
8647 @cindex posting styles
8650 All them variables, they make my head swim.
8652 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
8653 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
8654 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
8657 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
8658 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
8659 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
8660 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
8661 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
8666 (signature "Peace and happiness")
8667 (organization "What me?"))
8669 (signature "Death to everybody"))
8670 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
8671 (organization "Emacs is it")))
8674 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
8675 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
8676 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
8677 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
8678 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
8679 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
8680 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
8681 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
8683 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
8684 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
8685 If it's a function symbol, that function will be called with no
8686 arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
8687 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
8688 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is said
8691 Each style may contain a arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
8692 attribute consists of a @var{(name . value)} pair. The attribute name
8693 can be one of @code{signature}, @code{signature-file},
8694 @code{organization}, @code{address}, @code{name} or @code{body}. The
8695 attribute name can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as
8696 a header name, and the value will be inserted in the headers of the
8699 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function (the
8700 return value will be used), a variable (its value will be used) or a
8701 list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value will be used).
8703 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
8704 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
8705 of the two dynamically bound variables @code{message-this-is-news} and
8706 @code{message-this-is-mail}.
8708 @vindex message-this-is-mail
8709 @vindex message-this-is-news
8711 So here's a new example:
8714 (setq gnus-posting-styles
8716 (signature-file "~/.signature")
8718 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
8719 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
8721 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
8722 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly")
8723 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
8724 (message-this-is-news
8725 (signature my-news-signature))
8726 (posting-from-work-p
8727 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
8728 (address "user@@bar.foo")
8729 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
8730 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
8732 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
8740 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
8741 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
8742 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
8743 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
8744 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
8746 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
8747 some sort using the Gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
8748 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
8749 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
8750 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
8754 @vindex nndraft-directory
8755 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
8756 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
8757 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
8758 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
8759 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
8760 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
8762 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
8763 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
8766 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
8767 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
8768 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
8769 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
8770 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
8771 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
8772 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
8773 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
8774 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
8775 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
8776 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
8777 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
8778 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
8779 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
8781 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
8782 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
8783 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
8785 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
8787 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
8788 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
8789 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
8791 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
8794 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
8795 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
8796 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
8797 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
8798 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
8799 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
8800 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
8803 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
8804 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
8805 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
8808 @node Rejected Articles
8809 @section Rejected Articles
8810 @cindex rejected articles
8812 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
8813 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
8814 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
8815 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
8817 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of Gnus.
8818 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
8819 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
8820 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So Gnus saves these
8821 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
8823 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
8824 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
8825 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
8828 @node Select Methods
8829 @chapter Select Methods
8830 @cindex foreign groups
8831 @cindex select methods
8833 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
8834 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
8835 @sc{nntp} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
8836 personal mail group.
8838 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
8839 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
8840 list where the first element says what backend to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
8841 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
8842 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
8843 value may have special meaning for the backend in question.
8845 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
8846 we do just that (@pxref{The Server Buffer}).
8848 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the backend will recognize the
8851 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @sc{nntp} server
8852 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
8853 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
8854 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
8855 backend just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
8857 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
8860 * The Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
8861 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
8862 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
8863 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
8864 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
8865 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
8869 @node The Server Buffer
8870 @section The Server Buffer
8872 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
8873 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
8874 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
8875 one backend or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
8876 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
8877 backend represents a virtual server.
8879 For instance, the @code{nntp} backend may be used to connect to several
8880 different actual @sc{nntp} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
8881 on the same actual @sc{nntp} server. You tell Gnus which backend to
8882 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
8884 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
8885 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
8886 @sc{nntp} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
8887 hangs if queried for @sc{nov} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
8888 Anyways, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
8889 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
8890 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
8892 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
8893 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
8896 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
8897 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
8898 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
8899 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
8900 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
8901 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
8902 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
8905 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
8906 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
8909 @node Server Buffer Format
8910 @subsection Server Buffer Format
8911 @cindex server buffer format
8913 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
8914 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
8915 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
8916 variable, with some simple extensions:
8921 How the news is fetched---the backend name.
8924 The name of this server.
8927 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
8930 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
8933 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
8934 The mode line can also be customized by using the
8935 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
8936 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
8946 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
8949 @node Server Commands
8950 @subsection Server Commands
8951 @cindex server commands
8957 @findex gnus-server-add-server
8958 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
8962 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
8963 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
8966 @kindex SPACE (Server)
8967 @findex gnus-server-read-server
8968 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
8972 @findex gnus-server-exit
8973 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
8977 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
8978 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
8982 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
8983 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
8987 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
8988 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
8992 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
8993 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
8997 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
8998 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
8999 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
9004 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
9005 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
9006 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
9007 a mail backend that has gotten out of synch.
9012 @node Example Methods
9013 @subsection Example Methods
9015 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
9018 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
9021 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
9027 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
9028 backend, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
9031 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
9032 @var{(variable form)} pairs.
9034 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
9035 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
9039 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
9042 You should read the documentation to each backend to find out what
9043 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
9045 @code{nnmh} is a mail backend that reads a spool-like structure. Say
9046 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
9047 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
9051 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
9054 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
9057 Here's the method for a public spool:
9061 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
9062 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
9065 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @sc{nntp}
9066 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
9067 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @sc{nntp} server.
9068 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
9069 should probably look something like this:
9073 (nntp-address "the.firewall.machine")
9074 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-rlogin)
9075 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
9076 (nntp-rlogin-parameters
9077 ("telnet" "the.real.nntp.host" "nntp")))
9080 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
9081 compressed connection over the modem line, you could create a virtual
9082 server that would look something like this:
9086 (nntp-address "copper.uio.no")
9087 (nntp-rlogin-program "ssh")
9088 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-rlogin)
9089 (nntp-end-of-line "\n")
9090 (nntp-rlogin-parameters
9091 ("telnet" "news.uio.no" "nntp")))
9094 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
9095 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
9096 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
9097 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
9100 @node Creating a Virtual Server
9101 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
9103 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
9104 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
9106 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
9107 would probably be best to use @code{nnspool} to read the cache. You
9108 could also use @code{nnml} or @code{nnmh}, though.
9110 Type @kbd{a nnspool RET cache RET}.
9112 You should now have a brand new @code{nnspool} virtual server called
9113 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
9114 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
9115 will contain the following:
9125 (nnspool-spool-directory "~/News/cache/")
9126 (nnspool-nov-directory "~/News/cache/")
9127 (nnspool-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
9130 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
9131 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
9132 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
9135 @node Server Variables
9136 @subsection Server Variables
9138 One sticky point when defining variables (both on backends and in Emacs
9139 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
9140 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
9141 change the "base" variable after the variables have been loaded, you
9142 won't change the "derived" variables.
9144 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
9145 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
9146 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
9147 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
9148 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
9149 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
9150 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
9151 variables for each backend, see each backend's section later in this
9152 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
9156 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
9157 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
9158 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
9162 @node Servers and Methods
9163 @subsection Servers and Methods
9165 Wherever you would normally use a select method
9166 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
9167 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
9168 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
9172 @node Unavailable Servers
9173 @subsection Unavailable Servers
9175 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
9176 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
9177 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
9178 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
9179 actually the case or not.
9181 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
9182 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
9183 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
9184 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
9185 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
9186 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
9187 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
9188 it will regard that server as ``down''.
9190 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
9191 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
9193 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{The Server Buffer}) and poke it
9194 with the following commands:
9200 @findex gnus-server-open-server
9201 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
9202 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
9206 @findex gnus-server-close-server
9207 Close the connection (if any) to the server
9208 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
9212 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
9213 Mark the current server as unreachable
9214 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
9217 @kindex M-o (Server)
9218 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
9219 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
9220 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
9223 @kindex M-c (Server)
9224 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
9225 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
9226 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
9230 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
9231 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
9232 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
9238 @section Getting News
9239 @cindex reading news
9240 @cindex news backends
9242 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
9243 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @sc{nntp} server,
9244 or it can read from a local spool.
9247 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @sc{nntp} server.
9248 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
9253 @subsection @sc{nntp}
9256 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @sc{nntp} server is rather easy.
9257 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @sc{nntp}
9258 server as the, uhm, address.
9260 If the @sc{nntp} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
9261 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
9262 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
9263 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
9265 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
9266 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
9267 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
9269 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
9274 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
9275 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
9276 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
9278 @cindex authentification
9279 @cindex nntp authentification
9280 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
9281 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
9282 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
9283 commands to the @sc{nntp} server after it has been contacted. By
9284 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
9285 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
9286 present in this hook.
9288 @item nntp-authinfo-function
9289 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
9290 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
9291 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
9292 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @sc{nntp}
9293 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
9294 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
9295 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
9296 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
9297 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
9298 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
9299 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
9303 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
9306 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs. The
9307 valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
9308 @samp{default} and @samp{force}. (The latter is not a valid
9309 @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} token, which is the only way the
9310 @file{.authinfo} file format deviates from the @file{.netrc} file
9315 Here's an example file:
9318 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
9319 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
9322 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
9323 have to be first, for instance.
9325 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
9326 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
9327 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
9328 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
9329 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
9330 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
9331 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
9333 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
9334 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
9340 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
9341 previously mentioned.
9343 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
9345 @item nntp-server-action-alist
9346 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
9347 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
9348 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
9349 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
9352 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
9356 You probably don't want to do that, though.
9358 The default value is
9361 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
9362 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
9365 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
9366 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
9368 @item nntp-maximum-request
9369 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
9370 If the @sc{nntp} server doesn't support @sc{nov} headers, this backend
9371 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
9372 speed things up, the backend sends lots of these commands without
9373 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
9374 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
9375 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
9377 @item nntp-connection-timeout
9378 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
9379 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
9380 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @sc{nntp} servers not
9381 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
9382 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
9383 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
9384 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} backend should wait for a
9385 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
9386 no timeouts are done.
9388 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
9389 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
9390 @c @cindex PPP connections
9391 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
9392 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
9393 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
9394 @c changes after connecting to the @sc{nntp} server, Gnus will simply sit
9395 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
9396 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
9397 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
9398 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
9399 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
9400 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
9402 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
9403 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
9404 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
9405 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
9408 @item nntp-server-hook
9409 @vindex nntp-server-hook
9410 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @sc{nntp}
9413 @findex nntp-open-rlogin
9414 @findex nntp-open-telnet
9415 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
9416 @item nntp-open-connection-function
9417 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
9418 This function is used to connect to the remote system. Four pre-made
9419 functions are supplied:
9422 @item nntp-open-network-stream
9423 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
9426 @item nntp-open-rlogin
9427 Does an @samp{rlogin} on the
9428 remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet} to the @sc{nntp} server
9431 @code{nntp-open-rlogin}-related variables:
9435 @item nntp-rlogin-program
9436 @vindex nntp-rlogin-program
9437 Program used to log in on remote machines. The default is @samp{rsh},
9438 but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
9440 @item nntp-rlogin-parameters
9441 @vindex nntp-rlogin-parameters
9442 This list will be used as the parameter list given to @code{rsh}.
9444 @item nntp-rlogin-user-name
9445 @vindex nntp-rlogin-user-name
9446 User name on the remote system.
9450 @item nntp-open-telnet
9451 Does a @samp{telnet} to the remote system and then another @samp{telnet}
9452 to get to the @sc{nntp} server.
9454 @code{nntp-open-telnet}-related variables:
9457 @item nntp-telnet-command
9458 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
9459 Command used to start @code{telnet}.
9461 @item nntp-telnet-switches
9462 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
9463 List of strings to be used as the switches to the @code{telnet} command.
9465 @item nntp-telnet-user-name
9466 @vindex nntp-telnet-user-name
9467 User name for log in on the remote system.
9469 @item nntp-telnet-passwd
9470 @vindex nntp-telnet-passwd
9471 Password to use when logging in.
9473 @item nntp-telnet-parameters
9474 @vindex nntp-telnet-parameters
9475 A list of strings executed as a command after logging in
9478 @item nntp-telnet-shell-prompt
9479 @vindex nntp-telnet-shell-prompt
9480 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the remote machine. The default is
9481 @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
9483 @item nntp-open-telnet-envuser
9484 @vindex nntp-open-telnet-envuser
9485 If non-@code{nil}, the @code{telnet} session (client and server both)
9486 will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for login name.
9487 This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
9491 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
9492 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
9493 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use this
9494 you must have SSLay installed
9495 (@file{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL}, and you also need
9496 @file{ssl.el} (from the W3 distributeion, for instance). You then
9497 define a server as follows:
9500 ;; Type `C-c C-c' after you've finished editing.
9502 ;; "snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our /etc/services
9504 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
9505 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
9506 (nntp-port-number "snews")
9507 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
9512 @item nntp-end-of-line
9513 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
9514 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @sc{nntp}
9515 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
9516 using @code{rlogin} to talk to the server.
9518 @item nntp-rlogin-user-name
9519 @vindex nntp-rlogin-user-name
9520 User name on the remote system when using the @code{rlogin} connect
9524 @vindex nntp-address
9525 The address of the remote system running the @sc{nntp} server.
9527 @item nntp-port-number
9528 @vindex nntp-port-number
9529 Port number to connect to when using the @code{nntp-open-network-stream}
9532 @item nntp-buggy-select
9533 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
9534 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
9536 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
9537 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
9538 If the @sc{nntp} server does not support @sc{nov}, you could set this
9539 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @sc{nov}
9542 @item nntp-xover-commands
9543 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
9546 List of strings used as commands to fetch @sc{nov} lines from a
9547 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
9551 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
9552 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @sc{nov} lines to
9553 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
9554 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
9555 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @sc{nov}
9556 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
9557 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
9558 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
9559 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
9560 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
9561 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
9563 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
9564 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
9565 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @sc{nntp} server.
9567 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
9568 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
9569 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
9570 server closes connection.
9572 @item nntp-record-commands
9573 @vindex nntp-record-commands
9574 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
9575 @sc{nntp} server (along with a timestep) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
9576 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@sc{nntp} connection
9577 that doesn't seem to work.
9583 @subsection News Spool
9587 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
9588 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
9589 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
9592 Anyways, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
9593 anything else) as the address.
9595 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
9596 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
9597 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
9598 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
9602 @item nnspool-inews-program
9603 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
9604 Program used to post an article.
9606 @item nnspool-inews-switches
9607 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
9608 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
9610 @item nnspool-spool-directory
9611 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
9612 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
9613 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
9615 @item nnspool-nov-directory
9616 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
9617 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @sc{nov} files. This is normally
9618 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
9620 @item nnspool-lib-dir
9621 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
9622 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
9624 @item nnspool-active-file
9625 @vindex nnspool-active-file
9626 The path to the active file.
9628 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
9629 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
9630 The path to the group descriptions file.
9632 @item nnspool-history-file
9633 @vindex nnspool-history-file
9634 The path to the news history file.
9636 @item nnspool-active-times-file
9637 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
9638 The path to the active date file.
9640 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
9641 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
9642 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @sc{nov} files
9645 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
9646 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
9648 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
9649 relevant portion from the overview file. If nil, @code{nnspool} will
9650 load the entire file into a buffer and process it there.
9656 @section Getting Mail
9657 @cindex reading mail
9660 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
9664 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
9665 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
9666 * Mail Backend Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
9667 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
9668 * Mail and Procmail:: Reading mail groups that procmail create.
9669 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
9670 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
9671 * Washing Mail:: Removing gruft from the mail you get.
9672 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
9673 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail backends for reading other files.
9674 * Choosing a Mail Backend:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
9678 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
9679 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
9681 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
9682 mail backend of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
9683 and things will happen automatically.
9685 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a "one file per
9686 mail" backend), you could put the following in your @file{.gnus} file:
9689 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
9690 '((nnml "private")))
9693 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this backend will be queried for new
9694 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
9695 directory, which is @code{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
9696 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
9697 like any other group.
9699 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
9702 (setq nnmail-split-methods
9703 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
9704 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
9708 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
9709 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
9710 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
9713 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
9714 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
9715 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Backend} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
9718 @node Splitting Mail
9719 @subsection Splitting Mail
9720 @cindex splitting mail
9721 @cindex mail splitting
9723 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
9724 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
9725 to be split into groups.
9728 (setq nnmail-split-methods
9729 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
9730 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
9734 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
9735 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
9736 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
9737 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
9738 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
9739 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
9740 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
9743 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
9746 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
9747 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
9748 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
9749 mail belongs in that group.
9751 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
9752 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{} so that it matches any mails
9753 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
9754 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
9755 rule to make a match will "win", unless you have crossposting enabled.
9756 In that case, all matching rules will "win".)
9758 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
9759 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
9760 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
9761 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
9762 thinks should carry this mail message.
9764 Note that the mail backends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
9765 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
9766 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
9767 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
9769 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
9770 The mail backends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
9771 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
9772 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
9773 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{}) group.
9775 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
9778 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
9779 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
9780 links. If that's the case for you, set
9781 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
9782 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
9784 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
9785 @kindex nnmail-split-history
9786 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
9787 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command.
9789 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
9790 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
9791 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
9792 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
9793 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
9794 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
9795 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
9796 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
9800 @node Mail Backend Variables
9801 @subsection Mail Backend Variables
9803 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
9807 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
9808 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
9809 The mail backends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
9810 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
9812 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
9813 @item nnmail-spool-file
9817 @vindex nnmail-pop-password
9818 @vindex nnmail-pop-password-required
9819 The backends will look for new mail in this file. If this variable is
9820 @code{nil}, the mail backends will never attempt to fetch mail by
9821 themselves. If you are using a POP mail server and your name is
9822 @samp{larsi}, you should set this variable to @samp{po:larsi}. If
9823 your name is not @samp{larsi}, you should probably modify that
9824 slightly, but you may have guessed that already, you smart & handsome
9825 devil! You can also set this variable to @code{pop}, and Gnus will try
9826 to figure out the POP mail string by itself. In any case, Gnus will
9827 call @code{movemail} which will contact the POP server named in the
9828 @code{MAILHOST} environment variable. If the POP server needs a
9829 password, you can either set @code{nnmail-pop-password-required} to
9830 @code{t} and be prompted for the password, or set
9831 @code{nnmail-pop-password} to the password itself.
9833 @code{nnmail-spool-file} can also be a list of mailboxes.
9835 Your Emacs has to have been configured with @samp{--with-pop} before
9836 compilation. This is the default, but some installations have it
9839 When you use a mail backend, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
9840 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
9841 mail if you're not using a mail backend---you have to do a lot of magic
9842 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
9843 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
9844 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
9846 @vindex nnmail-use-procmail
9847 @vindex nnmail-procmail-suffix
9848 @item nnmail-use-procmail
9849 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will look in
9850 @code{nnmail-procmail-directory} for incoming mail. All the files in
9851 that directory that have names ending in @code{nnmail-procmail-suffix}
9852 will be considered incoming mailboxes, and will be searched for new
9855 @vindex nnmail-crash-box
9856 @item nnmail-crash-box
9857 When a mail backend reads a spool file, mail is first moved to this
9858 file, which is @file{~/.gnus-crash-box} by default. If this file
9859 already exists, it will always be read (and incorporated) before any
9862 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
9863 @item nnmail-split-hook
9864 @findex article-decode-encoded-words
9865 @findex RFC1522 decoding
9866 @findex RFC2047 decoding
9867 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
9868 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
9869 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
9870 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
9871 in the buffer will show up in any files.
9872 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
9875 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
9876 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
9877 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
9878 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
9879 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
9880 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
9881 starting to handle the new mail) and
9882 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
9883 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
9884 default file modes the new mail files get:
9887 (add-hook 'gnus-pre-get-new-mail-hook
9888 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
9890 (add-hook 'gnus-post-get-new-mail-hook
9891 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
9894 @item nnmail-tmp-directory
9895 @vindex nnmail-tmp-directory
9896 This variable says where to move incoming mail to -- while processing
9897 it. This is usually done in the same directory that the mail backend
9898 inhabits (e.g., @file{~/Mail/}), but if this variable is non-@code{nil},
9899 it will be used instead.
9901 @item nnmail-movemail-program
9902 @vindex nnmail-movemail-program
9903 This program is executed to move mail from the user's inbox to her home
9904 directory. The default is @samp{movemail}.
9906 This can also be a function. In that case, the function will be called
9907 with two parameters -- the name of the inbox, and the file to be moved
9910 @item nnmail-delete-incoming
9911 @vindex nnmail-delete-incoming
9912 @cindex incoming mail files
9913 @cindex deleting incoming files
9914 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will delete the temporary incoming
9915 file after splitting mail into the proper groups. This is @code{t} by
9918 @c This is @code{nil} by
9919 @c default for reasons of security.
9921 @c Since Red Gnus is an alpha release, it is to be expected to lose mail.
9922 (No Gnus release since (ding) Gnus 0.10 (or something like that) have
9923 lost mail, I think, but that's not the point. (Except certain versions
9924 of Red Gnus.)) By not deleting the Incoming* files, one can be sure not
9925 to lose mail -- if Gnus totally whacks out, one can always recover what
9928 You may delete the @file{Incoming*} files at will.
9930 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
9931 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
9932 If non-@code{nil}, the mail backends will use long file and directory
9933 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
9934 (assuming use of @code{nnml} backend) or files (assuming use of
9935 @code{nnfolder} backend) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
9936 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
9938 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
9939 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
9941 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
9943 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
9944 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
9945 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
9946 the backend (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
9947 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
9952 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
9953 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
9954 @cindex mail splitting
9955 @cindex fancy mail splitting
9957 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
9958 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
9959 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
9960 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
9961 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
9962 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
9964 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
9967 ;; Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of
9968 ;; the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group
9969 ;; from real errors.
9970 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
9972 ;; Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant
9973 ;; groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the
9974 ;; (ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.
9975 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
9976 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
9977 ;; Other mailing lists...
9978 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
9979 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
9981 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
9982 ;; Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.
9986 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a (possibly)
9987 recursive structure where each split may contain other splits. Here are
9988 the five possible split syntaxes:
9993 @samp{group}: If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group
9994 name. Normal regexp match expansion will be done. See below for
9998 @var{(FIELD VALUE SPLIT)}: If the split is a list, the first element of
9999 which is a string, then store the message as specified by SPLIT, if
10000 header FIELD (a regexp) contains VALUE (also a regexp).
10003 @var{(| SPLIT...)}: If the split is a list, and the first element is
10004 @code{|} (vertical bar), then process each SPLIT until one of them
10005 matches. A SPLIT is said to match if it will cause the mail message to
10006 be stored in one or more groups.
10009 @var{(& SPLIT...)}: If the split is a list, and the first element is
10010 @code{&}, then process all SPLITs in the list.
10013 @code{junk}: If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save
10014 this message. Use with extreme caution.
10017 @var{(: function arg1 arg2 ...)}: If the split is a list, and the first
10018 element is @code{:}, then the second element will be called as a
10019 function with @var{args} given as arguments. The function should return
10023 @code{nil}: If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
10027 In these splits, @var{FIELD} must match a complete field name.
10028 @var{VALUE} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
10029 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
10030 field names or words. In other words, all @var{VALUE}'s are wrapped in
10031 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
10033 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
10034 @var{FIELD} and @var{VALUE} can also be lisp symbols, in that case they
10035 are expanded as specified by the variable
10036 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells, where
10037 the @code{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @code{cdr} contains the associated
10040 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
10041 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
10042 when all this splitting is performed.
10044 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
10045 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
10046 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
10049 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
10052 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
10053 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
10054 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
10055 groupings 1 through 9.
10058 @node Mail and Procmail
10059 @subsection Mail and Procmail
10064 Many people use @code{procmail} (or some other mail filter program or
10065 external delivery agent---@code{slocal}, @code{elm}, etc) to split
10066 incoming mail into groups. If you do that, you should set
10067 @code{nnmail-spool-file} to @code{procmail} to ensure that the mail
10068 backends never ever try to fetch mail by themselves.
10070 If you have a combined @code{procmail}/POP/mailbox setup, you can do
10071 something like the following:
10073 @vindex nnmail-use-procmail
10075 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
10076 (setq nnmail-spool-file
10077 '("/usr/spool/mail/my-name" "po:my-name"))
10080 This also means that you probably don't want to set
10081 @code{nnmail-split-methods} either, which has some, perhaps, unexpected
10084 When a mail backend is queried for what groups it carries, it replies
10085 with the contents of that variable, along with any groups it has figured
10086 out that it carries by other means. None of the backends, except
10087 @code{nnmh}, actually go out to the disk and check what groups actually
10088 exist. (It's not trivial to distinguish between what the user thinks is
10089 a basis for a newsgroup and what is just a plain old file or directory.)
10091 This means that you have to tell Gnus (and the backends) by hand what
10094 Let's take the @code{nnmh} backend as an example:
10096 The folders are located in @code{nnmh-directory}, say, @file{~/Mail/}.
10097 There are three folders, @file{foo}, @file{bar} and @file{mail.baz}.
10099 Go to the group buffer and type @kbd{G m}. When prompted, answer
10100 @samp{foo} for the name and @samp{nnmh} for the method. Repeat
10101 twice for the two other groups, @samp{bar} and @samp{mail.baz}. Be sure
10102 to include all your mail groups.
10104 That's it. You are now set to read your mail. An active file for this
10105 method will be created automatically.
10107 @vindex nnmail-procmail-suffix
10108 @vindex nnmail-procmail-directory
10109 If you use @code{nnfolder} or any other backend that store more than a
10110 single article in each file, you should never have procmail add mails to
10111 the file that Gnus sees. Instead, procmail should put all incoming mail
10112 in @code{nnmail-procmail-directory}. To arrive at the file name to put
10113 the incoming mail in, append @code{nnmail-procmail-suffix} to the group
10114 name. The mail backends will read the mail from these files.
10116 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
10117 When Gnus reads a file called @file{mail.misc.spool}, this mail will be
10118 put in the @code{mail.misc}, as one would expect. However, if you want
10119 Gnus to split the mail the normal way, you could set
10120 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to @code{t}.
10122 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
10123 If you use @code{procmail} to split things directly into an @code{nnmh}
10124 directory (which you shouldn't do), you should set
10125 @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} to non-@code{nil} to prevent Gnus from
10126 ever expiring the final article (i.e., the article with the highest
10127 article number) in a mail newsgroup. This is quite, quite important.
10129 Here's an example setup: The incoming spools are located in
10130 @file{~/incoming/} and have @samp{""} as suffixes (i.e., the incoming
10131 spool files have the same names as the equivalent groups). The
10132 @code{nnfolder} backend is to be used as the mail interface, and the
10133 @code{nnfolder} directory is @file{~/fMail/}.
10136 (setq nnfolder-directory "~/fMail/")
10137 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
10138 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/incoming/")
10139 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnfolder "")))
10140 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "")
10144 @node Incorporating Old Mail
10145 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
10147 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
10148 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
10149 backends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
10152 Doing so can be quite easy.
10154 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
10155 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
10156 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
10157 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
10158 your @code{nnml} groups.
10164 Go to the group buffer.
10167 Type `G f' and give the path to the mbox file when prompted to create an
10168 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
10171 Type `SPACE' to enter the newly created group.
10174 Type `M P b' to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
10175 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
10178 Type `B r' to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
10179 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
10182 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
10183 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
10184 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
10185 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
10186 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
10188 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
10189 backend to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
10190 using the new mail backend.
10193 @node Expiring Mail
10194 @subsection Expiring Mail
10195 @cindex article expiry
10197 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
10198 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
10199 different approach to mail reading.
10201 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
10202 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
10203 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
10204 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
10205 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
10206 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
10209 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
10210 articles as @dfn{expirable}. This does not mean that the articles will
10211 disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
10212 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
10213 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
10214 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
10215 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
10216 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
10218 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
10219 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Groups that
10220 match the regular expression @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will
10221 have all articles that you read marked as expirable automatically. All
10222 articles marked as expirable have an @samp{E} in the first
10223 column in the summary buffer.
10225 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
10226 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
10227 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
10228 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
10231 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
10233 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
10234 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
10235 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
10238 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
10239 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
10240 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
10241 groups expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
10242 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
10244 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
10245 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
10248 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
10249 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
10252 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
10253 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
10255 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
10256 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
10257 don't really mix very well.
10259 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
10260 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
10261 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
10262 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
10265 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
10266 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
10267 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
10268 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
10271 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
10273 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
10275 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
10277 ((string= group "mail.junk")
10279 ((string= group "important")
10285 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
10286 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
10288 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
10289 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
10290 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
10293 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
10294 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
10296 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
10297 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
10298 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
10299 easier for procmail users.
10301 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
10302 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
10303 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
10304 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
10305 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
10306 caution. Even more dangerous is the
10307 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
10308 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
10309 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
10310 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
10311 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
10312 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
10313 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
10316 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
10318 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
10319 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
10320 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
10321 auto-expire turned on.
10325 @subsection Washing Mail
10326 @cindex mail washing
10327 @cindex list server brain damage
10328 @cindex incoming mail treatment
10330 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
10331 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC822 doesn't explicitly
10332 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
10333 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
10334 Yes, but RFC822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
10335 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
10337 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
10338 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
10339 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
10342 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
10343 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
10344 storing the mail to disc. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
10345 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
10348 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
10349 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
10350 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
10351 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
10352 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
10355 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
10356 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
10357 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
10358 Emacs running on MS machines.
10362 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
10363 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
10364 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
10365 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
10368 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
10369 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
10370 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
10371 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
10373 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
10374 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
10375 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
10376 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
10377 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
10378 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
10379 also be a list of regexp.
10381 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
10382 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
10385 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
10386 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
10389 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
10390 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
10391 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
10395 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
10396 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
10397 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
10401 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
10402 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
10403 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
10410 @subsection Duplicates
10412 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
10413 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
10414 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
10415 @cindex duplicate mails
10416 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
10417 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
10418 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
10419 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
10420 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
10421 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
10422 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
10423 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
10424 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
10425 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
10426 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
10427 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
10428 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
10430 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
10431 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
10432 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
10433 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
10435 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
10438 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
10439 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
10443 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
10444 '(| ;; Messages duplicates go to a separate group.
10445 ("gnus-warning" "duplication of message" "duplicate")
10446 ;; Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.
10447 (any mail "mail.misc")
10454 (setq nnmail-split-methods
10455 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:")
10460 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
10461 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
10462 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
10463 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
10464 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
10467 @node Not Reading Mail
10468 @subsection Not Reading Mail
10470 If you start using any of the mail backends, they have the annoying
10471 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
10472 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
10474 If you set @code{nnmail-spool-file} to @code{nil}, none of the backends
10475 will ever attempt to read incoming mail, which should help.
10477 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
10478 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
10479 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
10480 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
10481 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
10482 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
10483 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old @sc{rmail}
10484 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All backends have
10485 variables called backend-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
10486 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
10487 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
10489 All the mail backends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
10490 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
10494 @node Choosing a Mail Backend
10495 @subsection Choosing a Mail Backend
10497 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
10498 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
10499 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
10502 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
10503 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the rmail babyl format.
10504 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
10505 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like backend.
10506 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
10510 @node Unix Mail Box
10511 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
10513 @cindex unix mail box
10515 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
10516 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
10517 The @dfn{nnmbox} backend will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
10518 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
10519 which group it belongs in.
10521 Virtual server settings:
10524 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
10525 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
10526 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory.
10528 @item nnmbox-active-file
10529 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
10530 The name of the active file for the mail box.
10532 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
10533 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
10534 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
10540 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
10544 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
10545 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
10546 The @dfn{nnbabyl} backend will use a babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{rmail
10547 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each mail
10548 article to say which group it belongs in.
10550 Virtual server settings:
10553 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
10554 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
10555 The name of the rmail mbox file.
10557 @item nnbabyl-active-file
10558 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
10559 The name of the active file for the rmail box.
10561 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
10562 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
10563 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail.
10568 @subsubsection Mail Spool
10570 @cindex mail @sc{nov} spool
10572 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
10573 format. It should be used with some caution.
10575 @vindex nnml-directory
10576 If you use this backend, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
10577 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
10578 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
10579 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
10581 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
10584 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
10585 in your account, you should not use this backend. As each mail gets its
10586 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
10587 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
10588 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
10589 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
10590 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
10591 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
10593 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest backend when it comes to article
10594 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
10595 @sc{nov} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it the fastest
10596 backend when it comes to reading mail.
10598 Virtual server settings:
10601 @item nnml-directory
10602 @vindex nnml-directory
10603 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory.
10605 @item nnml-active-file
10606 @vindex nnml-active-file
10607 The active file for the @code{nnml} server.
10609 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
10610 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
10611 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
10614 @item nnml-get-new-mail
10615 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
10616 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail.
10618 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
10619 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
10620 If non-@code{nil}, this backend will ignore any @sc{nov} files.
10622 @item nnml-nov-file-name
10623 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
10624 The name of the @sc{nov} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
10626 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
10627 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
10628 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
10632 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
10633 If your @code{nnml} groups and @sc{nov} files get totally out of whack,
10634 you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
10635 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
10636 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
10637 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
10638 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
10643 @subsubsection MH Spool
10645 @cindex mh-e mail spool
10647 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
10648 @sc{nov} databases and it doesn't keep an active file. This makes
10649 @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower backend than @code{nnml}, but it also
10650 makes it easier to write procmail scripts for.
10652 Virtual server settings:
10655 @item nnmh-directory
10656 @vindex nnmh-directory
10657 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory.
10659 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
10660 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
10661 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail.
10664 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
10665 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
10666 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks they
10667 are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
10668 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
10669 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not have
10670 to set this variable to @code{t}.
10675 @subsubsection Mail Folders
10677 @cindex mbox folders
10678 @cindex mail folders
10680 @code{nnfolder} is a backend for storing each mail group in a separate
10681 file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format. @code{nnfolder}
10682 will add extra headers to keep track of article numbers and arrival
10685 Virtual server settings:
10688 @item nnfolder-directory
10689 @vindex nnfolder-directory
10690 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this directory.
10692 @item nnfolder-active-file
10693 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
10694 The name of the active file.
10696 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
10697 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
10698 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File Format}.
10700 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
10701 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
10702 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail.
10704 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
10705 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
10706 @cindex backup files
10707 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
10708 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If you
10709 wish to switch this off, you could say something like the following in
10710 your @file{.emacs} file:
10713 (defun turn-off-backup ()
10714 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
10716 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
10719 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
10720 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
10721 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
10722 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
10723 extract some information from it before removing it.
10728 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
10729 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
10730 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
10731 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
10732 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
10733 @code{nnfolder-directory}.
10736 @node Other Sources
10737 @section Other Sources
10739 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
10740 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
10744 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
10745 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
10746 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
10747 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{SOUP} packets ``offline''.
10748 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
10749 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
10753 @node Directory Groups
10754 @subsection Directory Groups
10756 @cindex directory groups
10758 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
10759 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
10762 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
10763 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
10764 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
10765 backend to read directories. Big deal.
10767 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
10768 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
10769 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
10770 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
10771 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
10773 @code{nndir} will use @sc{nov} files if they are present.
10775 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' backend---you can't delete or expire
10776 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
10777 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
10778 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
10781 @node Anything Groups
10782 @subsection Anything Groups
10785 From the @code{nndir} backend (which reads a single spool-like
10786 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
10787 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
10790 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
10791 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
10792 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
10793 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're
10794 forgetting. @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it
10795 snoops each file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e.,
10796 the first few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head.
10797 If this is just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source
10798 file), @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It
10799 will use file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
10802 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
10803 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
10804 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
10805 in the article buffer, just as usual.
10807 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
10808 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
10809 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
10810 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
10812 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
10813 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
10814 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
10815 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
10816 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
10817 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
10818 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
10819 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
10824 @item nneething-map-file-directory
10825 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
10826 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
10827 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
10829 @item nneething-exclude-files
10830 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
10831 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
10832 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
10834 @item nneething-include-files
10835 @vindex nneething-include-files
10836 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
10837 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
10839 @item nneething-map-file
10840 @vindex nneething-map-file
10841 Name of the map files.
10845 @node Document Groups
10846 @subsection Document Groups
10848 @cindex documentation group
10851 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
10852 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
10859 The babyl (rmail) mail box.
10864 The standard Unix mbox file.
10866 @cindex MMDF mail box
10868 The MMDF mail box format.
10871 Several news articles appended into a file.
10874 @cindex rnews batch files
10875 The rnews batch transport format.
10876 @cindex forwarded messages
10879 Forwarded articles.
10882 MIME multipart messages, besides digests.
10886 @cindex MIME digest
10887 @cindex 1153 digest
10888 @cindex RFC 1153 digest
10889 @cindex RFC 341 digest
10890 MIME (RFC 1341) digest format.
10892 @item standard-digest
10893 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
10896 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
10899 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
10900 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
10901 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
10904 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
10905 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
10906 group. And that's it.
10908 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
10909 new & spiffy Gnus mail backend, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
10910 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
10911 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
10912 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
10913 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
10914 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
10915 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
10916 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
10917 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
10919 Virtual server variables:
10922 @item nndoc-article-type
10923 @vindex nndoc-article-type
10924 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
10925 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
10926 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{mime-digest},
10927 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs} or
10930 @item nndoc-post-type
10931 @vindex nndoc-post-type
10932 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
10933 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
10938 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
10942 @node Document Server Internals
10943 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
10945 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
10946 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
10947 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
10948 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
10950 First, here's an example document type definition:
10954 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
10955 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
10958 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
10959 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
10960 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
10961 types can be defined with very few settings:
10964 @item first-article
10965 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
10966 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
10969 @item article-begin
10970 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
10971 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
10973 @item head-begin-function
10974 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
10977 @item nndoc-head-begin
10978 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
10981 @item nndoc-head-end
10982 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
10983 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
10985 @item body-begin-function
10986 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
10990 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
10993 @item body-end-function
10994 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
10998 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
11001 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
11002 regexp will be totally ignored.
11006 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
11007 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
11008 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
11009 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
11010 something that's palatable for Gnus:
11013 @item prepare-body-function
11014 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
11015 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
11016 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
11018 @item article-transform-function
11019 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
11020 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
11021 body of the article.
11023 @item generate-head-function
11024 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
11025 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
11026 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
11027 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
11031 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
11036 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
11037 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
11038 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
11039 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
11040 (head-end . "^ ?$")
11041 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
11042 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
11043 (subtype digest guess))
11046 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
11047 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
11048 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
11049 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
11050 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
11052 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
11053 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first is
11054 the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says where in
11055 the document type definition alist to put this definition. The alist is
11056 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
11057 is of @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
11058 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it is
11059 of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
11060 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number means
11061 low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
11069 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
11070 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
11071 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
11073 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
11074 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
11075 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
11078 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something a that's a bit
11079 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
11080 that interested in doing things properly.
11082 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
11083 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
11086 First some terminology:
11091 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
11092 get news and/or mail from.
11095 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
11096 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
11099 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
11103 @item message packets
11104 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
11105 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
11106 default, where @var{X} is a number.
11108 @item response packets
11109 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
11110 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
11111 default, where @var{X} is a number.
11121 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
11122 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
11123 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
11124 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
11127 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
11130 You put the packet in your home directory.
11133 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} backend as
11134 the native or secondary server.
11137 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
11138 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
11141 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
11145 You transfer this packet to the server.
11148 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
11151 You then repeat until you die.
11155 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
11156 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
11159 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
11160 * SOUP Groups:: A backend for reading @sc{soup} packets.
11161 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
11165 @node SOUP Commands
11166 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
11168 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
11172 @kindex G s b (Group)
11173 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
11174 Pack all unread articles in the current group
11175 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
11176 process/prefix convention.
11179 @kindex G s w (Group)
11180 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
11181 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
11184 @kindex G s s (Group)
11185 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
11186 Send all replies from the replies packet
11187 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
11190 @kindex G s p (Group)
11191 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
11192 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
11195 @kindex G s r (Group)
11196 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
11197 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
11200 @kindex O s (Summary)
11201 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
11202 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
11203 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
11204 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
11209 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
11214 @item gnus-soup-directory
11215 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
11216 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
11217 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
11219 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
11220 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
11221 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
11222 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
11224 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
11225 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
11226 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
11227 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
11229 @item gnus-soup-packer
11230 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
11231 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
11232 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
11234 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
11235 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
11236 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
11237 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
11239 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
11240 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
11241 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
11243 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
11244 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
11245 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
11246 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
11252 @subsubsection @sc{soup} Groups
11255 @code{nnsoup} is the backend for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
11256 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
11257 you can read them at leisure.
11259 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
11263 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
11264 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
11265 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
11266 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
11268 @item nnsoup-directory
11269 @vindex nnsoup-directory
11270 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
11271 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
11273 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
11274 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
11275 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
11276 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/"}.
11278 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
11279 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
11280 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
11281 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
11282 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
11284 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
11285 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
11286 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
11287 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
11289 @item nnsoup-active-file
11290 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
11291 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
11292 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
11293 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
11294 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
11296 @item nnsoup-packer
11297 @vindex nnsoup-packer
11298 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
11299 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
11301 @item nnsoup-unpacker
11302 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
11303 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
11304 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
11306 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
11307 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
11308 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
11311 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
11312 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
11313 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
11316 @item nnsoup-always-save
11317 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
11318 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
11324 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
11326 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
11327 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
11328 more for that to happen.
11330 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
11331 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
11332 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
11335 In specific, this is what it does:
11338 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
11339 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
11342 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
11343 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
11344 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
11348 @subsection Web Searches
11352 @cindex InReference
11353 @cindex Usenet searches
11354 @cindex searching the Usenet
11356 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
11357 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
11358 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
11359 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
11360 searches without having to use a browser.
11362 The @code{nnweb} backend allows an easy interface to the mighty search
11363 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
11364 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
11365 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
11366 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
11368 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
11369 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
11370 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
11371 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
11372 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
11373 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
11374 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
11375 engines (DejaNews, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
11376 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
11377 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
11380 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
11381 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
11382 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'être} is to
11383 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
11384 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
11385 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
11387 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
11388 to use @code{nnweb}.
11390 Virtual server variables:
11395 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
11396 are @code{dejanews}, @code{dejanewsold}, @code{altavista} and
11400 @vindex nnweb-search
11401 The search string to feed to the search engine.
11403 @item nnweb-max-hits
11404 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
11405 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
11408 @item nnweb-type-definition
11409 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
11410 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
11411 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
11416 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
11420 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
11423 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
11426 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
11430 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
11437 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
11438 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
11439 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
11442 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
11443 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
11444 The @code{nngateway} backend provides the interface.
11446 Note that you can't read anything from this backend---it can only be
11452 @item nngateway-address
11453 @vindex nngateway-address
11454 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
11456 @item nngateway-header-transformation
11457 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
11458 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
11459 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
11460 transformation should be called, and defaults to
11461 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
11462 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
11465 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
11466 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
11467 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
11470 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
11473 will get this @code{From} header inserted:
11476 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
11479 The following pre-defined functions exist:
11481 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
11484 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
11485 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
11486 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
11488 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
11490 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
11491 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
11492 @code{nngateway-address}.
11497 (setq gnus-post-method
11498 '(nngateway "mail2news@@replay.com"
11499 (nngateway-header-transformation
11500 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
11508 So, to use this, simply say something like:
11511 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
11515 @node Combined Groups
11516 @section Combined Groups
11518 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
11522 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
11523 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
11527 @node Virtual Groups
11528 @subsection Virtual Groups
11530 @cindex virtual groups
11531 @cindex merging groups
11533 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
11536 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
11537 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
11538 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
11540 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
11541 regexp to match component groups.
11543 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
11544 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
11545 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it came.
11546 (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be shown in
11547 the virtual group.)
11549 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
11550 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
11553 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
11556 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
11557 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
11559 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
11560 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
11561 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
11562 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
11565 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
11568 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
11569 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
11570 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
11572 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
11573 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
11574 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
11575 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
11576 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
11578 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
11579 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
11580 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
11582 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
11583 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
11584 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
11585 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
11586 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
11587 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
11588 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
11589 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
11590 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
11591 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
11592 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
11594 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
11595 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
11596 has to ask the backend of the component group the article comes from
11597 whether it is a news or mail backend. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
11598 there is typically no sure way for the component backend to know this,
11599 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
11600 not-news backend. (Just to be on the safe side.)
11602 @kbd{C-c C-t} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
11603 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
11607 @node Kibozed Groups
11608 @subsection Kibozed Groups
11612 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by @sc{oed} as ``grepping through (parts of)
11613 the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a backend that will do this for
11614 you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @sc{nntp} server down to a halt
11615 with useless requests! Oh happiness!
11617 @kindex G k (Group)
11618 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
11621 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
11622 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
11623 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between @code{nnkiboze}
11624 and @code{nnvirtual} end.
11626 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an @code{nnkiboze} group
11627 must have a score file to say what articles are to be included in
11628 the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
11630 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
11631 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
11632 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
11633 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time. Lots of
11634 time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the headers from
11635 all the articles in all the component groups and run them through the
11636 scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
11637 that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
11639 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
11640 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
11641 @sc{nntp} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
11642 Stranger things have happened.
11644 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
11645 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
11647 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
11648 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
11649 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/} by default. One
11650 contains the @sc{nov} header lines for all the articles in the group,
11651 and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store information
11652 on what groups have been searched through to find component articles.
11654 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
11655 their @sc{nov} lines removed from the @sc{nov} file.
11658 @node Gnus Unplugged
11659 @section Gnus Unplugged
11664 @cindex Gnus Unplugged
11666 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
11667 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
11668 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
11669 read news. Believe it or not.
11671 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
11672 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
11673 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
11674 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
11675 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
11677 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
11678 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
11679 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
11680 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
11681 reading news on a machine.
11683 Using Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple.
11687 First, set up Gnus as you would do if you were running it on a machine
11688 that has full connection to the net. Go ahead. I'll still be waiting
11692 Then, put the following magical incantation at the end of your
11693 @file{.gnus.el} file:
11700 That's it. Gnus is now an ``offline'' newsreader.
11702 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
11705 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
11706 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
11707 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
11708 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
11709 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
11710 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
11711 * Example Setup:: An example @file{.gnus.el} file for offline people.
11712 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
11713 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
11718 @subsection Agent Basics
11720 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
11722 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
11723 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
11724 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
11725 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
11727 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
11728 connected to the net continuously.
11730 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
11731 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
11733 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
11738 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
11739 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
11740 already fetched while in this mode.
11743 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
11744 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
11745 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged}.
11748 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the news
11749 onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press @kbd{J
11750 s} to fetch all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus
11751 know which articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}.)
11754 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
11755 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
11756 then you read the news offline.
11759 And then you go to step 2.
11762 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
11768 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
11769 backend, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
11770 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
11771 @kbd{J a} the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
11772 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}). This will typically be only the
11773 primary select method, which is listed on the bottom in the buffer.
11776 Decide on download policy. @xref{Agent Categories}.
11783 @node Agent Categories
11784 @subsection Agent Categories
11786 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
11787 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
11788 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
11789 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
11790 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
11791 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
11792 you're interested in the articles anyway.
11794 The main way to control what is to be downloaded is to create a
11795 @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all) groups to this category.
11796 Gnus has its own buffer for creating and managing categories.
11799 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
11800 * The Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
11801 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
11805 @node Category Syntax
11806 @subsubsection Category Syntax
11808 A category consists of two things.
11812 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
11813 are eligible for downloading; and
11816 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
11817 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
11818 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
11821 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
11822 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
11823 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
11824 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
11826 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
11827 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
11828 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as descibed below.
11830 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
11831 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
11832 operators sprinkled in between.
11834 Perhaps some examples are in order.
11836 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
11837 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
11843 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
11844 short (for some value of ``short'').
11846 Here's a more complex predicate:
11855 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
11856 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
11859 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
11860 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
11861 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
11863 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
11864 you want to do, you can write your own.
11868 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
11869 lines; default 100.
11872 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
11873 lines; default 200.
11876 True iff the article has a download score less than
11877 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
11880 True iff the article has a download score greater than
11881 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
11884 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
11885 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
11886 checksum and sees whether articles match.
11895 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
11896 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
11897 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
11900 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
11901 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
11902 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
11903 something along the lines of the following:
11906 (defun my-article-old-p ()
11907 "Say whether an article is old."
11908 (< (time-to-day (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
11909 (- (time-to-day (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
11912 with the predicate then defined as:
11915 (not my-article-old-p)
11918 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
11919 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
11920 wherever. (Note: this would have to be at a point *after*
11921 @code{gnus-agent} has been loaded via @code{(gnus-agentize)})
11924 (defvar gnus-category-predicate-alist
11925 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
11926 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
11929 and simply specify your predicate as:
11935 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
11936 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
11937 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
11938 just don't give a damm.
11941 The above predicates apply to *all* the groups which belong to the
11942 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
11943 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
11944 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in it's group
11945 parameters like so:
11948 (agent-predicate . short)
11951 This is the group parameter equivalent of the agent category
11952 default. Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this,
11953 the @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair
11956 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
11959 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
11962 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
11963 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
11964 predicate is assumed to be a list.
11967 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
11968 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
11969 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
11970 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
11971 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
11972 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
11974 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
11975 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
11976 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
11977 if it's to be specific to that group.
11979 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
11986 This has the same syntax as a normal gnus score file except only a
11987 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
11993 Category specification
11997 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
12003 Group Parameter specification
12006 (agent-score ("from"
12007 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
12012 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
12018 These score files must *only* contain the permitted scoring keywords
12025 Category specification
12028 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
12034 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
12038 Group Parameter specification
12041 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
12044 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
12049 Use @code{normal} score files
12051 If you dont want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
12052 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
12053 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
12054 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
12056 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
12057 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
12058 files for a group, *filtering out* those those sections that do not
12059 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
12063 Category Specification
12070 Group Parameter specification
12073 (agent-score . file)
12078 @node The Category Buffer
12079 @subsubsection The Category Buffer
12081 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
12082 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
12083 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
12085 The following commands are available in this buffer:
12089 @kindex q (Category)
12090 @findex gnus-category-exit
12091 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
12094 @kindex k (Category)
12095 @findex gnus-category-kill
12096 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
12099 @kindex c (Category)
12100 @findex gnus-category-copy
12101 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
12104 @kindex a (Category)
12105 @findex gnus-category-add
12106 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
12109 @kindex p (Category)
12110 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
12111 Edit the predicate of the current category
12112 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
12115 @kindex g (Category)
12116 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
12117 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
12118 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
12121 @kindex s (Category)
12122 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
12123 Edit the download score rule of the current category
12124 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
12127 @kindex l (Category)
12128 @findex gnus-category-list
12129 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
12133 @node Category Variables
12134 @subsubsection Category Variables
12137 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
12138 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
12139 Hook run in category buffers.
12141 @item gnus-category-line-format
12142 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
12143 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
12144 Variables}). Valid elements are:
12148 The name of the category.
12151 The number of groups in the category.
12154 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
12155 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
12156 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
12158 @item gnus-agent-short-article
12159 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
12160 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
12162 @item gnus-agent-long-article
12163 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
12164 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
12166 @item gnus-agent-low-score
12167 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
12168 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
12171 @item gnus-agent-high-score
12172 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
12173 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
12179 @node Agent Commands
12180 @subsection Agent Commands
12182 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
12183 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged} command works in all modes, and
12184 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
12188 * Group Agent Commands::
12189 * Summary Agent Commands::
12190 * Server Agent Commands::
12193 You can run a complete batch fetch from the command line with the
12194 following incantation:
12196 @cindex gnus-agent-batch-fetch
12198 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-agent-batch-fetch
12203 @node Group Agent Commands
12204 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
12208 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
12209 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
12210 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
12211 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
12214 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
12215 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
12216 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
12219 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
12220 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
12221 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
12222 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
12225 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
12226 @findex gnus-group-send-drafts
12227 Send all sendable messages in the draft group
12228 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}). @xref{Drafts}.
12231 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
12232 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
12233 Add the current group to an Agent category
12234 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}).
12239 @node Summary Agent Commands
12240 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
12244 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
12245 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
12246 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
12249 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
12250 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
12251 Remove the downloading mark from the article
12252 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
12255 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
12256 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
12257 Toggle whether to download the article (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}).
12260 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
12261 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
12262 Mark all undownloaded articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}).
12267 @node Server Agent Commands
12268 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
12272 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
12273 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
12274 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
12275 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
12278 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
12279 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
12280 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
12281 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
12287 @subsection Agent Expiry
12289 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
12290 @findex gnus-agent-expire
12291 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
12292 @cindex Agent expiry
12293 @cindex Gnus Agent expiry
12296 @code{nnagent} doesn't handle expiry. Instead, there's a special
12297 @code{gnus-agent-expire} command that will expire all read articles that
12298 are older than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. It can be run
12299 whenever you feel that you're running out of space. It's not
12300 particularly fast or efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to
12301 interrupt it (with @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started it.
12303 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
12304 if @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, this command will
12305 expire all articles---unread, read, ticked and dormant. If @code{nil}
12306 (which is the default), only read articles are eligible for expiry, and
12307 unread, ticked and dormant articles will be kept indefinitely.
12310 @node Outgoing Messages
12311 @subsection Outgoing Messages
12313 When Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail and news) are
12314 stored in the draft groups (@pxref{Drafts}). You can view them there
12315 after posting, and edit them at will.
12317 When Gnus is plugged again, you can send the messages either from the
12318 draft group with the special commands available there, or you can use
12319 the @kbd{J S} command in the group buffer to send all the sendable
12320 messages in the draft group.
12324 @node Agent Variables
12325 @subsection Agent Variables
12328 @item gnus-agent-directory
12329 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
12330 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
12331 @file{~/News/agent/}.
12333 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
12334 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
12335 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
12336 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
12337 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
12340 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
12341 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
12342 Hook run when connecting to the network.
12344 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
12345 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
12346 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
12351 @node Example Setup
12352 @subsection Example Setup
12354 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
12355 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
12356 @file{.gnus.el} file to get started.
12359 ;;; Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over NNTP
12360 ;;; from your ISP's server.
12361 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "nntp.your-isp.com"))
12363 ;;; Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from
12364 ;;; your ISP's POP server.
12365 (setenv "MAILHOST" "pop.your-isp.com")
12366 (setq nnmail-spool-file "po:username")
12368 ;;; Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.
12369 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
12371 ;;; Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.
12375 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
12376 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
12379 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
12380 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
12381 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
12382 @sc{nntp} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
12383 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
12386 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
12387 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
12388 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
12389 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
12390 back all the killed groups.)
12392 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
12393 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
12394 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
12397 @node Batching Agents
12398 @subsection Batching Agents
12400 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
12401 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
12402 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
12406 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null
12410 @node Agent Caveats
12411 @subsection Agent Caveats
12413 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
12414 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
12418 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the
12423 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists
12424 in the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
12430 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
12431 articles; when it's plugged, it only talks to your ISP.
12438 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
12439 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
12440 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
12443 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
12444 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
12445 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
12446 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
12447 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
12449 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
12450 before generating the summary buffer.
12452 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
12453 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
12454 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
12456 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
12457 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
12458 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
12459 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
12462 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
12463 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
12464 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
12465 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
12466 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
12467 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
12468 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
12469 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
12470 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
12471 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
12472 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
12473 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
12474 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
12475 * GroupLens:: Getting predictions on what you like to read.
12476 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
12477 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
12481 @node Summary Score Commands
12482 @section Summary Score Commands
12483 @cindex score commands
12485 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
12486 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
12487 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
12488 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
12489 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
12491 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
12492 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
12493 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
12494 score file the current one.
12496 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
12501 @kindex V s (Summary)
12502 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
12503 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
12506 @kindex V S (Summary)
12507 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
12508 Display the score of the current article
12509 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
12512 @kindex V t (Summary)
12513 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
12514 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
12515 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}).
12518 @kindex V R (Summary)
12519 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
12520 Run the current summary through the scoring process
12521 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
12522 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
12523 effect you're having.
12526 @kindex V c (Summary)
12527 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
12528 Make a different score file the current
12529 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
12532 @kindex V e (Summary)
12533 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
12534 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
12535 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
12539 @kindex V f (Summary)
12540 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
12541 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
12542 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
12545 @kindex V F (Summary)
12546 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
12547 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
12548 after editing score files.
12551 @kindex V C (Summary)
12552 @findex gnus-score-customize
12553 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
12554 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
12558 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
12563 @kindex V m (Summary)
12564 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
12565 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
12566 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
12569 @kindex V x (Summary)
12570 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
12571 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
12572 expunge all articles below this score
12573 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
12576 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
12577 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
12580 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
12581 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
12585 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
12586 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
12588 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
12589 keys are available:
12593 Score on the author name.
12596 Score on the subject line.
12599 Score on the Xref line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
12602 Score on the References line.
12608 Score on the number of lines.
12611 Score on the Message-ID.
12614 Score on followups.
12628 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
12629 what headers you are scoring on.
12641 Substring matching.
12644 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
12673 Greater than number.
12678 The fourth and final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e., expiring)
12679 score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry, or whether
12680 it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score file.
12684 Temporary score entry.
12687 Permanent score entry.
12690 Immediately scoring.
12695 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
12696 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
12697 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
12698 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
12700 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
12701 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
12702 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
12703 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
12704 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
12706 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
12707 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
12708 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
12709 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
12710 current score file.
12712 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
12713 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
12714 pretend they are keymaps or not.
12717 @node Group Score Commands
12718 @section Group Score Commands
12719 @cindex group score commands
12721 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
12726 @kindex W f (Group)
12727 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
12728 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
12729 all the time. This command will flush the cache
12730 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
12734 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
12736 @findex gnus-batch-score
12737 @cindex batch scoring
12739 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
12743 @node Score Variables
12744 @section Score Variables
12745 @cindex score variables
12749 @item gnus-use-scoring
12750 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
12751 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
12752 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
12754 @item gnus-kill-killed
12755 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
12756 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
12757 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
12758 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
12759 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
12760 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
12761 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
12763 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
12764 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
12765 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
12766 initialized from the @code{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
12767 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
12769 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
12770 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
12771 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
12772 (@samp{SCORE} by default.)
12774 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
12775 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
12776 @cindex score cache
12777 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
12778 score files. However, if this might make you Emacs grow big and
12779 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
12780 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
12781 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
12782 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
12785 @item gnus-save-score
12786 @vindex gnus-save-score
12787 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
12788 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
12789 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
12791 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
12792 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
12793 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
12794 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
12795 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
12796 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
12797 manually entered data.
12799 @item gnus-summary-default-score
12800 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
12801 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
12803 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
12804 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
12805 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
12806 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
12807 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
12808 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
12810 @item gnus-score-over-mark
12811 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
12812 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
12813 default. Default is @samp{+}.
12815 @item gnus-score-below-mark
12816 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
12817 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
12818 default. Default is @samp{-}.
12820 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
12821 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
12822 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
12823 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
12825 Predefined functions available are:
12828 @item gnus-score-find-single
12829 @findex gnus-score-find-single
12830 Only apply the group's own score file.
12832 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
12833 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
12834 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
12835 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
12836 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
12837 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
12838 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
12839 then a regexp match is done.
12841 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
12842 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
12844 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
12845 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
12846 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
12847 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
12849 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
12850 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
12851 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
12852 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
12853 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE}.
12856 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all these
12857 functions will be called, and all the returned lists of score files will
12858 be applied. These functions can also return lists of score alists
12859 directly. In that case, the functions that return these non-file score
12860 alists should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file
12861 functions, to ensure that the last score file returned is the local
12864 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
12865 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
12866 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
12867 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
12868 are expired. It's 7 by default.
12870 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
12871 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
12872 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, matching score entries will have
12873 their dates updated. (This is how Gnus controls expiry---all
12874 non-matching entries will become too old while matching entries will
12875 stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this variable to @code{nil},
12876 even matching entries will grow old and will have to face that oh-so
12879 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
12880 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
12881 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
12883 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
12884 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
12885 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be simplified
12886 for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
12887 threading---according to the current value of
12888 gnus-simplify-subject-functions. If the scoring entry uses
12889 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
12890 simplified in this manner.
12895 @node Score File Format
12896 @section Score File Format
12897 @cindex score file format
12899 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
12900 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
12901 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
12903 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
12907 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
12909 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
12911 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
12913 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
12918 (mark-and-expunge -10)
12922 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
12923 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
12924 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
12925 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
12929 This example demonstrates most score file elements. For a different
12930 approach, see @pxref{Advanced Scoring}.
12932 Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
12933 @code{eval}ed. The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
12934 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
12936 Six keys are supported by this alist:
12941 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
12942 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
12943 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
12944 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
12945 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
12946 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
12947 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
12948 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
12949 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
12950 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
12951 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
12952 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
12953 to articles that matches these score entries.
12955 Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where each
12956 score entry has one to four elements.
12960 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
12961 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
12965 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
12966 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
12967 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
12968 is successful. If this element is not present, the
12969 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
12970 instead. This is 1000 by default.
12973 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
12974 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
12975 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
12976 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
12977 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
12980 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
12981 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
12982 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
12983 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
12986 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
12987 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
12988 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
12989 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
12990 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
12991 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
12992 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
12993 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
12994 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
12995 instead, if you feel like.
12998 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
12999 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
13001 These predicates are true if
13004 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
13007 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
13008 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
13015 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
13016 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
13017 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
13018 it's not. I think.)
13020 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some backends (like
13021 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
13022 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
13023 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
13026 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
13027 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
13028 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
13029 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
13030 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
13031 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
13032 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
13036 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
13037 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
13038 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
13039 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
13040 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
13041 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
13042 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
13043 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
13046 @item Head, Body, All
13047 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
13051 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
13052 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
13053 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
13054 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
13055 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
13056 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
13057 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
13061 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
13062 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{X}, then you add a
13063 @samp{thread} match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each
13064 article that has @var{X} in its @code{References} header. (These new
13065 @samp{thread} matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching
13066 articles.) This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an
13067 entire thread, even though some articles in the thread may not have
13068 complete @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
13069 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
13070 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
13074 @cindex Score File Atoms
13076 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
13077 lower than this number will be marked as read.
13080 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
13081 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
13083 @item mark-and-expunge
13084 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
13085 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
13088 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
13089 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
13090 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
13091 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
13092 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
13095 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
13096 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
13099 @item exclude-files
13100 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
13101 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
13105 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
13106 ignored when handling global score files.
13109 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
13110 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
13111 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
13112 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
13115 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
13116 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
13117 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
13118 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
13120 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
13124 (mark-and-expunge -100)
13127 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
13128 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
13129 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
13130 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
13131 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
13133 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where there
13134 exist a few interesting threads which can't be found automatically by
13135 ordinary scoring rules.
13138 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
13139 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
13140 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
13141 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
13142 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
13143 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
13144 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
13145 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
13146 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
13147 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
13148 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
13152 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
13153 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
13154 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
13155 file for a number of groups.
13158 @cindex local variables
13159 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(VAR VALUE)} pairs.
13160 Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the current summary buffer,
13161 and set to the value specified. This is a convenient, if somewhat
13162 strange, way of setting variables in some groups if you don't like hooks
13163 much. Note that the @var{value} won't be evaluated.
13167 @node Score File Editing
13168 @section Score File Editing
13170 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
13171 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
13172 with a mode for that.
13174 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
13175 additional commands:
13180 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
13181 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
13182 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
13183 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
13186 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
13187 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
13188 Insert the current date in numerical format
13189 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
13190 you were wondering.
13193 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
13194 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
13195 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
13196 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
13197 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
13202 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
13204 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
13205 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
13207 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f} and @kbd{V
13208 e} to begin editing score files.
13211 @node Adaptive Scoring
13212 @section Adaptive Scoring
13213 @cindex adaptive scoring
13215 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
13216 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
13217 stupidity, to be precise.
13219 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
13220 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
13221 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
13222 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
13223 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
13224 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
13225 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
13226 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
13227 variable to @code{(word line)}.
13229 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
13230 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
13231 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
13232 might look something like this:
13235 (defvar gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
13236 '((gnus-unread-mark)
13237 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
13238 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
13239 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
13240 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
13241 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
13242 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
13243 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
13244 (gnus-ancient-mark)
13245 (gnus-low-score-mark)
13246 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
13249 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
13250 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
13251 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
13252 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
13253 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
13254 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
13257 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
13258 will be applied to each article.
13260 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
13261 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{D}) will have a
13262 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
13263 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
13265 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
13266 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
13267 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
13268 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
13270 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
13271 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
13272 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
13273 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
13275 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
13276 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
13277 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
13278 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
13279 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
13280 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
13282 You can also score on @code{thread}, which will try to score all
13283 articles that appear in a thread. @code{thread} matches uses a
13284 @code{Message-ID} to match on the @code{References} header of the
13285 article. If the match is made, the @code{Message-ID} of the article is
13286 added to the @code{thread} rule. (Think about it. I'd recommend two
13287 aspirins afterwards.)
13289 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
13290 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
13291 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
13293 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
13294 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
13295 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
13297 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
13298 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
13299 let you use different rules in different groups.
13301 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
13302 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
13303 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
13306 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
13307 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
13308 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
13309 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
13310 the length of the match is less than
13311 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
13312 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
13315 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
13316 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
13317 headers. If you adapt on words, the
13318 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
13319 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
13322 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
13323 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
13324 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
13325 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
13326 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
13329 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
13330 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
13331 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
13332 score with 30 points.
13334 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
13335 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
13336 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
13337 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
13338 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
13340 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
13341 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
13342 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
13343 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
13345 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
13346 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
13347 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
13348 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
13350 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
13351 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
13352 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
13353 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
13354 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
13356 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
13357 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
13358 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
13360 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
13361 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
13362 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
13363 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
13366 @node Home Score File
13367 @section Home Score File
13369 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
13370 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
13371 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
13372 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
13374 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
13375 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
13376 could perhaps use the same home score file.
13378 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
13379 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
13384 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
13388 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
13389 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
13393 A list. The elements in this list can be:
13397 @var{(regexp file-name)}. If the @var{regexp} matches the group name,
13398 the @var{file-name} will will be used as the home score file.
13401 A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will be used as
13402 the home score file.
13405 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
13408 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
13413 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
13416 (setq gnus-home-score-file
13417 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
13420 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
13421 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
13423 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
13425 (setq gnus-home-score-file
13426 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
13429 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
13430 Other functions include
13433 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
13434 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
13435 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
13436 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
13440 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
13441 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
13442 their own home score files:
13445 (setq gnus-home-score-file
13446 ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
13447 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
13448 ;; All the comp groups in one score file
13449 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
13452 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
13453 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
13454 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
13455 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
13456 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
13458 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
13459 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
13460 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
13461 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
13462 precedence over this variable.
13465 @node Followups To Yourself
13466 @section Followups To Yourself
13468 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
13469 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
13470 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
13471 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
13472 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
13473 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
13477 @item gnus-score-followup-article
13478 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
13479 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
13482 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
13483 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
13484 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
13488 @vindex message-sent-hook
13489 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
13490 @code{message-sent-hook}.
13492 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
13493 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
13497 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
13498 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
13501 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
13502 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
13507 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore.no>"
13511 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
13512 is system-dependent.
13516 @section Scoring Tips
13517 @cindex scoring tips
13523 @cindex scoring crossposts
13524 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
13525 the @code{Xref} header.
13527 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
13530 @item Multiple crossposts
13531 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
13532 more than, say, 3 groups:
13534 ("xref" ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+" -1000 nil r))
13537 @item Matching on the body
13538 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
13539 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
13540 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
13541 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
13542 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
13543 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
13544 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
13547 @item Marking as read
13548 You will probably want to mark articles that has a score below a certain
13549 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
13550 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
13554 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
13556 @item Negated character classes
13557 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
13558 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
13559 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
13563 @node Reverse Scoring
13564 @section Reverse Scoring
13565 @cindex reverse scoring
13567 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
13568 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
13569 like this in your score file:
13573 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
13578 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
13579 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
13582 @node Global Score Files
13583 @section Global Score Files
13584 @cindex global score files
13586 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
13587 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
13588 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
13590 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
13591 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
13592 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
13594 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
13595 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
13596 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
13597 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
13598 files are applicable to which group.
13600 Say you want to use the score file
13601 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
13602 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory:
13605 (setq gnus-global-score-files
13606 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
13607 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
13610 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
13611 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
13612 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
13613 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
13614 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
13616 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
13617 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
13619 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
13620 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
13621 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
13622 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
13623 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
13624 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
13626 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
13632 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
13634 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
13636 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
13638 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
13639 lowered out of existence.
13641 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
13642 articles completely.
13645 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
13646 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
13647 old articles for a long time.
13650 ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
13651 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
13652 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
13653 holding our breath yet?
13657 @section Kill Files
13660 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
13661 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
13662 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
13664 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
13665 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
13666 files into score files.
13668 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
13669 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
13670 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
13671 that isn't a very good idea.
13673 Normal kill files look like this:
13676 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13677 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
13681 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
13682 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
13684 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
13685 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
13688 Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file:
13693 @kindex M-k (Summary)
13694 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
13695 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
13698 @kindex M-K (Summary)
13699 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
13700 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
13703 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
13708 @kindex M-k (Group)
13709 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
13710 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
13713 @kindex M-K (Group)
13714 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
13715 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
13718 Kill file variables:
13721 @item gnus-kill-file-name
13722 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
13723 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
13724 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
13725 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
13726 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
13727 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
13729 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
13730 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
13731 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
13732 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
13735 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
13736 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
13737 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
13738 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
13739 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
13740 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
13741 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
13742 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
13743 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
13745 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
13746 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
13747 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
13752 @node Converting Kill Files
13753 @section Converting Kill Files
13755 @cindex converting kill files
13757 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
13758 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
13759 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
13762 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
13763 You can fetch it from
13764 @file{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-other/gnus-kill-to-score}.
13766 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
13767 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
13768 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
13776 GroupLens is a collaborative filtering system that helps you work
13777 together with other people to find the quality news articles out of the
13778 huge volume of news articles generated every day.
13780 To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about
13781 articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done
13782 likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news
13783 article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you
13784 rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way.
13785 Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form
13786 of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this
13787 prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the
13791 * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
13792 * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
13793 * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
13794 * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens.
13798 @node Using GroupLens
13799 @subsection Using GroupLens
13801 To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better
13803 @samp{http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html} is the only
13804 better bit in town at the moment.
13806 Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables.
13810 @item gnus-use-grouplens
13811 @vindex gnus-use-grouplens
13812 Setting this variable to a non-@code{nil} value will make Gnus hook into
13813 all the relevant GroupLens functions.
13815 @item grouplens-pseudonym
13816 @vindex grouplens-pseudonym
13817 This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering
13818 with the Better Bit Bureau.
13820 @item grouplens-newsgroups
13821 @vindex grouplens-newsgroups
13822 A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for.
13826 That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens.
13827 Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for
13828 articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get
13829 the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles
13830 yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for
13831 you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated.
13834 @node Rating Articles
13835 @subsection Rating Articles
13837 In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive.
13838 Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5
13839 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask
13840 yourself is, "on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles
13843 There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens.
13848 @kindex r (GroupLens)
13849 @findex bbb-summary-rate-article
13850 This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five.
13853 @kindex k (GroupLens)
13854 @findex grouplens-score-thread
13855 This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in
13856 the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant
13857 threads in rec.humor.
13861 The next two commands, @kbd{n} and @kbd{,} take a numerical prefix to be
13862 the score of the article you're reading.
13867 @kindex n (GroupLens)
13868 @findex grouplens-next-unread-article
13869 Rate the article and go to the next unread article.
13872 @kindex , (GroupLens)
13873 @findex grouplens-best-unread-article
13874 Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score.
13878 If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the
13879 next article, just type @kbd{4 n}.
13882 @node Displaying Predictions
13883 @subsection Displaying Predictions
13885 GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a
13886 news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to
13887 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions
13888 from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable
13889 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring}.
13891 @vindex gnus-grouplens-override-scoring
13892 There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may
13893 choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the
13894 regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some
13895 people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get
13896 the separate scoring behavior you need to set
13897 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'separate}. To have the
13898 GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to
13899 @code{'override} and to combine the scores set
13900 @code{gnus-grouplens-override-scoring} to @code{'combine}. When you use
13901 the combine option you will also want to set the values for
13902 @code{grouplens-prediction-offset} and
13903 @code{grouplens-score-scale-factor}.
13905 @vindex grouplens-prediction-display
13906 In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like
13907 to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is
13908 controlled by the @code{grouplens-prediction-display} variable.
13910 The following are valid values for that variable.
13913 @item prediction-spot
13914 The higher the prediction, the further to the right an @samp{*} is
13917 @item confidence-interval
13918 A numeric confidence interval.
13920 @item prediction-bar
13921 The higher the prediction, the longer the bar.
13923 @item confidence-bar
13924 Numerical confidence.
13926 @item confidence-spot
13927 The spot gets bigger with more confidence.
13929 @item prediction-num
13930 Plain-old numeric value.
13932 @item confidence-plus-minus
13933 Prediction +/- confidence.
13938 @node GroupLens Variables
13939 @subsection GroupLens Variables
13943 @item gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format
13944 The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It
13945 accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (@pxref{Summary
13946 Buffer Lines}). The default is @samp{%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%)
13949 @item grouplens-bbb-host
13950 Host running the bbbd server. @samp{grouplens.cs.umn.edu} is the
13953 @item grouplens-bbb-port
13954 Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000.
13956 @item grouplens-score-offset
13957 Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the
13958 prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The
13961 @item grouplens-score-scale-factor
13962 This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores.
13963 The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1.
13968 @node Advanced Scoring
13969 @section Advanced Scoring
13971 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
13972 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
13973 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
13974 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
13975 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
13977 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
13981 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
13982 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
13983 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
13987 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
13988 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
13990 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
13991 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
13992 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
13993 non-@code{nil} value.
13995 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
13996 operator, and various match operators.
14003 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
14004 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
14005 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
14010 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
14011 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
14012 then this operator will return @code{false}.
14017 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
14018 logical negation of the value of its argument.
14022 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
14023 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
14024 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
14025 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
14026 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
14027 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
14028 the ancestry you want to go.
14030 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
14031 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
14032 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
14033 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
14034 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
14037 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
14038 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
14040 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
14041 when he's talking about Gnus:
14045 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14046 ("subject" "Gnus"))
14052 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
14056 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14063 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
14064 really don't want to read what he's written:
14068 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
14069 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
14073 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
14074 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
14075 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
14082 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
14083 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
14084 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
14085 ("body" "white.*socks"))
14089 The possibilities are endless.
14092 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
14093 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
14095 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
14096 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
14097 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
14098 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
14099 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
14100 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
14101 @samp{subject}) first.
14103 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
14104 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
14115 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
14116 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
14122 ("subject" "Gnus")))
14129 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
14130 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
14135 @section Score Decays
14136 @cindex score decays
14139 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
14140 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
14141 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
14142 use them in any sensible way.
14144 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
14145 @findex gnus-decay-score
14146 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
14147 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
14148 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
14149 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
14150 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
14151 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function}
14152 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
14153 definition of that function:
14156 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
14158 This is done according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
14159 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
14162 (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1)
14164 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
14166 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
14169 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
14170 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
14171 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
14172 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
14176 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
14179 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
14182 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
14186 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
14187 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
14188 the new score, which should be an integer.
14190 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
14191 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
14198 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
14199 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
14200 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
14201 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
14202 * Windows Configuration:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
14203 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
14204 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
14205 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
14206 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
14207 * Buttons:: Get tendonitis in ten easy steps!
14208 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
14209 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
14210 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
14211 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
14212 * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs.
14213 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
14214 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
14215 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
14219 @node Process/Prefix
14220 @section Process/Prefix
14221 @cindex process/prefix convention
14223 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
14224 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
14226 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
14227 command to be performed on.
14231 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
14232 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
14233 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
14234 with the current one.
14236 @vindex transient-mark-mode
14237 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
14238 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
14240 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
14241 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
14244 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
14245 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
14247 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
14250 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
14251 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
14252 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
14253 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
14255 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
14256 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
14257 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
14258 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
14259 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
14260 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
14261 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
14262 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
14266 @section Interactive
14267 @cindex interaction
14271 @item gnus-novice-user
14272 @vindex gnus-novice-user
14273 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
14274 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
14275 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
14276 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
14279 @item gnus-expert-user
14280 @vindex gnus-expert-user
14281 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
14282 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
14283 matter how strange.
14285 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
14286 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
14287 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
14288 is @code{t} by default.
14290 @item gnus-interactive-exit
14291 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
14292 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
14297 @node Symbolic Prefixes
14298 @section Symbolic Prefixes
14299 @cindex symbolic prefixes
14301 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
14302 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
14303 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
14304 rule of 900 to the current article.
14306 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
14307 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
14308 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
14309 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
14310 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
14311 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
14312 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
14314 @kindex M-i (Summary)
14315 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
14316 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
14317 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
14318 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
14319 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a M-C-u} means ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u}
14320 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b M-C-u} means
14321 ``feed the @kbd{M-C-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
14322 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
14324 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
14325 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
14326 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
14328 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
14332 @node Formatting Variables
14333 @section Formatting Variables
14334 @cindex formatting variables
14336 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
14337 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
14338 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
14339 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
14340 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
14343 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
14344 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
14345 lots of percentages everywhere.
14348 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
14349 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
14350 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
14351 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
14352 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
14355 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
14356 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
14357 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
14358 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
14359 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
14360 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
14361 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
14362 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
14364 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
14365 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
14367 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
14368 @findex gnus-update-format
14369 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
14370 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
14371 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
14372 examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line.
14376 @node Formatting Basics
14377 @subsection Formatting Basics
14379 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
14380 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
14381 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
14383 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
14384 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
14385 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
14386 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
14387 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
14390 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
14391 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
14392 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
14393 less than 4 characters wide.
14396 @node Mode Line Formatting
14397 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
14399 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
14400 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
14401 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
14402 with the following two differences:
14407 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
14410 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
14411 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
14412 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
14413 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
14414 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
14415 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
14416 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
14421 @node Advanced Formatting
14422 @subsection Advanced Formatting
14424 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
14425 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
14426 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
14427 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
14429 These are the valid modifiers:
14434 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
14438 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
14443 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
14446 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
14451 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
14454 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
14457 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
14460 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
14464 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
14465 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
14466 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
14467 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
14468 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
14469 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
14470 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
14472 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
14473 last operation, padding.
14475 If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets
14476 quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running @kbd{M-x
14477 gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with the look of your lines.
14478 @xref{Compilation}.
14481 @node User-Defined Specs
14482 @subsection User-Defined Specs
14484 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
14485 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
14486 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
14487 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
14488 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
14489 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
14490 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
14491 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
14492 should protect against that.
14494 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
14495 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
14496 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
14497 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
14501 @node Formatting Fonts
14502 @subsection Formatting Fonts
14504 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
14505 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
14506 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
14507 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
14510 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
14511 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
14512 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
14513 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
14514 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
14515 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
14517 Text inside the @samp{%<} and @samp{%>} specifiers will get the special
14518 @code{balloon-help} property set to @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you say
14519 @samp{%1<}, you'll get @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The
14520 @code{gnus-balloon-face-*} variables should be either strings or
14521 symbols naming functions that return a string. Under @code{balloon-help-mode},
14522 when the mouse passes over text with this property set, a balloon window
14523 will appear and display the string. Please refer to the doc string of
14524 @code{balloon-help-mode} for more information on this.
14526 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
14529 ;; Create three face types.
14530 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
14531 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
14533 ;; We want the article count to be in
14534 ;; a bold and green face. So we create
14535 ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'.
14536 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
14538 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
14539 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
14541 ;; Set the new & fancy format.
14542 (setq gnus-group-line-format
14543 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
14546 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
14547 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
14549 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
14550 mode-line variables.
14553 @node Windows Configuration
14554 @section Windows Configuration
14555 @cindex windows configuration
14557 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
14559 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
14560 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
14561 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
14562 @code{t} by default.
14564 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
14565 glitches. Use at your own peril.
14567 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
14568 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
14569 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
14572 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
14573 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
14574 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
14578 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
14579 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
14580 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
14581 possible names is listed below.
14583 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
14584 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
14587 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
14591 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
14592 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
14593 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
14594 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
14595 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
14596 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
14597 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
14598 size spec per split.
14600 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
14601 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
14602 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
14603 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
14604 present) gets focus.
14606 Here's a more complicated example:
14609 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
14610 (summary 0.25 point)
14611 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
14615 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
14616 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
14617 occupy, not a percentage.
14619 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
14620 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
14621 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
14622 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
14623 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
14626 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
14629 (article (horizontal 1.0
14634 (summary 0.25 point)
14639 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
14640 @code{horizontal} thingie?
14642 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
14643 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
14644 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
14645 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
14646 the screen is to be given to this strip.
14648 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
14649 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
14650 lines from the splits.
14652 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
14656 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
14657 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
14658 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
14659 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
14660 buffer = "(" buffer-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
14661 size = number | frame-params
14662 buffer-name = group | article | summary ...
14665 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
14666 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
14667 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
14668 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
14670 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
14671 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
14672 @cindex window height
14673 @cindex window width
14674 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
14675 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
14676 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
14677 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
14678 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
14679 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
14681 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
14682 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
14683 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
14684 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
14686 @findex gnus-configure-frame
14687 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
14688 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
14689 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
14690 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
14691 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
14692 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
14693 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
14694 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
14695 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
14696 configuration list.
14699 (gnus-configure-frame
14703 (article 0.3 point))
14711 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
14712 @code{frame} split:
14715 (gnus-configure-frame
14718 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
14720 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
14721 (user-position . t)
14722 (left . -1) (top . 1))
14727 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
14728 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
14729 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
14730 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
14731 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
14732 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
14733 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
14734 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
14737 Here's a list of all possible keys for
14738 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration}:
14740 @code{group}, @code{summary}, @code{article}, @code{server},
14741 @code{browse}, @code{message}, @code{pick}, @code{info},
14742 @code{summary-faq}, @code{edit-group}, @code{edit-server},
14743 @code{edit-score}, @code{post}, @code{reply}, @code{forward},
14744 @code{reply-yank}, @code{mail-bounce}, @code{draft}, @code{pipe},
14745 @code{bug}, @code{compose-bounce}, and @code{score-trace}.
14747 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
14748 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
14749 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
14753 (message (horizontal 1.0
14754 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
14756 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
14761 @findex gnus-add-configuration
14762 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
14763 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
14764 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
14765 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
14768 (gnus-add-configuration
14769 '(article (vertical 1.0
14771 (summary .25 point)
14775 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
14776 @file{.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
14777 Gnus has been loaded.
14779 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
14780 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
14781 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
14782 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
14783 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
14785 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
14786 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
14787 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
14791 @node Faces and Fonts
14792 @section Faces and Fonts
14797 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
14798 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
14799 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
14804 @section Compilation
14805 @cindex compilation
14806 @cindex byte-compilation
14808 @findex gnus-compile
14810 Remember all those line format specification variables?
14811 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
14812 on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but,
14813 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
14814 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
14815 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
14818 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
14819 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
14820 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
14821 you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the
14822 @file{.newsrc.eld} file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by
14823 this function, though---you should compile them yourself by sticking
14824 them into the @code{.gnus.el} file and byte-compiling that file.)
14828 @section Mode Lines
14831 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
14832 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
14833 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
14834 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
14835 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
14836 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
14837 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
14840 @cindex display-time
14842 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
14843 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
14844 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
14845 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
14846 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
14847 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
14848 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
14849 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
14852 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
14854 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
14855 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
14857 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
14858 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
14859 (length display-time-string)))))
14862 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
14863 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
14864 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
14865 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
14866 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
14869 @node Highlighting and Menus
14870 @section Highlighting and Menus
14872 @cindex highlighting
14875 @vindex gnus-visual
14876 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
14877 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
14878 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
14881 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
14882 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
14885 @item group-highlight
14886 Do highlights in the group buffer.
14887 @item summary-highlight
14888 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
14889 @item article-highlight
14890 Do highlights according to @code{gnus-article-display-hook} in the
14893 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
14895 Create menus in the group buffer.
14897 Create menus in the summary buffers.
14899 Create menus in the article buffer.
14901 Create menus in the browse buffer.
14903 Create menus in the server buffer.
14905 Create menus in the score buffers.
14907 Create menus in all buffers.
14910 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
14911 buffers, you could say something like:
14914 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
14917 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
14920 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
14923 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
14924 in all Gnus buffers.
14926 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
14929 @item gnus-mouse-face
14930 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
14931 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
14932 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
14936 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
14940 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
14941 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
14942 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
14944 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
14945 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
14946 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
14948 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
14949 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
14950 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
14952 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
14953 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
14954 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
14956 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
14957 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
14958 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
14960 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
14961 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
14962 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
14973 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
14974 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
14975 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
14976 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
14977 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
14981 @vindex gnus-carpal
14982 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
14983 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
14984 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
14989 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
14990 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
14991 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
14993 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
14994 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
14995 Face used on buttons.
14997 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
14998 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
14999 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
15001 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
15002 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
15003 Buttons in the group buffer.
15005 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
15006 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
15007 Buttons in the summary buffer.
15009 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
15010 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
15011 Buttons in the server buffer.
15013 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
15014 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
15015 Buttons in the browse buffer.
15018 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
15019 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
15020 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
15028 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
15029 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
15030 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
15031 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
15032 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
15034 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
15035 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
15036 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
15038 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
15039 been idle for thirty minutes:
15042 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
15045 Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
15049 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
15052 This @var{time} parameter and than @var{idle} parameter work together
15053 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
15054 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
15056 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
15057 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
15058 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
15059 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
15061 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
15062 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
15063 @var{idle} minutes.
15065 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
15066 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
15069 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
15070 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
15071 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
15073 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
15074 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
15075 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
15076 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
15078 @vindex gnus-use-demon
15079 To set the whole thing in motion, though, you have to set
15080 @code{gnus-use-demon} to @code{t}.
15082 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
15083 your @file{.gnus} file:
15085 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
15087 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
15090 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
15091 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
15092 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
15093 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
15094 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
15095 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
15096 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
15097 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
15098 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
15099 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
15100 @file{.gnus} if you want those abilities.
15102 @findex gnus-demon-init
15103 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
15104 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
15105 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
15106 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
15107 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
15109 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
15110 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
15111 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
15120 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
15121 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
15123 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
15124 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
15125 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
15126 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
15129 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
15130 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
15131 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
15132 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
15134 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
15135 this will make spam disappear.
15137 There are some variables to customize, of course:
15140 @item gnus-use-nocem
15141 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
15142 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
15145 @item gnus-nocem-groups
15146 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
15147 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
15148 default is @code{("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
15149 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")}.
15151 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
15152 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
15153 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
15154 people you want to listen to. The default is @code{("Automoose-1"
15155 "rbraver@@ohww.norman.ok.us" "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca"
15156 "jem@@xpat.com" "snowhare@@xmission.com" "red@@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us
15157 (Richard E. Depew)")}; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
15159 Known despammers that you can put in this list include:
15162 @item clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca;
15163 @cindex Chris Lewis
15164 Chris Lewis---Major Canadian despammer who has probably canceled more
15165 usenet abuse than anybody else.
15168 @cindex CancelMoose[tm]
15169 The CancelMoose[tm] on autopilot. The CancelMoose[tm] is reputed to be
15170 Norwegian, and was the person(s) who invented NoCeM.
15172 @item jem@@xpat.com;
15174 John Milburn---despammer located in Korea who is getting very busy these
15177 @item red@@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us (Richard E. Depew)
15178 Richard E. Depew---lone American despammer. He mostly cancels binary
15179 postings to non-binary groups and removes spews (regurgitated articles).
15182 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
15183 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
15184 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
15185 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
15186 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
15187 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
15188 @var{(issuer conditions ...)} elements in the list. Each condition is
15189 either a string (which is a regexp that matches types you want to use)
15190 or a list on the form @code{(not STRING)}, where @var{string} is a
15191 regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
15193 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
15194 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
15197 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
15200 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
15201 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
15204 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
15207 The specs are applied left-to-right.
15210 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
15211 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
15213 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
15214 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
15215 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
15216 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
15218 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
15219 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
15222 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
15224 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
15232 This might be dangerous, though.
15234 @item gnus-nocem-directory
15235 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
15236 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is
15237 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
15239 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
15240 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
15241 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
15242 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
15243 might then see old spam.
15247 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
15248 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
15249 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
15250 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
15257 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
15258 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
15259 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
15261 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
15262 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
15263 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
15264 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
15265 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
15266 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
15267 @code{undo} function.
15269 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
15270 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
15271 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
15272 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
15273 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
15274 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
15275 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
15276 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
15277 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
15278 never be totally undoable.
15280 @findex gnus-undo-mode
15281 @vindex gnus-use-undo
15283 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
15284 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
15285 default. The @kbd{M-C-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo} command
15286 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
15291 @section Moderation
15294 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
15295 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
15296 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
15299 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
15303 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
15306 in your @file{.gnus.el} file.
15308 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
15313 You split your incoming mail by matching on
15314 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
15315 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
15318 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
15319 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
15322 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
15323 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
15327 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
15330 (setq gnus-moderated-list
15331 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
15335 @node XEmacs Enhancements
15336 @section XEmacs Enhancements
15339 XEmacs is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has taken
15343 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
15344 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
15345 * Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
15346 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
15359 So... You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
15360 good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring
15361 over your shoulder as you read news.
15364 * Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
15365 * Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
15366 * Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
15367 * Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
15368 * Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
15373 @subsubsection Picon Basics
15375 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
15384 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
15385 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
15386 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
15387 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
15388 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
15389 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
15390 @code{GIF} formats.
15393 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
15394 If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you can use Steve
15395 Kinzler's Picons Search engine by setting
15396 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} to the string @*
15397 @file{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/search.html}.
15399 @vindex gnus-picons-database
15400 Otherwise you need a local copy of his database. For instructions on
15401 obtaining and installing the picons databases, point your Web browser at @*
15402 @file{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}. Gnus expects
15403 picons to be installed into a location pointed to by
15404 @code{gnus-picons-database}.
15407 @node Picon Requirements
15408 @subsubsection Picon Requirements
15410 To have Gnus display Picons for you, you must be running XEmacs
15411 19.13 or greater since all other versions of Emacs aren't yet able to
15414 Additionally, you must have @code{x} support compiled into XEmacs. To
15415 display color picons which are much nicer than the black & white one,
15416 you also need one of @code{xpm} or @code{gif} compiled into XEmacs.
15418 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
15419 If you want to display faces from @code{X-Face} headers, you should have
15420 the @code{xface} support compiled into XEmacs. Otherwise you must have
15421 the @code{netpbm} utilities installed, or munge the
15422 @code{gnus-picons-convert-x-face} variable to use something else.
15426 @subsubsection Easy Picons
15428 To enable displaying picons, simply put the following line in your
15429 @file{~/.gnus} file and start Gnus.
15432 (setq gnus-use-picons t)
15433 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
15434 'gnus-article-display-picons t)
15435 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
15436 'gnus-picons-article-display-x-face)
15439 and make sure @code{gnus-picons-database} points to the directory
15440 containing the Picons databases.
15442 Alternatively if you want to use the web piconsearch engine add this:
15445 (setq gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
15446 "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch")
15451 @subsubsection Hard Picons
15459 Gnus can display picons for you as you enter and leave groups and
15460 articles. It knows how to interact with three sections of the picons
15461 database. Namely, it can display the picons newsgroup pictures,
15462 author's face picture(s), and the authors domain. To enable this
15463 feature, you need to select where to get the picons from, and where to
15468 @item gnus-picons-database
15469 @vindex gnus-picons-database
15470 The location of the picons database. Should point to a directory
15471 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
15472 subdirectories. This is only useful if
15473 @code{gnus-picons-piconsearch-url} is @code{nil}. Defaults to
15474 @file{/usr/local/faces/}.
15476 @item gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
15477 @vindex gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
15478 The URL for the web picons search engine. The only currently known
15479 engine is @file{http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch}. To
15480 workaround network delays, icons will be fetched in the background. If
15481 this is @code{nil} 'the default), then picons are fetched from local
15482 database indicated by @code{gnus-picons-database}.
15484 @item gnus-picons-display-where
15485 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
15486 Where the picon images should be displayed. It is @code{picons} by
15487 default (which by default maps to the buffer @samp{*Picons*}). Other
15488 valid places could be @code{article}, @code{summary}, or
15489 @samp{*scratch*} for all I care. Just make sure that you've made the
15490 buffer visible using the standard Gnus window configuration
15491 routines---@pxref{Windows Configuration}.
15493 @item gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
15494 @vindex gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups
15495 Groups that are matched by this regexp won't have their group icons
15500 Note: If you set @code{gnus-use-picons} to @code{t}, it will set up your
15501 window configuration for you to include the @code{picons} buffer.
15503 Now that you've made those decision, you need to add the following
15504 functions to the appropriate hooks so these pictures will get displayed
15507 @vindex gnus-article-display-hook
15508 @vindex gnus-picons-display-where
15510 @item gnus-article-display-picons
15511 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
15512 Looks up and displays the picons for the author and the author's domain
15513 in the @code{gnus-picons-display-where} buffer. Should be added to the
15514 @code{gnus-article-display-hook}.
15516 @item gnus-picons-article-display-x-face
15517 @findex gnus-article-display-picons
15518 Decodes and displays the X-Face header if present. This function
15519 should be added to @code{gnus-article-display-hook}.
15523 Note: You must append them to the hook, so make sure to specify 't'
15524 for the append flag of @code{add-hook}:
15527 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-display-picons t)
15531 @node Picon Useless Configuration
15532 @subsubsection Picon Useless Configuration
15540 The following variables offer further control over how things are
15541 done, where things are located, and other useless stuff you really
15542 don't need to worry about.
15546 @item gnus-picons-news-directories
15547 @vindex gnus-picons-news-directories
15548 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
15549 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
15551 @item gnus-picons-user-directories
15552 @vindex gnus-picons-user-directories
15553 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for user
15554 faces. @code{("local" "users" "usenix" "misc")} is the default.
15556 @item gnus-picons-domain-directories
15557 @vindex gnus-picons-domain-directories
15558 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picons-database} for
15559 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
15560 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
15562 @item gnus-picons-convert-x-face
15563 @vindex gnus-picons-convert-x-face
15564 If you don't have @code{xface} support builtin XEmacs, this is the
15565 command to use to convert the @code{X-Face} header to an X bitmap
15566 (@code{xbm}). Defaults to @code{(format "@{ echo '/* Width=48,
15567 Height=48 */'; uncompface; @} | icontopbm | pbmtoxbm > %s"
15568 gnus-picons-x-face-file-name)}
15570 @item gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
15571 @vindex gnus-picons-x-face-file-name
15572 Names a temporary file to store the @code{X-Face} bitmap in. Defaults
15573 to @code{(format "/tmp/picon-xface.%s.xbm" (user-login-name))}.
15575 @item gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
15576 @vindex gnus-picons-has-modeline-p
15577 If you have set @code{gnus-picons-display-where} to @code{picons}, your
15578 XEmacs frame will become really cluttered. To alleviate this a bit you
15579 can set @code{gnus-picons-has-modeline-p} to @code{nil}; this will
15580 remove the mode line from the Picons buffer. This is only useful if
15581 @code{gnus-picons-display-where} is @code{picons}.
15583 @item gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
15584 @vindex gnus-picons-refresh-before-display
15585 If non-nil, display the article buffer before computing the picons.
15586 Defaults to @code{nil}.
15588 @item gnus-picons-display-as-address
15589 @vindex gnus-picons-display-as-address
15590 If @code{t} display textual email addresses along with pictures.
15591 Defaults to @code{t}.
15593 @item gnus-picons-file-suffixes
15594 @vindex gnus-picons-file-suffixes
15595 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
15596 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not builtin your XEmacs.
15598 @item gnus-picons-setup-hook
15599 @vindex gnus-picons-setup-hook
15600 Hook run in the picon buffer, if that is displayed.
15602 @item gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
15603 @vindex gnus-picons-display-article-move-p
15604 Whether to move point to first empty line when displaying picons. This
15605 has only an effect if `gnus-picons-display-where' has value `article'.
15607 If @code{nil}, display the picons in the @code{From} and
15608 @code{Newsgroups} lines. This is the defailt.
15610 @item gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
15611 @vindex gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown
15612 Whether to clear the picons cache when exiting gnus. Gnus caches every
15613 picons it finds while it is running. This saves some time in the search
15614 process but eats some memory. If this variable is set to @code{nil},
15615 Gnus will never clear the cache itself; you will have to manually call
15616 @code{gnus-picons-clear-cache} to clear it. Otherwise the cache will be
15617 cleared every time you exit Gnus. Defaults to @code{t}.
15628 @subsection Smileys
15633 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/BigFace.ps,height=20cm}}
15638 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
15639 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
15641 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
15642 @file{.gnus.el} file:
15645 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-smiley-display t)
15648 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{:-=}, @samp{:-(} and
15649 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
15650 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
15651 text and maps that to file names.
15653 @vindex smiley-nosey-regexp-alist
15654 @vindex smiley-deformed-regexp-alist
15655 Smiley supplies two example conversion alists by default:
15656 @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist} (which matches @samp{:)}, @samp{:(}
15657 and so on), and @code{smiley-nosey-regexp-alist} (which matches
15658 @samp{:-)}, @samp{:-(} and so on).
15660 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist} variable,
15661 which defaults to the value of @code{smiley-deformed-regexp-alist}.
15663 The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched; the second
15664 element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by the picture;
15665 and the third element is the name of the file to be displayed.
15667 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
15668 files, as well as the color to be used and stuff:
15672 @item smiley-data-directory
15673 @vindex smiley-data-directory
15674 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
15676 @item smiley-flesh-color
15677 @vindex smiley-flesh-color
15678 Skin color. The default is @samp{yellow}, which is really racist.
15680 @item smiley-features-color
15681 @vindex smiley-features-color
15682 Color of the features of the face. The default is @samp{black}.
15684 @item smiley-tongue-color
15685 @vindex smiley-tongue-color
15686 Color of the tongue. The default is @samp{red}.
15688 @item smiley-circle-color
15689 @vindex smiley-circle-color
15690 Color of the circle around the face. The default is @samp{black}.
15692 @item smiley-mouse-face
15693 @vindex smiley-mouse-face
15694 Face used for mouse highlighting over the smiley face.
15700 @subsection Toolbar
15710 @item gnus-use-toolbar
15711 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
15712 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
15713 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
15714 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
15716 @item gnus-group-toolbar
15717 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
15718 The toolbar in the group buffer.
15720 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
15721 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
15722 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
15724 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
15725 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
15726 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
15732 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
15735 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
15736 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
15737 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
15738 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
15739 unusual directory structure.
15741 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
15742 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
15743 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
15744 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
15746 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
15747 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
15748 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
15749 Valid values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
15750 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
15751 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
15753 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
15754 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
15755 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
15769 @node Fuzzy Matching
15770 @section Fuzzy Matching
15771 @cindex fuzzy matching
15773 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
15774 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
15776 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
15777 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
15778 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
15780 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
15781 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
15782 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
15783 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
15784 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
15787 @node Thwarting Email Spam
15788 @section Thwarting Email Spam
15792 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
15794 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
15795 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
15796 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
15797 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
15798 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
15799 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
15800 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
15801 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
15804 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
15805 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
15806 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
15807 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
15808 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
15809 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
15813 The way to deal with this is having Gnus split out all spam into a
15814 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
15816 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
15817 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
15818 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
15819 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
15820 sysadm whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
15821 part of the mail address.)
15824 (setq message-default-news-headers
15825 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
15828 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
15829 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
15834 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
15835 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
15836 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
15842 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
15843 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
15844 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
15845 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
15847 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @code{smtp} server
15848 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
15849 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
15850 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
15851 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
15852 your fancy split rule in this way:
15857 (to "larsi" "misc")
15861 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
15862 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
15863 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
15864 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
15865 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
15867 If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer complaining
15868 automatically with the @file{gnus-junk.el} package, available FOR FREE
15869 at @* @file{<URL:http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html>}.
15870 Since most e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the
15871 cosmic balance somewhat.
15873 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
15874 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
15875 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
15876 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
15879 @node Various Various
15880 @section Various Various
15886 @item gnus-home-directory
15887 All Gnus path variables will be initialized from this variable, which
15888 defaults to @file{~/}.
15890 @item gnus-directory
15891 @vindex gnus-directory
15892 Most Gnus storage path variables will be initialized from this variable,
15893 which defaults to the @samp{SAVEDIR} environment variable, or
15894 @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
15896 Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
15897 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
15898 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
15899 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
15901 @item gnus-default-directory
15902 @vindex gnus-default-directory
15903 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
15904 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
15905 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
15906 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
15907 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
15908 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
15911 @vindex gnus-verbose
15912 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
15913 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
15914 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
15915 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
15916 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
15918 @item gnus-verbose-backends
15919 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
15920 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
15921 to the Gnus backends instead of Gnus proper.
15923 @item nnheader-max-head-length
15924 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
15925 When the backends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
15926 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
15927 the absolute max length the backends will try to read before giving up
15928 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
15929 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
15930 @code{t}, the backends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
15931 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
15932 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
15934 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
15935 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
15936 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
15937 read when doing the operation described above.
15939 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
15940 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
15942 @cindex invalid characters in file names
15943 @cindex characters in file names
15944 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
15945 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
15946 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
15949 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
15953 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
15954 Windows (phooey) systems.
15956 @item gnus-hidden-properties
15957 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
15958 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
15959 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
15960 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
15962 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
15963 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
15964 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
15965 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
15966 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
15968 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
15969 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
15970 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
15979 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
15980 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
15982 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
15984 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
15990 Not because of victories @*
15993 but for the common sunshine,@*
15995 the largess of the spring.
15999 but for the day's work done@*
16000 as well as I was able;@*
16001 not for a seat upon the dais@*
16002 but at the common table.@*
16007 @chapter Appendices
16010 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
16011 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
16012 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
16013 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
16014 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
16015 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
16016 * Frequently Asked Questions:: A question-and-answer session.
16024 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
16025 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
16027 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage, you
16028 can point your (feh!) web browser to
16029 @file{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/}. This is also the primary
16030 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is known
16031 as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
16033 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
16034 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
16035 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
16036 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
16037 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
16038 appropriate name, don't you think?)
16040 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
16041 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
16042 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
16043 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
16045 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
16046 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
16047 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
16049 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
16050 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
16052 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
16053 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
16055 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37
16056 releases. If was released as ``Gnus 5.6 on March 8th 1998.
16058 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
16059 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'' --
16060 don't panic. Don't let it know that you're frightened. Back away.
16061 Slowly. Whatever you do, don't run. Walk away, calmly, until you're
16062 out of its reach. Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up
16066 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
16067 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
16068 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
16069 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
16070 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
16071 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
16072 * Newest Features:: Features so new that they haven't been written yet.
16079 What's the point of Gnus?
16081 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
16082 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
16083 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
16084 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
16085 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
16086 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
16087 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
16088 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
16089 keep track of millions of people who post?
16091 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
16092 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
16093 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
16094 to separate the newsreader from the backends, Gnus now offers a simple
16095 interface for anybody who wants to write new backends for fetching mail
16096 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
16097 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
16098 every one of you to explore and invent.
16100 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
16101 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
16104 @node Compatibility
16105 @subsection Compatibility
16107 @cindex compatibility
16108 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
16109 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
16110 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
16115 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
16119 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
16122 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
16125 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
16126 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
16127 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
16128 important variables have their values copied into their global
16129 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
16130 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
16132 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
16133 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
16134 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
16135 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
16136 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
16140 @cindex highlighting
16141 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
16142 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
16143 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
16144 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
16145 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
16146 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
16149 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
16150 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
16151 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
16152 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
16154 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
16155 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
16156 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
16157 to stop doing it the old way.
16159 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
16161 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
16163 @cindex reporting bugs
16165 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
16166 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
16167 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
16169 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
16170 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
16171 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
16172 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
16177 @subsection Conformity
16179 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
16180 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
16187 There are no known breaches of this standard.
16191 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
16193 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
16194 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
16195 We do have some breaches to this one.
16200 Gnus does not yet fully handle MIME, and this standard-to-be seems to
16201 think that MIME is the bees' knees, so we have major breakage here.
16204 This is considered to be a ``vanity header'', while I consider it to be
16205 consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted articles
16206 coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use either of
16207 those for posting articles. I would not have known that if it wasn't
16208 for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
16213 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
16214 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
16215 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
16216 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
16220 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
16221 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
16226 @subsection Emacsen
16232 Gnus should work on :
16240 XEmacs 20.4 and up.
16244 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
16245 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
16248 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
16249 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
16250 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
16255 @subsection Contributors
16256 @cindex contributors
16258 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
16259 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
16260 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
16261 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
16262 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
16263 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
16264 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
16265 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
16266 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
16267 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
16269 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for... oops,
16275 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
16278 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
16279 well as numerous other things).
16282 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
16285 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
16288 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el and many other things
16289 connected with @sc{mime} and other types of en/decoding.
16292 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
16293 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
16296 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
16299 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section
16300 (@pxref{GroupLens}).
16303 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
16306 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
16309 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
16312 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
16315 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
16316 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
16319 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
16322 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
16325 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
16328 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
16332 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
16335 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
16338 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
16341 François Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
16342 well as autoconf support.
16346 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
16347 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
16349 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
16358 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
16362 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
16384 Massimo Campostrini,
16392 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
16398 Michael Welsh Duggan,
16401 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
16405 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
16412 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
16414 Michelangelo Grigni,
16417 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
16419 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c ?
16421 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
16426 François Felix Ingrand,
16427 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
16429 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
16438 Peter Skov Knudsen,
16439 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
16440 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
16441 Thor Kristoffersen,
16444 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
16461 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
16462 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
16469 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
16473 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
16476 John McClary Prevost,
16482 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
16487 Christian von Roques,
16489 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
16496 Philippe Schnoebelen,
16498 Randal L. Schwartz,
16528 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka.
16530 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
16531 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
16532 (550kB and counting).
16534 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
16537 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
16538 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
16542 @subsection New Features
16543 @cindex new features
16546 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
16547 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.3/5.3.
16548 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
16549 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
16552 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
16553 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
16554 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
16558 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
16560 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
16565 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
16566 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
16569 Local spool and several @sc{nntp} servers can be used at once
16570 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
16573 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
16576 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
16577 All the mail backends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
16578 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
16581 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
16582 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
16583 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
16584 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
16587 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
16588 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
16591 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
16592 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
16593 (@pxref{The Active File}).
16596 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
16597 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
16600 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
16601 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
16602 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
16605 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
16606 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
16607 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
16610 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{.gnus}) to avoid cluttering up
16611 the @file{.emacs} file.
16614 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
16615 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
16618 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
16619 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
16622 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
16623 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
16626 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
16627 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
16630 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
16631 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
16634 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
16637 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
16638 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
16641 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
16642 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
16645 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
16646 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
16649 Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
16652 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
16653 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
16656 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
16660 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
16664 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
16665 configuration (@pxref{Windows Configuration}).
16668 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
16674 @node September Gnus
16675 @subsubsection September Gnus
16679 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/september.ps,height=20cm}}
16683 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
16688 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
16689 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
16693 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
16694 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
16698 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
16702 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
16703 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
16706 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
16710 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (@pxref{GroupLens}).
16713 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
16716 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
16719 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
16723 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
16724 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
16727 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
16731 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
16735 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
16739 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
16743 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
16746 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
16747 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
16750 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
16754 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
16755 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
16758 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
16761 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
16762 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
16763 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
16766 Gnus has a new backend (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
16770 The Gnus cache is much faster.
16773 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
16777 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
16778 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
16781 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
16782 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
16785 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
16786 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
16789 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
16790 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
16791 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
16794 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
16795 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
16798 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
16801 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
16804 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
16805 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
16809 All mail backends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
16812 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
16815 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
16816 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
16819 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Windows
16823 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
16826 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fseptember.ps,height=5cm}}
16831 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
16834 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
16838 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
16841 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
16845 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
16848 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
16851 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
16852 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
16855 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
16856 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
16860 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
16861 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
16864 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
16868 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
16869 buffer to allow easier treatment.
16872 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
16875 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
16879 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
16883 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
16884 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
16887 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
16891 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
16892 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
16895 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
16896 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
16899 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
16903 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
16906 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
16907 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers t)
16911 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
16914 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
16920 @subsubsection Red Gnus
16922 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
16926 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=tmp/red.ps,height=20cm}}
16933 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
16936 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
16937 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
16940 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
16941 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
16945 Article washing status can be displayed in the
16946 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
16949 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
16952 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
16953 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
16956 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
16960 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
16961 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
16965 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
16966 Server Internals}).
16969 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
16973 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
16976 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
16977 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
16980 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
16981 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
16982 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
16985 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
16986 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
16989 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
16990 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
16993 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{M-C-_}
16997 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
16998 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
17001 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
17002 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
17005 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
17009 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
17012 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
17016 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
17017 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
17020 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
17021 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
17024 A new command for reading collections of documents
17025 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{M-C-d}
17026 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
17029 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
17033 A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post even when the NNTP
17034 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
17037 A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
17038 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
17039 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
17042 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
17043 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
17047 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
17051 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
17055 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=tmp/fred.ps,width=3cm}}
17060 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
17064 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
17068 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
17069 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
17072 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
17075 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
17076 'gnus-article-emphasize)
17083 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
17085 New features in Gnus 5.6:
17090 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
17091 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See
17092 @pxref{Gnus Unplugged} for the full story.
17095 The @code{nndraft} backend has returned, but works differently than
17096 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
17097 group, which is created automatically.
17100 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
17104 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
17107 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
17108 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
17111 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
17115 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
17118 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
17119 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
17122 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
17125 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
17126 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
17129 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
17130 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
17133 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
17134 control over simplification.
17137 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
17140 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
17144 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
17147 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
17150 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
17151 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
17152 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
17155 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
17156 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
17159 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
17163 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
17164 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
17167 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
17168 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @sc{nntp} servers.
17171 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
17175 A history of where mails have been split is available.
17178 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
17181 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
17182 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
17185 A new function for citing in Message has been
17186 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
17189 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
17192 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
17196 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
17197 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
17200 The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
17201 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
17204 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} backend.
17207 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
17212 @node Newest Features
17213 @subsection Newest Features
17216 Also known as the @dfn{todo list}. Sure to be implemented before the
17219 Be afraid. Be very afraid.
17221 (That a feature appears in this list doesn't necessarily mean that I've
17222 decided to actually implement it. It just means that I think it sounds
17225 (Yes, this is the actual, up-to-the-second todo list.)
17230 Native @sc{mime} support is something that should be done.
17233 Really do unbinhexing.
17236 I would like the zombie-page to contain an URL to the source of the
17237 latest version of gnus or some explanation on where to find it.
17240 A way to continue editing the latest Message composition.
17243 http://www.sonicnet.com/feature/ari3/
17246 facep is not declared.
17249 Include a section in the manual on why the number of articles
17250 isn't the same in the group buffer and on the SPC prompt.
17253 Interacting with rmail fcc isn't easy.
17258 <URL:http://www.falch.no/people/pepper/DSSSL-Lite/archives/>
17259 <URL:http://www.eit.com/software/hypermail/hypermail.html>
17260 <URL:http://homer.ncm.com/>
17261 <URL:http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/HTML_Converters/>
17262 http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9610/index.html
17263 <URL:http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/www/html/converters.html>
17264 http://www.miranova.com/gnus-list/
17269 @samp{^-- } is made into - in LaTeX.
17272 gnus-kill is much slower than it was in GNUS 4.1.3.
17275 when expunging articles on low score, the sparse nodes keep hanging on?
17277 starting the first time seems to hang Gnus on some systems. Does
17278 NEWGROUPS answer too fast?
17280 nndir doesn't read gzipped files.
17282 FAQ doesn't have an up node?
17284 when moving mail from a procmail spool to the crash-box,
17285 the crash-box is only appropriate to one specific group.
17287 `t' `t' makes X-Faces disappear.
17289 nnmh-be-safe means that crossposted articles will
17290 be marked as unread.
17292 Orphan score entries don't show on "V t" score trace
17294 when clearing out data, the cache data should also be reset.
17296 rewrite gnus-summary-limit-children to be non-recursive
17297 to avoid exceeding lisp nesting on huge groups.
17299 expunged articles are counted when computing scores.
17301 implement gnus-batch-brew-soup
17303 ticked articles aren't easy to read in pick mode -- `n' and
17304 stuff just skips past them. Read articles are the same.
17306 topics that contain just groups with ticked
17307 articles aren't displayed.
17309 nndoc should always allocate unique Message-IDs.
17311 If there are mail groups the first time you use Gnus, Gnus'll
17312 make the mail groups killed.
17314 no "no news is good news" when using topics.
17316 when doing crosspost marking, the cache has to be consulted
17317 and articles have to be removed.
17319 nnweb should fetch complete articles when they are split into several
17322 scoring on head immediate doesn't work.
17324 finding short score file names takes forever.
17326 canceling articles in foreign groups.
17328 nntp-open-rlogin no longer works.
17330 C-u C-x C-s (Summary) switches to the group buffer.
17332 move nnmail-split-history out to the backends.
17334 nnweb doesn't work properly.
17336 using a virtual server name as `gnus-select-method' doesn't work?
17338 when killing/yanking a group from one topic to another in a slave, the
17339 master will yank it first to one topic and then add it to another.
17343 warn user about `=' redirection of a group in the active file?
17345 really unbinhex binhex files.
17347 take over the XEmacs menubar and offer a toggle between the XEmacs
17348 bar and the Gnus bar.
17351 push active file and NOV file parsing down into C code.
17352 `(canonize-message-id id)'
17353 `(mail-parent-message-id references n)'
17354 `(parse-news-nov-line &optional dependency-hashtb)'
17355 `(parse-news-nov-region beg end &optional dependency-hashtb fullp)'
17356 `(parse-news-active-region beg end hashtb)'
17361 nnml .overview directory with splits.
17365 postponed commands.
17367 the selected article show have its Subject displayed in its summary line.
17369 when entering groups, get the real number of unread articles from
17372 sort after gathering threads -- make false roots have the
17373 headers of the oldest orphan with a 0 article number?
17375 nndoc groups should inherit the score files of their parents? Also
17376 inherit copy prompts and save files.
17378 command to start up Gnus (if not running) and enter a mail mode buffer.
17380 allow editing the group description from the group buffer
17381 for backends that support that.
17383 gnus-hide,show-all-topics
17385 groups and sub-topics should be allowed to mingle inside each topic,
17386 and not just list all subtopics at the end.
17388 a command to remove all read articles that are not needed to connect
17389 threads -- `gnus-summary-limit-to-sparse-unread'?
17391 a variable to turn off limiting/cutting of threads in the tree buffer.
17393 a variable to limit how many files are uudecoded.
17395 add zombie groups to a special "New Groups" topic.
17397 server mode command: close/open all connections
17399 put a file date in gnus-score-alist and check whether the file
17400 has been changed before using it.
17402 on exit from a digest group, go to the next article in the parent group.
17404 hide (sub)threads with low score.
17406 when expiring, remove all marks from expired articles.
17408 gnus-summary-limit-to-body
17410 a regexp alist that says what level groups are to be subscribed
17411 on. Eg. -- `(("nnml:" . 1))'.
17413 easier interface to nnkiboze to create ephemeral groups that
17414 contain groups that match a regexp.
17416 allow newlines in <URL:> urls, but remove them before using
17419 If there is no From line, the mail backends should fudge one from the
17422 fuzzy simplifying should strip all non-alpha-numerical info
17423 from subject lines.
17425 gnus-soup-brew-soup-with-high-scores.
17427 nntp-ping-before-connect
17429 command to check whether NOV is evil. "list overview.fmt".
17431 when entering a group, Gnus should look through the score
17432 files very early for `local' atoms and set those local variables.
17434 message annotations.
17436 topics are always yanked before groups, and that's not good.
17438 (set-extent-property extent 'help-echo "String to display in minibuf")
17439 to display help in the minibuffer on buttons under XEmacs.
17441 allow group line format spec to say how many articles there
17446 support qmail maildir spools
17448 `run-with-idle-timer' in gnus-demon.
17450 stop using invisible text properties and start using overlays instead
17452 C-c C-f C-e to add an Expires header.
17454 go from one group to the next; everything is expunged; go to the
17455 next group instead of going to the group buffer.
17457 gnus-renumber-cache -- to renumber the cache using "low" numbers.
17459 record topic changes in the dribble buffer.
17461 `nnfolder-generate-active-file' should look at the folders it
17462 finds and generate proper active ranges.
17464 nneething-look-in-files-for-article-heads variable to control
17465 whether nneething should sniff all files in the directories.
17467 gnus-fetch-article -- start Gnus, enter group, display article
17469 gnus-dont-move-articles-to-same-group variable when respooling.
17471 when messages are crossposted between several auto-expirable groups,
17472 articles aren't properly marked as expirable.
17474 nneething should allow deletion/moving.
17476 TAB on the last button should go to the first button.
17478 if the car of an element in `mail-split-methods' is a function,
17479 and the function returns non-nil, use that as the name of the group(s) to
17482 command for listing all score files that have been applied.
17484 a command in the article buffer to return to `summary' config.
17486 `gnus-always-post-using-current-server' -- variable to override
17487 `C-c C-c' when posting.
17489 nnmail-group-spool-alist -- says where each group should use
17492 when an article is crossposted to an auto-expirable group, the article
17493 should be marker as expirable.
17495 article mode command/menu for "send region as URL to browser".
17497 on errors, jump to info nodes that explain the error. For instance,
17498 on invalid From headers, or on error messages from the nntp server.
17500 when gathering threads, make the article that has no "Re: " the parent.
17501 Also consult Date headers.
17503 a token in splits to call shrink-window-if-larger-than-buffer
17505 `1 0 A M' to do matches on the active hashtb.
17507 duplicates -- command to remove Gnus-Warning header, use the read
17508 Message-ID, delete the "original".
17510 when replying to several messages at once, put the "other" message-ids
17511 into a See-Also header.
17513 support setext: URL:http://www.bsdi.com/setext/
17515 support ProleText: <URL:http://proletext.clari.net/prole/proletext.html>
17517 when browsing a foreign server, the groups that are already subscribed
17518 should be listed as such and not as "K".
17520 generate font names dynamically.
17522 score file mode auto-alist.
17524 allow nndoc to change/add/delete things from documents. Implement
17525 methods for each format for adding an article to the document.
17527 `gnus-fetch-old-headers' `all' value to incorporate
17528 absolutely all headers there is.
17530 function like `|', but concatenate all marked articles
17531 and pipe them to the process.
17533 cache the list of killed (or active) groups in a separate file. Update
17534 the file whenever we read the active file or the list
17535 of killed groups in the .eld file reaches a certain length.
17537 function for starting to edit a file to put into
17538 the current mail group.
17540 score-find-trace should display the total score of the article.
17542 "ghettozie" -- score on Xref header and nix it out after using it
17543 to avoid marking as read in other groups it has been crossposted to.
17545 look at procmail splitting. The backends should create
17546 the groups automatically if a spool file exists for that group.
17548 function for backends to register themselves with Gnus.
17550 when replying to several process-marked articles,
17551 have all the From end up in Cc headers? Variable to toggle.
17553 command to delete a crossposted mail article from all
17554 groups it has been mailed to.
17556 `B c' and `B m' should be crosspost aware.
17558 hide-pgp should also hide PGP public key blocks.
17560 Command in the group buffer to respool process-marked groups.
17562 `gnus-summary-find-matching' should accept
17563 pseudo-"headers" like "body", "head" and "all"
17565 When buttifying <URL: > things, all white space (including
17566 newlines) should be ignored.
17568 Process-marking all groups in a topic should process-mark
17569 groups in subtopics as well.
17571 Add non-native groups to the list of killed groups when killing them.
17573 nntp-suggest-kewl-config to probe the nntp server and suggest
17576 add edit and forward secondary marks.
17578 nnml shouldn't visit its .overview files.
17580 allow customizing sorting within gathered threads.
17582 `B q' shouldn't select the current article.
17584 nnmbox should support a newsgroups file for descriptions.
17586 allow fetching mail from several pop servers.
17588 Be able to specify whether the saving commands save the original
17589 or the formatted article.
17591 a command to reparent with the child process-marked (cf. `T ^'.).
17593 I think the possibility to send a password with nntp-open-rlogin
17594 should be a feature in Red Gnus.
17596 The `Z n' command should be possible to execute from a mouse click.
17598 more limiting functions -- date, etc.
17600 be able to limit on a random header; on body; using reverse matches.
17602 a group parameter (`absofucking-total-expiry') that will make Gnus expire
17603 even unread articles.
17605 a command to print the article buffer as postscript.
17607 variable to disable password fetching when opening by nntp-open-telnet.
17609 manual: more example servers -- nntp with rlogin, telnet
17611 checking for bogus groups should clean topic alists as well.
17613 canceling articles in foreign groups.
17615 article number in folded topics isn't properly updated by
17618 Movement in the group buffer to the next unread group should go to the
17619 next closed topic with unread messages if no group can be found.
17621 Extensive info pages generated on the fly with help everywhere --
17622 in the "*Gnus edit*" buffers, for instance.
17624 Topic movement commands -- like thread movement. Up, down, forward, next.
17626 a way to tick/mark as read Gcc'd articles.
17628 a way to say that all groups within a specific topic comes
17629 from a particular server? Hm.
17631 `gnus-article-fill-if-long-lines' -- a function to fill
17632 the article buffer if there are any looong lines there.
17634 `T h' should jump to the parent topic and fold it.
17636 a command to create an ephemeral nndoc group out of a file,
17637 and then splitting it/moving it to some other group/backend.
17639 a group parameter for nnkiboze groups that says that
17640 all kibozed articles should be entered into the cache.
17642 It should also probably be possible to delimit what
17643 `gnus-jog-cache' does -- for instance, work on just some groups, or on
17644 some levels, and entering just articles that have a score higher than
17647 nnfolder should append to the folder instead of re-writing
17648 the entire folder to disk when accepting new messages.
17650 allow all backends to do the proper thing with .gz files.
17652 a backend for reading collections of babyl files nnbabylfolder?
17654 a command for making the native groups into foreign groups.
17656 server mode command for clearing read marks from all groups
17659 when following up multiple articles, include all To, Cc, etc headers
17662 a command for deciding what the total score of the current
17663 thread is. Also a way to highlight based on this.
17665 command to show and edit group scores
17667 a gnus-tree-minimize-horizontal to minimize tree buffers
17670 command to generate nnml overview file for one group.
17672 `C-u C-u a' -- prompt for many crossposted groups.
17674 keep track of which mail groups have received new articles (in this session).
17675 Be able to generate a report and perhaps do some marking in the group
17678 gnus-build-sparse-threads to a number -- build only sparse threads
17679 that are of that length.
17681 have nnmh respect mh's unseen sequence in .mh_profile.
17683 cache the newsgroups descriptions locally.
17685 asynchronous posting under nntp.
17687 be able to control word adaptive scoring from the score files.
17689 a variable to make `C-c C-c' post using the "current" select method.
17691 `limit-exclude-low-scored-articles'.
17693 if `gnus-summary-show-thread' is a number, hide threads that have
17694 a score lower than this number.
17696 split newsgroup subscription variable up into "order" and "method".
17698 buttonize ange-ftp file names.
17700 a command to make a duplicate copy of the current article
17701 so that each copy can be edited separately.
17703 nnweb should allow fetching from the local nntp server.
17705 record the sorting done in the summary buffer so that
17706 it can be repeated when limiting/regenerating the buffer.
17708 nnml-generate-nov-databses should generate for
17711 when the user does commands in the group buffer, check
17712 the modification time of the .newsrc.eld file and use
17713 ask-user-about-supersession-threat. Also warn when trying
17714 to save .newsrc.eld and it has changed.
17716 M-g on a topic will display all groups with 0 articles in
17719 command to remove all topic stuff.
17721 allow exploding incoming digests when reading incoming mail
17722 and splitting the resulting digests.
17724 nnsoup shouldn't set the `message-' variables.
17726 command to nix out all nnoo state information.
17728 nnmail-process-alist that calls functions if group names
17729 matches an alist -- before saving.
17731 use buffer-invisibility-spec everywhere for hiding text.
17733 variable to activate each group before entering them
17734 to get the (new) number of articles. `gnus-activate-before-entering'.
17736 command to fetch a Message-ID from any buffer, even
17737 starting Gnus first if necessary.
17739 when posting and checking whether a group exists or not, just
17740 ask the nntp server instead of relying on the active hashtb.
17742 buttonize the output of `C-c C-a' in an apropos-like way.
17744 `G p' should understand process/prefix, and allow editing
17745 of several groups at once.
17747 command to create an ephemeral nnvirtual group that
17748 matches some regexp(s).
17750 nndoc should understand "Content-Type: message/rfc822" forwarded messages.
17752 it should be possible to score "thread" on the From header.
17754 hitting RET on a "gnus-uu-archive" pseudo article should unpack it.
17756 `B i' should display the article at once in the summary buffer.
17758 remove the "*" mark at once when unticking an article.
17760 `M-s' should highlight the matching text.
17762 when checking for duplicated mails, use Resent-Message-ID if present.
17764 killing and yanking groups in topics should be better. If killing one copy
17765 of a group that exists in multiple topics, only that copy should
17766 be removed. Yanking should insert the copy, and yanking topics
17767 should be possible to be interspersed with the other yankings.
17769 command for enter a group just to read the cached articles. A way to say
17770 "ignore the nntp connection; just read from the cache."
17772 `X u' should decode base64 articles.
17774 a way to hide all "inner" cited text, leaving just the most
17775 recently cited text.
17777 nnvirtual should be asynchronous.
17779 after editing an article, gnus-original-article-buffer should
17782 there should probably be a way to make Gnus not connect to the
17783 server and just read the articles in the server
17785 allow a `set-default' (or something) to change the default
17786 value of nnoo variables.
17788 a command to import group infos from a .newsrc.eld file.
17790 groups from secondary servers have the entire select method
17791 listed in each group info.
17793 a command for just switching from the summary buffer to the group
17796 a way to specify that some incoming mail washing functions
17797 should only be applied to some groups.
17799 Message `C-f C-t' should ask the user whether to heed
17800 mail-copies-to: never.
17802 new group parameter -- `post-to-server' that says to post
17803 using the current server. Also a variable to do the same.
17805 the slave dribble files should auto-save to the slave file names.
17807 a group parameter that says what articles to display on group entry, based
17810 a way to visually distinguish slave Gnusae from masters. (Whip instead
17813 Use DJ Bernstein "From " quoting/dequoting, where applicable.
17815 Why is hide-citation-maybe and hide-citation different? Also
17818 group user-defined meta-parameters.
17822 From: John Griffith <griffith@@sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de>
17824 I like the option for trying to retrieve the FAQ for a group and I was
17825 thinking it would be great if for those newsgroups that had archives
17826 you could also try to read the archive for that group. Part of the
17827 problem is that archives are spread all over the net, unlike FAQs.
17828 What would be best I suppose is to find the one closest to your site.
17830 In any case, there is a list of general news group archives at @*
17831 ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/users/claird/news.lists/newsgroup_archives.html
17838 From: Jason L Tibbitts III <tibbs@@hpc.uh.edu>
17839 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
17841 (gnus-group-add-parameter group
17842 (cons 'gnus-group-date-last-entered (list (current-time-string))))))
17844 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
17845 "Return the date the group was last read."
17846 (cond ((car (gnus-group-get-parameter gnus-tmp-group 'gnus-group-date-last-entered)))
17851 tanken var at når du bruker `gnus-startup-file' som prefix (FOO) til å lete
17852 opp en fil FOO-SERVER, FOO-SERVER.el, FOO-SERVER.eld, kan du la den være en
17853 liste hvor du bruker hvert element i listen som FOO, istedet. da kunne man
17854 hatt forskjellige serveres startup-filer forskjellige steder.
17858 LMI> Well, nnbabyl could alter the group info to heed labels like
17859 LMI> answered and read, I guess.
17861 It could also keep them updated (the same for the Status: header of
17864 They could be used like this:
17868 `M l <name> RET' add label <name> to current message.
17869 `M u <name> RET' remove label <name> from current message.
17870 `/ l <expr> RET' limit summary buffer according to <expr>.
17872 <expr> would be a boolean expression on the labels, e.g.
17874 `/ l bug & !fixed RET'
17877 would show all the messages which are labeled `bug' but not labeled
17880 One could also imagine the labels being used for highlighting, or
17881 affect the summary line format.
17885 Sender: abraham@@dina.kvl.dk
17887 I'd like a gnus-find-file which work like find file, except that it
17888 would recognize things that looks like messages or folders:
17890 - If it is a directory containing numbered files, create an nndir
17893 - For other directories, create a nneething summary buffer.
17895 - For files matching "\\`From ", create a nndoc/mbox summary.
17897 - For files matching "\\`BABYL OPTIONS:", create a nndoc/baby summary.
17899 - For files matching "\\`[^ \t\n]+:", create an *Article* buffer.
17901 - For other files, just find them normally.
17903 I'd like `nneething' to use this function, so it would work on a
17904 directory potentially containing mboxes or babyl files.
17907 Please send a mail to bwarsaw@@cnri.reston.va.us (Barry A. Warsaw) and
17908 tell him what you are doing.
17911 Currently, I get prompted:
17915 decend into sci.something ?
17919 The problem above is that since there is really only one subsection of
17920 science, shouldn't it prompt you for only descending sci.something? If
17921 there was a sci.somethingelse group or section, then it should prompt
17922 for sci? first the sci.something? then sci.somethingelse?...
17925 Ja, det burde være en måte å si slikt. Kanskje en ny variabel?
17926 `gnus-use-few-score-files'? SÃ¥ kunne score-regler legges til den
17927 "mest" lokale score-fila. F. eks. ville no-gruppene betjenes av
17928 "no.all.SCORE", osv.
17931 What i want is for Gnus to treat any sequence or combination of the following
17932 as a single spoiler warning and hide it all, replacing it with a "Next Page"
17938 more than n blank lines
17940 more than m identical lines
17941 (which should be replaced with button to show them)
17943 any whitespace surrounding any of the above
17947 Well, we could allow a new value to `gnus-thread-ignore-subject' --
17948 `spaces', or something. (We could even default to that.) And then
17949 subjects that differ in white space only could be considered the
17950 "same" subject for threading purposes.
17953 Modes to preprocess the contents (e.g. jka-compr) use the second form
17954 "(REGEXP FUNCTION NON-NIL)" while ordinary modes (e.g. tex) use the first
17955 form "(REGEXP . FUNCTION)", so you could use it to distinguish between
17956 those two types of modes. (auto-modes-alist, insert-file-contents-literally.)
17959 Under XEmacs -- do funny article marks:
17962 soup - bowl of soup
17963 score below - dim light bulb
17964 score over - bright light bulb
17967 Yes. I think the algorithm is as follows:
17972 show-list-of-articles-in-group
17973 if (key-pressed == SPACE)
17974 if (no-more-articles-in-group-to-select)
17975 if (articles-selected)
17976 start-reading-selected-articles;
17977 junk-unread-articles;
17982 else if (key-pressed = '.')
17983 if (consolidated-menus) # same as hide-thread in Gnus
17984 select-thread-under-cursor;
17986 select-article-under-cursor;
17990 if (key-pressed == SPACE)
17991 if (more-pages-in-article)
17993 else if (more-selected-articles-to-read)
18000 My precise need here would have been to limit files to Incoming*.
18001 One could think of some `nneething-only-files' variable, but I guess
18002 it would have been unacceptable if one was using many unrelated such
18005 A more useful approach would be to, in response to the `G D' prompt, be
18006 allowed to say something like: `~/.mail/Incoming*', somewhat limiting
18007 the top-level directory only (in case directories would be matched by
18008 the wildcard expression).
18011 It would be nice if it also handled
18013 <URL:news://sunsite.auc.dk/>
18015 which should correspond to `B nntp RET sunsite.auc.dk' in *Group*.
18020 Take a look at w3-menu.el in the Emacs-W3 distribution - this works out
18021 really well. Each menu is 'named' by a symbol that would be on a
18022 gnus-*-menus (where * would be whatever, but at least group, summary, and
18023 article versions) variable.
18025 So for gnus-summary-menus, I would set to '(sort mark dispose ...)
18027 A value of '1' would just put _all_ the menus in a single 'GNUS' menu in
18028 the main menubar. This approach works really well for Emacs-W3 and VM.
18032 nndoc should take care to create unique Message-IDs for all its
18035 gnus-score-followup-article only works when you have a summary buffer
18036 active. Make it work when posting from the group buffer as well.
18037 (message-sent-hook).
18039 rewrite gnus-demon to use run-with-idle-timers.
18042 * Enhancements to Gnus:
18046 * gnus-servers (gnus-start-server-buffer?)--enters Gnus and goes
18047 straight to the server buffer, without opening any connections to
18050 * gnus-server-read-server-newsrc--produces a buffer very similar to
18051 the group buffer, but with only groups from that server listed;
18052 quitting this buffer returns to the server buffer.
18055 add a command to check the integrity of an nnfolder folder --
18056 go through the article numbers and see that there are no duplicates,
18060 `unsmileyfy-buffer' to undo smileification.
18063 a command to give all relevant info on an article, including all
18067 when doing `-request-accept-article', the backends should do
18068 the nnmail duplicate checking.
18071 allow `message-signature-file' to be a function to return the
18072 value of the signature file.
18075 In addition, I would love it if I could configure message-tab so that it
18076 could call `bbdb-complete-name' in other headers. So, some sort of
18079 (setq message-tab-alist
18080 '((message-header-regexp message-expand-group)
18081 ("^\\(To\\|[cC]c\\|[bB]cc\\)" bbdb-complete-name)))
18083 then you could run the relevant function to complete the information in
18087 cache the newsgroups file locally to avoid reloading it all the time.
18090 a command to import a buffer into a group.
18093 nnweb should allow fetching by Message-ID from servers.
18096 point in the article buffer doesn't always go to the
18097 beginning of the buffer when selecting new articles.
18100 a command to process mark all unread articles.
18103 `gnus-gather-threads-by-references-and-subject' -- first
18104 do gathering by references, and then go through the dummy roots and
18105 do more gathering by subject.
18108 gnus-uu-mark-in-numerical-order -- process mark articles in
18109 article numerical order.
18112 (gnus-thread-total-score
18113 (gnus-id-to-thread (mail-header-id (gnus-summary-article-header))))
18117 sorting by score is wrong when using sparse threads.
18120 a command to fetch an arbitrary article -- without having to be
18121 in the summary buffer.
18124 a new nncvs backend. Each group would show an article, using
18125 version branches as threading, checkin date as the date, etc.
18128 http://www.dejanews.com/forms/dnsetfilter_exp.html ?
18129 This filter allows one to construct advance queries on the Dejanews
18130 database such as specifying start and end dates, subject, author,
18131 and/or newsgroup name.
18134 new Date header scoring type -- older, newer
18137 use the summary toolbar in the article buffer.
18140 a command to fetch all articles that are less than X days old.
18143 in pick mode, `q' should save the list of selected articles in the
18144 group info. The next time the group is selected, these articles
18145 will automatically get the process mark.
18148 Isn't it possible to (also?) allow M-^ to automatically try the
18149 default server if it fails on the current server? (controlled by a
18150 user variable, (nil, t, 'ask)).
18153 make it possible to cancel articles using the select method for the
18157 `gnus-summary-select-article-on-entry' or something. It'll default
18158 to t and will select whatever article decided by `gnus-auto-select-first'.
18161 a new variable to control which selection commands should be unselecting.
18162 `first', `best', `next', `prev', `next-unread', `prev-unread' are
18166 be able to select groups that have no articles in them
18167 to be able to post in them (using the current select method).
18170 be able to post via DejaNews.
18173 `x' should retain any sortings that have been performed.
18176 allow the user to specify the precedence of the secondary marks. Also
18177 allow them to be displayed separately.
18180 gnus-summary-save-in-pipe should concatenate the results from
18181 the processes when doing a process marked pipe.
18184 a new match type, like Followup, but which adds Thread matches on all
18185 articles that match a certain From header.
18188 a function that can be read from kill-emacs-query-functions to offer
18189 saving living summary buffers.
18192 a function for selecting a particular group which will contain
18193 the articles listed in a list of article numbers/id's.
18196 a battery of character translation functions to translate common
18197 Mac, MS (etc) characters into ISO 8859-1.
18200 (defun article-fix-m$word ()
18201 "Fix M$Word smartquotes in an article."
18204 (let ((buffer-read-only nil))
18205 (goto-char (point-min))
18206 (while (search-forward "\221" nil t)
18207 (replace-match "`" t t))
18208 (goto-char (point-min))
18209 (while (search-forward "\222" nil t)
18210 (replace-match "'" t t))
18211 (goto-char (point-min))
18212 (while (search-forward "\223" nil t)
18213 (replace-match "\"" t t))
18214 (goto-char (point-min))
18215 (while (search-forward "\224" nil t)
18216 (replace-match "\"" t t)))))
18221 (add-hook 'gnus-exit-query-functions
18223 (if (and (file-exists-p nnmail-spool-file)
18224 (> (nnheader-file-size nnmail-spool-file) 0))
18225 (yes-or-no-p "New mail has arrived. Quit Gnus anyways? ")
18226 (y-or-n-p "Are you sure you want to quit Gnus? "))))
18230 allow message-default-headers to be a function.
18233 new Date score match types -- < > = (etc) that take floating point
18234 numbers and match on the age of the article.
18238 > > > If so, I've got one gripe: It seems that when I fire up gnus 5.2.25
18239 > > > under xemacs-19.14, it's creating a new frame, but is erasing the
18240 > > > buffer in the frame that it was called from =:-O
18242 > > Hm. How do you start up Gnus? From the toolbar or with
18243 > > `M-x gnus-other-frame'?
18245 > I normally start it up from the toolbar; at
18246 > least that's the way I've caught it doing the
18251 all commands that react to the process mark should push
18252 the current process mark set onto the stack.
18255 gnus-article-hide-pgp
18256 Selv ville jeg nok ha valgt å slette den dersom teksten matcher
18258 "\\(This\s+\\)?[^ ]+ has been automatically signed by"
18260 og det er maks hundre tegn mellom match-end og ----linja. Men -det-
18261 er min type heuristikk og langt fra alles.
18264 `gnus-subscribe-sorted' -- insert new groups where they would have been
18265 sorted to if `gnus-group-sort-function' were run.
18268 gnus-(group,summary)-highlight should respect any `face' text props set
18272 use run-with-idle-timer for gnus-demon instead of the
18273 home-brewed stuff for better reliability.
18276 add a way to select which NoCeM type to apply -- spam, troll, etc.
18279 nndraft-request-group should tally auto-save files.
18282 implement nntp-retry-on-break and nntp-command-timeout.
18285 gnus-article-highlight-limit that says when not to highlight (long)
18289 (nnoo-set SERVER VARIABLE VALUE)
18295 interrupitng agent fetching of articles should save articles.
18298 command to open a digest group, and copy all the articles there to the
18302 a variable to disable article body highlights if there's more than
18303 X characters in the body.
18306 handle 480/381 authinfo requests separately.
18309 include the texi/dir file in the distribution.
18312 format spec to "tab" to a position.
18315 Move all prompting to the new `M-n' default style.
18318 command to display all dormant articles.
18321 gnus-auto-select-next makeover -- list of things it should do.
18324 a score match type that adds scores matching on From if From has replied
18325 to something someone else has said.
18328 Read Netscape discussion groups:
18329 snews://secnews.netscape.com/netscape.communicator.unix
18332 One command to edit the original version if an article, and one to edit
18333 the displayed version.
18336 @kbd{T v} -- make all process-marked articles the children of the
18340 Switch from initial text to the new default text mechanism.
18343 How about making it possible to expire local articles? Will it be
18344 possible to make various constraints on when an article can be
18345 expired, e.g. (read), (age > 14 days), or the more interesting (read
18349 New limit command---limit to articles that have a certain string
18350 in the head or body.
18353 Allow breaking lengthy NNTP commands.
18356 gnus-article-highlight-limit, to disable highlighting in big articles.
18359 Editing an article should put the article to be edited
18360 in a special, unique buffer.
18363 A command to send a mail to the admin-address group param.
18366 A Date scoring type that will match if the article
18367 is less than a certain number of days old.
18370 New spec: %~(tab 56) to put point on column 56
18373 Allow Gnus Agent scoring to use normal score files.
18376 Rething the Agent active file thing. `M-g' doesn't update the active
18377 file, for instance.
18380 With dummy roots, `^' and then selecing the first article
18381 in any other dummy thread will make Gnus highlight the
18382 dummy root instead of the first article.
18385 Propagate all group properties (marks, article numbers, etc) up to the
18386 topics for displaying.
18389 `n' in the group buffer with topics should go to the next group
18390 with unread articles, even if that group is hidden in a topic.
18393 gnus-posting-styles doesn't work in drafts.
18396 gnus-summary-limit-include-cached is slow when there are
18397 many articles in the cache, since it regenerates big parts of the
18398 summary buffer for each article.
18401 Implement gnus-batch-brew-soup.
18404 Group parameters and summary commands for un/subscribing to mailing
18408 Introduce nnmail-home-directory.
18411 gnus-fetch-group and friends should exit Gnus when the user
18415 The jingle is only played on the second invocation of Gnus.
18418 Bouncing articles should do MIME.
18421 Crossposted articles should "inherit" the % or @ mark from the other
18422 groups it has been crossposted to, or something. (Agent.)
18425 `S D r' should allow expansion of aliases.
18428 If point is on a group that appears multiple times in topics, and
18429 you press `l', point will move to the first instance of the group.
18432 The documentation should mention pop3.el, fetchmail, smtpmail and why
18433 po:username often fails.
18436 Fetch by Message-ID from dejanews.
18438 <URL:http://search.dejanews.com/msgid.xp?MID=%3C62h9l9$hm4@@basement.replay.com%3E&fmt=raw>
18441 Solve the halting problem.
18450 @section The Manual
18454 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
18455 either @code{texi2dvi}
18457 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
18458 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
18460 to get what you hold in your hands now.
18462 The following conventions have been used:
18467 This is a @samp{string}
18470 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
18473 This is a @file{file}
18476 This is a @code{symbol}
18480 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
18484 (setq flargnoze "yes")
18487 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
18490 (setq flumphel 'yes)
18493 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
18494 ever get them confused.
18498 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
18499 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
18500 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
18501 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
18502 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
18503 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
18504 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
18512 @section Terminology
18514 @cindex terminology
18519 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
18520 News is generally fetched from a nearby @sc{nntp} server, and is
18521 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
18522 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
18523 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
18527 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
18528 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
18529 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
18530 not posting, and replying is not following up.
18534 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
18538 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
18543 Gnus gets fed articles from a number of backends, both news and mail
18544 backends. Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this
18545 is all done by the backends.
18549 Gnus will always use one method (and backend) as the @dfn{native}, or
18550 default, way of getting news.
18554 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
18555 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary backends for getting
18560 Secondary backends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
18561 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
18565 A message that has been posted as news.
18568 @cindex mail message
18569 A message that has been mailed.
18573 A mail message or news article
18577 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
18582 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
18587 A line from the head of an article.
18591 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
18592 collection of @sc{nov} lines.
18596 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the backend for the headers of all
18597 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
18598 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
18599 normal @sc{head} format.
18603 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
18604 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
18605 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
18606 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
18607 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
18608 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
18610 @item killed groups
18611 @cindex killed groups
18612 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
18613 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
18615 @item zombie groups
18616 @cindex zombie groups
18617 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
18620 @cindex active file
18621 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
18622 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
18623 is rather large, as you might surmise.
18626 @cindex bogus groups
18627 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
18628 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
18629 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
18632 @cindex activating groups
18633 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
18634 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
18635 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
18639 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
18641 @item select method
18642 @cindex select method
18643 A structure that specifies the backend, the server and the virtual
18646 @item virtual server
18647 @cindex virtual server
18648 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
18649 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
18650 whole is a virtual server.
18654 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
18655 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
18658 @item ephemeral groups
18659 @cindex ephemeral groups
18660 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
18661 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
18662 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
18665 @cindex solid groups
18666 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
18667 group buffer are solid groups.
18669 @item sparse articles
18670 @cindex sparse articles
18671 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
18672 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
18676 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
18677 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
18681 @cindex thread root
18682 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
18683 articles in the thread.
18687 An article that has responses.
18691 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
18695 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
18696 specified by RFC1153.
18702 @node Customization
18703 @section Customization
18704 @cindex general customization
18706 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
18707 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
18708 for some quite common situations.
18711 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
18712 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
18713 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
18714 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
18718 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
18719 @subsection Slow/Expensive @sc{nntp} Connection
18721 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
18722 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
18723 Gnus has to get from the @sc{nntp} server.
18727 @item gnus-read-active-file
18728 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
18729 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
18730 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
18731 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
18732 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
18734 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
18735 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
18736 the @sc{nntp} server will not be very fast. Not all @sc{nntp} servers
18737 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
18741 @node Slow Terminal Connection
18742 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
18744 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
18745 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
18746 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
18750 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
18751 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
18752 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
18753 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
18754 horizontal and vertical recentering.
18756 @item gnus-visible-headers
18757 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
18758 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
18759 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
18760 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
18762 @item gnus-article-display-hook
18763 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
18765 (setq gnus-article-display-hook
18766 '(gnus-article-hide-headers
18767 gnus-article-hide-signature
18768 gnus-article-hide-citation))
18771 @item gnus-use-full-window
18772 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
18773 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
18774 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
18775 want to read them anyway.
18777 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
18778 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
18781 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
18782 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
18783 lines, which might save some time.
18787 @node Little Disk Space
18788 @subsection Little Disk Space
18791 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
18792 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
18796 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
18797 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
18798 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
18799 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
18802 @item gnus-save-killed-list
18803 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
18804 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
18805 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
18806 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
18812 @subsection Slow Machine
18813 @cindex slow machine
18815 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
18816 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
18818 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
18819 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
18821 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
18822 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
18823 summary buffer faster.
18825 Set @code{gnus-article-display-hook} to @code{nil} to make article
18826 processing a bit faster.
18830 @node Troubleshooting
18831 @section Troubleshooting
18832 @cindex troubleshooting
18834 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
18842 Make sure your computer is switched on.
18845 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
18846 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
18850 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
18851 like @samp{Gnus v5.46; nntp 4.0} you have the right files loaded. If,
18852 on the other hand, you get something like @samp{NNTP 3.x} or @samp{nntp
18853 flee}, you have some old @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
18856 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a FAQ and a
18860 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
18861 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
18862 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
18863 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
18864 something like that.
18867 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
18870 @cindex reporting bugs
18872 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
18874 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
18875 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
18876 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
18877 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
18879 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
18880 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
18881 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
18882 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
18885 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
18886 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
18887 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
18888 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
18889 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
18890 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
18892 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
18893 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
18894 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
18897 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
18898 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful.
18900 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
18901 @cindex ding mailing list
18902 You can also ask on the ding mailing list---@samp{ding@@gnus.org}.
18903 Write to @samp{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
18907 @node Gnus Reference Guide
18908 @section Gnus Reference Guide
18910 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
18911 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
18912 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
18913 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
18916 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
18917 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
18918 backends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
18919 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
18920 and general methods of operation.
18923 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
18924 * Backend Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
18925 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
18926 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
18927 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
18928 * Group Info:: The group info format.
18929 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
18930 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
18931 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
18935 @node Gnus Utility Functions
18936 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
18937 @cindex Gnus utility functions
18938 @cindex utility functions
18940 @cindex internal variables
18942 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
18943 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
18944 Below is a list of the most common ones.
18948 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
18949 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
18950 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
18952 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
18953 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
18954 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
18956 @item gnus-group-real-name
18957 @findex gnus-group-real-name
18958 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
18961 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
18962 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
18963 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
18964 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
18966 @item gnus-get-info
18967 @findex gnus-get-info
18968 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
18970 @item gnus-group-unread
18971 @findex gnus-group-unread
18972 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
18976 @findex gnus-active
18977 The active entry for @var{group}.
18979 @item gnus-set-active
18980 @findex gnus-set-active
18981 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
18983 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
18984 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
18985 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
18988 @item gnus-continuum-version
18989 @findex gnus-continuum-version
18990 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
18991 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
18994 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
18995 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
18996 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
18998 @item gnus-news-group-p
18999 @findex gnus-news-group-p
19000 Says whether @var{group} came from a news backend.
19002 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
19003 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
19004 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
19006 @item gnus-server-to-method
19007 @findex gnus-server-to-method
19008 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
19010 @item gnus-server-equal
19011 @findex gnus-server-equal
19012 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
19014 @item gnus-group-native-p
19015 @findex gnus-group-native-p
19016 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
19018 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
19019 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
19020 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
19022 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
19023 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
19024 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
19026 @item group-group-find-parameter
19027 @findex group-group-find-parameter
19028 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
19029 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
19031 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
19032 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
19033 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
19035 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
19036 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
19037 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
19039 @item gnus-check-backend-function
19040 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
19041 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the backend
19042 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
19045 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
19049 @item gnus-read-method
19050 @findex gnus-read-method
19051 Prompts the user for a select method.
19056 @node Backend Interface
19057 @subsection Backend Interface
19059 Gnus doesn't know anything about @sc{nntp}, spools, mail or virtual
19060 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
19061 server is a @dfn{backend} and some @dfn{backend variables}. As examples
19062 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
19063 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
19064 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
19066 When Gnus asks for information from a backend---say @code{nntp}---on
19067 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
19068 function parameters. (If not, the backend should use the ``current''
19069 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
19070 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
19071 been opened, the function should fail.
19073 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
19074 name. Take this example:
19078 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
19079 (nntp-port-number 4324))
19082 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
19083 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
19085 The backends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
19086 The standard backends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
19087 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
19089 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
19090 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
19091 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
19093 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
19094 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
19095 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
19096 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
19097 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
19098 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
19101 Some backends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} backends, and
19102 some might be said not to be. The latter are backends that generally
19103 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
19104 -- they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
19107 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary backend
19110 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
19113 * Required Backend Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
19114 * Optional Backend Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
19115 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
19116 * Writing New Backends:: Extending old backends.
19117 * Hooking New Backends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
19118 * Mail-like Backends:: Some tips on mail backends.
19122 @node Required Backend Functions
19123 @subsubsection Required Backend Functions
19127 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
19129 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
19130 @code{Message-ID}s. Current backends do not fully support either---only
19131 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most backends do not support
19132 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
19134 The result data should either be HEADs or NOV lines, and the result
19135 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
19136 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
19137 of HEADs and NOV lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
19139 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching "extra
19140 headers", in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
19141 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
19142 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
19143 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the backend finds it
19144 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
19145 number, do maximum fetches.
19147 Here's an example HEAD:
19150 221 1056 Article retrieved.
19151 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
19152 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
19153 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
19154 Subject: Re: Something very droll
19155 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
19156 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
19158 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
19159 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
19160 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
19164 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
19165 these in the data buffer.
19167 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
19171 head = error / valid-head
19172 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
19173 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
19174 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
19175 header = <text> eol
19178 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
19179 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
19183 nov-buffer = *nov-line
19184 nov-line = 8*9 [ field <TAB> ] eol
19185 field = <text except TAB>
19188 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
19192 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
19194 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
19195 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
19197 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The backend
19198 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
19199 server. In fact, it should do so.
19201 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
19202 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
19205 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
19207 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
19208 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
19211 There should be no data returned.
19214 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
19216 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the backend
19217 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that backend
19218 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
19219 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
19221 There should be no data returned.
19224 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
19226 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
19227 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
19228 non-@code{nil} vlue. This function should under no circumstances
19229 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
19231 There should be no data returned.
19234 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
19236 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
19238 There should be no data returned.
19241 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
19243 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
19244 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
19245 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
19246 it would be nice if that were possible.
19248 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
19249 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
19250 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
19251 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
19252 into its article buffer.
19254 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
19255 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
19256 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
19257 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
19258 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
19259 on successful article retrieval.
19262 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
19264 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
19265 making @var{group} the current group.
19267 If @var{FAST}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
19270 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
19273 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
19276 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
19277 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
19278 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
19279 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
19280 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
19281 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
19282 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
19283 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader.
19286 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
19287 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
19288 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
19292 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
19294 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
19295 a no-op on most backends.
19297 There should be no data returned.
19300 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
19302 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
19305 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
19308 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
19309 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
19312 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
19313 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag.
19316 active-file = *active-line
19317 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
19319 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
19322 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
19323 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
19324 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
19327 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
19329 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
19330 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
19331 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
19332 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
19333 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
19334 clear if the posting could not be completed.
19336 There should be no result data from this function.
19341 @node Optional Backend Functions
19342 @subsubsection Optional Backend Functions
19346 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
19348 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
19349 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
19350 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
19352 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
19353 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
19354 former is in the same format as the data from
19355 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
19356 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
19359 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
19363 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
19365 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the backend for
19366 alterations. This comes in handy if the backend really carries all the
19367 information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
19368 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
19369 should return the (altered) group info.
19371 There should be no result data from this function.
19374 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
19376 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
19377 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
19378 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
19379 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
19380 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
19381 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
19382 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
19383 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
19385 There should be no result data from this function.
19388 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
19390 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
19391 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
19392 @code{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some backends (such as IMAP) however carry all
19393 information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to propagate
19394 the mark information to the server.
19396 ACTION is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
19399 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
19402 Range is a range of articles you wish to update marks on. Action is
19403 @code{set}, @code{add} or @code{del}, respectively used for removing all
19404 existing marks and setting them as specified, adding (preserving the
19405 marks not mentioned) mark and removing (preserving the marks not
19406 mentioned) marks. Mark is a list of marks; where each mark is a
19407 symbol. Currently used marks are @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply},
19408 @code{expire}, @code{killed}, @code{dormant}, @code{save},
19409 @code{download} and @code{unsend}, but your backend should, if possible,
19410 not limit itself to theese.
19412 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
19413 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
19414 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
19415 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
19417 An example action list:
19420 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
19421 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
19422 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
19425 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
19426 mark on (currently not used for anything).
19428 There should be no result data from this function.
19430 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
19432 If the user tries to set a mark that the backend doesn't like, this
19433 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
19434 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
19435 @var{mark}. If the backend doesn't care, it must return the original
19436 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
19438 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
19439 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
19440 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
19443 There should be no result data from this function.
19446 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
19448 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
19449 request that the backend check for incoming articles, in one way or
19450 another. A mail backend will typically read the spool file or query the
19451 POP server when this function is invoked. The @var{group} doesn't have
19452 to be heeded---if the backend decides that it is too much work just
19453 scanning for a single group, it may do a total scan of all groups. It
19454 would be nice, however, to keep things local if that's practical.
19456 There should be no result data from this function.
19459 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
19461 The result data from this function should be a description of
19465 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
19467 description = <text>
19470 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
19472 The result data from this function should be the description of all
19473 groups available on the server.
19476 description-buffer = *description-line
19480 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
19482 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
19483 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date
19484 format. The data should be in the active buffer format.
19487 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
19489 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
19491 There should be no return data.
19494 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
19496 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
19497 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
19498 numbers.) It is left up to the backend to decide how old articles
19499 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
19500 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
19503 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
19506 There should be no result data returned.
19509 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM
19512 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
19513 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
19515 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
19516 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
19517 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
19518 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
19519 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
19520 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
19522 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
19523 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
19526 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
19527 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
19529 There should be no data returned.
19532 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
19534 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
19535 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
19536 this function in short order.
19538 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
19539 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
19541 There should be no data returned.
19544 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
19546 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
19547 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
19549 There should be no data returned.
19552 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
19554 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
19555 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
19556 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
19558 There should be no data returned.
19561 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
19563 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
19564 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
19566 There should be no data returned.
19571 @node Error Messaging
19572 @subsubsection Error Messaging
19574 @findex nnheader-report
19575 @findex nnheader-get-report
19576 The backends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
19577 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
19578 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the backend
19579 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
19580 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
19581 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
19584 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
19586 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
19589 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
19590 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
19591 recently reported message for the backend in question. This function
19592 takes one argument---the server symbol.
19594 Internally, these functions access @var{backend}@code{-status-string},
19595 so the @code{nnchoke} backend will have its error message stored in
19596 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
19599 @node Writing New Backends
19600 @subsubsection Writing New Backends
19602 Many backends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
19603 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
19604 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
19605 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
19606 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
19609 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
19610 backends when writing new backends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
19611 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
19613 All the backends declare their public variables and functions by using a
19614 package called @code{nnoo}.
19616 To inherit functions from other backends (and allow other backends to
19617 inherit functions from the current backend), you should use the
19623 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
19624 parameters. For instance:
19627 (nnoo-declare nndir
19631 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
19632 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
19635 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
19636 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
19637 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
19639 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
19640 variables in the parent backends to map the variable to when executing
19641 a function in those backends.
19644 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
19645 "Where nndir will look for groups."
19646 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
19649 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
19650 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
19651 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
19653 @item nnoo-define-basics
19654 This macro defines some common functions that almost all backends should
19658 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
19662 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
19663 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
19664 function as being public so that other backends can inherit it.
19666 @item nnoo-map-functions
19667 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current backend to
19668 functions from the parent backends.
19671 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
19672 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
19673 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
19676 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
19677 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
19678 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
19679 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
19682 This macro allows importing functions from backends. It should be the
19683 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
19684 haven't already been defined.
19690 nnmh-request-newgroups)
19694 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
19695 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
19696 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
19701 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} backend.
19704 ;;; nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus
19705 ;; Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
19709 (require 'nnheader)
19713 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
19715 (nnoo-declare nndir
19718 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
19719 "Where nndir will look for groups."
19720 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
19722 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
19723 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
19726 (defvoo nndir-current-group "" nil nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
19727 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
19728 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
19730 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
19731 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
19733 ;;; Interface functions.
19735 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
19737 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
19738 (setq nndir-directory
19739 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
19741 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
19742 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
19743 (push `(nndir-current-group
19744 ,(file-name-nondirectory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
19746 (push `(nndir-top-directory
19747 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
19749 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
19751 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
19752 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
19753 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
19754 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
19755 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
19759 nnmh-status-message
19761 nnmh-request-newgroups))
19767 @node Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
19768 @subsubsection Hooking New Backends Into Gnus
19770 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
19771 Having Gnus start using your new backend is rather easy---you just
19772 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
19773 enter the backend into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
19775 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the backend name and
19776 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
19781 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
19784 The abilities can be:
19788 This is a mailish backend---followups should (probably) go via mail.
19790 This is a newsish backend---followups should (probably) go via news.
19792 This backend supports both mail and news.
19794 This is neither a post nor mail backend---it's something completely
19797 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
19798 articles and groups.
19800 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
19801 true for almost all backends.
19802 @item prompt-address
19803 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
19804 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for backends like
19805 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
19809 @node Mail-like Backends
19810 @subsubsection Mail-like Backends
19812 One of the things that separate the mail backends from the rest of the
19813 backends is the heavy dependence by the mail backends on common
19814 functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the definition of
19815 @code{nnml-request-scan}:
19818 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
19819 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
19820 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
19823 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
19824 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
19827 This function takes four parameters.
19831 This should be a symbol to designate which backend is responsible for
19834 @item exit-function
19835 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
19837 @item temp-directory
19838 Where the temporary files should be stored.
19841 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
19842 performed for one group only.
19845 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{backend}@code{-save-mail} to
19846 save each article. @var{backend}@code{-active-number} will be called to
19847 find the article number assigned to this article.
19849 The function also uses the following variables:
19850 @var{backend}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
19851 this backend); and @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} and
19852 @var{backend}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
19853 @var{backend}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
19857 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
19858 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
19862 @node Score File Syntax
19863 @subsection Score File Syntax
19865 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
19866 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
19867 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
19869 Here's a typical score file:
19873 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
19880 BNF definition of a score file:
19883 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
19884 element = rule / atom
19885 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
19886 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
19887 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
19888 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
19890 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
19891 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
19892 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
19893 date-header = "date"
19894 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
19895 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
19896 score = "nil" / <integer>
19897 date = "nil" / <natural number>
19898 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
19899 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
19900 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
19901 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
19902 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
19903 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
19904 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
19905 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
19906 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
19907 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
19908 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
19909 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
19910 exclude-files / read-only / touched
19911 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
19912 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
19913 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
19914 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
19915 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
19916 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
19917 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
19918 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
19919 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
19920 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
19921 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
19922 eval = "eval" space <form>
19923 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
19926 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
19929 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
19930 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
19931 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
19932 one looong line, then that's ok.
19934 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
19935 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
19939 @subsection Headers
19941 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
19942 corresponds to the @sc{nov} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
19943 almost suspect that the author looked at the @sc{nov} specification and
19944 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
19946 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
19947 RFC1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
19948 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
19949 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
19950 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
19951 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
19952 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
19954 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
19955 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
19956 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
19957 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
19958 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
19960 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
19961 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
19967 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
19968 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
19970 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
19971 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
19972 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
19973 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
19975 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
19979 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
19982 is transformed into
19985 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
19988 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
19989 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
19992 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
19995 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
19996 is slightly tricky:
19999 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
20005 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
20008 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
20014 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
20021 and is equal to the previous range.
20023 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
20024 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
20025 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
20029 range = simple-range / normal-range
20030 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
20031 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
20032 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
20033 number *[ " " contents ]
20036 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
20037 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
20038 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
20039 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
20040 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
20045 @subsection Group Info
20047 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
20048 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
20049 describes the group.
20051 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
20052 second is a more complex one:
20055 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
20057 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
20058 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
20060 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
20063 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
20064 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
20065 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
20066 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
20067 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
20068 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
20069 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
20070 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
20071 this section is about.
20073 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
20074 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
20075 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
20077 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
20080 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
20081 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
20082 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
20083 group = quote <string> quote
20084 ralevel = rank / level
20085 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
20086 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
20087 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
20089 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
20090 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
20091 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
20092 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
20095 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
20096 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
20099 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
20100 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
20103 @item gnus-info-group
20104 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
20105 @findex gnus-info-group
20106 @findex gnus-info-set-group
20107 Get/set the group name.
20109 @item gnus-info-rank
20110 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
20111 @findex gnus-info-rank
20112 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
20113 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
20115 @item gnus-info-level
20116 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
20117 @findex gnus-info-level
20118 @findex gnus-info-set-level
20119 Get/set the group level.
20121 @item gnus-info-score
20122 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
20123 @findex gnus-info-score
20124 @findex gnus-info-set-score
20125 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
20127 @item gnus-info-read
20128 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
20129 @findex gnus-info-read
20130 @findex gnus-info-set-read
20131 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
20133 @item gnus-info-marks
20134 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
20135 @findex gnus-info-marks
20136 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
20137 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
20139 @item gnus-info-method
20140 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
20141 @findex gnus-info-method
20142 @findex gnus-info-set-method
20143 Get/set the group select method.
20145 @item gnus-info-params
20146 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
20147 @findex gnus-info-params
20148 @findex gnus-info-set-params
20149 Get/set the group parameters.
20152 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
20153 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
20155 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
20156 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
20157 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
20158 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
20161 @node Extended Interactive
20162 @subsection Extended Interactive
20163 @cindex interactive
20164 @findex gnus-interactive
20166 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
20167 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
20168 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
20171 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
20172 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
20177 The best thing to do would have been to implement
20178 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
20179 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
20180 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
20181 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
20182 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
20183 @code{interactive}.
20185 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
20190 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
20191 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
20195 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
20196 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
20197 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
20200 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
20204 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
20208 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
20214 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
20215 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
20219 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
20220 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
20221 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
20223 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
20224 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
20225 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
20226 Gnus, that's very useful.
20228 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
20229 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
20230 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
20231 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
20232 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
20233 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
20234 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
20235 following function:
20238 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
20242 (,function ,@@args))
20246 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
20247 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
20248 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
20251 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
20252 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
20253 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
20255 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
20256 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
20257 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
20260 @node Various File Formats
20261 @subsection Various File Formats
20264 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
20265 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
20269 @node Active File Format
20270 @subsubsection Active File Format
20272 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
20273 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
20276 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
20279 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
20280 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
20281 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
20282 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
20283 no.general 1000 900 y
20286 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
20289 active = *group-line
20290 group-line = group space high-number space low-number space flag <NEWLINE>
20291 group = <non-white-space string>
20293 high-number = <non-negative integer>
20294 low-number = <positive integer>
20295 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
20298 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
20299 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
20302 @node Newsgroups File Format
20303 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
20305 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
20306 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
20307 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
20310 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
20311 Here's the definition:
20315 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
20316 group = <non-white-space string>
20318 description = <string>
20323 @node Emacs for Heathens
20324 @section Emacs for Heathens
20326 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
20327 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
20328 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{M-C-a}'', ``kill the
20329 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
20330 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
20331 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
20332 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
20336 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
20337 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
20342 @subsection Keystrokes
20346 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
20349 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
20352 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
20353 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
20354 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
20355 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
20356 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
20357 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
20359 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
20360 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
20361 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
20362 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
20363 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
20364 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
20365 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
20367 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
20368 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{M-C-m}
20369 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
20370 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
20371 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
20372 ``Press @kbd{M-C-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
20373 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
20375 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
20376 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
20377 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
20378 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
20379 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
20385 @subsection Emacs Lisp
20387 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
20388 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
20389 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
20390 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
20392 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
20393 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
20394 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
20395 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
20396 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
20397 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
20398 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
20401 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
20402 write the following:
20405 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
20408 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
20409 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
20410 you can go and fill your @code{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
20413 If you have put that thing in your @code{.emacs} file, it will be read
20414 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
20415 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
20416 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
20417 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
20419 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
20420 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
20421 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
20425 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
20429 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
20432 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
20433 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
20436 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
20439 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
20440 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
20443 @include gnus-faq.texi