4 @settitle T-gnus 6.17 Manual
10 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
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295 \gnusauthor{by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen}
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304 Copyright \copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
306 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
309 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
310 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
311 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
312 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
313 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
314 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
315 License'' in the Emacs manual.
317 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
318 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
319 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
321 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
322 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
323 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
324 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
332 This file documents gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
334 Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
335 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
337 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
338 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
339 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
340 Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
341 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
342 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
343 License'' in the Emacs manual.
345 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
346 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
347 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
349 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
350 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
351 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
352 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
358 @title T-gnus 6.17 Manual
360 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
363 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
364 Copyright @copyright{} 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
366 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
368 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
369 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
370 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
371 Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
372 Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
373 license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
374 License'' in the Emacs manual.
376 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
377 this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
378 Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
380 This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
381 Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
382 separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
383 license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
392 @top The gnus Newsreader
396 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using T-gnus. The news
397 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@acronym{NNTP}, local
398 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
401 T-gnus provides @acronym{MIME} features based on @acronym{SEMI} API. So
402 T-gnus supports your right to read strange messages including big images
403 or other various kinds of formats. T-gnus also supports
404 internationalization/localization and multiscript features based on MULE
405 API. So T-gnus does not discriminate various language communities. Oh,
406 if you are a Klingon, please wait Unicode Next Generation.
408 This manual corresponds to T-gnus 6.17.
419 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
420 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
422 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
423 being accused of plagiarism:
425 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
426 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
427 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
428 can even read news with it!
430 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
431 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
432 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend gnus to make it behave
433 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
434 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
440 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
441 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
442 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
443 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
444 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
445 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
446 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
447 * Various:: General purpose settings.
448 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
449 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, @acronym{FAQ}, History, Internals.
450 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
451 * Key Index:: Key Index.
453 Other related manuals
455 * Message:(message). Composing messages.
456 * Emacs-MIME:(emacs-mime). Composing messages; @acronym{MIME}-specific parts.
457 * Sieve:(sieve). Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
458 * PGG:(pgg). @acronym{PGP/MIME} with Gnus.
459 * SASL:(sasl). @acronym{SASL} authentication in Emacs.
462 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
466 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
467 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
468 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
469 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
470 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
471 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
472 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
473 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
474 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
475 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
476 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
480 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
481 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
482 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
486 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
487 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
488 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
489 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
490 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
491 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
492 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
493 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
494 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
495 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
496 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
497 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
498 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
499 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
500 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
501 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
502 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
506 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
507 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
508 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
512 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
513 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
514 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
515 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
516 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
520 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
521 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
522 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
523 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
524 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
528 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
529 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
530 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
531 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
532 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
533 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
534 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
535 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
536 * Threading:: How threads are made.
537 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
538 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
539 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
540 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
541 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
542 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
543 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
544 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
545 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
546 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
547 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
548 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
549 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
550 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
551 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
552 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
553 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
554 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
555 or reselecting the current group.
556 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
557 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
558 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
559 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
561 Summary Buffer Format
563 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
564 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
565 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
566 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
570 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
571 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
573 Reply, Followup and Post
575 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
576 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
577 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
578 * Canceling and Superseding::
582 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
583 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
584 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
588 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
589 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
590 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
594 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
595 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
597 Customizing Threading
599 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
600 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
601 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
602 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
606 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
607 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
608 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
609 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
610 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
611 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
615 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
616 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
617 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
621 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
622 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
623 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
624 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
625 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
626 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
627 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
628 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
629 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
630 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
631 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
633 Alternative Approaches
635 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
636 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
638 Various Summary Stuff
640 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
641 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
642 * Summary Generation Commands::
643 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
647 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
648 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
649 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
650 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
651 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
655 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
656 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
657 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
658 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
659 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
660 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
661 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
662 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
663 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
667 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
668 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
669 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
670 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
671 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
672 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
673 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
674 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
678 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
679 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
680 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
681 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
682 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
683 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
684 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
688 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
689 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
693 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
694 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
695 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
699 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
700 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
701 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
702 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
703 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
704 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
705 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
706 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
707 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
708 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
709 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
710 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
711 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
715 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
716 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
717 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
719 Choosing a Mail Back End
721 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
722 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
723 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
724 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
725 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
726 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
727 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
732 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
733 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
734 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
735 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
736 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
737 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
741 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
742 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
743 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
744 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
745 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
746 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
750 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
751 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
752 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
753 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
754 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
758 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
762 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
763 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
764 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
768 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
769 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
773 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
774 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
775 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
776 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
777 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
778 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
779 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
780 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
781 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
782 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
783 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
784 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
785 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
789 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
790 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
791 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
795 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
796 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
797 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
801 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
802 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
803 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
804 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
805 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
806 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
807 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
808 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
809 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
810 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
811 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
812 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
813 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
814 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
815 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
816 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
820 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
821 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
822 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
826 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
827 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
828 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
829 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
830 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
831 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
832 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
833 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
834 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
835 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
836 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
837 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
838 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
839 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
840 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
841 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
842 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
843 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
844 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
845 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
849 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
850 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
851 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
852 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
853 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
854 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
855 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
856 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
860 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
861 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
862 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
863 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
864 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
868 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
869 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
870 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
871 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
872 * Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package::
873 * Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat::
875 Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
877 * Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events::
878 * Spam ELisp Package Filtering of Incoming Mail::
879 * Spam ELisp Package Global Variables::
880 * Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples::
881 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
883 * Gmane Spam Reporting::
884 * Anti-spam Hashcash Payments::
886 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
888 * SpamAssassin backend::
889 * ifile spam filtering::
890 * spam-stat spam filtering::
892 * Extending the Spam ELisp package::
894 Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat
896 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
897 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
898 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
902 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
903 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
904 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
905 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
906 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
907 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
908 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
909 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
910 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
914 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
915 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
916 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
917 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
918 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
919 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
920 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
921 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
922 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
926 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
927 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
928 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
929 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
930 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
931 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10.
932 * No Gnus:: Lars, FIXME!
936 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
937 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
938 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
939 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
943 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
944 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
945 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
946 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
947 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
948 * Group Info:: The group info format.
949 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
950 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
951 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
955 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
956 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
957 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
958 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
959 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
960 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
964 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
965 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
969 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
970 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
976 @chapter Starting gnus
981 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting gnus
982 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
985 @findex gnus-other-frame
986 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
987 If you want to start gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
988 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
990 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
991 variables in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file. This file is similar to
992 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when Gnus starts.
994 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
995 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
998 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
999 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
1000 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
1001 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
1002 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
1003 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
1004 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
1005 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
1006 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
1007 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
1008 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
1012 @node Finding the News
1013 @section Finding the News
1014 @cindex finding news
1016 @vindex gnus-select-method
1018 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where gnus should look for
1019 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
1020 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
1021 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
1024 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @acronym{NNTP} server is where
1025 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
1028 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
1031 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
1034 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
1037 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
1038 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
1039 server is running Leafnode; in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
1041 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
1043 @cindex @acronym{NNTP} server
1044 If this variable is not set, gnus will take a look at the
1045 @env{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
1046 gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
1047 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter.
1048 If that fails as well, gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs
1049 as an @acronym{NNTP} server. That's a long shot, though.
1051 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1052 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
1053 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
1054 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
1056 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
1057 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1058 You can also make gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
1059 @acronym{NNTP} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
1060 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), gnus will let you choose between the servers
1061 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
1062 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
1063 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
1064 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
1067 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1069 However, if you use one @acronym{NNTP} server regularly and are just
1070 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1071 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1072 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1073 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1074 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1076 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1078 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1079 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1080 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1081 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1082 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1083 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1086 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1087 you would typically set this variable to
1090 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1094 @node The First Time
1095 @section The First Time
1096 @cindex first time usage
1098 If no startup files exist, gnus will try to determine what groups should
1099 be subscribed by default.
1101 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1102 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, gnus
1103 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1104 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1107 Since she hasn't, gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1108 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1109 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1111 You'll also be subscribed to the gnus documentation group, which should
1112 help you with most common problems.
1114 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, gnus will just
1115 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1119 @node The Server is Down
1120 @section The Server is Down
1121 @cindex server errors
1123 If the default server is down, gnus will understandably have some
1124 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1125 the news groups, you may want to start gnus anyway.
1127 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1128 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1129 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1130 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1131 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1132 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1133 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1135 @findex gnus-no-server
1136 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1138 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1139 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1140 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start gnus. That might come in handy
1141 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1142 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1143 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1144 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1148 @section Slave Gnusae
1151 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one gnus at the
1152 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1153 are using the two different gnusae to read from two different servers),
1154 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1156 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1157 @file{.newsrc} file.
1159 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the gnus
1160 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1161 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1162 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1163 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1164 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1165 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1168 Anyway, you start one gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1169 however you do it). Each subsequent slave gnusae should be started with
1170 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1171 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1172 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master gnus
1173 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1174 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1175 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1177 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1178 information in the normal (i.e., master) @file{.newsrc} file.
1180 If the @file{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1181 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1182 file. If you answer ``yes'', the unsaved changes to the master will be
1183 incorporated into the slave. If you answer ``no'', the slave may see some
1184 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1186 @node Fetching a Group
1187 @section Fetching a Group
1188 @cindex fetching a group
1190 @findex gnus-fetch-group
1191 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
1192 group and I don't care whether gnus has been started or not''. This is
1193 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
1194 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
1195 It takes the group name as a parameter.
1201 @cindex subscription
1203 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1204 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1205 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1206 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1207 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1208 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1209 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1210 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1211 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1214 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1215 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1216 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1220 @node Checking New Groups
1221 @subsection Checking New Groups
1223 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1224 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1225 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1226 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, gnus will ask the
1227 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1228 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1229 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1230 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1231 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1232 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1234 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1235 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1236 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1237 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1238 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1239 work. I could write a function to make gnus guess whether the server
1240 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1241 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1242 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1243 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1244 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1246 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, gnus will
1247 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1248 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1249 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1250 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1251 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1254 @node Subscription Methods
1255 @subsection Subscription Methods
1257 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1258 What gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1259 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1261 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1262 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1264 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1268 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1269 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1270 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1271 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1272 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1274 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1275 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1276 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1277 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1279 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1280 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1281 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1283 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1284 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1285 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1286 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1287 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1288 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1289 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1290 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1291 up. Or something like that.
1293 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1294 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1295 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that gnus will ask
1296 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1297 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1299 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1300 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1301 Kill all new groups.
1303 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1304 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1305 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1306 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1307 topic parameter that looks like
1313 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1316 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1321 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1322 A closely related variable is
1323 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1324 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, gnus will ask you in a
1325 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1326 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1329 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1330 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1331 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1332 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1335 @node Filtering New Groups
1336 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1338 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1339 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1340 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1343 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1346 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1347 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1348 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1349 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1350 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1351 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1352 subscribing these groups.
1353 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1354 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1356 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1357 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1358 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1359 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1360 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1361 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1362 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1363 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1365 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1366 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1367 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1368 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous,
1369 but I thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is
1370 more meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is
1371 used more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new
1372 groups that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1373 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, and @code{nnmaildir})
1374 subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to
1377 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1378 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1381 @node Changing Servers
1382 @section Changing Servers
1383 @cindex changing servers
1385 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another.
1386 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1387 very flaky and you want to use another.
1389 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1390 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1394 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1395 @acronym{NNTP} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1396 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1397 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1400 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1401 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1402 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1403 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1405 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1406 @findex gnus-change-server
1407 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1408 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1409 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1410 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1411 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1413 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1414 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1415 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1416 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1417 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1419 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1420 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1421 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1422 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1423 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1424 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1426 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1427 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1428 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1429 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1431 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1432 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1433 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1434 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1435 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1436 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1437 cache for all groups).
1441 @section Startup Files
1442 @cindex startup files
1447 Now, you all know about the @file{.newsrc} file. All subscription
1448 information is traditionally stored in this file.
1450 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1451 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1452 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1453 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1454 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1455 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1456 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1458 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1459 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1460 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1461 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1462 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1463 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1465 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1466 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1467 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1468 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1469 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from gnus faster.
1470 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1471 gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1472 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes gnus ignore the
1473 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which is
1474 convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while.
1476 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1477 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1478 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1479 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1480 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1481 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1482 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1483 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1484 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1485 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1486 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1487 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1489 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1490 @vindex gnus-backup-startup-file
1491 @vindex version-control
1492 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1493 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1494 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1495 If you want version control for this file, set
1496 @code{gnus-backup-startup-file}. It respects the same values as the
1497 @code{version-control} variable.
1499 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1500 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1501 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1502 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1503 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1504 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1505 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1506 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1507 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1508 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1511 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1512 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1514 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1515 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1518 @vindex gnus-init-file
1519 @vindex gnus-site-init-file
1520 When gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1521 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1522 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1523 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1524 @file{site-init} files with gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1525 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1526 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1527 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1528 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order).
1534 @cindex dribble file
1537 Whenever you do something that changes the gnus data (reading articles,
1538 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1539 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1540 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1541 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1544 If gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1545 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1548 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1549 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, gnus won't create and
1550 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1552 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1553 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1554 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, gnus will dribble
1555 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1556 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1557 file permissions as the @file{.newsrc} file.
1559 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1560 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1561 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1564 @node The Active File
1565 @section The Active File
1567 @cindex ignored groups
1569 When gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1570 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1571 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1573 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1574 Before examining the active file, gnus deletes all lines that match the
1575 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1576 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make gnus
1577 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1578 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1579 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1582 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1583 @c if you set it to anything else.
1585 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1587 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1588 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent gnus from
1589 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1591 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1592 you actually subscribe to.
1594 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1595 variable to @code{nil} will probably make gnus slower, not faster. At
1596 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow gnus down
1597 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1599 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1600 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1601 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1602 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1603 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1604 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1606 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1607 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1608 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1611 If this variable is @code{nil}, gnus will ask for group info in total
1612 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1613 @acronym{NNTP} server, gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1614 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1615 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1616 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1618 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1619 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1621 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1622 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1624 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1625 secondary select methods.
1628 @node Startup Variables
1629 @section Startup Variables
1633 @item gnus-load-hook
1634 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1635 A hook run while gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1636 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1637 times you start gnus.
1639 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1640 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1641 A hook run after starting up gnus successfully.
1643 @item gnus-startup-hook
1644 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1645 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up gnus
1647 @item gnus-started-hook
1648 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1649 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up gnus
1652 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1653 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1654 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1655 generating the group buffer.
1657 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1658 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1659 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1660 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1661 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1662 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1663 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1664 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1666 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1667 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1668 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1669 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1670 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1671 @file{~/.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @file{.emacs} instead.
1673 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1674 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1675 Message displayed by gnus when no groups are available.
1677 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1678 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1679 If non-@code{nil}, play the gnus jingle at startup.
1681 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1682 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1683 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1684 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1690 @chapter Group Buffer
1691 @cindex group buffer
1693 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1695 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1696 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1697 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1698 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1699 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1700 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1701 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1702 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1703 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1704 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1705 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1706 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1707 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1708 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1709 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1710 @c human rights at 9...
1713 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1714 is the first buffer shown when gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1715 long as gnus is active.
1719 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1720 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1721 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1722 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1723 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1724 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1725 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1726 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1732 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1733 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1734 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1735 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1736 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1737 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1738 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1739 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1740 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1741 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1742 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1743 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1744 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1745 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1746 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1747 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1748 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1752 @node Group Buffer Format
1753 @section Group Buffer Format
1756 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1757 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
1758 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1762 @node Group Line Specification
1763 @subsection Group Line Specification
1764 @cindex group buffer format
1766 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1767 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1769 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1772 25: news.announce.newusers
1773 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1778 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1779 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1780 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1781 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1783 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1784 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1785 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1786 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1787 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1788 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1790 @samp{%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1792 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1793 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1794 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1795 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1796 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1798 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1799 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1800 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1802 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1807 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1810 Whether the group is subscribed.
1813 Level of subscribedness.
1816 Number of unread articles.
1819 Number of dormant articles.
1822 Number of ticked articles.
1825 Number of read articles.
1828 Number of unseen articles.
1831 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1832 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1834 Gnus uses this estimation because the @acronym{NNTP} protocol provides
1835 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1836 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1837 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1838 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1839 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1840 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job. If you
1841 want to work on this, please contact the Gnus mailing list.
1844 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1847 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1856 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1857 comment element in the group parameters.
1860 Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions
1861 before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set
1862 @code{gnus-read-active-file} or use the group buffer @kbd{M-d}
1866 @samp{m} if moderated.
1869 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1875 If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.
1881 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1885 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1888 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1889 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1890 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1891 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1892 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1895 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1897 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1901 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1904 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1908 The disk space used by the articles fetched by both the cache and
1909 agent. The value is automatically scaled to bytes(B), kilobytes(K),
1910 megabytes(M), or gigabytes(G) to minimize the column width. A format
1911 of %7F is sufficient for a fixed-width column.
1914 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1915 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1916 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1917 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1918 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1919 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1924 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1925 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1926 group, or a bogus native group.
1929 @node Group Mode Line Specification
1930 @subsection Group Mode Line Specification
1931 @cindex group mode line
1933 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1934 The mode line can be changed by setting
1935 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1936 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1940 The native news server.
1942 The native select method.
1946 @node Group Highlighting
1947 @subsection Group Highlighting
1948 @cindex highlighting
1949 @cindex group highlighting
1951 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1952 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1953 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1954 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1955 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1957 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1961 (cond (window-system
1962 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1963 (defface my-group-face-1
1964 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1965 (defface my-group-face-2
1966 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t)))
1967 "Second group face")
1968 (defface my-group-face-3
1969 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1970 (defface my-group-face-4
1971 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1972 (defface my-group-face-5
1973 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1975 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1976 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1977 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1978 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1979 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1980 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1983 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1985 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1992 The number of unread articles in the group.
1996 Whether the group is a mail group.
1998 The level of the group.
2000 The score of the group.
2002 The number of ticked articles in the group.
2004 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather,
2005 @var{max-number} minus @var{min-number} plus one.
2007 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
2008 topic being inserted.
2011 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
2012 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal gnus
2013 functions for snarfing info on the group.
2015 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
2016 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
2017 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
2018 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
2019 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
2022 @node Group Maneuvering
2023 @section Group Maneuvering
2024 @cindex group movement
2026 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
2027 expected, hopefully.
2033 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
2034 Go to the next group that has unread articles
2035 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
2041 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
2042 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
2043 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
2047 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2048 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2052 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2053 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2057 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
2058 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
2059 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
2063 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
2064 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
2065 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
2068 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2074 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2075 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2076 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2081 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2082 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2083 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2087 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2088 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2089 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2092 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2093 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2094 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2095 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2099 @node Selecting a Group
2100 @section Selecting a Group
2101 @cindex group selection
2106 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2107 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2108 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2109 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2110 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2111 this command, gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2112 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{n}, @var{n}
2113 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{n} is
2114 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{n} newest articles, if @var{n} is
2115 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{n})} oldest articles.
2117 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2118 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2119 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2121 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2122 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2127 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2128 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2129 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2130 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2131 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2135 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2136 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2137 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2138 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2139 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2140 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2141 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2142 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2143 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2144 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2147 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2148 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2149 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2150 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2151 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2154 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2155 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2156 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2157 doing any processing of its contents
2158 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2159 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2160 manner will have no permanent effects.
2164 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2165 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should
2166 consider to be a big group. If it is @code{nil}, no groups are
2167 considered big. The default value is 200. If the group has more
2168 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, gnus will query the user
2169 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many
2170 articles should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a
2171 negative number (@var{-n}), the @var{n} oldest articles will be
2172 fetched. If it is positive, the @var{n} articles that have arrived
2173 most recently will be fetched.
2175 @vindex gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup
2176 @code{gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup} is the same as
2177 @code{gnus-large-newsgroup}, but is only used for ephemeral
2180 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2181 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2182 @vindex gnus-auto-select-subject
2183 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2184 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2185 Which article this is is controlled by the
2186 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2192 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2195 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2198 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2200 @item unseen-or-unread
2201 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2202 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2206 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2210 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2211 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2213 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2214 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2215 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2216 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2220 @node Subscription Commands
2221 @section Subscription Commands
2222 @cindex subscription
2230 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2231 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2232 Toggle subscription to the current group
2233 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2239 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2240 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2241 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2242 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2248 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2249 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2250 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2256 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2257 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2260 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2261 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2262 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2263 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2264 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2270 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2271 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2275 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2276 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2279 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2280 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2281 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2282 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2283 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2284 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2285 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2286 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2287 @file{.newsrc} file.
2291 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2301 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2302 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2303 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2304 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2305 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2306 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2311 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2312 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2313 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2317 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2318 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2319 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2321 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2322 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2323 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2324 If you have switched from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another, all your marks
2325 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2326 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2333 @section Group Levels
2337 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2338 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2339 can ask gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2340 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2341 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2343 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2349 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2350 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2351 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2352 prompted for a level.
2355 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2356 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2357 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2358 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2359 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2360 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2361 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2362 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2363 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2364 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2365 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2366 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2367 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2368 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2369 reasons of efficiency.
2371 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2372 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2374 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2375 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2376 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2377 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2378 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2379 groups are hidden, in a way.
2381 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2382 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2383 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2384 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2385 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2386 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2388 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2389 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2390 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2391 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2392 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2393 list of killed groups.)
2395 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2396 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2397 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2399 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2400 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2401 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2402 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2403 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2404 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2405 relevant valid ranges.
2407 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2408 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2409 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2410 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2411 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2412 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2415 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2416 one with the best level.
2418 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2419 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2420 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2423 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2424 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2425 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2426 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2429 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2430 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2431 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2432 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2434 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2435 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2436 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2437 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2438 to 5. The default is 6.
2442 @section Group Score
2447 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2448 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2449 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2452 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2453 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2454 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2455 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2456 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2457 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2458 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2459 least significant part.))
2461 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2462 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2463 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2464 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2465 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2466 action after each summary exit, you can add
2467 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2468 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2469 slow things down somewhat.
2472 @node Marking Groups
2473 @section Marking Groups
2474 @cindex marking groups
2476 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2477 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2478 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2479 bidding on those groups.
2481 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2482 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2483 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2491 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2492 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2498 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2499 Remove the mark from the current group
2500 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2504 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2505 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2509 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2510 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2514 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2515 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2519 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2520 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2521 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2524 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2526 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2527 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2528 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2529 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2530 the command to be executed.
2533 @node Foreign Groups
2534 @section Foreign Groups
2535 @cindex foreign groups
2537 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2538 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2539 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2540 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2547 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2548 @cindex making groups
2549 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2550 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2551 to subscribe to @acronym{NNTP} groups (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
2555 @findex gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group
2556 Make an ephemeral group (@code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group}). Gnus
2557 will prompt you for a name, a method and an @dfn{address}.
2561 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2562 @cindex renaming groups
2563 Rename the current group to something else
2564 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2565 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2571 @findex gnus-group-customize
2572 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2576 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2577 @cindex renaming groups
2578 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2579 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2583 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2584 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2585 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2589 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2590 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2591 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2595 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2597 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2598 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2603 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2604 Make the gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2608 @cindex (ding) archive
2609 @cindex archive group
2610 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2611 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2612 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2613 Make a gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2614 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2615 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2616 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2620 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2622 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2623 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2624 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2625 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2629 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2631 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2632 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2633 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2637 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2638 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2640 Make a group based on some file or other
2641 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2642 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2643 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2644 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2645 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2646 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2647 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2648 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2649 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2653 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2654 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2655 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2656 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2660 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2664 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2665 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2666 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2667 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2668 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2669 @xref{Web Searches}.
2671 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2672 to a particular group by using a match string like
2673 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2677 @findex gnus-group-make-rss-group
2678 Make a group based on an @acronym{RSS} feed
2679 (@code{gnus-group-make-rss-group}). You will be prompted for an URL.
2683 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2684 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2685 This function will delete the current group
2686 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2687 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2688 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2689 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2690 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} groups), though.
2694 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2695 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2696 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2700 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2701 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2702 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2705 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2708 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2709 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2710 gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2711 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2712 groups from different @acronym{NNTP} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2713 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2717 @node Group Parameters
2718 @section Group Parameters
2719 @cindex group parameters
2721 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2722 Here's an example group parameter list:
2725 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2729 We see that each element consists of a ``dotted pair''---the thing before
2730 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2731 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2732 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2734 Some parameters have correspondent customizable variables, each of which
2735 is an alist of regexps and values.
2737 The following group parameters can be used:
2742 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2745 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2748 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2749 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2750 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2751 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2752 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2754 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2755 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2756 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2757 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2758 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2759 list address instead.
2761 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2765 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2768 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2771 It is totally ignored
2772 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2773 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2775 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2776 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2777 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2778 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2779 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2781 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2782 @cindex mail list groups
2783 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2784 entering summary buffer.
2786 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2791 @cindex Mail-Followup-To
2792 @findex gnus-find-subscribed-addresses
2793 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2794 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2795 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2796 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2797 headers for your posts to these lists. The second step is to put the
2798 following in your @file{.gnus.el}
2801 (setq message-subscribed-address-functions
2802 '(gnus-find-subscribed-addresses))
2805 @xref{Mailing Lists, ,Mailing Lists, message, The Message Manual}, for
2806 a complete treatment of available MFT support.
2810 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2811 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2812 of whether it has any unread articles.
2814 @item broken-reply-to
2815 @cindex broken-reply-to
2816 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2817 headers in this group are to be ignored, and for the header to be hidden
2818 if @code{reply-to} is part of @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}. This
2819 can be useful if you're reading a mailing list group where the listserv
2820 has inserted @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv
2821 itself. That is broken behavior. So there!
2825 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2826 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2830 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, gnus
2831 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2832 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2837 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2838 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2839 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2840 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2841 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2842 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2843 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2845 @strong{Caveat}: Adding @code{(gcc-self . t)} to the parameter list of
2846 @code{nntp} groups (or the like) isn't valid. An @code{nntp} server
2847 doesn't accept articles.
2851 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2852 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2853 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2855 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2858 @cindex total-expire
2859 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2860 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2861 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2862 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2865 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2869 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2870 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2871 @code{(expiry-wait . 10)}, this value will override any
2872 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function}
2873 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}) when expiring expirable messages. The value
2874 can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the
2875 symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2878 @cindex expiry-target
2879 Where expired messages end up. This parameter overrides
2880 @code{nnmail-expiry-target}.
2883 @cindex score file group parameter
2884 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2885 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2886 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2889 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2890 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2891 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2892 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2895 @cindex admin-address
2896 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2897 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2898 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2899 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2903 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2904 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2908 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2911 Display the last @var{integer} articles in the group. This is the same as
2912 entering the group with @kbd{C-u @var{integer}}.
2915 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2919 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2921 Here are some examples:
2925 Display only unread articles.
2928 Display everything except expirable articles.
2930 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2931 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2935 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2936 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2937 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2938 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2939 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{unseen} and @code{recent}.
2943 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2944 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
2945 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
2949 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
2950 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
2951 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
2955 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2956 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2957 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2959 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2961 @item ignored-charsets
2962 @cindex ignored-charset
2963 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
2964 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2965 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2967 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2970 @cindex posting-style
2971 You can store additional posting style information for this group
2972 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2973 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2974 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2975 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2977 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2978 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2979 like this in the group parameters:
2984 ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value")
2985 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2990 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
2991 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
2995 An item like @code{(banner . @var{regexp})} causes any part of an article
2996 that matches the regular expression @var{regexp} to be stripped. Instead of
2997 @var{regexp}, you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
2998 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
2999 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
3003 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
3004 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
3005 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
3006 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
3008 For example, if the @samp{INBOX.list.sieve} group has the @code{(sieve
3009 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
3010 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
3011 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
3014 if address \"sender\" \"sieve-admin@@extundo.com\" @{
3015 fileinto \"INBOX.list.sieve\";
3019 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve,
3020 Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
3022 @item (agent parameters)
3023 If the agent has been enabled, you can set any of the its parameters
3024 to control the behavior of the agent in individual groups. See Agent
3025 Parameters in @ref{Category Syntax}. Most users will choose to set
3026 agent parameters in either an agent category or group topic to
3027 minimize the configuration effort.
3029 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
3030 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
3031 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
3032 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
3033 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
3034 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
3035 @code{eval}ed there.
3037 Note that this feature sets the variable locally to the summary buffer.
3038 But some variables are evaluated in the article buffer, or in the
3039 message buffer (of a reply or followup or otherwise newly created
3040 message). As a workaround, it might help to add the variable in
3041 question to @code{gnus-newsgroup-variables}. @xref{Various Summary
3042 Stuff}. So if you want to set @code{message-from-style} via the group
3043 parameters, then you may need the following statement elsewhere in your
3044 @file{~/.gnus} file:
3047 (add-to-list 'gnus-newsgroup-variables 'message-from-style)
3050 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
3051 A use for this feature is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
3052 the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group
3055 nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps
3058 has the tag @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this
3059 tag can be removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for
3060 the group by putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")}
3061 into the group parameters for the group.
3063 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function. If you want to
3064 hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put something like
3065 @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that group.
3066 @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the (meaningless) result of the
3069 Alternatively, since the VARIABLE becomes local to the group, this
3070 pattern can be used to temporarily change a hook. For example, if the
3071 following is added to a group parameter
3074 (gnus-summary-prepared-hook
3075 '(lambda nil (local-set-key "d" (local-key-binding "n"))))
3078 when the group is entered, the 'd' key will not mark the article as
3083 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
3084 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
3085 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
3086 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
3087 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
3089 @vindex gnus-parameters
3090 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
3091 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect. For
3095 (setq gnus-parameters
3097 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3098 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
3099 (gnus-summary-line-format
3100 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
3104 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
3108 (gnus-use-scoring t))
3112 (broken-reply-to . t))))
3115 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
3116 the @code{to-group} example shows.
3119 @node Listing Groups
3120 @section Listing Groups
3121 @cindex group listing
3123 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
3131 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
3132 List all groups that have unread articles
3133 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
3134 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
3135 only lists groups of level five (i.e.,
3136 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3143 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3144 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3145 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3146 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3147 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3148 unsubscribed groups).
3152 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3153 List all unread groups on a specific level
3154 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3155 with no unread articles.
3159 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3160 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3161 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3162 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3167 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3168 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3172 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3173 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3174 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3178 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3179 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3183 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3184 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3185 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3186 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3187 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3188 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3189 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3190 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3194 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3195 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3196 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3200 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3201 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3202 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3206 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3207 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3211 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3212 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3216 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3217 List groups limited within the current selection
3218 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
3222 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3223 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3227 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3228 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3232 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3233 @cindex visible group parameter
3234 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3235 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3236 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3237 get the same effect.
3239 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3240 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3241 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3242 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3243 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3246 @node Sorting Groups
3247 @section Sorting Groups
3248 @cindex sorting groups
3250 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3251 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3252 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3253 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3254 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3255 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3260 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3261 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3262 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3264 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3265 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3266 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3268 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3269 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3270 Sort by group level.
3272 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3273 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3274 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3276 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3277 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3278 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3279 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3281 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3282 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3283 Sort by number of unread articles.
3285 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3286 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3287 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3289 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3290 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3291 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3296 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3297 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3301 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3302 some sorting criteria:
3306 @kindex G S a (Group)
3307 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3308 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3309 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3312 @kindex G S u (Group)
3313 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3314 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3315 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3318 @kindex G S l (Group)
3319 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3320 Sort the group buffer by group level
3321 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3324 @kindex G S v (Group)
3325 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3326 Sort the group buffer by group score
3327 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3330 @kindex G S r (Group)
3331 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3332 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3333 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3336 @kindex G S m (Group)
3337 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3338 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name@*
3339 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3342 @kindex G S n (Group)
3343 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name
3344 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3345 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name}).
3349 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3350 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3352 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3353 commands will sort in reverse order.
3355 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3359 @kindex G P a (Group)
3360 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3361 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3362 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3365 @kindex G P u (Group)
3366 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3367 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3368 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3371 @kindex G P l (Group)
3372 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3373 Sort the groups by group level
3374 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3377 @kindex G P v (Group)
3378 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3379 Sort the groups by group score
3380 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3383 @kindex G P r (Group)
3384 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3385 Sort the groups by group rank
3386 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3389 @kindex G P m (Group)
3390 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3391 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name@*
3392 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3395 @kindex G P n (Group)
3396 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name
3397 Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3398 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name}).
3401 @kindex G P s (Group)
3402 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3403 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3407 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3411 @node Group Maintenance
3412 @section Group Maintenance
3413 @cindex bogus groups
3418 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3419 Find bogus groups and delete them
3420 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3424 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3425 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3426 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3427 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3428 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3432 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3433 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3434 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3435 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3436 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3437 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3440 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3441 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3442 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3443 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3448 @node Browse Foreign Server
3449 @section Browse Foreign Server
3450 @cindex foreign servers
3451 @cindex browsing servers
3456 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3457 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3458 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3459 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3462 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3463 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3464 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3465 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3467 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3472 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3473 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3477 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3478 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3481 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3482 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3483 Enter the current group and display the first article
3484 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3487 @kindex RET (Browse)
3488 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3489 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3493 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3494 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3495 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3501 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3502 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3506 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3507 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3511 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3512 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3513 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3518 @section Exiting gnus
3519 @cindex exiting gnus
3521 Yes, gnus is ex(c)iting.
3526 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3527 Suspend gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit gnus,
3528 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3529 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3533 @findex gnus-group-exit
3534 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3535 Quit gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3539 @findex gnus-group-quit
3540 Quit gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3541 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3544 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3545 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3546 @vindex gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook
3547 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend gnus and
3548 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit gnus, while
3549 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3555 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3556 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3557 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3563 @section Group Topics
3566 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3567 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3568 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3569 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3570 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3571 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3575 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3576 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3587 2: alt.religion.emacs
3590 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3592 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3593 13: comp.sources.unix
3596 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3598 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3599 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3600 is a toggling command.)
3602 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3603 dum@dots{} Nice tune, that@dots{} la la la@dots{} What, you're back?
3604 Yes, and now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed
3605 under @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
3608 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3609 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3610 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3613 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3617 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3618 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3619 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3620 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3621 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3625 @node Topic Commands
3626 @subsection Topic Commands
3627 @cindex topic commands
3629 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3630 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3631 definitions slightly.
3633 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3634 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3635 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3636 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3637 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3638 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3640 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3647 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3648 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3649 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3653 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3655 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3656 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3657 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3658 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3661 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3662 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3663 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3664 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3668 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3669 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3670 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3671 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3677 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3678 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3679 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3683 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3684 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3685 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3688 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3689 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the ``cut'' part of cut and paste. Then,
3690 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the ``Gnus''
3691 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the ``paste'' part of cut and
3692 paste. Like I said -- E-Z.
3694 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3695 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3699 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3700 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3707 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3709 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3710 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3711 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3712 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3713 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3714 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3718 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3724 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3725 Move the current group to some other topic
3726 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3727 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3731 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3732 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3736 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3737 Copy the current group to some other topic
3738 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3739 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3743 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3744 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3745 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3749 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3750 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3751 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3755 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3756 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3757 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3758 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3759 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3760 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3761 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3764 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3765 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3769 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3770 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3771 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3775 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3776 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3777 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3781 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3782 Toggle hiding empty topics
3783 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3787 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3788 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3789 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3790 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3793 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3794 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3795 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3796 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3797 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3800 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3801 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3802 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3803 expiry process (if any)
3804 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3808 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3809 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3812 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3813 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3814 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3818 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3819 List all groups that gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3820 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3823 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3824 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3825 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3828 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3829 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3830 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3834 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3835 @cindex group parameters
3836 @cindex topic parameters
3838 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3839 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3844 @node Topic Variables
3845 @subsection Topic Variables
3846 @cindex topic variables
3848 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
3849 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
3851 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3852 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3853 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3866 Number of groups in the topic.
3868 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3870 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3873 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3874 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3875 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3878 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3879 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3881 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3882 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3883 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3887 @subsection Topic Sorting
3888 @cindex topic sorting
3890 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3896 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3897 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3898 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3899 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3902 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3903 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3904 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3905 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3908 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3909 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3910 Sort the current topic by group level
3911 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3914 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3915 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3916 Sort the current topic by group score
3917 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3920 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3921 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3922 Sort the current topic by group rank
3923 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3926 @kindex T S m (Topic)
3927 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
3928 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
3929 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
3932 @kindex T S e (Topic)
3933 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
3934 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
3935 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
3938 @kindex T S s (Topic)
3939 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
3940 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
3941 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
3942 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
3946 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
3947 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
3951 @node Topic Topology
3952 @subsection Topic Topology
3953 @cindex topic topology
3956 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
3963 2: alt.religion.emacs
3966 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3968 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3969 13: comp.sources.unix
3973 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
3974 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
3975 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
3980 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
3981 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
3985 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
3986 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
3987 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
3988 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
3989 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
3990 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
3992 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
3993 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
3994 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
3997 @node Topic Parameters
3998 @subsection Topic Parameters
3999 @cindex topic parameters
4001 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent
4002 (and ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid
4003 topic parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}). When the agent is
4004 enabled, all agent parameters (See Agent Parameters in @ref{Category
4005 Syntax}) are also valid topic parameters.
4007 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
4012 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
4013 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
4014 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
4017 @item subscribe-level
4018 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
4019 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
4020 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
4024 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
4025 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
4026 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
4027 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
4034 2: alt.religion.emacs
4038 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4040 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4041 13: comp.sources.unix
4046 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
4047 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
4048 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
4049 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
4050 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
4051 . "religion.SCORE")}.
4053 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
4054 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
4055 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
4056 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
4057 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
4059 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
4060 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
4061 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
4062 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
4063 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
4064 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
4065 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
4066 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
4069 @node Misc Group Stuff
4070 @section Misc Group Stuff
4073 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
4074 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
4075 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
4076 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
4077 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
4084 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
4085 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
4086 @xref{Server Buffer}.
4090 @findex gnus-group-post-news
4091 Start composing a message (a news by default)
4092 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
4093 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
4094 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
4095 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
4096 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4100 @findex gnus-group-mail
4101 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
4102 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
4103 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
4104 @xref{Composing Messages}.
4108 @findex gnus-group-news
4109 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
4110 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
4111 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4113 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
4114 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
4115 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
4116 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
4117 for this to work though.
4121 Variables for the group buffer:
4125 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
4126 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
4127 is called after the group buffer has been
4130 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
4131 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4132 is called after the group buffer is
4133 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
4136 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
4137 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4138 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
4139 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
4141 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4142 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4143 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
4144 whether they are empty or not.
4146 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4147 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4148 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
4149 non-@acronym{ASCII} group names.
4153 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4154 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
4157 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4158 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4159 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4160 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names. It
4161 is used to show non-@acronym{ASCII} group names. @code{((".*"
4162 utf-8))} is the default value if UTF-8 is supported, otherwise the
4163 default is @code{nil}.
4167 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4168 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
4173 @node Scanning New Messages
4174 @subsection Scanning New Messages
4175 @cindex new messages
4176 @cindex scanning new news
4182 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
4183 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
4184 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
4185 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
4186 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
4187 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
4192 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
4193 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
4194 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
4195 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
4196 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
4197 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
4198 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
4200 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
4201 @cindex activating groups
4203 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
4204 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
4209 @findex gnus-group-restart
4210 Restart gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
4211 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
4212 gnus variables, and then starts gnus all over again.
4216 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
4217 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
4219 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
4220 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
4224 @node Group Information
4225 @subsection Group Information
4226 @cindex group information
4227 @cindex information on groups
4234 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
4235 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
4238 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} for the current group
4239 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the @acronym{FAQ}
4240 from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on
4241 a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
4242 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
4243 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be
4244 used for fetching the file.
4246 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, gnus will attempt to go
4247 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
4251 @findex gnus-group-fetch-charter
4252 @vindex gnus-group-charter-alist
4254 Try to open the charter for the current group in a web browser
4255 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-charter}). Query for a group if given a
4258 Gnus will use @code{gnus-group-charter-alist} to find the location of
4259 the charter. If no location is known, Gnus will fetch the control
4260 messages for the group, which in some cases includes the charter.
4264 @findex gnus-group-fetch-control
4265 @vindex gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url
4266 @cindex control message
4267 Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at
4268 @code{ftp.isc.org} (@code{gnus-group-fetch-control}). Query for a
4269 group if given a prefix argument.
4271 If @code{gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url} is non-@code{nil},
4272 Gnus will open the control messages in a browser using
4273 @code{browse-url}. Otherwise they are fetched using @code{ange-ftp}
4274 and displayed in an ephemeral group.
4276 Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command
4277 you need to turn on @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed
4278 Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
4282 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
4284 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
4285 @cindex describing groups
4286 @cindex group description
4287 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
4288 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
4289 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
4293 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
4294 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
4295 prefix, force gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
4302 @findex gnus-version
4303 Display current gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
4307 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
4308 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
4311 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
4314 @findex gnus-info-find-node
4315 Go to the gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
4319 @node Group Timestamp
4320 @subsection Group Timestamp
4322 @cindex group timestamps
4324 It can be convenient to let gnus keep track of when you last read a
4325 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
4326 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
4329 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
4332 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
4334 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
4335 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
4338 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4339 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
4342 This will result in lines looking like:
4345 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
4346 0: custom 19961002T012713
4349 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
4350 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
4354 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4355 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
4358 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
4359 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
4363 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4364 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
4365 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
4366 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
4368 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
4374 @subsection File Commands
4375 @cindex file commands
4381 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
4382 @vindex gnus-init-file
4383 @cindex reading init file
4384 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
4385 @file{~/.gnus.el}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
4389 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
4390 @cindex saving .newsrc
4391 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
4392 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
4393 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
4396 @c @kindex Z (Group)
4397 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
4398 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
4403 @node Sieve Commands
4404 @subsection Sieve Commands
4405 @cindex group sieve commands
4407 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
4408 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
4409 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
4410 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
4411 script that can be transfered to the server somehow.
4413 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4414 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
4415 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
4416 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
4417 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
4418 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
4419 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
4420 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
4421 regenerate the Sieve script.
4423 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
4424 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
4425 is generated. If it is non-@code{nil} (the default) articles is
4426 placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article
4427 is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For
4428 example, the group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
4429 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
4430 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is @code{nil}. (When
4431 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-@code{nil}, it looks the same
4432 except that the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
4435 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
4436 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
4441 @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve, Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
4447 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
4448 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4449 @cindex generating sieve script
4450 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
4451 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
4455 @findex gnus-sieve-update
4456 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4457 @cindex updating sieve script
4458 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
4459 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
4460 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
4465 @node Summary Buffer
4466 @chapter Summary Buffer
4467 @cindex summary buffer
4469 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
4470 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
4472 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
4473 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
4475 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
4478 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
4479 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
4480 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
4481 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
4482 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
4483 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
4484 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
4485 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
4486 * Threading:: How threads are made.
4487 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
4488 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
4489 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
4490 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
4491 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
4492 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
4493 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
4494 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
4495 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
4496 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
4497 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4498 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4499 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4500 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4501 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4502 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4503 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4504 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4505 or reselecting the current group.
4506 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4507 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4508 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4509 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4513 @node Summary Buffer Format
4514 @section Summary Buffer Format
4515 @cindex summary buffer format
4519 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4520 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
4521 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
4527 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4528 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4529 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4530 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4533 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4534 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4535 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4536 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4537 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4538 @code{From} header. Three pre-defined functions exist:
4539 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4540 fast, and too simplistic solution;
4541 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works nicely, but is
4542 slower; and @code{std11-extract-address-components}, which works very
4543 nicely, but is slower. The default function will return the wrong
4544 answer in 5% of the cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the
4545 other function instead:
4548 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4549 'mail-extract-address-components)
4552 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4553 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4554 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4555 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4558 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4559 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4561 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4562 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4563 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4564 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4565 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4567 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4568 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4569 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4570 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4571 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4572 @xref{Positioning Point}.
4574 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
4576 The following format specification characters and extended format
4577 specification(s) are understood:
4583 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4584 @code{gnus-list-identifies}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4586 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4587 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4588 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4590 Full @code{From} header.
4592 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4594 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
4597 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4598 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4599 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4600 may be more thorough.
4602 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4605 Number of lines in the article.
4607 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
4608 in some methods (like nnfolder).
4610 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
4611 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
4613 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4615 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
4616 lines. A thread could be drawn like this:
4629 You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note
4630 that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by
4631 replacing the default @acronym{ASCII} characters with graphic
4632 line-drawing glyphs.
4634 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4635 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4636 Used for the root of a thread. If @code{nil}, use subject
4637 instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4639 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4640 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4641 Used for the false root of a thread (@pxref{Loose Threads}). If
4642 @code{nil}, use subject instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4644 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4645 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4646 Used for a thread with just one message. If @code{nil}, use subject
4647 instead. The default is @samp{}.
4649 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4650 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4651 Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is @samp{| }.
4653 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4654 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4655 Used for indenting. The default is @samp{ }.
4657 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4658 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4659 Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is @samp{+-> }.
4661 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4662 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4663 Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is @samp{\-> }
4668 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4669 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4671 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4672 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4674 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4675 for adopted articles.
4677 One space for each thread level.
4679 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4681 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
4684 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4685 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4686 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
4689 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4691 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4692 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4693 default level. If the difference between
4694 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4695 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4703 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4705 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4711 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4712 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4714 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4715 article has any children.
4721 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
4722 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
4724 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4725 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4726 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{x}}, where @var{x} is the letter
4727 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4728 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4729 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4732 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
4733 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
4734 There can only be one such area.
4736 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4737 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, gnus will
4738 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4739 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4740 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4741 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4743 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4744 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4746 This restriction may disappear in later versions of gnus.
4749 @node To From Newsgroups
4750 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4754 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4755 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4756 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4757 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4758 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4762 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4763 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4764 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4768 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4769 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4772 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4773 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4776 @findex gnus-extra-header
4777 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4778 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4779 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4782 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4786 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4787 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4788 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4789 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4790 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4791 headers are used instead.
4795 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4796 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4797 to include extra headers when generating overview (@acronym{NOV}) files.
4798 If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after
4799 changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using @kbd{^},
4800 and then @kbd{g} on the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause
4803 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4804 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4805 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4806 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4808 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
4812 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4814 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4815 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4816 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
4817 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4821 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
4824 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
4825 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
4828 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4829 the @acronym{NOV} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4830 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
4836 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4837 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4840 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4841 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4843 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4844 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4845 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4846 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4848 Here are the elements you can play with:
4854 Unprefixed group name.
4856 Current article number.
4858 Current article score.
4862 Number of unread articles in this group.
4864 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4867 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4868 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4869 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4870 and no unselected ones.
4872 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4873 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4875 Subject of the current article.
4877 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4879 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4881 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4883 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4885 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
4887 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
4891 @node Summary Highlighting
4892 @subsection Summary Highlighting
4896 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4897 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4898 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
4899 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
4900 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4902 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
4903 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
4904 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
4905 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4907 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
4908 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
4909 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
4910 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
4912 @item gnus-summary-highlight
4913 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
4914 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
4915 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
4916 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
4917 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
4920 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
4921 ((> score default) . bold))
4923 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
4924 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
4928 @node Summary Maneuvering
4929 @section Summary Maneuvering
4930 @cindex summary movement
4932 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
4933 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
4935 None of these commands select articles.
4940 @kindex M-n (Summary)
4941 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
4942 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
4943 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
4944 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
4948 @kindex M-p (Summary)
4949 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
4950 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
4951 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
4952 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
4955 @kindex G g (Summary)
4956 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
4957 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
4958 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
4961 If gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
4962 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
4963 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
4964 to the group buffer.
4966 Variables related to summary movement:
4970 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
4971 @item gnus-auto-select-next
4972 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
4973 no more unread articles after the current one, gnus will offer to go to
4974 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
4975 empty, gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
4976 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, gnus will select the
4977 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
4978 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
4979 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
4980 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
4981 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
4982 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
4983 @pxref{Group Levels}.
4985 @item gnus-auto-select-same
4986 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
4987 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
4988 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
4989 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
4990 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
4991 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
4993 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
4995 @item gnus-summary-check-current
4996 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
4997 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
4998 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
4999 Instead, they will choose the current article.
5001 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
5002 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
5003 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
5004 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
5005 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
5006 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
5007 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
5008 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
5011 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
5012 the given number of lines from the top.
5017 @node Choosing Articles
5018 @section Choosing Articles
5019 @cindex selecting articles
5022 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
5023 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
5027 @node Choosing Commands
5028 @subsection Choosing Commands
5030 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
5031 and they all select and display an article.
5033 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
5034 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
5038 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5039 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5040 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
5041 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5043 If you have an article window open already and you press @kbd{SPACE}
5044 again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently
5045 @kbd{SPACE} through an entire newsgroup. @xref{Paging the Article}.
5050 @kindex G n (Summary)
5051 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
5052 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
5053 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
5058 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
5059 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
5060 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
5065 @kindex G N (Summary)
5066 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
5067 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
5072 @kindex G P (Summary)
5073 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
5074 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
5077 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
5078 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
5079 Go to the next article with the same subject
5080 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
5083 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
5084 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
5085 Go to the previous article with the same subject
5086 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
5090 @kindex G f (Summary)
5092 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
5093 Go to the first unread article
5094 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
5098 @kindex G b (Summary)
5100 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
5101 Go to the unread article with the highest score
5102 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
5103 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
5108 @kindex G l (Summary)
5109 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
5110 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
5113 @kindex G o (Summary)
5114 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
5116 @cindex article history
5117 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
5118 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
5119 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
5120 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
5121 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
5122 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
5127 @kindex G j (Summary)
5128 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
5129 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
5130 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
5135 @node Choosing Variables
5136 @subsection Choosing Variables
5138 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
5141 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5142 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5143 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
5144 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
5145 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
5146 the server and display it in the article buffer.
5148 @item gnus-select-article-hook
5149 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
5150 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it
5151 exposes any threads hidden under the selected article. If you would
5152 like each article to be saved in the Agent as you read it, putting
5153 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} on this hook will do so.
5155 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
5156 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
5157 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
5158 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
5159 @findex gnus-unread-mark
5160 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
5161 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
5162 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
5163 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-unread-mark}. The
5164 only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
5165 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
5166 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
5167 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
5168 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
5173 @node Paging the Article
5174 @section Scrolling the Article
5175 @cindex article scrolling
5180 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5181 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5182 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
5183 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
5184 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5186 @vindex gnus-article-boring-faces
5187 @vindex gnus-article-skip-boring
5188 If @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} is non-@code{nil} and the rest of
5189 the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be
5190 skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize
5191 what is considered uninteresting with
5192 @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}. You can manually view the article's
5193 pages, no matter how boring, using @kbd{C-M-v}.
5196 @kindex DEL (Summary)
5197 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
5198 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
5201 @kindex RET (Summary)
5202 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
5203 Scroll the current article one line forward
5204 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
5207 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
5208 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
5209 Scroll the current article one line backward
5210 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
5214 @kindex A g (Summary)
5216 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
5217 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5218 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
5219 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
5220 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
5221 the way it came from the server.
5223 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
5224 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
5225 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
5228 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5233 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
5238 @kindex A < (Summary)
5239 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
5240 Scroll to the beginning of the article
5241 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
5246 @kindex A > (Summary)
5247 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
5248 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
5252 @kindex A s (Summary)
5254 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
5255 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
5256 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
5260 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
5261 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
5266 @node Reply Followup and Post
5267 @section Reply, Followup and Post
5270 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
5271 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
5272 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
5273 * Canceling and Superseding::
5277 @node Summary Mail Commands
5278 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
5280 @cindex composing mail
5282 Commands for composing a mail message:
5288 @kindex S r (Summary)
5290 @findex gnus-summary-reply
5291 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
5292 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
5293 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
5294 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
5299 @kindex S R (Summary)
5300 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
5301 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
5302 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5303 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
5304 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5307 @kindex S w (Summary)
5308 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
5309 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
5310 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
5311 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5312 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers. If @code{Mail-Followup-To} is
5313 present, that's used instead.
5316 @kindex S W (Summary)
5317 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
5318 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
5319 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
5320 the process/prefix convention.
5323 @kindex S v (Summary)
5324 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
5325 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
5326 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
5327 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5328 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
5329 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
5332 @kindex S V (Summary)
5333 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original
5334 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article and include the
5335 original message (@code{gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original}). This
5336 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5339 @kindex S B r (Summary)
5340 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to
5341 Mail a reply to the author of the current article but ignore the
5342 @code{Reply-To} field (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to}).
5343 If you need this because a mailing list incorrectly sets a
5344 @code{Reply-To} header pointing to the list, you probably want to set
5345 the @code{broken-reply-to} group parameter instead, so things will work
5346 correctly. @xref{Group Parameters}.
5349 @kindex S B R (Summary)
5350 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original
5351 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5352 original message but ignore the @code{Reply-To} field
5353 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original}).
5357 @kindex S o m (Summary)
5358 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
5359 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
5360 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
5361 Forward the current article to some other person
5362 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
5363 headers of the forwarded article.
5368 @kindex S m (Summary)
5369 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
5370 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
5371 Prepare a mail (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}). By default, use
5372 the posting style of the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5373 If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
5378 @kindex S i (Summary)
5379 @findex gnus-summary-news-other-window
5380 Prepare a news (@code{gnus-summary-news-other-window}). By default,
5381 post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that. If the
5382 prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
5384 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
5385 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
5386 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
5387 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
5388 for this to work though.
5391 @kindex S D b (Summary)
5392 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
5393 @cindex bouncing mail
5394 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
5395 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
5396 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
5397 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
5398 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
5399 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, gnus will try to fetch
5400 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
5401 very well fail, though.
5404 @kindex S D r (Summary)
5405 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
5406 Not to be confused with the previous command,
5407 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
5408 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
5409 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
5410 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
5411 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
5412 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
5413 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
5415 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
5416 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
5417 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
5418 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
5419 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muss sein!
5421 This command understands the process/prefix convention
5422 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5425 @kindex S D e (Summary)
5426 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message-edit
5428 Like the previous command, but will allow you to edit the message as
5429 if it were a new message before resending.
5432 @kindex S O m (Summary)
5433 @findex gnus-summary-digest-mail-forward
5434 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
5435 result using mail (@code{gnus-summary-digest-mail-forward}). This
5436 command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5439 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
5440 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
5441 @cindex crossposting
5442 @cindex excessive crossposting
5443 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
5444 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
5446 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
5447 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
5448 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
5449 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
5450 command understands the process/prefix convention
5451 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
5455 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5456 Manual}, for more information.
5459 @node Summary Post Commands
5460 @subsection Summary Post Commands
5462 @cindex composing news
5464 Commands for posting a news article:
5470 @kindex S p (Summary)
5471 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
5472 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
5473 Prepare for posting an article (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}). By
5474 default, post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5475 If the prefix is 1, prompt for another group instead.
5480 @kindex S f (Summary)
5481 @findex gnus-summary-followup
5482 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
5483 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
5487 @kindex S F (Summary)
5489 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
5490 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
5491 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
5492 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
5493 process/prefix convention.
5496 @kindex S n (Summary)
5497 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
5498 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5499 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
5502 @kindex S N (Summary)
5503 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
5504 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5505 message through mail and include the original message
5506 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
5507 the process/prefix convention.
5510 @kindex S o p (Summary)
5511 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
5512 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
5513 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
5514 headers of the forwarded article.
5517 @kindex S O p (Summary)
5518 @findex gnus-summary-digest-post-forward
5520 @cindex making digests
5521 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
5522 (@code{gnus-summary-digest-post-forward}). This command uses the
5523 process/prefix convention.
5526 @kindex S u (Summary)
5527 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
5528 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
5529 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
5530 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
5533 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5534 Manual}, for more information.
5537 @node Summary Message Commands
5538 @subsection Summary Message Commands
5542 @kindex S y (Summary)
5543 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
5544 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
5545 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
5546 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
5547 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5552 @node Canceling and Superseding
5553 @subsection Canceling Articles
5554 @cindex canceling articles
5555 @cindex superseding articles
5557 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
5558 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
5560 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
5562 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
5564 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
5565 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
5566 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
5567 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
5568 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
5569 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5571 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
5572 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
5575 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
5576 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
5577 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
5579 Gnus ensures that only you can cancel your own messages using a
5580 @code{Cancel-Lock} header (@pxref{Canceling News, Canceling News, ,
5581 message, Message Manual}).
5583 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
5584 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
5585 your original article.
5587 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
5589 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
5590 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
5591 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
5594 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
5595 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
5596 have posted almost the same article twice.
5598 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
5599 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
5600 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
5601 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
5602 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
5603 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
5604 header by substituting one of those words for the word
5605 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
5606 you would do normally. The previous article will be
5607 canceled/superseded.
5609 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
5611 @node Delayed Articles
5612 @section Delayed Articles
5613 @cindex delayed sending
5614 @cindex send delayed
5616 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
5617 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
5618 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
5619 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
5622 (gnus-delay-initialize)
5625 @findex gnus-delay-article
5626 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
5627 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
5628 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
5629 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
5633 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
5634 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
5635 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
5636 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
5639 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
5640 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
5641 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
5644 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
5645 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
5646 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
5647 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
5648 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
5649 that means a time tomorrow.
5652 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
5653 couple of variables:
5656 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
5657 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
5658 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
5659 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
5661 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
5662 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
5663 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
5664 formats described above.
5666 @item gnus-delay-group
5667 @vindex gnus-delay-group
5668 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
5669 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
5670 value is @code{"delayed"}.
5672 @item gnus-delay-header
5673 @vindex gnus-delay-header
5674 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
5675 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
5676 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
5679 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
5680 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
5681 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
5682 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
5683 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
5685 @findex gnus-delay-send-queue
5686 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
5687 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue}
5688 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
5689 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
5690 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
5691 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} function.
5694 @item gnus-delay-initialize
5695 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
5697 By default, this function installs @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} in
5698 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts the optional second
5699 argument @code{no-check}. If it is non-@code{nil},
5700 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed. The optional first
5701 argument is ignored.
5703 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to do nothing.
5704 Presumably, you want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles.
5705 Just don't forget to set that up :-)
5709 @node Marking Articles
5710 @section Marking Articles
5711 @cindex article marking
5712 @cindex article ticking
5715 There are several marks you can set on an article.
5717 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
5718 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
5719 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
5721 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
5724 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
5725 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
5726 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
5730 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:
5734 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
5735 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
5736 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
5740 @node Unread Articles
5741 @subsection Unread Articles
5743 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
5748 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
5749 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
5751 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
5752 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
5753 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
5754 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
5755 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
5756 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
5757 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
5760 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
5761 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
5763 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
5764 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
5765 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
5766 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
5770 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
5771 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
5773 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
5778 @subsection Read Articles
5779 @cindex expirable mark
5781 All the following marks mark articles as read.
5786 @vindex gnus-del-mark
5787 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
5788 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
5791 @vindex gnus-read-mark
5792 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
5795 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
5796 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
5797 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
5800 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
5801 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
5804 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
5805 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
5808 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
5809 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
5812 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
5813 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
5816 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
5817 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
5820 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
5821 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
5824 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
5825 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
5829 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
5830 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
5831 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
5835 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
5836 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
5838 One more special mark, though:
5842 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
5843 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
5845 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
5846 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
5847 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
5848 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by gnus at
5854 @subsection Other Marks
5855 @cindex process mark
5858 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
5864 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
5865 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
5866 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
5867 in the article, and gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
5868 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
5871 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
5872 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
5873 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
5874 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
5877 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
5878 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
5879 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
5882 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
5883 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
5884 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5887 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
5888 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
5889 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
5890 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
5893 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
5894 Articles that according to the server haven't been shown to the user
5895 before are marked with a @samp{N} in the second column
5896 (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Note that not all servers support this
5897 mark, in which case it simply never appears. Compare with
5898 @code{gnus-unseen-mark}.
5901 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
5902 Articles that haven't been seen before in Gnus by the user are marked
5903 with a @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
5904 Compare with @code{gnus-recent-mark}.
5907 @vindex gnus-downloaded-mark
5908 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), articles may be
5909 downloaded for unplugged (offline) viewing. If you are using the
5910 @samp{%O} spec, these articles get the @samp{+} mark in that spec.
5911 (The variable @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} controls which character to
5915 @vindex gnus-undownloaded-mark
5916 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), some articles might
5917 not have been downloaded. Such articles cannot be viewed while you
5918 are unplugged (offline). If you are using the @samp{%O} spec, these
5919 articles get the @samp{-} mark in that spec. (The variable
5920 @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} controls which character to use.)
5923 @vindex gnus-downloadable-mark
5924 The Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}) downloads some articles
5925 automatically, but it is also possible to explicitly mark articles for
5926 download, even if they would not be downloaded automatically. Such
5927 explicitly-marked articles get the @samp{%} mark in the first column.
5928 (The variable @code{gnus-downloadable-mark} controls which character to
5932 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
5933 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
5934 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
5935 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
5936 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
5939 @vindex gnus-process-mark
5940 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
5941 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
5942 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
5943 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
5944 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
5948 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
5949 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
5950 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
5952 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
5953 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
5954 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
5958 @subsection Setting Marks
5959 @cindex setting marks
5961 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
5966 @kindex M c (Summary)
5967 @kindex M-u (Summary)
5968 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
5969 @cindex mark as unread
5970 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
5971 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
5977 @kindex M t (Summary)
5978 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
5979 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
5980 @xref{Article Caching}.
5985 @kindex M ? (Summary)
5986 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
5987 Mark the current article as dormant
5988 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5992 @kindex M d (Summary)
5994 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
5995 Mark the current article as read
5996 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
6000 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
6001 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
6002 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
6007 @kindex M k (Summary)
6008 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
6009 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
6010 and then select the next unread article
6011 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
6015 @kindex M K (Summary)
6016 @kindex C-k (Summary)
6017 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
6018 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
6019 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
6022 @kindex M C (Summary)
6023 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
6024 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
6025 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
6028 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
6029 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
6030 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
6031 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
6034 @kindex M H (Summary)
6035 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
6036 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
6037 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
6040 @kindex M h (Summary)
6041 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
6042 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
6043 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
6046 @kindex C-w (Summary)
6047 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
6048 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
6049 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
6052 @kindex M V k (Summary)
6053 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
6054 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
6055 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
6059 @kindex M e (Summary)
6061 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
6062 Mark the current article as expirable
6063 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
6066 @kindex M b (Summary)
6067 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
6068 Set a bookmark in the current article
6069 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
6072 @kindex M B (Summary)
6073 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
6074 Remove the bookmark from the current article
6075 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
6078 @kindex M V c (Summary)
6079 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
6080 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
6081 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
6084 @kindex M V u (Summary)
6085 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
6086 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
6087 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
6090 @kindex M V m (Summary)
6091 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
6092 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
6093 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
6094 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
6097 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
6098 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
6099 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
6100 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
6101 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
6102 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
6103 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
6104 The default is @code{t}.
6107 @node Generic Marking Commands
6108 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
6110 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
6111 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
6112 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
6113 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
6114 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
6117 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
6118 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
6121 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
6122 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
6123 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
6124 to list in this manual.
6126 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
6127 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
6128 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
6129 article, you could say something like:
6133 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
6134 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6135 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
6143 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6144 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
6148 @node Setting Process Marks
6149 @subsection Setting Process Marks
6150 @cindex setting process marks
6152 Process marks are displayed as @code{#} in the summary buffer, and are
6153 used for marking articles in such a way that other commands will
6154 process these articles. For instance, if you process mark four
6155 articles and then use the @kbd{*} command, Gnus will enter these four
6156 commands into the cache. For more information,
6157 @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
6164 @kindex M P p (Summary)
6165 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
6166 Mark the current article with the process mark
6167 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
6168 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
6172 @kindex M P u (Summary)
6173 @kindex M-# (Summary)
6174 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
6175 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
6178 @kindex M P U (Summary)
6179 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
6180 Remove the process mark from all articles
6181 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
6184 @kindex M P i (Summary)
6185 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
6186 Invert the list of process marked articles
6187 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
6190 @kindex M P R (Summary)
6191 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
6192 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6193 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
6196 @kindex M P G (Summary)
6197 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
6198 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6199 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
6202 @kindex M P r (Summary)
6203 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
6204 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
6207 @kindex M P g (Summary)
6208 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
6209 Unmark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
6212 @kindex M P t (Summary)
6213 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6214 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6215 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6218 @kindex M P T (Summary)
6219 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6220 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6221 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6224 @kindex M P v (Summary)
6225 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
6226 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
6227 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
6230 @kindex M P s (Summary)
6231 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
6232 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
6235 @kindex M P S (Summary)
6236 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
6237 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
6238 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
6241 @kindex M P a (Summary)
6242 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
6243 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}).
6246 @kindex M P b (Summary)
6247 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
6248 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
6249 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
6252 @kindex M P k (Summary)
6253 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
6254 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
6255 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
6258 @kindex M P y (Summary)
6259 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
6260 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
6261 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
6264 @kindex M P w (Summary)
6265 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
6266 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
6267 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
6271 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @ref{Searching for Articles}, for how to
6272 set process marks based on article body contents.
6279 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
6280 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
6281 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
6284 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
6285 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
6286 additional articles.
6292 @kindex / / (Summary)
6293 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
6294 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
6295 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}). If given a prefix, exclude
6299 @kindex / a (Summary)
6300 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
6301 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
6302 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}). If given a prefix, exclude
6306 @kindex / x (Summary)
6307 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
6308 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
6309 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
6310 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}). If given a prefix, exclude
6315 @kindex / u (Summary)
6317 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
6318 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
6319 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
6320 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
6321 dormant articles will also be excluded.
6324 @kindex / m (Summary)
6325 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
6326 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
6327 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
6330 @kindex / t (Summary)
6331 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
6332 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
6333 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
6334 articles younger than that number of days.
6337 @kindex / n (Summary)
6338 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
6339 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
6340 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
6341 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6344 @kindex / w (Summary)
6345 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
6346 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
6347 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
6351 @kindex / . (Summary)
6352 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen
6353 Limit the summary buffer to the unseen articles
6354 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen}).
6357 @kindex / v (Summary)
6358 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
6359 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
6360 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
6363 @kindex / p (Summary)
6364 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate
6365 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
6366 group parameter predicate
6367 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate}). @xref{Group
6368 Parameters}, for more on this predicate.
6371 @kindex / r (Summary)
6372 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-replied
6373 Limit the summary buffer to replied articles
6374 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-replied}). If given a prefix, exclude
6379 @kindex M S (Summary)
6380 @kindex / E (Summary)
6381 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
6382 Include all expunged articles in the limit
6383 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
6386 @kindex / D (Summary)
6387 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
6388 Include all dormant articles in the limit
6389 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
6392 @kindex / * (Summary)
6393 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
6394 Include all cached articles in the limit
6395 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
6398 @kindex / d (Summary)
6399 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
6400 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
6401 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
6404 @kindex / M (Summary)
6405 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
6406 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
6409 @kindex / T (Summary)
6410 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
6411 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
6414 @kindex / c (Summary)
6415 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
6416 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit@*
6417 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
6420 @kindex / C (Summary)
6421 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
6422 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
6423 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
6424 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
6427 @kindex / N (Summary)
6428 @findex gnus-summary-insert-new-articles
6429 Insert all new articles in the summary buffer. It scans for new emails
6430 if @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} is non-@code{nil}.
6433 @kindex / o (Summary)
6434 @findex gnus-summary-insert-old-articles
6435 Insert all old articles in the summary buffer. If given a numbered
6436 prefix, fetch this number of articles.
6444 @cindex article threading
6446 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
6447 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
6448 hierarchical fashion.
6450 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
6451 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
6452 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
6453 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
6454 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
6455 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
6456 @ref{Customizing Threading}.
6458 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
6462 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
6465 A tree-like article structure.
6468 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
6471 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
6472 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
6473 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
6474 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
6475 called loose threads.
6477 @item thread gathering
6478 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
6480 @item sparse threads
6481 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
6482 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
6488 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
6489 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
6493 @node Customizing Threading
6494 @subsection Customizing Threading
6495 @cindex customizing threading
6498 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
6499 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
6500 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
6501 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
6506 @subsubsection Loose Threads
6509 @cindex loose threads
6512 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
6513 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
6514 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
6515 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
6516 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
6517 read or killed the root in a previous session.
6519 When there is no real root of a thread, gnus will have to fudge
6520 something. This variable says what fudging method gnus should use.
6521 There are four possible values:
6525 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
6526 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-adopt,width=7.5cm}}
6527 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-empty,width=7.5cm}}}
6528 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-none,width=7.5cm}}}
6529 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-dummy,width=7.5cm}}}
6534 @cindex adopting articles
6539 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
6540 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
6541 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
6542 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
6545 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
6546 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root-always
6547 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
6548 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
6549 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
6550 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
6551 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
6552 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
6553 If you want all threads to have a dummy root, even the non-gathered
6554 ones, set @code{gnus-summary-make-false-root-always} to @code{t}.
6557 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
6558 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
6559 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
6563 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
6564 display them after one another.
6567 Don't gather loose threads.
6570 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6571 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6572 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
6573 variable is @code{nil}, gnus requires an exact match between the
6574 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
6575 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
6576 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
6577 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
6578 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
6579 variable to a really low number, you'll find that gnus will gather
6580 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
6582 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
6583 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, gnus will
6584 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
6587 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6588 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6589 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
6590 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
6591 simplification is used.
6593 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6594 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6595 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
6596 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
6598 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
6600 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6606 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
6607 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
6608 "answer" "reference" "announce"
6609 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
6614 (mapconcat 'identity
6615 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
6617 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
6620 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
6623 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6624 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6625 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
6626 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
6627 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
6628 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
6630 Useful functions to put in this list include:
6633 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
6634 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
6635 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
6637 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6638 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6641 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
6642 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
6643 Remove excessive whitespace.
6645 @item gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6646 @findex gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6647 Remove all whitespace.
6650 You may also write your own functions, of course.
6653 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6654 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6655 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
6656 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
6657 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
6658 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
6659 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
6660 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
6662 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6663 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6664 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
6665 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
6666 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
6667 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
6668 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
6669 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
6670 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
6674 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6675 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6676 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
6677 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
6679 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6680 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6681 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
6684 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
6688 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6689 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6695 @node Filling In Threads
6696 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
6699 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
6700 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
6701 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
6702 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you would
6703 like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still connect as
6704 many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable to
6705 @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than that
6706 number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case, fetching
6707 old headers only works if the back end you are using carries overview
6708 files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool},
6709 @code{nnml}, and @code{nnmaildir}. Also remember that if the root of
6710 the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can
6713 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
6714 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
6715 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
6717 @item gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
6718 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
6719 Same as @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}, but only used for ephemeral
6722 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
6723 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
6724 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
6725 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
6726 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
6727 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
6728 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where gnus guesses that an article
6729 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
6730 lines. If you select a gap, gnus will try to fetch the article in
6731 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, gnus will display all these
6732 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
6733 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, gnus won't cut
6734 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
6735 @code{nil} by default.
6737 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
6738 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
6739 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
6740 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the back end has to fetch
6741 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
6742 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
6743 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
6745 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
6746 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
6747 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
6752 @node More Threading
6753 @subsubsection More Threading
6756 @item gnus-show-threads
6757 @vindex gnus-show-threads
6758 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
6759 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
6760 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
6761 slower and more awkward.
6763 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6764 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6765 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
6768 This can also be a predicate specifier (@pxref{Predicate Specifiers}).
6769 Available predicates are @code{gnus-article-unread-p} and
6770 @code{gnus-article-unseen-p}.
6775 (setq gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6776 '(or gnus-article-unread-p
6777 gnus-article-unseen-p))
6780 (It's a pretty nonsensical example, since all unseen articles are also
6781 unread, but you get my drift.)
6784 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
6785 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
6786 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
6787 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
6788 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
6789 threads are expunged.
6791 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
6792 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
6793 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
6796 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6797 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6798 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
6799 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
6800 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
6801 result in a new thread.
6803 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
6804 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
6805 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
6808 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6809 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6810 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
6811 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
6812 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
6813 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
6814 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
6815 Setting this variable to an alternate value
6816 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
6817 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
6818 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
6823 @node Low-Level Threading
6824 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
6828 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
6829 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
6830 Hook run before parsing any headers. The default value is
6831 @code{(gnus-set-summary-default-charset)}, which sets up local value of
6832 @code{default-mime-charset} in summary buffer based on variable
6833 @code{gnus-newsgroup-default-charset-alist}.
6835 @item gnus-alter-header-function
6836 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
6837 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
6838 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
6839 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
6840 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
6841 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
6842 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
6843 meaningful. Here's one example:
6846 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
6848 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
6849 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
6851 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
6853 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
6860 @node Thread Commands
6861 @subsection Thread Commands
6862 @cindex thread commands
6868 @kindex T k (Summary)
6869 @kindex C-M-k (Summary)
6870 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
6871 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
6872 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
6873 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
6878 @kindex T l (Summary)
6879 @kindex C-M-l (Summary)
6880 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
6881 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
6882 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
6885 @kindex T i (Summary)
6886 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
6887 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
6888 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
6891 @kindex T # (Summary)
6892 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6893 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
6894 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6897 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
6898 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6899 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
6900 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6903 @kindex T T (Summary)
6904 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
6905 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
6908 @kindex T s (Summary)
6909 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
6910 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any@*
6911 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
6914 @kindex T h (Summary)
6915 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
6916 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
6919 @kindex T S (Summary)
6920 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
6921 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
6924 @kindex T H (Summary)
6925 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
6926 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
6929 @kindex T t (Summary)
6930 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
6931 Re-thread the current article's thread
6932 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
6933 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
6936 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
6937 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
6938 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
6939 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
6943 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
6944 understand the numeric prefix.
6949 @kindex T n (Summary)
6951 @kindex C-M-n (Summary)
6953 @kindex M-down (Summary)
6954 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
6955 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
6958 @kindex T p (Summary)
6960 @kindex C-M-p (Summary)
6962 @kindex M-up (Summary)
6963 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
6964 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
6967 @kindex T d (Summary)
6968 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
6969 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
6972 @kindex T u (Summary)
6973 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
6974 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
6977 @kindex T o (Summary)
6978 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
6979 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
6982 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
6983 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
6984 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
6985 a command like @kbd{T k} (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
6986 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
6987 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
6988 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
6989 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
6990 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
6991 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
6992 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
6993 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
6997 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
6998 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
7000 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
7001 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
7002 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
7003 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
7004 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
7005 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
7006 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-random
7007 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
7008 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number
7009 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date
7010 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
7011 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
7012 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
7013 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
7015 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
7016 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
7017 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
7018 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
7019 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number},
7020 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date},
7021 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-random} and
7022 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
7024 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
7025 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
7026 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
7028 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
7029 last function in the list. You should probably always include
7030 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
7031 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
7032 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
7033 ascending article order.
7035 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
7036 by number, you could do something like:
7039 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
7040 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
7041 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
7042 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
7045 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
7046 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
7047 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
7048 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
7049 which the articles arrived.
7051 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
7055 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
7057 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
7058 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
7061 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
7062 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
7063 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
7064 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
7067 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
7068 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
7069 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
7070 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
7071 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
7072 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-random
7073 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
7074 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
7075 other, you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions}
7076 variable. It is very similar to the
7077 @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that it uses slightly
7078 different functions for article comparison. Available sorting
7079 predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
7080 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author},
7081 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date},
7082 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-random}, and
7083 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
7085 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
7089 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
7090 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
7091 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
7096 @node Asynchronous Fetching
7097 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
7098 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
7099 @cindex article pre-fetch
7102 If you read your news from an @acronym{NNTP} server that's far away, the
7103 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
7104 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
7105 article appears. Why can't gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
7106 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
7108 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
7109 article fetching, especially the way gnus does it.
7111 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
7112 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
7113 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
7114 article 3, but since gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
7115 connection is blocked.
7117 To avoid these situations, gnus will open two (count 'em two)
7118 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
7119 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
7120 extra connection takes some time, so gnus startup will be slower.
7122 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
7123 the link between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server will become more
7124 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
7125 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
7128 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing@dots{} unless
7131 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
7132 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
7133 happen automatically.
7135 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
7136 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
7137 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
7138 that when you read an article in the group, the back end will pre-fetch
7139 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the back end will
7140 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
7141 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
7143 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
7144 @findex gnus-async-read-p
7145 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
7146 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p}
7147 variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This
7148 function should return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is
7149 to be pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which
7150 returns @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an
7151 article data structure as the only parameter.
7153 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter
7154 than 100 lines, you could say something like:
7157 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
7158 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
7159 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
7160 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
7163 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
7166 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
7167 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down gnus too much.
7168 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
7170 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
7171 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
7172 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
7173 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
7177 Remove articles when they are read.
7180 Remove articles when exiting the group.
7183 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
7185 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
7186 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
7187 @c from the next group.
7190 @node Article Caching
7191 @section Article Caching
7192 @cindex article caching
7195 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @acronym{NNTP} connection, you may
7196 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
7197 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
7198 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
7199 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
7201 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
7203 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7204 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
7205 @vindex gnus-use-cache
7206 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
7207 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
7208 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
7209 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
7210 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
7212 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
7213 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
7214 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
7215 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
7216 as dormant, and don't worry.
7218 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
7220 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
7221 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
7222 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
7223 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
7224 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
7225 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
7226 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
7227 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
7228 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
7229 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
7231 @findex gnus-jog-cache
7232 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
7233 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
7234 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
7235 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
7236 command if 1) your connection to the @acronym{NNTP} server is really, really,
7237 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
7238 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
7239 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
7240 not then be downloaded by this command.
7242 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
7243 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
7244 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
7245 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
7246 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
7247 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
7249 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
7250 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
7251 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
7252 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
7253 variables, the group is not cached.
7255 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
7256 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
7257 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
7258 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
7259 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
7260 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, gnus
7261 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
7262 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @acronym{NOV}
7263 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
7266 @findex gnus-cache-move-cache
7267 @code{gnus-cache-move-cache} will move your whole
7268 @code{gnus-cache-directory} to some other location. You get asked to
7269 where, isn't that cool?
7271 @node Persistent Articles
7272 @section Persistent Articles
7273 @cindex persistent articles
7275 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
7276 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
7277 useful in my opinion.
7279 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
7280 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
7281 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
7282 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
7283 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
7284 the expiry going on at the news server.
7286 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
7287 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
7288 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
7294 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
7295 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
7298 @kindex M-* (Summary)
7299 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
7300 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
7301 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
7305 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
7307 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
7308 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
7309 interested in persistent articles:
7312 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
7316 @node Article Backlog
7317 @section Article Backlog
7319 @cindex article backlog
7321 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
7322 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
7323 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where gnus will buffer
7324 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
7325 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
7326 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
7327 that, turning the backlog on will slow gnus down a little bit, and
7328 increase memory usage some.
7330 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
7331 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, gnus will store
7332 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
7333 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, gnus will store
7334 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
7335 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
7336 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
7338 The default value is 20.
7341 @node Saving Articles
7342 @section Saving Articles
7343 @cindex saving articles
7345 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
7346 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
7347 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
7348 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
7349 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
7351 For the commands listed here, the target is a file. If you want to
7352 save to a group, see the @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article})
7353 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
7355 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
7356 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, gnus will not delete
7357 unwanted headers before saving the article.
7359 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
7360 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
7361 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
7362 deleted before saving.
7368 @kindex O o (Summary)
7370 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
7371 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
7372 Save the current article using the default article saver
7373 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
7376 @kindex O m (Summary)
7377 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
7378 Save the current article in mail format
7379 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
7382 @kindex O r (Summary)
7383 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
7384 Save the current article in Rmail format
7385 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
7388 @kindex O f (Summary)
7389 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
7390 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
7391 Save the current article in plain file format
7392 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
7395 @kindex O F (Summary)
7396 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
7397 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
7398 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
7401 @kindex O b (Summary)
7402 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
7403 Save the current article body in plain file format
7404 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
7407 @kindex O h (Summary)
7408 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
7409 Save the current article in mh folder format
7410 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
7413 @kindex O v (Summary)
7414 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
7415 Save the current article in a VM folder
7416 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
7420 @kindex O p (Summary)
7422 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
7423 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
7424 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
7425 If given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), include the
7426 complete headers in the piped output.
7429 @kindex O P (Summary)
7430 @findex gnus-summary-muttprint
7431 @vindex gnus-summary-muttprint-program
7432 Save the current article into muttprint. That is, print it using the
7433 external program @uref{http://muttprint.sourceforge.net/,
7434 Muttprint}. The program name and options to use is controlled by the
7435 variable @code{gnus-summary-muttprint-program}.
7436 (@code{gnus-summary-muttprint}).
7440 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
7441 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
7442 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
7443 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
7444 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
7445 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
7446 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
7447 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
7448 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
7449 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
7450 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
7451 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
7455 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
7456 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
7457 gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
7458 functions below, or you can create your own.
7462 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7463 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7464 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
7465 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7466 This is the default format, @dfn{Babyl}. Uses the function in the
7467 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7468 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7470 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7471 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7472 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
7473 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
7474 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7475 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7477 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
7478 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
7479 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
7480 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7481 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
7482 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7483 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7485 @item gnus-summary-write-to-file
7486 @findex gnus-summary-write-to-file
7487 Write the article straight to an ordinary file. The file is
7488 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
7489 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7490 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7492 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7493 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7494 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
7495 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7496 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7498 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7499 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7500 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
7501 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
7502 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
7505 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
7506 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
7507 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
7508 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
7509 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
7511 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7512 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7513 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
7514 reader to use this setting.
7517 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
7518 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
7519 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
7520 @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
7523 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
7524 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
7525 available functions that generate names:
7529 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
7530 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
7531 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7533 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
7534 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7535 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7537 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
7538 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
7539 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7541 @item gnus-plain-save-name
7542 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7543 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7545 @item gnus-sender-save-name
7546 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
7547 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
7550 @vindex gnus-split-methods
7551 You can have gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
7552 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
7553 save articles related to gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
7554 related to VM in @file{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
7558 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
7559 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
7560 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
7561 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
7564 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
7565 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
7566 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
7567 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
7568 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
7569 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
7570 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
7571 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
7572 called returns a string or a list of strings.
7574 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
7575 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
7576 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
7577 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
7579 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
7580 means that gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
7581 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
7584 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
7585 lots of mail groups called things like
7586 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
7587 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
7588 following will do just that:
7591 (defun my-save-name (group)
7592 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
7593 (substring group (match-end 0))))
7595 (setq gnus-split-methods
7596 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
7601 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7602 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
7603 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
7604 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
7605 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
7606 all the files in the top level directory
7607 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
7608 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
7609 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
7610 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
7612 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
7613 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
7614 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
7615 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
7616 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
7619 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
7623 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; @r{to get a hierarchy}
7624 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
7625 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; @r{no encoding}
7628 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
7629 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
7630 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
7631 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
7634 @node Decoding Articles
7635 @section Decoding Articles
7636 @cindex decoding articles
7638 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
7639 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
7642 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
7643 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
7644 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
7645 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
7646 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
7647 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
7651 @cindex article series
7652 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
7653 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
7654 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
7655 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
7656 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
7658 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
7659 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
7660 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
7662 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, gnus
7663 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
7664 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
7666 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
7667 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
7668 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
7671 @node Uuencoded Articles
7672 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
7674 @cindex uuencoded articles
7679 @kindex X u (Summary)
7680 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
7681 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
7682 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
7685 @kindex X U (Summary)
7686 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
7687 Uudecodes and saves the current series
7688 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7691 @kindex X v u (Summary)
7692 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
7693 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
7696 @kindex X v U (Summary)
7697 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
7698 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
7699 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
7703 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
7704 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
7705 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
7706 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
7707 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7709 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
7710 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
7711 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
7712 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
7715 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
7716 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
7717 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
7718 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
7719 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
7720 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
7724 @node Shell Archives
7725 @subsection Shell Archives
7727 @cindex shell archives
7728 @cindex shared articles
7730 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
7731 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
7732 some commands to deal with these:
7737 @kindex X s (Summary)
7738 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
7739 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
7742 @kindex X S (Summary)
7743 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
7744 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
7747 @kindex X v s (Summary)
7748 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
7749 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
7752 @kindex X v S (Summary)
7753 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
7754 Unshars, views and saves the current series
7755 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
7759 @node PostScript Files
7760 @subsection PostScript Files
7766 @kindex X p (Summary)
7767 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
7768 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
7771 @kindex X P (Summary)
7772 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
7773 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
7774 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
7777 @kindex X v p (Summary)
7778 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
7779 View the current PostScript series
7780 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
7783 @kindex X v P (Summary)
7784 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
7785 View and save the current PostScript series
7786 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
7791 @subsection Other Files
7795 @kindex X o (Summary)
7796 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
7797 Save the current series
7798 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
7801 @kindex X b (Summary)
7802 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
7803 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
7804 doesn't really work yet.
7808 @node Decoding Variables
7809 @subsection Decoding Variables
7811 Adjective, not verb.
7814 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
7815 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
7816 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
7820 @node Rule Variables
7821 @subsubsection Rule Variables
7822 @cindex rule variables
7824 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
7825 variables are of the form
7828 (list '(regexp1 command2)
7835 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7836 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7838 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
7839 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @file{.au} sound file, you could
7842 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7843 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
7846 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7847 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7848 This variable is consulted if gnus couldn't make any matches from the
7849 user and default view rules.
7851 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7852 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7853 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
7858 @node Other Decode Variables
7859 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
7862 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7864 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7865 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
7866 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
7867 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
7868 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
7872 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
7873 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
7876 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
7877 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
7878 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
7881 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7882 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7883 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
7884 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
7885 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
7888 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7889 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7890 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
7892 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7893 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7894 Files with a @acronym{MIME} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
7895 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
7896 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @acronym{MIME} package (yet), so this is slightly
7899 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7900 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7901 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
7903 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7904 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7905 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
7906 looking for files to display.
7908 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
7909 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
7910 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
7913 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7914 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7915 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
7918 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7919 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7920 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
7923 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7924 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7925 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
7928 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7929 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7930 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
7931 decoded articles as unread.
7933 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7934 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7935 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
7936 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
7938 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7939 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7940 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
7942 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7943 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
7945 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
7946 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @acronym{MIME}
7947 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
7948 @code{metamail} for viewing.
7950 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7951 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
7952 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
7953 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
7954 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
7955 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
7956 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
7957 simply dropped them.
7962 @node Uuencoding and Posting
7963 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
7967 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7968 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
7969 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
7970 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
7971 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
7972 for you when you post the article.
7974 @item gnus-uu-post-length
7975 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
7976 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
7977 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
7979 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
7980 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
7981 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
7982 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
7983 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
7984 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
7985 think that counts@dots{}) Default is @code{nil}.
7987 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7988 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
7989 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
7990 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
7991 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
7992 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
7993 Default is @code{t}.
7999 @subsection Viewing Files
8000 @cindex viewing files
8001 @cindex pseudo-articles
8003 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, gnus will attempt
8004 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
8005 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
8006 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, gnus will
8007 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
8008 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
8009 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
8011 Finally, gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
8012 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
8013 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
8014 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
8016 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
8017 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
8018 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
8020 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
8021 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
8022 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
8023 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
8024 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
8026 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
8027 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
8028 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
8029 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
8030 a list of parameters to that command.
8032 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
8033 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
8034 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
8036 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
8037 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
8038 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
8041 @node Article Treatment
8042 @section Article Treatment
8044 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
8045 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
8046 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
8047 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
8048 these articles easier.
8051 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
8052 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
8053 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
8054 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
8055 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
8056 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
8057 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
8058 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
8059 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
8060 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
8061 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
8065 @node Article Highlighting
8066 @subsection Article Highlighting
8067 @cindex highlighting
8069 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
8070 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
8075 @kindex W H a (Summary)
8076 @findex gnus-article-highlight
8077 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
8078 Do much highlighting of the current article
8079 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
8080 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
8083 @kindex W H h (Summary)
8084 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
8085 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
8086 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
8087 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
8088 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
8089 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
8090 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
8091 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
8092 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
8093 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
8094 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
8097 @kindex W H c (Summary)
8098 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
8099 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
8101 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
8104 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
8106 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
8107 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
8108 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
8110 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
8111 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
8112 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
8114 @item gnus-cite-face-list
8115 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
8116 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
8117 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
8118 gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
8119 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
8121 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
8122 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
8123 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
8125 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
8126 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
8127 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
8129 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
8130 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
8131 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
8132 that it's a citation.
8134 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
8135 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
8136 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
8138 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
8139 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
8140 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
8142 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
8143 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
8144 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
8145 cited text belonging to the attribution.
8147 @item gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
8148 @vindex gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
8149 If non-@code{nil}, no citation highlighting will be performed on lines
8150 beginning with @samp{>From }. Those lines may have been quoted by MTAs
8151 in order not to mix up with the envelope From line. The default value
8158 @kindex W H s (Summary)
8159 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8160 @vindex gnus-signature-face
8161 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
8162 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
8163 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
8164 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
8165 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
8170 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
8173 @node Article Fontisizing
8174 @subsection Article Fontisizing
8176 @cindex article emphasis
8178 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
8179 @kindex W e (Summary)
8180 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
8181 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
8182 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
8183 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
8185 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
8186 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
8187 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
8188 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
8189 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
8190 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
8191 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
8192 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
8196 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
8197 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
8198 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
8207 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
8208 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
8209 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
8210 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
8211 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
8212 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
8213 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
8214 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
8215 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
8216 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
8217 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
8218 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
8219 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
8221 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
8222 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
8223 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
8227 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
8230 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
8232 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
8233 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
8234 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
8235 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
8237 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
8240 @node Article Hiding
8241 @subsection Article Hiding
8242 @cindex article hiding
8244 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
8245 too much cruft in most articles.
8250 @kindex W W a (Summary)
8251 @findex gnus-article-hide
8252 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
8253 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
8254 headers, @acronym{PGP}, cited text and the signature.
8257 @kindex W W h (Summary)
8258 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
8259 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
8263 @kindex W W b (Summary)
8264 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
8265 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
8266 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
8269 @kindex W W s (Summary)
8270 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
8271 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
8275 @kindex W W l (Summary)
8276 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
8277 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8278 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
8279 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
8280 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
8281 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
8282 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
8286 @item gnus-list-identifiers
8287 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8288 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
8289 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
8294 @kindex W W P (Summary)
8295 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
8296 Hide @acronym{PEM} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
8297 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
8300 @kindex W W B (Summary)
8301 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
8302 @vindex gnus-article-banner-alist
8303 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8306 @cindex stripping advertisements
8307 @cindex advertisements
8308 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
8309 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
8310 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
8311 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
8312 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
8313 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
8314 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
8315 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
8316 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
8317 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
8320 Regardless of a group, you can hide things like advertisements only when
8321 the sender of an article has a certain mail address specified in
8322 @code{gnus-article-address-banner-alist}.
8326 @item gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8327 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8328 Alist of mail addresses and banners. Each element has the form
8329 @code{(@var{address} . @var{banner})}, where @var{address} is a regexp
8330 matching a mail address in the From header, @var{banner} is one of a
8331 symbol @code{signature}, an item in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist},
8332 a regexp and @code{nil}. If @var{address} matches author's mail
8333 address, it will remove things like advertisements. For example, if a
8334 sender has the mail address @samp{hail@@yoo-hoo.co.jp} and there is a
8335 banner something like @samp{Do You Yoo-hoo!?} in all articles he
8336 sends, you can use the following element to remove them:
8339 ("@@yoo-hoo\\.co\\.jp\\'" .
8340 "\n_+\nDo You Yoo-hoo!\\?\n.*\n.*\n")
8346 @kindex W W c (Summary)
8347 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
8348 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
8349 customizing the hiding:
8353 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8354 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8355 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8356 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8357 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
8358 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
8359 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
8364 Starting point of the hidden text.
8366 Ending point of the hidden text.
8368 Number of characters in the hidden region.
8370 Number of lines of hidden text.
8373 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
8374 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
8375 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
8376 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
8377 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
8382 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
8383 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
8385 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
8386 following two variables:
8389 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8390 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8391 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
8392 50), hide the cited text.
8394 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8395 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8396 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
8401 @kindex W W C (Summary)
8402 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
8403 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
8404 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
8405 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
8406 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8410 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
8411 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
8412 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
8414 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
8415 citation customization.
8417 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
8421 @node Article Washing
8422 @subsection Article Washing
8424 @cindex article washing
8426 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
8427 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
8429 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
8430 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
8433 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
8434 articles by default.
8439 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
8440 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
8444 Force redisplaying of the current article
8445 (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). This is also not really washing.
8446 If you type this, you see the article without any previously applied
8447 interactive Washing functions but with all default treatments
8448 (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8451 @kindex W l (Summary)
8452 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
8453 Remove page breaks from the current article
8454 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
8458 @kindex W r (Summary)
8459 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
8460 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
8461 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
8462 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
8463 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
8464 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
8466 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
8467 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
8468 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
8469 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
8472 @kindex W m (Summary)
8473 @findex gnus-summary-morse-message
8474 Morse decode the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-morse-message}).
8478 @kindex W t (Summary)
8480 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
8481 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
8482 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
8485 @kindex W v (Summary)
8486 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-headers
8487 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
8488 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-headers}).
8491 @kindex W m (Summary)
8492 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-mime
8493 Toggle whether to run the article through @acronym{MIME} before
8494 displaying (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-mime}).
8497 @kindex W o (Summary)
8498 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
8499 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
8502 @kindex W d (Summary)
8503 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
8504 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
8506 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
8508 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
8509 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
8510 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
8511 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
8514 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
8515 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
8516 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
8517 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
8520 @kindex W Y f (Summary)
8521 @findex gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article
8522 @cindex Outlook Express
8523 Full deuglify of broken Outlook (Express) articles: Treat dumbquotes,
8524 unwrap lines, repair attribution and rearrange citation.
8525 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}).
8528 @kindex W Y u (Summary)
8529 @findex gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines
8530 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min
8531 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max
8532 Unwrap lines that appear to be wrapped citation lines. You can control
8533 what lines will be unwrapped by frobbing
8534 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min} and
8535 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max}, indicating the minimum and
8536 maximum length of an unwrapped citation line.
8537 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines}).
8540 @kindex W Y a (Summary)
8541 @findex gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution
8542 Repair a broken attribution line.@*
8543 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution}).
8546 @kindex W Y c (Summary)
8547 @findex gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation
8548 Repair broken citations by rearranging the text.
8549 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation}).
8552 @kindex W w (Summary)
8553 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
8554 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
8556 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
8560 @kindex W Q (Summary)
8561 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
8562 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
8565 @kindex W C (Summary)
8566 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
8567 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
8568 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
8571 @kindex W c (Summary)
8572 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
8573 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
8574 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
8575 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
8576 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
8578 @kindex W q (Summary)
8579 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
8580 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
8581 Quoted-Printable is one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when
8582 sending non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. It typically
8583 makes strings like @samp{d@'ej@`a vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu},
8584 which doesn't look very readable to me. Note that this is usually
8585 done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8586 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
8587 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8590 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
8591 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
8592 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}). Base64 is
8593 one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when sending
8594 non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. Note that this is
8595 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8596 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
8597 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8600 @kindex W Z (Summary)
8601 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
8602 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
8603 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
8604 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
8607 @kindex W A (Summary)
8608 @findex gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences
8609 @cindex @acronym{ANSI} control sequences
8610 Translate @acronym{ANSI} SGR control sequences into overlays or
8611 extents (@code{gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences}). @acronym{ANSI}
8612 sequences are used in some Chinese hierarchies for highlighting.
8615 @kindex W u (Summary)
8616 @findex gnus-article-unsplit-urls
8617 Remove newlines from within URLs. Some mailers insert newlines into
8618 outgoing email messages to keep lines short. This reformatting can
8619 split long URLs onto multiple lines. Repair those URLs by removing
8620 the newlines (@code{gnus-article-unsplit-urls}).
8623 @kindex W h (Summary)
8624 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
8625 Treat @acronym{HTML} (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}). Note that this is
8626 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8627 @code{Content-Type} header that says that the message is @acronym{HTML}.
8629 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8631 @vindex gnus-article-wash-function
8632 The default is to use the function specified by
8633 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display
8634 Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) to convert the
8635 @acronym{HTML}, but this is controlled by the
8636 @code{gnus-article-wash-function} variable. Pre-defined functions you
8644 Use @uref{http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/, emacs-w3m}.
8647 Use @uref{http://links.sf.net/, Links}.
8650 Use @uref{http://lynx.isc.org/, Lynx}.
8653 Use html2text---a simple @acronym{HTML} converter included with Gnus.
8658 @kindex W b (Summary)
8659 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
8660 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
8661 @xref{Article Buttons}.
8664 @kindex W B (Summary)
8665 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
8666 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
8667 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
8670 @kindex W p (Summary)
8671 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
8672 Verify a signed control message
8673 (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}). Control messages such as
8674 @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are usually signed by the
8675 hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the @acronym{PGP} public key of
8676 the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
8677 message.@footnote{@acronym{PGP} keys for many hierarchies are
8678 available at @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
8681 @kindex W s (Summary)
8682 @findex gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt
8683 Verify a signed (@acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME} or
8684 @acronym{S/MIME}) message
8685 (@code{gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt}). @xref{Security}.
8688 @kindex W a (Summary)
8689 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body
8690 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
8691 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body}).
8694 @kindex W E l (Summary)
8695 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
8696 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
8697 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
8700 @kindex W E m (Summary)
8701 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
8702 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
8703 lines with a single empty line.
8704 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
8707 @kindex W E t (Summary)
8708 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
8709 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
8710 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
8713 @kindex W E a (Summary)
8714 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
8715 Do all the three commands above
8716 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
8719 @kindex W E A (Summary)
8720 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
8721 Remove all blank lines
8722 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
8725 @kindex W E s (Summary)
8726 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
8727 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
8728 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
8731 @kindex W E e (Summary)
8732 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
8733 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
8734 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
8738 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
8741 @node Article Header
8742 @subsection Article Header
8744 These commands perform various transformations of article header.
8749 @kindex W G u (Summary)
8750 @findex gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers
8751 Unfold folded header lines (@code{gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers}).
8754 @kindex W G n (Summary)
8755 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups
8756 Fold the @code{Newsgroups} and @code{Followup-To} headers
8757 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups}).
8760 @kindex W G f (Summary)
8761 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-headers
8762 Fold all the message headers
8763 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-headers}).
8766 @kindex W E w (Summary)
8767 @findex gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace
8768 Remove excessive whitespace from all headers
8769 (@code{gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace}).
8774 @node Article Buttons
8775 @subsection Article Buttons
8778 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
8779 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
8780 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
8781 button on these references.
8783 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
8784 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
8785 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man pages and
8786 Emacs or Gnus related references. This is controlled by two variables,
8787 one that handles article bodies and one that handles article heads:
8791 @item gnus-button-alist
8792 @vindex gnus-button-alist
8793 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
8796 (@var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
8802 All text that match this regular expression (case insensitive) will be
8803 considered an external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches
8804 embedded URLs: @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}. This can also be a
8805 variable containing a regexp, useful variables to use include
8806 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp} and @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp}.
8809 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
8810 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
8811 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
8814 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
8815 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
8816 avoid false matches. Often variables named
8817 @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} are used here, @xref{Article Button
8818 Levels}, but any other form may be used too.
8820 @c @code{use-p} is @code{eval}ed only if @code{regexp} matches.
8823 This function will be called when you click on this button.
8826 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
8827 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
8831 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
8834 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
8837 @item gnus-header-button-alist
8838 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
8839 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
8840 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
8841 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
8844 (@var{header} @var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
8847 @var{header} is a regular expression.
8850 @subsubsection Related variables and functions
8853 @item gnus-button-@var{*}-level
8854 @xref{Article Button Levels}.
8856 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-browse-level
8858 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
8859 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
8860 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
8861 default values of the variables above.
8863 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-man-level
8865 @item gnus-button-man-handler
8866 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
8867 The function to use for displaying man pages. It must take at least one
8868 argument with a string naming the man page.
8870 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-message-level
8872 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
8873 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
8874 Regular expression that matches a message ID or a mail address.
8876 @item gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
8877 @vindex gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
8878 This variable determines what to do when the button on a string as
8879 @samp{foo123@@bar.invalid} is pushed. Strings like this can be either a
8880 message ID or a mail address. If it is one of the symbols @code{mid} or
8881 @code{mail}, Gnus will always assume that the string is a message ID or
8882 a mail address, respectively. If this variable is set to the symbol
8883 @code{ask}, always query the user what do do. If it is a function, this
8884 function will be called with the string as its only argument. The
8885 function must return @code{mid}, @code{mail}, @code{invalid} or
8886 @code{ask}. The default value is the function
8887 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
8889 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
8890 @findex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
8891 Function that guesses whether its argument is a message ID or a mail
8892 address. Returns @code{mid} if it's a message IDs, @code{mail} if
8893 it's a mail address, @code{ask} if unsure and @code{invalid} if the
8896 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
8897 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
8898 An alist of @code{(RATE . REGEXP)} pairs used by the function
8899 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
8901 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-tex-level
8903 @item gnus-button-ctan-handler
8904 @findex gnus-button-ctan-handler
8905 The function to use for displaying CTAN links. It must take one
8906 argument, the string naming the URL.
8909 @vindex gnus-ctan-url
8910 Top directory of a CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) archive used
8911 by @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler}.
8915 @item gnus-article-button-face
8916 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
8917 Face used on buttons.
8919 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
8920 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
8921 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
8925 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
8928 @node Article Button Levels
8929 @subsection Article button levels
8930 @cindex button levels
8931 The higher the value of the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level},
8932 the more buttons will appear. If the level is zero, no corresponding
8933 buttons are displayed. With the default value (which is 5) you should
8934 already see quite a lot of buttons. With higher levels, you will see
8935 more buttons, but you may also get more false positives. To avoid them,
8936 you can set the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} local to
8937 specific groups (@pxref{Group Parameters}). Here's an example for the
8938 variable @code{gnus-parameters}:
8941 ;; @r{increase @code{gnus-button-*-level} in some groups:}
8942 (setq gnus-parameters
8943 '(("\\<\\(emacs\\|gnus\\)\\>" (gnus-button-emacs-level 10))
8944 ("\\<unix\\>" (gnus-button-man-level 10))
8945 ("\\<tex\\>" (gnus-button-tex-level 10))))
8950 @item gnus-button-browse-level
8951 @vindex gnus-button-browse-level
8952 Controls the display of references to message IDs, mail addresses and
8953 news URLs. Related variables and functions include
8954 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp}, @code{browse-url}, and
8955 @code{browse-url-browser-function}.
8957 @item gnus-button-emacs-level
8958 @vindex gnus-button-emacs-level
8959 Controls the display of Emacs or Gnus references. Related functions are
8960 @code{gnus-button-handle-custom},
8961 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-function},
8962 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-variable},
8963 @code{gnus-button-handle-symbol},
8964 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-key},
8965 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos},
8966 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-command},
8967 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-variable},
8968 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-documentation}, and
8969 @code{gnus-button-handle-library}.
8971 @item gnus-button-man-level
8972 @vindex gnus-button-man-level
8973 Controls the display of references to (Unix) man pages.
8974 See @code{gnus-button-man-handler}.
8976 @item gnus-button-message-level
8977 @vindex gnus-button-message-level
8978 Controls the display of message IDs, mail addresses and news URLs.
8979 Related variables and functions include
8980 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp},
8981 @code{gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail},
8982 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}, and
8983 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist}.
8985 @item gnus-button-tex-level
8986 @vindex gnus-button-tex-level
8987 Controls the display of references to @TeX{} or LaTeX stuff, e.g. for CTAN
8988 URLs. See the variables @code{gnus-ctan-url},
8989 @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler},
8990 @code{gnus-button-ctan-directory-regexp}, and
8991 @code{gnus-button-handle-ctan-bogus-regexp}.
8997 @subsection Article Date
8999 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
9000 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
9001 when the article was sent.
9006 @kindex W T u (Summary)
9007 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
9008 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
9009 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
9012 @kindex W T i (Summary)
9013 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
9015 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
9016 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
9019 @kindex W T l (Summary)
9020 @findex gnus-article-date-local
9021 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
9024 @kindex W T p (Summary)
9025 @findex gnus-article-date-english
9026 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
9027 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
9030 @kindex W T s (Summary)
9031 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
9032 @findex gnus-article-date-user
9033 @findex format-time-string
9034 Display the date using a user-defined format
9035 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
9036 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
9037 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
9038 for a list of possible format specs.
9041 @kindex W T e (Summary)
9042 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
9043 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
9044 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
9045 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
9046 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
9049 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
9052 @vindex gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header
9053 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
9054 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
9057 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
9058 into wonderful absurdities.
9060 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
9063 (gnus-start-date-timer)
9066 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
9067 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
9071 @kindex W T o (Summary)
9072 @findex gnus-article-date-original
9073 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
9074 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
9075 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
9076 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
9077 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
9081 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
9082 preferred format automatically.
9085 @node Article Display
9086 @subsection Article Display
9091 These commands add various frivolous display gimmicks to the article
9092 buffer in Emacs versions that support them.
9094 @code{X-Face} headers are small black-and-white images supplied by the
9095 message headers (@pxref{X-Face}).
9097 @code{Face} headers are small colored images supplied by the message
9098 headers (@pxref{Face}).
9100 Smileys are those little @samp{:-)} symbols that people like to litter
9101 their messages with (@pxref{Smileys}).
9103 Picons, on the other hand, reside on your own system, and Gnus will
9104 try to match the headers to what you have (@pxref{Picons}).
9106 All these functions are toggles---if the elements already exist,
9111 @kindex W D x (Summary)
9112 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
9113 Display an @code{X-Face} in the @code{From} header.
9114 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}).
9117 @kindex W D d (Summary)
9118 @findex gnus-article-display-face
9119 Display a @code{Face} in the @code{From} header.
9120 (@code{gnus-article-display-face}).
9123 @kindex W D s (Summary)
9124 @findex gnus-treat-smiley
9125 Display smileys (@code{gnus-treat-smiley}).
9128 @kindex W D f (Summary)
9129 @findex gnus-treat-from-picon
9130 Piconify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-picon}).
9133 @kindex W D m (Summary)
9134 @findex gnus-treat-mail-picon
9135 Piconify all mail headers (i. e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
9136 (@code{gnus-treat-mail-picon}).
9139 @kindex W D n (Summary)
9140 @findex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
9141 Piconify all news headers (i. e., @code{Newsgroups} and
9142 @code{Followup-To}) (@code{gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon}).
9145 @kindex W D D (Summary)
9146 @findex gnus-article-remove-images
9147 Remove all images from the article buffer
9148 (@code{gnus-article-remove-images}).
9154 @node Article Signature
9155 @subsection Article Signature
9157 @cindex article signature
9159 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
9160 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
9161 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
9162 that says what is to be considered a signature is
9163 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
9164 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
9165 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
9166 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
9167 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
9170 (setq gnus-signature-separator
9171 '("^-- $" ; @r{The standard}
9172 "^-- *$" ; @r{A common mangling}
9173 "^-------*$" ; @r{Many people just use a looong}
9174 ; @r{line of dashes. Shame!}
9175 "^ *--------*$" ; @r{Double-shame!}
9176 "^________*$" ; @r{Underscores are also popular}
9177 "^========*$")) ; @r{Pervert!}
9180 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
9183 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
9184 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
9185 signature when displaying articles.
9189 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
9192 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
9195 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
9196 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
9198 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
9199 in question is not a signature.
9202 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
9203 listed above. Here's an example:
9206 (setq gnus-signature-limit
9207 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
9210 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
9211 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
9212 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
9213 signature after all.
9216 @node Article Miscellanea
9217 @subsection Article Miscellanea
9221 @kindex A t (Summary)
9222 @findex gnus-article-babel
9223 Translate the article from one language to another
9224 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
9230 @section MIME Commands
9231 @cindex MIME decoding
9233 @cindex viewing attachments
9235 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
9236 instance, @kbd{3 b} means ``view the third @acronym{MIME} part''.
9242 @kindex K v (Summary)
9243 View the @acronym{MIME} part.
9246 @kindex K o (Summary)
9247 Save the @acronym{MIME} part.
9250 @kindex K c (Summary)
9251 Copy the @acronym{MIME} part.
9254 @kindex K e (Summary)
9255 View the @acronym{MIME} part externally.
9258 @kindex K i (Summary)
9259 View the @acronym{MIME} part internally.
9262 @kindex K | (Summary)
9263 Pipe the @acronym{MIME} part to an external command.
9266 The rest of these @acronym{MIME} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
9271 @kindex K b (Summary)
9272 Make all the @acronym{MIME} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
9273 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
9277 @kindex K m (Summary)
9278 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
9279 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
9280 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
9281 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
9282 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
9285 @kindex X m (Summary)
9286 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
9287 Save all parts matching a @acronym{MIME} type to a directory
9288 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
9289 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9292 @kindex M-t (Summary)
9293 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized
9294 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
9295 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
9298 @kindex W M w (Summary)
9299 @findex gnus-article-decode-mime-words
9300 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
9301 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
9304 @kindex W M c (Summary)
9305 @findex gnus-article-decode-charset
9306 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
9307 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
9309 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
9310 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
9311 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
9312 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not
9313 include @acronym{MIME} headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic
9314 parameter to the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
9317 @kindex W M v (Summary)
9318 @findex gnus-mime-view-all-parts
9319 View all the @acronym{MIME} parts in the current article
9320 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
9327 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
9328 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
9329 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9330 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
9333 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
9336 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
9340 @item gnus-article-loose-mime
9341 @vindex gnus-article-loose-mime
9342 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus won't require the @samp{MIME-Version} header
9343 before interpreting the message as a @acronym{MIME} message. This helps
9344 when reading messages from certain broken mail user agents. The
9345 default is @code{nil}.
9347 @item gnus-article-emulate-mime
9348 @vindex gnus-article-emulate-mime
9349 There are other, non-@acronym{MIME} encoding methods used. The most common
9350 is @samp{uuencode}, but yEncode is also getting to be popular. If
9351 this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will look in message bodies to
9352 see if it finds these encodings, and if so, it'll run them through the
9353 Gnus @acronym{MIME} machinery. The default is @code{t}.
9355 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9356 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9357 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9358 this list won't have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9359 displayed or this variable is overridden by
9360 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types}. The default value is
9361 @code{(".*/.*")}. This variable is only used when
9362 @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing} is @code{nil}.
9364 @item gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9365 @vindex gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9366 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9367 this list will have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9368 displayed. This variable overrides
9369 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types}. The default value is @code{nil}.
9370 This variable is only used when @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing}
9373 To see e.g. security buttons but no other buttons, you could set this
9374 variable to @code{("multipart/signed")} and leave
9375 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} at the default value.
9377 @item gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9378 @vindex gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9379 If this is non-@code{nil}, then all @acronym{MIME} parts get buttons. The
9380 default value is @code{nil}.
9382 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
9383 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
9384 For each @acronym{MIME} part, this function will be called with the @acronym{MIME}
9385 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
9386 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
9387 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
9388 save all jpegs into some directory).
9390 Here's an example function the does the latter:
9393 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
9394 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
9396 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
9397 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
9398 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
9399 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
9400 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
9403 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9404 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9405 Alist of @acronym{MIME} multipart types and functions to handle them.
9407 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
9408 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
9409 Display "multipart/alternative" parts as "multipart/mixed".
9411 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
9412 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
9413 Display "multipart/related" parts as "multipart/mixed".
9415 If displaying "text/html" is discouraged, see
9416 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} in @ref{Display Customization,
9417 Display Customization, , emacs-mime, Emacs-Mime Manual}. Images or
9418 other material inside a "multipart/related" part might be overlooked
9419 when this variable is nil.
9421 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
9422 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
9423 Display "multipart" parts as "multipart/mixed". If t, it overrides nil
9424 values of @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed} and
9425 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed}.
9427 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9428 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9429 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @acronym{MIME} parts.
9430 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
9432 Ready-made functions include@*
9433 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
9434 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
9435 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
9436 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
9437 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
9438 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
9439 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
9440 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
9441 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9442 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9443 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9444 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9446 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
9447 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
9449 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
9450 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
9451 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
9454 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9455 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9456 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9457 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
9461 to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
9470 People use different charsets, and we have @acronym{MIME} to let us know what
9471 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
9472 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @acronym{MIME}, and
9473 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
9474 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
9475 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
9476 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp-2}.
9478 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
9479 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
9480 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
9481 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
9483 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets
9484 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @acronym{MIME}-aware agents that
9485 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1}
9486 even if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
9487 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
9488 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be
9489 set on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
9490 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit x-unknown)},
9491 which includes values some agents insist on having in there.
9493 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
9494 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
9495 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @acronym{MIME}
9496 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
9497 quoted-printable header encoding.
9499 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
9500 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
9501 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
9505 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
9508 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
9509 means encode all charsets),
9511 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
9512 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
9513 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
9520 @cindex coding system aliases
9521 @cindex preferred charset
9523 @xref{Encoding Customization, , Encoding Customization, emacs-mime,
9524 The Emacs MIME Manual}, for additional variables that control which
9525 MIME charsets are used when sending messages.
9527 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
9529 If there are several @acronym{MIME} charsets that encode the same Emacs
9530 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
9533 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
9534 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
9537 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
9538 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @acronym{MIME} charset.
9540 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
9543 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
9546 This will almost do the right thing.
9548 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
9552 (codepage-setup 1251)
9553 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
9557 @node Article Commands
9558 @section Article Commands
9565 @kindex A P (Summary)
9566 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
9567 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
9568 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
9569 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will
9570 be run just before printing the buffer. An alternative way to print
9571 article is to use Muttprint (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
9576 @node Summary Sorting
9577 @section Summary Sorting
9578 @cindex summary sorting
9580 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
9581 can't really see why you'd want that.
9586 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
9587 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
9588 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
9591 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
9592 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
9593 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
9596 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
9597 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
9598 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
9601 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
9602 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
9603 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
9606 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
9607 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
9608 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
9611 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
9612 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
9613 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
9616 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
9617 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
9618 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
9621 @kindex C-c C-s C-r (Summary)
9622 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-random
9623 Randomize (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-random}).
9626 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
9627 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
9628 Sort using the default sorting method
9629 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
9632 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
9633 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
9634 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
9635 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
9636 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
9640 @node Finding the Parent
9641 @section Finding the Parent
9642 @cindex parent articles
9643 @cindex referring articles
9648 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
9649 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
9650 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
9651 if the current group is fetched by @acronym{NNTP}, the parent hasn't expired
9652 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
9653 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
9654 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
9655 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
9656 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
9658 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
9659 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
9660 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, gnus will fetch the parent, the
9661 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
9662 @kbd{-3 ^}, gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
9666 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
9667 @kindex A R (Summary)
9668 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
9669 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
9672 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
9673 @kindex A T (Summary)
9674 Display the full thread where the current article appears
9675 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
9676 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
9677 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
9678 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
9679 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
9680 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
9682 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
9683 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
9684 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
9685 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
9686 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
9687 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
9690 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
9691 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
9693 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
9694 You can also ask the @acronym{NNTP} server for an arbitrary article, no
9695 matter what group it belongs to. @kbd{M-^}
9696 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you for a
9697 @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies
9698 that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}. You
9699 have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
9702 The current select method will be used when fetching by
9703 @code{Message-ID} from non-news select method, but you can override this
9704 by giving this command a prefix.
9706 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
9707 If the group you are reading is located on a back end that does not
9708 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
9709 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @acronym{NNTP} method. It
9710 would, perhaps, be best if the @acronym{NNTP} server you consult is the one
9711 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
9714 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
9715 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
9716 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
9719 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
9720 then ask Google if that fails:
9723 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
9725 (nnweb "google" (nnweb-type google))))
9728 Most of the mail back ends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but
9729 do not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox},
9730 @code{nnbabyl}, @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnml}, are able to locate
9731 articles from any groups, while @code{nnfolder}, and @code{nnimap} are
9732 only able to locate articles that have been posted to the current
9733 group. (Anything else would be too time consuming.) @code{nnmh} does
9734 not support this at all.
9737 @node Alternative Approaches
9738 @section Alternative Approaches
9740 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
9741 gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
9744 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
9745 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
9750 @subsection Pick and Read
9751 @cindex pick and read
9753 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
9754 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
9755 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
9756 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
9758 @findex gnus-pick-mode
9759 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
9760 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
9761 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
9762 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
9763 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
9765 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
9770 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
9771 Pick the article or thread on the current line
9772 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
9773 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
9774 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
9775 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
9776 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
9777 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
9780 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
9781 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
9782 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
9783 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
9787 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
9788 Unpick the thread or article
9789 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
9790 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
9791 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
9792 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
9793 the thread or article at that line.
9797 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
9798 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
9799 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
9800 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
9801 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
9802 will still be visible when you are reading.
9806 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
9807 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
9808 which is mapped to the same function
9809 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
9811 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
9814 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
9817 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
9818 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
9820 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
9821 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
9822 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
9824 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
9825 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
9826 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
9827 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
9828 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
9829 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
9830 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
9834 @subsection Binary Groups
9835 @cindex binary groups
9837 @findex gnus-binary-mode
9838 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
9839 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
9840 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
9841 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
9842 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
9843 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
9846 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
9847 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
9848 command, when you have turned on this mode
9849 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
9851 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
9852 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
9856 @section Tree Display
9859 @vindex gnus-use-trees
9860 If you don't like the normal gnus summary display, you might try setting
9861 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
9862 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
9865 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
9868 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
9869 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
9870 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
9872 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
9873 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
9874 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
9875 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
9876 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
9878 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
9879 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
9880 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
9881 default is @code{modeline}.
9883 @item gnus-tree-line-format
9884 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
9885 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
9886 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
9887 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
9888 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
9889 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
9895 The name of the poster.
9897 The @code{From} header.
9899 The number of the article.
9901 The opening bracket.
9903 The closing bracket.
9908 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
9910 Variables related to the display are:
9913 @item gnus-tree-brackets
9914 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
9915 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
9916 ``sparse'' articles. The format is
9918 ((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
9919 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close})
9920 (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))
9922 and the default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
9924 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
9925 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
9926 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
9927 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
9931 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
9932 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
9933 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, gnus will try to keep the tree
9934 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other gnus
9935 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
9936 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
9937 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
9938 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
9939 other windows displayed next to it.
9941 You may also wish to add the following hook to keep the window minimized
9945 (add-hook 'gnus-configure-windows-hook
9946 'gnus-tree-perhaps-minimize)
9949 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
9950 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
9951 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
9952 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
9953 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
9954 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
9955 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
9959 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
9962 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
9972 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
9977 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
9978 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
9980 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
9982 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
9988 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
9989 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
9990 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
9993 (setq gnus-use-trees t
9994 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
9995 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
9996 (gnus-add-configuration
10000 (summary 0.75 point)
10005 @xref{Window Layout}.
10008 @node Mail Group Commands
10009 @section Mail Group Commands
10010 @cindex mail group commands
10012 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
10013 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
10015 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
10016 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10021 @kindex B e (Summary)
10022 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
10023 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
10024 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
10025 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
10026 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
10029 @kindex B C-M-e (Summary)
10030 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
10031 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
10032 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
10033 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
10034 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
10037 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
10038 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
10039 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
10040 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
10041 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
10042 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
10045 @kindex B m (Summary)
10047 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
10048 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
10049 Move the article from one mail group to another
10050 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
10051 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
10054 @kindex B c (Summary)
10056 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
10057 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
10058 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
10059 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
10060 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
10063 @kindex B B (Summary)
10064 @cindex crosspost mail
10065 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
10066 Crosspost the current article to some other group
10067 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
10068 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
10069 be properly updated.
10072 @kindex B i (Summary)
10073 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
10074 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
10075 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
10076 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
10079 @kindex B I (Summary)
10080 @findex gnus-summary-create-article
10081 Create an empty article in the current mail newsgroups
10082 (@code{gnus-summary-create-article}). You will be prompted for a
10083 @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
10086 @kindex B r (Summary)
10087 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
10088 @vindex gnus-summary-respool-default-method
10089 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
10090 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
10091 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
10092 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
10093 Marks will be preserved if @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
10094 (which is the default).
10098 @kindex B w (Summary)
10099 @kindex e (Summary)
10100 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
10101 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
10102 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article-done
10103 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
10104 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
10105 (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
10106 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, gnus won't re-highlight the article.
10109 @kindex B q (Summary)
10110 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
10111 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
10112 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
10113 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
10116 @kindex B t (Summary)
10117 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
10118 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
10119 when respooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
10122 @kindex B p (Summary)
10123 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
10124 Some people have a tendency to send you ``courtesy'' copies when they
10125 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
10126 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
10127 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
10128 article from your news server (or rather, from
10129 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
10130 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
10131 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
10132 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
10133 just not have arrived yet.
10136 @kindex K E (Summary)
10137 @findex gnus-article-encrypt-body
10138 @vindex gnus-article-encrypt-protocol
10139 Encrypt the body of an article (@code{gnus-article-encrypt-body}).
10140 The body is encrypted with the encryption protocol specified by the
10141 variable @code{gnus-article-encrypt-protocol}.
10145 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
10146 @cindex moving articles
10147 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have gnus
10148 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
10149 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
10150 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
10151 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
10152 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
10153 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
10156 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
10157 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
10158 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
10159 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
10163 @node Various Summary Stuff
10164 @section Various Summary Stuff
10167 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
10168 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
10169 * Summary Generation Commands::
10170 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
10174 @vindex gnus-summary-display-while-building
10175 @item gnus-summary-display-while-building
10176 If non-@code{nil}, show and update the summary buffer as it's being
10177 built. If @code{t}, update the buffer after every line is inserted.
10178 If the value is an integer, @var{n}, update the display every @var{n}
10179 lines. The default is @code{nil}.
10181 @vindex gnus-summary-display-arrow
10182 @item gnus-summary-display-arrow
10183 If non-@code{nil}, display an arrow in the fringe to indicate the
10186 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
10187 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
10188 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
10190 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
10191 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
10192 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
10193 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
10194 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
10195 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
10198 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
10199 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
10200 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
10201 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
10202 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
10204 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10205 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10206 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
10209 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10210 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10211 When gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
10212 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
10213 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
10214 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
10215 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), gnus will rename the
10216 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
10217 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
10218 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
10220 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10221 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10222 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
10223 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
10224 list of articles to be selected.
10226 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
10227 the list in one particular group:
10230 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
10231 (if (string= group "some.group")
10232 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
10236 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-variables
10237 @item gnus-newsgroup-variables
10238 A list of newsgroup (summary buffer) local variables, or cons of
10239 variables and their default expressions to be evalled (when the default
10240 values are not @code{nil}), that should be made global while the summary
10243 Note: The default expressions will be evaluated (using function
10244 @code{eval}) before assignment to the local variable rather than just
10245 assigned to it. If the default expression is the symbol @code{global},
10246 that symbol will not be evaluated but the global value of the local
10247 variable will be used instead.
10249 These variables can be used to set variables in the group parameters
10250 while still allowing them to affect operations done in other
10251 buffers. For example:
10254 (setq gnus-newsgroup-variables
10255 '(message-use-followup-to
10256 (gnus-visible-headers .
10257 "^From:\\|^Newsgroups:\\|^Subject:\\|^Date:\\|^To:")))
10260 Also @pxref{Group Parameters}.
10264 @node Summary Group Information
10265 @subsection Summary Group Information
10270 @kindex H f (Summary)
10271 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
10272 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
10273 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} (list of frequently asked questions)
10274 for the current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try
10275 to get the @acronym{FAQ} from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which
10276 is usually a directory on a remote machine. This variable can also be
10277 a list of directories. In that case, giving a prefix to this command
10278 will allow you to choose between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp}
10279 or @code{efs} will probably be used for fetching the file.
10282 @kindex H d (Summary)
10283 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
10284 Give a brief description of the current group
10285 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
10286 rereading the description from the server.
10289 @kindex H h (Summary)
10290 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
10291 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
10292 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
10295 @kindex H i (Summary)
10296 @findex gnus-info-find-node
10297 Go to the gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
10301 @node Searching for Articles
10302 @subsection Searching for Articles
10307 @kindex M-s (Summary)
10308 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
10309 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
10310 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
10313 @kindex M-r (Summary)
10314 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
10315 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
10316 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
10319 @kindex & (Summary)
10320 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
10321 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
10322 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
10323 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
10324 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
10325 search backward instead.
10327 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string RET #} will put the process mark on
10328 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
10331 @kindex M-& (Summary)
10332 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
10333 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
10334 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
10337 @node Summary Generation Commands
10338 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
10343 @kindex Y g (Summary)
10344 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
10345 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
10348 @kindex Y c (Summary)
10349 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
10350 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10351 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
10354 @kindex Y d (Summary)
10355 @findex gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles
10356 Pull all dormant articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10357 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles}).
10362 @node Really Various Summary Commands
10363 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
10369 @kindex C-d (Summary)
10370 @kindex A D (Summary)
10371 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
10372 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
10373 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
10374 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
10375 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
10376 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
10377 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
10378 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
10382 @kindex C-M-d (Summary)
10383 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
10384 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
10385 several documents into one biiig group
10386 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
10387 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
10388 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
10389 command understands the process/prefix convention
10390 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10393 @kindex C-t (Summary)
10394 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
10395 Toggle truncation of summary lines
10396 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
10397 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
10398 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
10401 @kindex = (Summary)
10402 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
10403 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
10404 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
10407 @kindex C-M-e (Summary)
10408 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
10409 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10410 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
10413 @kindex C-M-a (Summary)
10414 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
10415 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10416 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
10421 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
10422 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
10423 @cindex summary exit
10424 @cindex exiting groups
10426 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
10427 group and return you to the group buffer.
10434 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
10435 @kindex Z Q (Summary)
10436 @kindex q (Summary)
10437 @findex gnus-summary-exit
10438 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
10439 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
10440 @vindex gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook
10441 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
10442 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
10443 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
10444 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
10445 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
10446 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
10447 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
10448 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
10452 @kindex Z E (Summary)
10453 @kindex Q (Summary)
10454 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
10455 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
10456 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
10460 @kindex Z c (Summary)
10461 @kindex c (Summary)
10462 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
10463 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
10464 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
10465 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
10468 @kindex Z C (Summary)
10469 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
10470 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
10471 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
10474 @kindex Z n (Summary)
10475 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
10476 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
10477 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
10481 @kindex Z R (Summary)
10482 @kindex C-x C-s (Summary)
10483 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
10484 Exit this group, and then enter it again
10485 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
10486 all articles, both read and unread.
10490 @kindex Z G (Summary)
10491 @kindex M-g (Summary)
10492 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
10493 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
10494 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
10495 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
10496 articles, both read and unread.
10499 @kindex Z N (Summary)
10500 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
10501 Exit the group and go to the next group
10502 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
10505 @kindex Z P (Summary)
10506 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
10507 Exit the group and go to the previous group
10508 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
10511 @kindex Z s (Summary)
10512 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
10513 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
10514 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
10515 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
10516 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
10519 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
10520 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
10521 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
10522 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
10524 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
10525 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
10526 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
10527 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
10528 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
10529 If you do that, gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
10530 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
10531 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
10532 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
10533 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
10534 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
10535 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
10537 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
10539 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
10540 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
10541 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
10542 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
10543 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
10544 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
10545 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
10546 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
10547 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
10550 @node Crosspost Handling
10551 @section Crosspost Handling
10555 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
10556 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
10557 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
10558 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
10559 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
10560 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
10563 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
10564 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
10565 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
10566 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
10567 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
10569 @cindex cross-posting
10571 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
10572 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
10573 correctly is if you use an @acronym{NNTP} server that supports @sc{xover}
10574 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
10575 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @acronym{NOV} lines. This is
10576 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
10577 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
10578 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
10579 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
10580 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
10581 the cross reference mechanism.
10583 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
10584 @cindex overview.fmt
10585 To check whether your @acronym{NNTP} server includes the @code{Xref} header
10586 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
10587 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
10588 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
10589 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
10590 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
10593 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
10594 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
10595 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
10600 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
10603 @node Duplicate Suppression
10604 @section Duplicate Suppression
10606 By default, gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
10607 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
10608 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
10609 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
10614 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
10615 is evil and not very common.
10618 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
10619 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
10622 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
10623 different @acronym{NNTP} servers.
10626 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
10629 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
10630 well, but these four are the most common situations.
10632 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
10633 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
10634 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
10635 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
10636 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
10637 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
10638 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
10641 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
10642 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
10643 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
10644 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
10645 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
10646 saw the article in.
10649 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
10650 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
10651 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
10653 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
10654 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
10655 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
10656 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
10657 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single gnus
10658 session are suppressed.
10660 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
10661 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
10662 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
10663 suppression list. The default is 10000.
10665 @item gnus-duplicate-file
10666 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
10667 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
10668 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
10671 If you have a tendency to stop and start gnus often, setting
10672 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
10673 you leave gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
10674 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
10675 so that means that if you stop and start gnus often, you should set
10676 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
10677 to you to figure out, I think.
10682 Gnus is able to verify signed messages or decrypt encrypted messages.
10683 The formats that are supported are @acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME}
10684 and @acronym{S/MIME}, however you need some external programs to get
10689 To handle @acronym{PGP} and @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages, you have to
10690 install an OpenPGP implementation such as GnuPG. The Lisp interface
10691 to GnuPG included with Gnus is called PGG (@pxref{Top, ,PGG, pgg, PGG
10692 Manual}), but Mailcrypt and gpg.el are also supported.
10695 To handle @acronym{S/MIME} message, you need to install OpenSSL. OpenSSL 0.9.6
10696 or newer is recommended.
10700 More information on how to set things up can be found in the message
10701 manual (@pxref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}).
10704 @item mm-verify-option
10705 @vindex mm-verify-option
10706 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
10707 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
10708 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10710 @item mm-decrypt-option
10711 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
10712 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
10713 @code{always}, always decrypt; @code{known}, only decrypt known
10714 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10717 @vindex mml1991-use
10718 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
10719 @acronym{PGP} messages. The default is @code{pgg}, but
10720 @code{mailcrypt} and @code{gpg} are also supported although
10724 @vindex mml2015-use
10725 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
10726 @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages. The default is @code{pgg}, but
10727 @code{mailcrypt} and @code{gpg} are also supported although
10732 @cindex snarfing keys
10733 @cindex importing PGP keys
10734 @cindex PGP key ring import
10735 Snarfing OpenPGP keys (i.e., importing keys from articles into your
10736 key ring) is not supported explicitly through a menu item or command,
10737 rather Gnus do detect and label keys as @samp{application/pgp-keys},
10738 allowing you to specify whatever action you think is appropriate
10739 through the usual @acronym{MIME} infrastructure. You can use a
10740 @file{~/.mailcap} entry (@pxref{mailcap, , mailcap, emacs-mime, The
10741 Emacs MIME Manual}) such as the following to import keys using GNU
10742 Privacy Guard when you click on the @acronym{MIME} button
10743 (@pxref{Using MIME}).
10746 application/pgp-keys; gpg --import --interactive --verbose; needsterminal
10749 This happens to also be the default action defined in
10750 @code{mailcap-mime-data}.
10753 @section Mailing List
10754 @cindex mailing list
10757 @kindex A M (summary)
10758 @findex gnus-mailing-list-insinuate
10759 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369. To enable it,
10760 add a @code{to-list} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}),
10761 possibly using @kbd{A M} (@code{gnus-mailing-list-insinuate}) in the
10764 That enables the following commands to the summary buffer:
10769 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
10770 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
10771 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
10774 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
10775 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
10776 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
10779 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
10780 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
10781 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
10785 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
10786 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
10787 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
10790 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
10791 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
10792 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
10795 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
10796 @findex gnus-mailing-list-archive
10797 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
10802 @node Article Buffer
10803 @chapter Article Buffer
10804 @cindex article buffer
10806 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
10807 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
10808 tell gnus otherwise.
10811 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
10812 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
10813 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
10814 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
10815 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
10819 @node Hiding Headers
10820 @section Hiding Headers
10821 @cindex hiding headers
10822 @cindex deleting headers
10824 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
10825 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
10827 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
10828 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
10829 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
10830 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
10831 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
10832 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
10833 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseam---and you'll probably want to get rid
10834 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
10835 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
10837 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
10841 @item gnus-visible-headers
10842 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
10843 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
10844 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
10845 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
10847 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
10848 the article and the subject, you'd say:
10851 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
10854 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
10857 @item gnus-ignored-headers
10858 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
10859 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
10860 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
10861 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
10862 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
10864 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} field
10865 and the @code{Xref} field, you might say:
10868 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
10871 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
10874 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
10875 variable will have no effect.
10879 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
10880 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
10881 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
10882 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
10883 the headers are to be displayed.
10885 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
10886 and then the subject, you might say something like:
10889 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
10892 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
10893 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
10895 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
10896 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
10897 You can hide further boring headers by setting
10898 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
10899 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
10900 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead it
10901 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
10904 These conditions are:
10907 Remove all empty headers.
10909 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
10910 @code{Newsgroups} header.
10912 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same addresses as
10913 the @code{From} header, or if the @code{broken-reply-to} group
10916 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
10919 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
10920 the current group's @code{to-address} parameter.
10922 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
10923 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
10925 Remove the @code{CC} header if it only contains the address identical to
10926 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
10928 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
10931 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
10933 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
10936 To include these three elements, you could say something like:
10939 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
10940 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
10943 This is also the default value for this variable.
10947 @section Using MIME
10948 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
10950 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
10951 while people stand around yawning.
10953 @acronym{MIME}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
10954 while all newsreaders die of fear.
10956 @acronym{MIME} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
10957 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
10958 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
10960 @vindex gnus-show-mime
10961 @vindex gnus-article-display-method-for-mime
10962 @findex gnus-article-display-mime-message
10963 gnus handles @acronym{MIME} by pushing the articles through
10964 @code{gnus-article-display-method-for-mime}, which is
10965 @code{gnus-article-display-mime-message} by default. This function
10966 calls the @acronym{SEMI} MIME-View program to actually do the work. For
10967 more information on @acronym{SEMI} MIME-View, see its manual page
10968 (however it is not existed yet, sorry).
10970 Set @code{gnus-show-mime} to @code{t} if you want to use
10971 @acronym{MIME} all the time. If you have @code{gnus-show-mime} set,
10972 then you'll see some unfortunate display glitches in the article buffer.
10973 These can't be avoided.
10975 In GNUS or Gnus, it might be best to just use the toggling functions
10976 from the summary buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance,
10977 you enter the group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it,
10978 @acronym{MIME} has decoded the sound file in the article and some
10979 horrible sing-a-long song comes screaming out your speakers, and you
10980 can't find the volume button, because there isn't one, and people are
10981 starting to look at you, and you try to stop the program, but you can't,
10982 and you can't find the program to control the volume, and everybody else
10983 in the room suddenly decides to look at you disdainfully, and you'll
10984 feel rather stupid.)
10986 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
10988 To avoid such kind of situation, gnus stops to use
10989 @code{metamail-buffer}. So now, you can set @code{gnus-show-mime} to
10990 non-@code{nil} every-time, then you can push button in the article
10991 buffer when there are nobody else.
10993 Also @pxref{MIME Commands}.
10996 @node Customizing Articles
10997 @section Customizing Articles
10998 @cindex article customization
11000 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
11001 exist. You can call these functions interactively
11002 (@pxref{Article Washing}), or you can have them
11003 called automatically when you select the articles.
11005 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
11006 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
11007 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
11008 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
11010 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
11011 for sensible values.
11015 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
11018 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
11021 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
11024 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last part.
11027 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
11031 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
11032 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
11033 regexps in the list.
11036 A list where the first element is not a string:
11038 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
11039 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
11040 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
11044 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
11048 @code{mime}: Do this treatment if the value of @code{gnus-show-mime}' is
11053 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
11054 to the fact that some messages are @acronym{MIME} multipart articles that may
11055 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
11056 considered to contain just a single part.
11058 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
11059 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
11060 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
11061 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
11062 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
11063 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
11064 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
11066 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
11067 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
11068 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
11069 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
11072 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
11073 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
11075 @xref{Article Buttons}.
11077 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
11078 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
11079 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
11080 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
11081 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, integer)
11082 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
11083 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
11084 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
11085 @item gnus-treat-unsplit-urls (t, integer)
11086 @item gnus-treat-wash-html (t, integer)
11087 @item gnus-treat-decode-article-as-default-mime-charset (t, integer)
11089 @xref{Article Washing}.
11091 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
11092 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
11093 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
11094 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
11095 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
11096 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
11097 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
11099 @xref{Article Date}.
11101 @item gnus-treat-from-picon (head)
11102 @item gnus-treat-mail-picon (head)
11103 @item gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon (head)
11107 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
11109 @item gnus-treat-body-boundary (head)
11111 @vindex gnus-body-boundary-delimiter
11112 Adds a delimiter between header and body, the string used as delimiter
11113 is controlled by @code{gnus-body-boundary-delimiter}.
11117 @item gnus-treat-display-x-face (head)
11121 @item gnus-treat-display-face (head)
11125 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
11126 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
11127 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
11128 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
11129 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
11130 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
11131 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
11132 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
11133 @item gnus-treat-strip-banner (t, last)
11134 @item gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers (head)
11136 @xref{Article Hiding}.
11138 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
11139 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
11140 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
11142 @xref{Article Highlighting}.
11144 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
11145 @item gnus-treat-translate
11146 @item gnus-treat-ansi-sequences (t)
11147 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
11149 @item gnus-treat-unfold-headers (head)
11150 @item gnus-treat-fold-headers (head)
11151 @item gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups (head)
11152 @item gnus-treat-leading-whitespace (head)
11154 @xref{Article Header}.
11159 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
11160 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
11161 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
11162 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
11163 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
11167 @node Article Keymap
11168 @section Article Keymap
11170 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
11171 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
11172 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
11173 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
11176 A few additional keystrokes are available:
11181 @kindex SPACE (Article)
11182 @findex gnus-article-next-page
11183 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
11184 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h SPACE h}.
11187 @kindex DEL (Article)
11188 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
11189 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
11190 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h DEL h}.
11193 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
11194 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
11195 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
11196 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
11197 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
11200 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
11201 @findex gnus-article-mail
11202 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
11203 given a prefix, include the mail.
11206 @kindex s (Article)
11207 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
11208 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
11209 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
11212 @kindex ? (Article)
11213 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
11214 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
11215 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
11218 @kindex TAB (Article)
11219 @findex gnus-article-next-button
11220 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
11221 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
11224 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
11225 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
11226 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
11229 @kindex R (Article)
11230 @findex gnus-article-reply-with-original
11231 Send a reply to the current article and yank the current article
11232 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}). If given a prefix, make a
11233 wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
11237 @kindex F (Article)
11238 @findex gnus-article-followup-with-original
11239 Send a followup to the current article and yank the current article
11240 (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}). If given a prefix, make
11241 a wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
11249 @section Misc Article
11253 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
11254 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
11255 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
11256 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
11259 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
11260 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
11261 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
11262 Hook used to decode @acronym{MIME} articles. The default value is
11263 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
11265 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
11266 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
11267 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
11268 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
11269 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
11270 the contents of the article buffer.
11272 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
11273 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
11274 Hook called in article mode buffers.
11276 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
11277 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
11278 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
11279 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
11281 @vindex gnus-article-over-scroll
11282 @item gnus-article-over-scroll
11283 If non-@code{nil}, allow scrolling the article buffer even when there
11284 no more new text to scroll in. The default is @code{nil}.
11286 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
11287 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
11288 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
11289 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Summary Buffer Mode
11290 Line}). It accepts the same format specifications as that variable,
11291 with two extensions:
11296 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
11297 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
11298 performed. The characters and their meaning:
11303 Displayed when cited text may be hidden in the article buffer.
11306 Displayed when headers are hidden in the article buffer.
11309 Displayed when article is digitally signed or encrypted, and Gnus has
11310 hidden the security headers. (N.B. does not tell anything about
11311 security status, i.e. good or bad signature.)
11314 Displayed when the signature has been hidden in the Article buffer.
11317 Displayed when Gnus has treated overstrike characters in the article buffer.
11320 Displayed when Gnus has treated emphasised strings in the article buffer.
11325 The number of @acronym{MIME} parts in the article.
11329 @vindex gnus-break-pages
11331 @item gnus-break-pages
11332 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
11333 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
11334 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
11335 paging will not be done.
11337 @item gnus-page-delimiter
11338 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
11339 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
11343 @cindex internationalized domain names
11344 @vindex gnus-use-idna
11345 @item gnus-use-idna
11346 This variable controls whether Gnus performs IDNA decoding of
11347 internationalized domain names inside @samp{From}, @samp{To} and
11348 @samp{Cc} headers. This requires
11349 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/, GNU Libidn}, and this
11350 variable is only enabled if you have installed it.
11355 @node Composing Messages
11356 @chapter Composing Messages
11357 @cindex composing messages
11360 @cindex sending mail
11365 @cindex using s/mime
11366 @cindex using smime
11368 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
11369 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
11370 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
11371 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Overview, message,
11372 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
11373 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
11376 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
11377 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
11378 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
11379 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
11380 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
11381 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
11382 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
11383 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
11384 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
11387 Also @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
11388 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
11394 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
11397 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
11398 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
11399 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
11400 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched. If
11401 @code{nil} include all headers.
11403 @item gnus-add-to-list
11404 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
11405 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
11406 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
11408 @item gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
11409 @vindex gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
11410 This can also be a function receiving the group name as the only
11411 parameter which should return non-@code{nil} if a confirmation is
11412 needed, or a regular expression matching group names, where
11413 confirmation is should be asked for.
11415 If you find yourself never wanting to reply to mail, but occasionally
11416 press R anyway, this variable might be for you.
11418 @item gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
11419 @vindex gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
11420 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus also requests confirmation according to
11421 @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} when replying to mail. This is
11422 useful for treating mailing lists like newsgroups.
11427 @node Posting Server
11428 @section Posting Server
11430 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
11431 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
11433 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
11435 It can be quite complicated.
11437 @vindex gnus-post-method
11438 When posting news, Message usually invokes @code{message-send-news}
11439 (@pxref{News Variables, , News Variables, message, Message Manual}).
11440 Normally, Gnus will post using the same select method as you're
11441 reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
11442 groups from different private servers). However. If the server
11443 you're reading from doesn't allow posting, just reading, you probably
11444 want to use some other server to post your (extremely intelligent and
11445 fabulously interesting) articles. You can then set the
11446 @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
11449 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
11452 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
11453 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
11454 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
11455 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
11457 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
11458 gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
11460 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
11461 If that's the case, gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
11464 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
11465 you can set this variable to @code{native}.
11467 When sending mail, Message invokes @code{message-send-mail-function}.
11468 The default function, @code{message-send-mail-with-sendmail}, pipes
11469 your article to the @code{sendmail} binary for further queuing and
11470 sending. When your local system is not configured for sending mail
11471 using @code{sendmail}, and you have access to a remote @acronym{SMTP}
11472 server, you can set @code{message-send-mail-function} to
11473 @code{smtpmail-send-it} and make sure to setup the @code{smtpmail}
11474 package correctly. An example:
11477 (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
11478 smtpmail-default-smtp-server "YOUR SMTP HOST")
11479 ;; @r{The following variable needs to be set if you are using smtpmail.el}
11480 ;; @r{distributed with FLIM, lesser than the version 1.14.6.}
11481 (setq smtp-default-server "YOUR SMTP HOST")
11484 To the thing similar to this, there is
11485 @code{message-smtpmail-send-it}. It is useful if your @acronym{ISP}
11486 requires the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication.
11487 @xref{POP before SMTP}.
11489 Other possible choices for @code{message-send-mail-function} includes
11490 @code{message-send-mail-with-mh}, @code{message-send-mail-with-qmail},
11491 and @code{feedmail-send-it}.
11493 @node POP before SMTP
11494 @section POP before SMTP
11495 @cindex pop before smtp
11496 @findex message-smtpmail-send-it
11497 @findex mail-source-touch-pop
11499 Does your @acronym{ISP} require the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP}
11500 authentication? It is whether you need to connect to the @acronym{POP}
11501 mail server within a certain time before sending mails. If so, there is
11502 a convenient way. To do that, put the following lines in your
11503 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
11506 (setq message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)
11507 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook 'mail-source-touch-pop)
11511 It means to let Gnus connect to the @acronym{POP} mail server in advance
11512 whenever you send a mail. The @code{mail-source-touch-pop} function
11513 does only a @acronym{POP} authentication according to the value of
11514 @code{mail-sources} without fetching mails, just before sending a mail.
11515 Note that you have to use @code{message-smtpmail-send-it} which runs
11516 @code{message-send-mail-hook} rather than @code{smtpmail-send-it} and
11517 set the value of @code{mail-sources} for a @acronym{POP} connection
11518 correctly. @xref{Mail Sources}.
11520 If you have two or more @acronym{POP} mail servers set in
11521 @code{mail-sources}, you may want to specify one of them to
11522 @code{mail-source-primary-source} as the @acronym{POP} mail server to be
11523 used for the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication. If it
11524 is your primary @acronym{POP} mail server (i.e., you are fetching mails
11525 mainly from that server), you can set it permanently as follows:
11528 (setq mail-source-primary-source
11529 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
11530 :password "secret"))
11534 Otherwise, bind it dynamically only when performing the
11535 @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication as follows:
11538 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook
11540 (let ((mail-source-primary-source
11541 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
11542 :password "secret")))
11543 (mail-source-touch-pop))))
11546 @node Mail and Post
11547 @section Mail and Post
11549 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
11553 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
11554 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
11555 @cindex mailing lists
11557 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
11558 gatewayed to the @acronym{NNTP} server, you can read those groups without
11559 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
11560 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
11561 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
11562 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
11563 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
11564 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
11565 still a pain, though.
11567 @item gnus-user-agent
11568 @vindex gnus-user-agent
11571 This variable controls which information should be exposed in the
11572 User-Agent header. It can be one of the symbols @code{gnus} (show only
11573 Gnus version), @code{emacs-gnus} (show only Emacs and Gnus versions),
11574 @code{emacs-gnus-config} (same as @code{emacs-gnus} plus system
11575 configuration), @code{emacs-gnus-type} (same as @code{emacs-gnus} plus
11576 system type) or a custom string. If you set it to a string, be sure to
11577 use a valid format, see RFC 2616.
11581 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
11582 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
11583 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
11586 @findex ispell-message
11588 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
11591 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
11592 you're in, you could say something like the following:
11595 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
11599 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
11600 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
11602 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
11605 Modify to suit your needs.
11608 @node Archived Messages
11609 @section Archived Messages
11610 @cindex archived messages
11611 @cindex sent messages
11613 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
11614 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
11615 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
11616 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
11619 For archiving interesting messages in a group you read, see the
11620 @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}) command (@pxref{Mail
11623 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
11624 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server gnus is to
11625 use to store sent messages. The default is:
11628 (nnfolder "archive"
11629 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
11630 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
11631 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
11632 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
11635 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
11636 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
11637 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
11638 directory chosen, you could say something like:
11641 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
11642 '(nnfolder "archive"
11643 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
11644 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
11645 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
11648 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
11650 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
11651 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
11652 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
11654 This variable can be used to do the following:
11658 Messages will be saved in that group.
11660 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
11661 message will not be stored in the select method given by
11662 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
11663 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
11664 has the default value shown above. Then setting
11665 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
11666 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
11667 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
11670 @item a list of strings
11671 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
11673 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
11674 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
11677 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
11682 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
11684 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
11687 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
11689 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
11692 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
11694 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11695 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
11696 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
11697 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
11700 More complex stuff:
11702 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11703 '((if (message-news-p)
11708 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
11709 messages in one file per month:
11712 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11713 '((if (message-news-p)
11715 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
11718 @c (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
11719 @c use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
11721 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
11722 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
11723 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
11724 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
11725 gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
11726 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
11727 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
11728 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
11729 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
11730 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
11732 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
11733 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
11734 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
11735 this will disable archiving.
11738 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
11739 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
11740 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
11741 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
11742 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
11745 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
11746 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
11747 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
11750 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
11751 but the latter is the preferred method.
11753 @item gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
11754 @vindex gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
11755 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
11757 @item gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
11758 @vindex gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
11759 If @code{nil}, attach files as normal parts in Gcc copies; if a regexp
11760 and matches the Gcc group name, attach files as external parts; if it is
11761 @code{all}, attach local files as external parts; if it is other
11762 non-@code{nil}, the behavior is the same as @code{all}, but it may be
11763 changed in the future.
11768 @node Posting Styles
11769 @section Posting Styles
11770 @cindex posting styles
11773 All them variables, they make my head swim.
11775 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
11776 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
11777 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
11780 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
11781 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
11782 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
11783 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
11784 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
11789 (signature "Peace and happiness")
11790 (organization "What me?"))
11792 (signature "Death to everybody"))
11793 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
11794 (organization "Emacs is it")))
11797 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
11798 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
11799 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
11800 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
11801 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
11802 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
11803 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
11804 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
11806 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
11807 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
11808 If it is the form @code{(header @var{match} @var{regexp})}, then Gnus
11809 will look in the original article for a header whose name is
11810 @var{match} and compare that @var{regexp}. @var{match} and
11811 @var{regexp} are strings. (The original article is the one you are
11812 replying or following up to. If you are not composing a reply or a
11813 followup, then there is nothing to match against.) If the
11814 @code{match} is a function symbol, that function will be called with
11815 no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
11816 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
11817 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is
11818 said to @dfn{match}.
11820 Each style may contain an arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
11821 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. The
11822 attribute name can be one of:
11825 @item @code{signature}
11826 @item @code{signature-file}
11827 @item @code{x-face-file}
11828 @item @code{address}, overriding @code{user-mail-address}
11829 @item @code{name}, overriding @code{(user-full-name)}
11833 The attribute name can also be a string or a symbol. In that case,
11834 this will be used as a header name, and the value will be inserted in
11835 the headers of the article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header
11836 name will be removed. If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form
11837 is evaluated, and the result is thrown away.
11839 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
11840 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
11841 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
11842 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
11843 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
11844 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable, which
11845 is a vector of the following headers: number subject from date id
11846 references chars lines xref extra.
11848 @vindex message-reply-headers
11850 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
11851 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
11852 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
11854 @findex message-mail-p
11855 @findex message-news-p
11857 So here's a new example:
11860 (setq gnus-posting-styles
11862 (signature-file "~/.signature")
11864 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
11865 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
11867 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
11868 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly") ;; @r{A form}
11869 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
11870 (message-news-p ;; @r{A function symbol}
11871 (signature my-news-signature))
11872 (window-system ;; @r{A value symbol}
11873 ("X-Window-System" (format "%s" window-system)))
11874 ;; @r{If I'm replying to Larsi, set the Organization header.}
11875 ((header "from" "larsi.*org")
11876 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
11877 ((posting-from-work-p) ;; @r{A user defined function}
11878 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
11879 (address "user@@bar.foo")
11880 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
11881 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
11883 (From (save-excursion
11884 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
11885 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
11887 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
11890 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
11891 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
11892 if you fill many roles.
11894 Setting the @code{gnus-named-posting-styles} variable will make
11895 posting-styles allow to have distinctive names. You can specify an
11896 arbitrary posting-style when article posting with @kbd{S P} in the
11897 summary buffer. @code{gnus-named-posting-styles} is an alist which maps
11898 the names to styles. Once a posting-style is added to the alist, we can
11899 import it from @code{gnus-posting-styles}. If an attribute whose name
11900 is @code{import} is found, Gnus will look for the attribute value in
11901 @code{gnus-named-posting-styles} and expand it in place.
11906 (setq gnus-named-posting-styles
11908 (signature-file "~/.signature")
11910 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
11911 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
11914 (organization "The Church of Emacs"))))
11917 The posting-style named "Emacs" will inherit all the attributes from
11918 "Default" except @code{organization}.
11925 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
11926 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
11927 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
11928 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
11929 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
11931 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
11932 some sort using the gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
11933 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
11934 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
11935 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
11939 @vindex nndraft-directory
11940 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
11941 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
11942 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
11943 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
11944 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
11945 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
11947 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
11948 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
11949 unsubscribe it. The special properties of the draft group comes from
11950 a group property (@pxref{Group Parameters}), and if lost the group
11951 behaves like any other group. This means the commands below will not
11952 be available. To restore the special properties of the group, the
11953 simplest way is to kill the group, using @kbd{C-k}, and restart
11954 Gnus. The group is automatically created again with the
11955 correct parameters. The content of the group is not lost.
11957 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
11958 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
11959 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
11960 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
11961 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
11962 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
11963 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
11964 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
11965 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
11966 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
11967 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
11968 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
11969 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
11970 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
11972 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
11973 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
11974 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
11976 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
11977 @kindex D e (Draft)
11978 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
11979 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
11980 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
11982 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
11985 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
11986 @kindex D s (Draft)
11987 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
11988 @kindex D S (Draft)
11989 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
11990 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
11991 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
11992 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
11993 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
11996 @findex gnus-draft-toggle-sending
11997 @kindex D t (Draft)
11998 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
11999 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
12000 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
12003 @node Rejected Articles
12004 @section Rejected Articles
12005 @cindex rejected articles
12007 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
12008 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
12009 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
12010 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
12012 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of gnus.
12013 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
12014 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
12015 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So gnus saves these
12016 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
12018 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
12019 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
12020 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
12022 @node Signing and encrypting
12023 @section Signing and encrypting
12025 @cindex using s/mime
12026 @cindex using smime
12028 Gnus can digitally sign and encrypt your messages, using vanilla
12029 @acronym{PGP} format or @acronym{PGP/MIME} or @acronym{S/MIME}. For
12030 decoding such messages, see the @code{mm-verify-option} and
12031 @code{mm-decrypt-option} options (@pxref{Security}).
12033 @vindex gnus-message-replysign
12034 @vindex gnus-message-replyencrypt
12035 @vindex gnus-message-replysignencrypted
12036 Often, you would like to sign replies to people who send you signed
12037 messages. Even more often, you might want to encrypt messages which
12038 are in reply to encrypted messages. Gnus offers
12039 @code{gnus-message-replysign} to enable the former, and
12040 @code{gnus-message-replyencrypt} for the latter. In addition, setting
12041 @code{gnus-message-replysignencrypted} (on by default) will sign
12042 automatically encrypted messages.
12044 Instructing @acronym{MML} to perform security operations on a
12045 @acronym{MIME} part is done using the @kbd{C-c C-m s} key map for
12046 signing and the @kbd{C-c C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
12051 @kindex C-c C-m s s (Message)
12052 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-smime
12054 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
12057 @kindex C-c C-m s o (Message)
12058 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
12060 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP}.
12063 @kindex C-c C-m s p (Message)
12064 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
12066 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
12069 @kindex C-c C-m c s (Message)
12070 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-smime
12072 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
12075 @kindex C-c C-m c o (Message)
12076 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgp
12078 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP}.
12081 @kindex C-c C-m c p (Message)
12082 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmime
12084 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
12087 @kindex C-c C-m C-n (Message)
12088 @findex mml-unsecure-message
12089 Remove security related @acronym{MML} tags from message.
12093 @xref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}, for more information.
12095 @node Select Methods
12096 @chapter Select Methods
12097 @cindex foreign groups
12098 @cindex select methods
12100 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
12101 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
12102 @acronym{NNTP} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
12103 personal mail group.
12105 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
12106 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
12107 list where the first element says what back end to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
12108 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
12109 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
12110 value may have special meaning for the back end in question.
12112 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
12113 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
12115 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the back end will recognize the
12118 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @acronym{NNTP} server
12119 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
12120 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
12121 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
12122 back end just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
12124 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
12127 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
12128 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
12129 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
12130 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
12131 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
12132 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
12133 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
12134 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
12138 @node Server Buffer
12139 @section Server Buffer
12141 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
12142 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
12143 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
12144 one back end or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
12145 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
12146 back end represents a virtual server.
12148 For instance, the @code{nntp} back end may be used to connect to several
12149 different actual @acronym{NNTP} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
12150 on the same actual @acronym{NNTP} server. You tell Gnus which back end to
12151 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
12153 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
12154 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
12155 @acronym{NNTP} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
12156 hangs if queried for @acronym{NOV} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
12157 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
12158 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
12159 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
12161 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
12162 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
12165 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
12166 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
12167 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
12168 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
12169 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
12170 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
12171 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
12174 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
12175 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
12178 @node Server Buffer Format
12179 @subsection Server Buffer Format
12180 @cindex server buffer format
12182 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
12183 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
12184 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
12185 variable, with some simple extensions:
12190 How the news is fetched---the back end name.
12193 The name of this server.
12196 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
12199 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
12202 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
12203 The mode line can also be customized by using the
12204 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
12205 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
12215 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
12218 @node Server Commands
12219 @subsection Server Commands
12220 @cindex server commands
12226 @findex gnus-server-add-server
12227 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
12231 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
12232 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
12235 @kindex SPACE (Server)
12236 @findex gnus-server-read-server
12237 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
12241 @findex gnus-server-exit
12242 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
12246 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
12247 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
12251 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
12252 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
12256 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
12257 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
12261 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
12262 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
12266 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
12267 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
12268 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
12273 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
12274 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
12275 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
12276 a mail back end that has gotten out of sync.
12281 @node Example Methods
12282 @subsection Example Methods
12284 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
12287 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
12290 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
12296 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
12297 back end, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
12300 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
12301 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
12303 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
12304 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
12308 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
12311 You should read the documentation to each back end to find out what
12312 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
12314 @code{nnmh} is a mail back end that reads a spool-like structure. Say
12315 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
12316 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
12320 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
12323 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
12326 Here's the method for a public spool:
12330 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
12331 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
12337 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @acronym{NNTP}
12338 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
12339 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
12340 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
12341 should probably look something like this:
12345 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
12346 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
12347 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host")
12348 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
12351 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
12352 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
12353 configuration to the example above:
12356 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
12359 See also @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches}.
12361 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
12362 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
12363 telnet connection to the news server as follows:
12367 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
12368 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-telnet)
12369 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
12370 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
12373 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
12374 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
12375 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
12376 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
12379 @node Creating a Virtual Server
12380 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
12382 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
12383 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
12385 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
12386 would probably be best to use @code{nnml} to read the cache. You
12387 could also use @code{nnspool} or @code{nnmh}, though.
12389 Type @kbd{a nnml RET cache RET}.
12391 You should now have a brand new @code{nnml} virtual server called
12392 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
12393 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
12394 will contain the following:
12404 (nnml-directory "~/News/cache/")
12405 (nnml-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
12408 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
12409 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
12410 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
12413 @node Server Variables
12414 @subsection Server Variables
12415 @cindex server variables
12416 @cindex server parameters
12418 One sticky point when defining variables (both on back ends and in Emacs
12419 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
12420 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
12421 change the ``base'' variable after the variables have been loaded, you
12422 won't change the ``derived'' variables.
12424 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
12425 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
12426 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
12427 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
12428 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
12429 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
12430 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
12431 variables for each back end, see each back end's section later in this
12432 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
12436 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
12437 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
12438 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
12441 Server variables are often called @dfn{server parameters}.
12443 @node Servers and Methods
12444 @subsection Servers and Methods
12446 Wherever you would normally use a select method
12447 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
12448 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
12449 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
12453 @node Unavailable Servers
12454 @subsection Unavailable Servers
12456 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
12457 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
12458 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
12459 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
12460 actually the case or not.
12462 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
12463 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
12464 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
12465 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
12466 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
12467 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
12468 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
12469 it will regard that server as ``down''.
12471 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
12472 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
12474 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
12475 with the following commands:
12481 @findex gnus-server-open-server
12482 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
12483 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
12487 @findex gnus-server-close-server
12488 Close the connection (if any) to the server
12489 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
12493 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
12494 Mark the current server as unreachable
12495 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
12498 @kindex M-o (Server)
12499 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
12500 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
12501 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
12504 @kindex M-c (Server)
12505 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
12506 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
12507 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
12511 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
12512 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
12513 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
12517 @findex gnus-server-offline-server
12518 Set server status to offline (@code{gnus-server-offline-server}).
12524 @section Getting News
12525 @cindex reading news
12526 @cindex news back ends
12528 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
12529 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @acronym{NNTP} server,
12530 or it can read from a local spool.
12533 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
12534 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
12542 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @acronym{NNTP} server is rather easy.
12543 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @acronym{NNTP}
12544 server as the, uhm, address.
12546 If the @acronym{NNTP} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
12547 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
12548 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
12549 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
12551 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
12552 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
12553 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
12555 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
12560 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
12561 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
12562 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
12564 @cindex authentification
12565 @cindex nntp authentification
12566 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
12567 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
12568 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
12569 commands to the @acronym{NNTP} server after it has been contacted. By
12570 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
12571 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
12572 present in this hook.
12574 @item nntp-authinfo-function
12575 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
12576 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
12577 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
12578 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @acronym{NNTP}
12579 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
12580 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
12581 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
12582 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
12583 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
12584 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
12585 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
12589 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
12592 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
12594 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
12595 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
12596 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
12597 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
12598 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
12599 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
12600 @samp{force} is explained below.
12604 Here's an example file:
12607 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
12608 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
12611 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
12612 have to be first, for instance.
12614 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
12615 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
12616 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
12617 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
12618 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
12619 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
12620 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
12622 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
12623 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
12629 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
12630 previously mentioned.
12632 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
12634 @item nntp-server-action-alist
12635 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
12636 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
12637 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
12638 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
12641 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
12642 '(("innd" (ding))))
12645 You probably don't want to do that, though.
12647 The default value is
12650 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
12651 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
12652 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
12655 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
12656 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
12658 @item nntp-maximum-request
12659 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
12660 If the @acronym{NNTP} server doesn't support @acronym{NOV} headers, this back end
12661 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
12662 speed things up, the back end sends lots of these commands without
12663 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
12664 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
12665 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
12667 @item nntp-connection-timeout
12668 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
12669 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
12670 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @acronym{NNTP} servers not
12671 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
12672 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
12673 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
12674 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} back end should wait for a
12675 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
12676 no timeouts are done.
12678 @c @item nntp-command-timeout
12679 @c @vindex nntp-command-timeout
12680 @c @cindex PPP connections
12681 @c @cindex dynamic IP addresses
12682 @c If you're running Gnus on a machine that has a dynamically assigned
12683 @c address, Gnus may become confused. If the address of your machine
12684 @c changes after connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server, Gnus will simply sit
12685 @c waiting forever for replies from the server. To help with this
12686 @c unfortunate problem, you can set this command to a number. Gnus will
12687 @c then, if it sits waiting for a reply from the server longer than that
12688 @c number of seconds, shut down the connection, start a new one, and resend
12689 @c the command. This should hopefully be transparent to the user. A
12690 @c likely number is 30 seconds.
12692 @c @item nntp-retry-on-break
12693 @c @vindex nntp-retry-on-break
12694 @c If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you can also @kbd{C-g} if Gnus
12695 @c hangs. This will have much the same effect as the command timeout
12696 @c described above.
12698 @item nntp-server-hook
12699 @vindex nntp-server-hook
12700 This hook is run as the last step when connecting to an @acronym{NNTP}
12703 @item nntp-buggy-select
12704 @vindex nntp-buggy-select
12705 Set this to non-@code{nil} if your select routine is buggy.
12707 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
12708 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
12709 If the @acronym{NNTP} server does not support @acronym{NOV}, you could set this
12710 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @acronym{NOV}
12713 @item nntp-xover-commands
12714 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
12715 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
12717 List of strings used as commands to fetch @acronym{NOV} lines from a
12718 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
12722 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
12723 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @acronym{NOV} lines to
12724 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
12725 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
12726 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @acronym{NOV}
12727 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
12728 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
12729 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
12730 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
12731 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
12732 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
12734 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
12735 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
12736 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @acronym{NNTP} server.
12738 @item nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
12739 @vindex nntp-warn-about-losing-connection
12740 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, some noise will be made when a
12741 server closes connection.
12743 @item nntp-record-commands
12744 @vindex nntp-record-commands
12745 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
12746 @acronym{NNTP} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
12747 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@acronym{NNTP} connection
12748 that doesn't seem to work.
12750 @item nntp-open-connection-function
12751 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
12752 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
12753 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
12754 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
12755 Five pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped in
12756 two categories: direct connection functions (three pre-made), and
12757 indirect ones (two pre-made).
12759 @item nntp-prepare-post-hook
12760 @vindex nntp-prepare-post-hook
12761 A hook run just before posting an article. If there is no
12762 @code{Message-ID} header in the article and the news server provides the
12763 recommended ID, it will be added to the article before running this
12764 hook. It is useful to make @code{Cancel-Lock} headers even if you
12765 inhibit Gnus to add a @code{Message-ID} header, you could say:
12768 (add-hook 'nntp-prepare-post-hook 'canlock-insert-header)
12771 Note that not all servers support the recommended ID. This works for
12772 INN versions 2.3.0 and later, for instance.
12774 @item nntp-read-timeout
12775 @vindex nntp-read-timeout
12776 How long nntp should wait between checking for the end of output.
12777 Shorter values mean quicker response, but is more CPU intensive. The
12778 default is 0.1 seconds. If you have a slow line to the server (and
12779 don't like to see Emacs eat your available CPU power), you might set
12782 @item nntp-list-options
12783 @vindex nntp-list-options
12784 List of newsgroup name used for a option of the LIST command to restrict
12785 the listing output to only the specified newsgroups. Each newsgroup name
12786 can be a shell-style wildcard, for instance, @dfn{fj.*}, @dfn{japan.*},
12787 etc. Fortunately, if the server can accept such a option, it will
12788 probably make gnus run faster. You may use it as a server variable as
12792 (setq gnus-select-method
12793 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
12794 (nntp-list-options ("fj.*" "japan.*"))))
12797 @item nntp-options-subscribe
12798 @vindex nntp-options-subscribe
12799 Regexp matching the newsgroup names which will be subscribed
12800 unconditionally. Use @dfn{ } instead of @dfn{$} for a regexp string.
12801 It may be effective as well as @code{nntp-list-options} even though the
12802 server could not accept a shell-style wildcard as a option of the LIST
12803 command. You may use it as a server variable as follows:
12806 (setq gnus-select-method
12807 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
12808 (nntp-options-subscribe "^fj\\.\\|^japan\\.")))
12811 @item nntp-options-not-subscribe
12812 @vindex nntp-options-not-subscribe
12813 Regexp matching the newsgroup names which will not be subscribed
12814 unconditionally. Use @dfn{ } instead of @dfn{$} for a regexp string.
12815 It may be effective as well as @code{nntp-list-options} even though the
12816 server could not accept a shell-style wildcard as a option of the LIST
12817 command. You may use it as a server variable as follows:
12820 (setq gnus-select-method
12821 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
12822 (nntp-options-not-subscribe "\\.binaries\\.")))
12827 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
12828 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
12829 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
12833 @node Direct Functions
12834 @subsubsection Direct Functions
12835 @cindex direct connection functions
12837 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
12838 between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server. The behavior of these
12839 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
12840 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12843 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
12844 @item nntp-open-network-stream
12845 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
12848 @findex nntp-open-tls-stream
12849 @item nntp-open-tls-stream
12850 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
12851 this you must have @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/, GNUTLS}
12852 installed. You then define a server as follows:
12855 ;; @r{"nntps" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
12856 ;; @r{however, @samp{gnutls-cli -p} doesn't like named ports.}
12858 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
12859 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-tls-stream)
12860 (nntp-port-number )
12861 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
12864 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
12865 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
12866 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
12867 this you must have @uref{http://www.openssl.org, OpenSSL} or
12868 @uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL, SSLeay} installed. You
12869 then define a server as follows:
12872 ;; @r{"snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
12873 ;; @r{however, @samp{openssl s_client -port} doesn't like named ports.}
12875 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
12876 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
12877 (nntp-port-number 563)
12878 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
12881 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
12882 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
12883 Opens a connection to an @acronym{NNTP} server by simply @samp{telnet}'ing
12884 it. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have the
12885 default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
12886 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
12887 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
12888 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
12892 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
12893 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
12894 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
12897 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
12898 session, which is not a good idea.
12902 @node Indirect Functions
12903 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
12904 @cindex indirect connection functions
12906 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
12907 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
12908 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
12909 the ``via'' family of connection: they're all prefixed with ``via'' to make
12910 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
12911 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12914 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
12915 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
12916 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet}
12917 to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from there. This is useful for instance if
12918 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
12920 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
12923 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
12924 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
12925 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
12926 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
12928 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12929 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12930 List of strings to be used as the switches to
12931 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}. If you use
12932 @samp{ssh} for @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}, you may set this to
12933 @samp{("-C")} in order to compress all data connections, otherwise set
12934 this to @samp{("-t" "-e" "none")} or @samp{("-C" "-t" "-e" "none")} if
12935 the telnet command requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate
12939 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
12940 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12942 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
12943 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
12944 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{netcat}
12945 (@uref{http://netcat.sourceforge.net/}) instead of @samp{telnet} to
12946 connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the intermediate host.
12948 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat}-specific variables:
12951 @item nntp-via-netcat-command
12952 @vindex nntp-via-netcat-command
12953 Command used to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the
12954 intermediate host. The default is @samp{nc}. You can also use other
12955 programs like @samp{connect}
12956 (@uref{http://www.imasy.or.jp/~gotoh/ssh/connect.html}) instead.
12958 @item nntp-via-netcat-switches
12959 @vindex nntp-via-netcat-switches
12960 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
12961 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @code{nil}.
12963 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
12964 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
12965 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
12967 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12968 List of strings to be used as the switches to
12969 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}.
12972 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
12973 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
12974 Does essentially also the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
12975 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
12977 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
12980 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
12981 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
12982 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
12985 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
12986 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
12987 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
12988 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
12990 @item nntp-via-user-password
12991 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
12992 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
12994 @item nntp-via-envuser
12995 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
12996 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
12997 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
12998 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
13000 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
13001 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
13002 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
13003 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
13007 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
13008 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13012 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
13017 @item nntp-via-user-name
13018 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
13019 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
13021 @item nntp-via-address
13022 @vindex nntp-via-address
13023 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
13028 @node Common Variables
13029 @subsubsection Common Variables
13031 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
13032 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
13037 @item nntp-pre-command
13038 @vindex nntp-pre-command
13039 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native
13040 connection function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream},
13041 @code{nntp-open-tls-stream}, and @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}. This is
13042 where you would put a @samp{SOCKS} wrapper for instance.
13045 @vindex nntp-address
13046 The address of the @acronym{NNTP} server.
13048 @item nntp-port-number
13049 @vindex nntp-port-number
13050 Port number to connect to the @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
13051 @samp{nntp}. If you use @acronym{NNTP} over
13052 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you may want to use integer ports rather
13053 than named ports (i.e, use @samp{563} instead of @samp{snews} or
13054 @samp{nntps}), because external @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} tools may
13055 not work with named ports.
13057 @item nntp-end-of-line
13058 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
13059 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @acronym{NNTP}
13060 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
13061 using a non native telnet connection function.
13063 @item nntp-telnet-command
13064 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
13065 Command to use when connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server through
13066 @samp{telnet}. This is @emph{not} for an intermediate host. This is
13067 just for the real @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
13070 @item nntp-telnet-switches
13071 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
13072 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-telnet-command}. The default
13079 @subsection News Spool
13083 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
13084 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
13085 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
13088 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
13089 anything else) as the address.
13091 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
13092 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
13093 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
13094 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
13098 @item nnspool-inews-program
13099 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
13100 Program used to post an article.
13102 @item nnspool-inews-switches
13103 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
13104 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
13106 @item nnspool-spool-directory
13107 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
13108 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
13109 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
13111 @item nnspool-nov-directory
13112 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
13113 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @acronym{NOV} files. This is normally@*
13114 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
13116 @item nnspool-lib-dir
13117 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
13118 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
13120 @item nnspool-active-file
13121 @vindex nnspool-active-file
13122 The name of the active file.
13124 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
13125 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
13126 The name of the group descriptions file.
13128 @item nnspool-history-file
13129 @vindex nnspool-history-file
13130 The name of the news history file.
13132 @item nnspool-active-times-file
13133 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
13134 The name of the active date file.
13136 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
13137 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
13138 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @acronym{NOV} files
13141 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
13142 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
13144 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
13145 relevant portion from the overview file. If @code{nil},
13146 @code{nnspool} will load the entire file into a buffer and process it
13153 @section Getting Mail
13154 @cindex reading mail
13157 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
13161 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
13162 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
13163 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
13164 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
13165 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
13166 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
13167 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
13168 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
13169 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
13170 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
13171 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
13172 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
13173 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
13177 @node Mail in a Newsreader
13178 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
13180 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
13181 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
13182 of a culture shock.
13184 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
13185 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
13187 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
13188 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
13189 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
13190 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
13192 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
13194 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
13195 deleted? How awful!
13197 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
13198 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
13199 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
13200 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @ref{Expiring
13203 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
13204 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
13205 they want to treat a message.
13207 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
13208 via @acronym{SMTP}, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
13209 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
13210 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
13211 archived somewhere else.
13213 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
13214 These are transported via @acronym{NNTP}, and are therefore news. But we may need
13215 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
13216 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
13217 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
13219 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
13220 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
13221 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
13223 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
13224 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
13227 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
13228 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
13229 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
13230 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
13231 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
13233 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
13234 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
13235 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
13236 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
13237 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
13238 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
13242 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
13243 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
13245 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
13246 mail back end of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
13247 and things will happen automatically.
13249 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a ``one file per
13250 mail'' back end), you could put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
13253 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
13256 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this back end will be queried for new
13257 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
13258 directory, which is @file{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
13259 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
13260 like any other group.
13262 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
13265 (setq nnmail-split-methods
13266 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13267 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
13271 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
13272 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
13273 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
13276 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
13277 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
13278 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Back End} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
13281 @node Splitting Mail
13282 @subsection Splitting Mail
13283 @cindex splitting mail
13284 @cindex mail splitting
13285 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
13287 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
13288 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
13289 to be split into groups.
13292 (setq nnmail-split-methods
13293 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13294 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
13295 ("mail.other" "")))
13298 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
13299 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
13300 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
13301 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
13302 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
13303 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
13304 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
13307 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
13311 In that case, @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether
13312 the inserted text should be made lowercase. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
13314 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
13315 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
13316 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
13317 mail belongs in that group.
13319 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
13320 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{*} so that it matches any mails
13321 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
13322 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first
13323 rule to make a match will ``win'', unless you have crossposting enabled.
13324 In that case, all matching rules will ``win''.) When new groups are
13325 created by splitting mail, you may want to run
13326 @code{gnus-group-find-new-groups} to see the new groups.
13328 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
13329 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
13330 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
13331 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
13332 thinks should carry this mail message.
13334 Note that the mail back ends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
13335 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
13336 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
13337 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
13339 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
13340 The mail back ends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
13341 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
13342 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
13343 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{*}) group.
13345 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
13348 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
13349 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
13350 links. If that's the case for you, set
13351 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
13352 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
13354 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
13355 @findex nnmail-split-history
13356 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
13357 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
13358 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
13359 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
13362 @vindex nnmail-split-header-length-limit
13363 Header lines longer than the value of
13364 @code{nnmail-split-header-length-limit} are excluded from the split
13367 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-charset
13368 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes
13369 By default the splitting codes @acronym{MIME} decodes headers so you
13370 can match on non-@acronym{ASCII} strings. The
13371 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-charset} variable specifies the default
13372 charset for decoding. The behaviour can be turned off completely by
13373 binding @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} to @code{nil}, which is
13374 useful if you want to match articles based on the raw header data.
13376 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
13377 By default, splitting is performed on all incoming messages. If you
13378 specify a @code{directory} entry for the variable @code{mail-sources}
13379 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}), however, then splitting does
13380 @emph{not} happen by default. You can set the variable
13381 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to a non-@code{nil} value to make
13382 splitting happen even in this case. (This variable has no effect on
13383 other kinds of entries.)
13385 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
13386 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
13387 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
13388 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
13389 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
13390 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
13391 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
13392 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
13393 month's rent money.
13397 @subsection Mail Sources
13399 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from
13400 a @acronym{POP} mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a
13401 maildir, for instance.
13404 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
13405 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
13406 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
13410 @node Mail Source Specifiers
13411 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
13413 @cindex mail server
13416 @cindex mail source
13418 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
13419 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
13424 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
13427 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
13428 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
13429 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
13432 The following mail source types are available:
13436 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
13442 The file name. Defaults to the value of the @env{MAIL}
13443 environment variable or the value of @code{rmail-spool-directory}
13444 (usually something like @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}).
13448 Script run before/after fetching mail.
13451 An example file mail source:
13454 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
13457 Or using the default file name:
13463 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best
13464 to use @acronym{POP} or @acronym{IMAP} or the like to fetch the mail.
13465 You can not use ange-ftp file names here---it has no way to lock the
13466 mail spool while moving the mail.
13468 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
13472 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
13475 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
13479 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
13482 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
13484 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
13487 Alter this script to fit find the @samp{movemail} you want to use.
13491 @vindex nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once
13492 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used
13493 when you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files.
13494 That is, there is a one-to-one correspondence between files in that
13495 directory and groups, so that mail from the file @file{foo.bar.spool}
13496 will be put in the group @code{foo.bar}. (You can change the suffix
13497 to be used instead of @code{.spool}.) Setting
13498 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-@code{nil} forces
13499 Gnus to scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful
13500 if you want to scan mail groups at a specified level.
13502 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
13503 There is also the variable @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming}, if you set
13504 that to a non-@code{nil} value, then the normal splitting process is
13505 applied to all the files from the directory, @ref{Splitting Mail}.
13511 The name of the directory where the files are. There is no default
13515 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
13519 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
13520 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
13521 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
13522 predicate are considered.
13526 Script run before/after fetching mail.
13530 An example directory mail source:
13533 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
13538 Get mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
13544 The name of the @acronym{POP} server. The default is taken from the
13545 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
13548 The port number of the @acronym{POP} server. This can be a number (eg,
13549 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
13550 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
13551 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
13552 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
13555 The user name to give to the @acronym{POP} server. The default is the login
13559 The password to give to the @acronym{POP} server. If not specified,
13560 the user is prompted.
13563 The program to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. This
13564 should be a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
13567 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
13570 The valid format specifier characters are:
13574 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
13575 included in this string.
13578 The name of the server.
13581 The port number of the server.
13584 The user name to use.
13587 The password to use.
13590 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
13591 corresponding keywords.
13594 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
13595 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
13598 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
13599 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
13602 The function to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. The
13603 function is called with one parameter---the name of the file where the
13604 mail should be moved to.
13606 @item :authentication
13607 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
13608 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
13612 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this can be the symbol
13613 @code{ssl}, the symbol @code{tls} or others. The default is @code{nil}
13614 and use insecure connections. Note that for SSL/TLS, you need external
13615 programs and libraries:
13619 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through SSL@. Requires OpenSSL (the program
13620 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}) as well as the external
13621 library @samp{ssl.el}.
13623 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to SSL)@.
13624 Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
13629 Non-@code{nil} if mail is to be left on the server and UIDL used for
13630 message retrieval. The default is @code{nil}.
13634 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
13635 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used.
13637 Here are some examples. Fetch from the default @acronym{POP} server,
13638 using the default user name, and default fetcher:
13644 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
13647 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
13648 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
13651 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
13654 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
13658 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
13659 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
13660 contains exactly one mail.
13666 The name of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
13667 taken from the @env{MAILDIR} environment variable or
13670 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
13671 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
13673 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
13674 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
13675 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
13678 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
13679 from locking problems).
13683 Two example maildir mail sources:
13686 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
13687 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
13691 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
13696 Get mail from a @acronym{IMAP} server. If you don't want to use
13697 @acronym{IMAP} as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie
13698 with nnimap), for some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar
13699 to a @acronym{POP} server and fetches articles from a given
13700 @acronym{IMAP} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for more information.
13702 Note that for the Kerberos, GSSAPI, @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} and STARTTLS support you
13703 may need external programs and libraries, @xref{IMAP}.
13709 The name of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is taken from the
13710 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
13713 The port number of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
13714 @samp{993} for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} connections.
13717 The user name to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is the login
13721 The password to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. If not specified, the user is
13725 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
13726 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
13727 @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{starttls}, @samp{tls},
13728 @samp{ssl}, @samp{shell} or the default @samp{network}.
13730 @item :authentication
13731 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is
13732 one of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now,
13733 this means @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{digest-md5},
13734 @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default @samp{login}.
13737 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
13738 mapped into the @code{imap-shell-program} variable. This should be a
13739 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
13745 The valid format specifier characters are:
13749 The name of the server.
13752 User name from @code{imap-default-user}.
13755 The port number of the server.
13758 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
13759 corresponding keywords.
13762 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
13763 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
13766 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
13767 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
13768 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @acronym{IMAP} client and mark some
13769 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{1:*}.
13770 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
13771 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 section 6.4.4.
13774 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
13775 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
13776 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
13777 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 section 2.3.2.
13780 If non-@code{nil}, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the
13781 mailbox after finishing the fetch.
13785 An example @acronym{IMAP} mail source:
13788 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
13790 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
13794 Get mail from a webmail server, such as @uref{http://www.hotmail.com/},
13795 @uref{http://webmail.netscape.com/}, @uref{http://www.netaddress.com/},
13796 @uref{http://mail.yahoo.com/}.
13798 NOTE: Webmail largely depends on cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
13799 required for url "4.0pre.46".
13801 WARNING: Mails may be lost. NO WARRANTY.
13807 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
13808 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
13811 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
13815 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
13819 If non-@code{nil}, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to
13820 trash folder after finishing the fetch.
13824 An example webmail source:
13827 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
13829 :password "secret")
13834 @item Common Keywords
13835 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
13841 If non-@code{nil}, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you
13842 use directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this
13847 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
13852 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
13853 useful when you use local mail and news.
13858 @subsubsection Function Interface
13860 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
13861 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
13862 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
13863 consider the following mail-source setting:
13866 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
13867 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
13870 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
13871 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
13872 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
13873 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
13874 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
13876 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
13879 @node Mail Source Customization
13880 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
13882 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
13883 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
13887 @item mail-source-crash-box
13888 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
13889 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is@*
13890 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
13892 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
13893 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
13894 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them. If
13895 @code{t}, delete the files immediately, if @code{nil}, never delete any
13896 files. If a positive number, delete files older than number of days
13897 (This will only happen, when receiving new mail). You may also set
13898 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} to @code{nil} and call
13899 @code{mail-source-delete-old-incoming} from a hook or interactively.
13901 @item mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
13902 @vindex mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
13903 If non-@code{nil}, ask for for confirmation before deleting old incoming
13904 files. This variable only applies when
13905 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is a positive number.
13907 @item mail-source-ignore-errors
13908 @vindex mail-source-ignore-errors
13909 If non-@code{nil}, ignore errors when reading mail from a mail source.
13911 @item mail-source-directory
13912 @vindex mail-source-directory
13913 Directory where incoming mail source files (if any) will be stored. The
13914 default is @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for
13915 is to say where the incoming files will be stored if the variable
13916 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a number.
13918 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
13919 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
13920 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
13921 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
13922 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
13923 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil}.
13925 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
13926 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
13927 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
13929 @item mail-source-movemail-program
13930 @vindex mail-source-movemail-program
13931 If non-@code{nil}, name of program for fetching new mail. If
13932 @code{nil}, @code{movemail} in @var{exec-directory}.
13937 @node Fetching Mail
13938 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
13940 @vindex mail-sources
13941 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
13942 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
13943 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
13944 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
13946 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
13947 @code{nil}, the mail back ends will never attempt to fetch mail by
13950 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a
13951 @acronym{POP} mail server, you'd say something like:
13956 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13957 :password "secret")))
13960 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
13964 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
13965 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
13968 :password "secret")))
13972 When you use a mail back end, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
13973 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
13974 mail if you're not using a mail back end---you have to do a lot of magic
13975 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
13976 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
13977 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
13981 @node Mail Back End Variables
13982 @subsection Mail Back End Variables
13984 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
13988 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
13989 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
13990 The mail back ends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
13991 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
13993 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
13994 @item nnmail-split-hook
13995 @findex gnus-article-decode-encoded-words
13996 @cindex RFC 1522 decoding
13997 @cindex RFC 2047 decoding
13998 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
13999 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
14000 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
14001 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
14002 in the buffer will show up in any files.
14003 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
14006 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14007 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14008 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14009 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14010 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
14011 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
14012 starting to handle the new mail) and
14013 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
14014 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
14015 default file modes the new mail files get:
14018 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14019 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
14021 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14022 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
14025 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
14026 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
14027 If non-@code{nil}, the mail back ends will use long file and directory
14028 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
14029 (assuming use of @code{nnml} back end) or files (assuming use of
14030 @code{nnfolder} back end) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
14031 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
14033 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
14034 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
14035 @findex delete-file
14036 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
14038 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14039 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14040 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
14041 the back end (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
14042 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
14044 @item nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
14045 @vindex nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
14046 This can be a regular expression or a list of regular expressions.
14047 Group names that match any of the regular expressions will never be
14048 recorded in the @code{Message-ID} cache.
14050 This can be useful, for example, when using Fancy Splitting
14051 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}) together with the function
14052 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}.
14057 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
14058 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
14059 @cindex mail splitting
14060 @cindex fancy mail splitting
14062 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
14063 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
14064 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
14065 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
14066 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
14067 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
14069 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
14072 ;; @r{Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of}
14073 ;; @r{the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group}
14074 ;; @r{from real errors.}
14075 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
14077 ;; @r{Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant}
14078 ;; @r{groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the}
14079 ;; @r{(ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.}
14080 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
14081 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
14082 ;; @r{Other mailing lists@dots{}}
14083 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
14084 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
14085 ;; @r{Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent}
14086 ;; @r{cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to}
14087 ;; @r{the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the}
14088 ;; @r{message was really cross-posted.}
14089 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
14090 (any "mypackage@@somewhere\" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
14091 ;; @r{People@dots{}}
14092 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
14093 ;; @r{Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.}
14097 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a
14098 (possibly) recursive structure where each split may contain other
14099 splits. Here are the possible split syntaxes:
14104 If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group name. Normal
14105 regexp match expansion will be done. See below for examples.
14107 @item (@var{field} @var{value} [- @var{restrict} [@dots{}] ] @var{split})
14108 If the split is a list, the first element of which is a string, then
14109 store the message as specified by @var{split}, if header @var{field}
14110 (a regexp) contains @var{value} (also a regexp). If @var{restrict}
14111 (yet another regexp) matches some string after @var{field} and before
14112 the end of the matched @var{value}, the @var{split} is ignored. If
14113 none of the @var{restrict} clauses match, @var{split} is processed.
14115 @item (| @var{split} @dots{})
14116 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{|} (vertical
14117 bar), then process each @var{split} until one of them matches. A
14118 @var{split} is said to match if it will cause the mail message to be
14119 stored in one or more groups.
14121 @item (& @var{split} @dots{})
14122 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{&}, then
14123 process all @var{split}s in the list.
14126 If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save (i.e., delete)
14127 this message. Use with extreme caution.
14129 @item (: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})
14130 If the split is a list, and the first element is @samp{:}, then the
14131 second element will be called as a function with @var{args} given as
14132 arguments. The function should return a @var{split}.
14135 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
14136 body of the messages:
14139 (defun split-on-body ()
14143 (goto-char (point-min))
14144 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
14148 The buffer is narrowed to the message in question when @var{function}
14149 is run. That's why @code{(widen)} needs to be called after
14150 @code{save-excursion} and @code{save-restriction} in the example
14151 above. Also note that with the nnimap backend, message bodies will
14152 not be downloaded by default. You need to set
14153 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
14154 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
14156 @item (! @var{func} @var{split})
14157 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{!}, then
14158 @var{split} will be processed, and @var{func} will be called as a
14159 function with the result of @var{split} as argument. @var{func}
14160 should return a split.
14163 If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
14167 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
14168 @var{value} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
14169 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
14170 field names or words. In other words, all @var{value}'s are wrapped in
14171 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
14173 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
14174 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be Lisp symbols, in that case
14175 they are expanded as specified by the variable
14176 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells,
14177 where the @sc{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @sc{cdr}
14178 contains the associated value. Predefined entries in
14179 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist} include:
14183 Matches the @samp{From}, @samp{Sender} and @samp{Resent-From} fields.
14185 Matches the @samp{To}, @samp{Cc}, @samp{Apparently-To},
14186 @samp{Resent-To} and @samp{Resent-Cc} fields.
14188 Is the union of the @code{from} and @code{to} entries.
14191 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
14192 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
14193 when all this splitting is performed.
14195 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
14196 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
14197 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
14200 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
14203 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
14204 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
14206 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
14207 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
14208 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
14209 groupings 1 through 9.
14211 @vindex nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded
14212 Where @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether the
14213 lowercase of the matched string should be used for the substitution.
14214 Setting it as non-@code{nil} is useful to avoid the creation of multiple
14215 groups when users send to an address using different case
14216 (i.e. mailing-list@@domain vs Mailing-List@@Domain). The default value
14219 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words
14220 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} controls whether partial
14221 words are matched during fancy splitting.
14223 Normally, regular expressions given in @code{nnmail-split-fancy} are
14224 implicitly surrounded by @code{\<...\>} markers, which are word
14225 delimiters. If this variable is true, they are not implicitly
14226 surrounded by anything.
14229 (any "joe" "joemail")
14232 In this example, messages sent from @samp{joedavis@@foo.org} will
14233 normally not be filed in @samp{joemail}. With
14234 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} set to t, however, the
14235 match will happen. In effect, the requirement of a word boundary is
14236 removed and instead the match becomes more like a grep.
14238 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
14239 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
14240 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
14241 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
14242 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
14243 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
14244 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
14245 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
14246 it once per thread.
14248 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates}
14249 and @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-@code{nil}
14250 value. And then you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}
14251 using the colon feature, like so:
14253 (setq nnmail-treat-duplicates 'warn ; @r{or @code{delete}}
14254 nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids t
14256 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
14257 ;; @r{other splits go here}
14261 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
14262 non-@code{nil}, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees
14263 in the file specified by the variable
14264 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, together with the group it is in
14265 (the group is omitted for non-mail messages). When mail splitting is
14266 invoked, the function @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks
14267 at the References (and In-Reply-To) header of each message to split
14268 and searches the file specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}
14269 for the message ids. When it has found a parent, it returns the
14270 corresponding group name unless the group name matches the regexp
14271 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is
14272 recommended that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a
14273 somewhat higher number than the default so that the message ids are
14274 still in the cache. (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some
14275 300 kBytes in size.)
14276 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14277 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
14278 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
14279 messages goes into the new group.
14281 Also see the variable @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} if you don't
14282 want certain groups to be recorded in the cache. For example, if all
14283 outgoing messages are written to an ``outgoing'' group, you could set
14284 @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} to match that group name.
14285 Otherwise, answers to all your messages would end up in the
14286 ``outgoing'' group.
14289 @node Group Mail Splitting
14290 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
14291 @cindex mail splitting
14292 @cindex group mail splitting
14294 @findex gnus-group-split
14295 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
14296 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
14297 You just have to set @code{to-list} and/or @code{to-address} in group
14298 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
14299 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
14300 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
14301 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @code{to-list} or
14302 @code{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
14304 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
14305 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @code{extra-aliases} group
14306 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
14307 rather use a regular expression, set @code{split-regexp}.
14309 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
14310 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
14311 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
14312 @code{to-list}, @code{to-address}, all of @code{extra-aliases} and all
14313 matches of @code{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
14314 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
14315 @code{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
14317 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
14318 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
14319 parameter @code{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
14320 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
14321 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @code{split-spec} may be set to
14322 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
14323 @code{gnus-group-split}.
14325 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
14326 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
14327 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
14328 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
14329 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
14330 some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
14331 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
14332 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
14333 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
14334 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
14335 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
14336 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
14337 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
14339 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
14344 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
14345 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
14347 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
14348 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
14349 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
14350 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
14352 ((split-spec . catch-all))
14355 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
14356 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
14357 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
14360 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
14361 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
14362 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
14366 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
14367 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
14368 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
14372 (: gnus-group-split-fancy @var{groups} @var{no-crosspost} @var{catch-all})
14375 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
14376 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
14377 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
14378 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fall back
14379 fancy split, used like @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
14380 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @code{split-regexp} matches the
14381 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
14382 Otherwise, if some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
14383 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
14385 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
14386 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
14387 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
14388 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
14389 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
14390 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
14391 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
14392 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
14393 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
14395 @findex gnus-group-split-update
14396 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
14397 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
14398 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
14399 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
14400 you. For example, add to your @file{~/.gnus.el}:
14403 (gnus-group-split-setup @var{auto-update} @var{catch-all})
14406 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
14407 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
14408 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
14409 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
14410 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
14413 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
14414 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
14415 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
14416 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
14418 @node Incorporating Old Mail
14419 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
14420 @cindex incorporating old mail
14421 @cindex import old mail
14423 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
14424 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
14425 back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
14428 Doing so can be quite easy.
14430 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
14431 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
14432 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
14433 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
14434 your @code{nnml} groups.
14440 Go to the group buffer.
14443 Type @kbd{G f} and give the file name to the mbox file when prompted to create an
14444 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
14447 Type @kbd{SPACE} to enter the newly created group.
14450 Type @kbd{M P b} to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
14451 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
14454 Type @kbd{B r} to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
14455 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
14458 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
14459 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
14460 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
14461 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
14462 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
14464 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
14465 back end to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
14466 using the new mail back end.
14469 @node Expiring Mail
14470 @subsection Expiring Mail
14471 @cindex article expiry
14473 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
14474 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
14475 different approach to mail reading.
14477 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
14478 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
14479 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
14480 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
14481 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
14482 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
14485 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
14486 articles as @dfn{expirable}. (With the default key bindings, this means
14487 that you have to type @kbd{E}.) This does not mean that the articles
14488 will disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
14489 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
14490 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
14491 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
14492 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
14493 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
14495 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Gnus provides
14496 two features, called ``auto-expire'' and ``total-expire'', that can help you
14497 with this. In a nutshell, ``auto-expire'' means that Gnus hits @kbd{E}
14498 for you when you select an article. And ``total-expire'' means that Gnus
14499 considers all articles as expirable that are read. So, in addition to
14500 the articles marked @samp{E}, also the articles marked @samp{r},
14501 @samp{R}, @samp{O}, @samp{K}, @samp{Y} and so on are considered
14504 When should either auto-expire or total-expire be used? Most people
14505 who are subscribed to mailing lists split each list into its own group
14506 and then turn on auto-expire or total-expire for those groups.
14507 (@xref{Splitting Mail}, for more information on splitting each list
14508 into its own group.)
14510 Which one is better, auto-expire or total-expire? It's not easy to
14511 answer. Generally speaking, auto-expire is probably faster. Another
14512 advantage of auto-expire is that you get more marks to work with: for
14513 the articles that are supposed to stick around, you can still choose
14514 between tick and dormant and read marks. But with total-expire, you
14515 only have dormant and ticked to choose from. The advantage of
14516 total-expire is that it works well with adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive
14517 Scoring}). Auto-expire works with normal scoring but not with adaptive
14520 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
14521 Groups that match the regular expression
14522 @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will have all articles that you
14523 read marked as expirable automatically. All articles marked as
14524 expirable have an @samp{E} in the first column in the summary buffer.
14526 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
14527 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
14528 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
14529 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
14530 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
14532 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
14534 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
14535 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
14536 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
14539 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
14540 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
14541 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
14542 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
14543 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
14545 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
14546 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
14549 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
14550 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
14553 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
14554 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
14556 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
14557 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
14558 don't really mix very well.
14560 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
14561 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
14562 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
14563 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
14566 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
14567 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
14568 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
14569 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
14572 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
14574 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
14576 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
14578 ((string= group "mail.junk")
14580 ((string= group "important")
14586 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
14587 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
14589 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
14590 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
14591 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
14594 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
14595 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
14597 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
14598 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
14599 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them
14600 to other groups instead of deleting them. The variable
14601 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} (and the @code{expiry-target} group
14602 parameter) controls this. The variable supplies a default value for
14603 all groups, which can be overridden for specific groups by the group
14604 parameter. default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a
14605 string (which should be the name of the group the message should be
14606 moved to), or a function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to
14607 the message in question, and with the name of the group being moved
14608 from as its parameter) which should return a target---either a group
14609 name or @code{delete}.
14611 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
14613 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
14616 @findex nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
14617 @vindex nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
14618 Gnus provides a function @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-target} which will
14619 expire mail to groups according to the variable
14620 @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets}. Here's an example:
14623 (setq nnmail-expiry-target 'nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
14624 nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
14625 '((to-from "boss" "nnfolder:Work")
14626 ("subject" "IMPORTANT" "nnfolder:IMPORTANT.%Y.%b")
14627 ("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Archive-%Y")))
14630 With this setup, any mail that has @code{IMPORTANT} in its Subject
14631 header and was sent in the year @code{YYYY} and month @code{MMM}, will
14632 get expired to the group @code{nnfolder:IMPORTANT.YYYY.MMM}. If its
14633 From or To header contains the string @code{boss}, it will get expired
14634 to @code{nnfolder:Work}. All other mail will get expired to
14635 @code{nnfolder:Archive-YYYY}.
14637 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
14638 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
14639 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
14640 easier for procmail users.
14642 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
14643 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
14644 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
14645 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
14646 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
14647 caution. Even more dangerous is the
14648 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
14649 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
14650 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
14651 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
14652 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
14653 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
14654 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
14657 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
14659 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
14660 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
14661 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
14662 auto-expire turned on.
14666 @subsection Washing Mail
14667 @cindex mail washing
14668 @cindex list server brain damage
14669 @cindex incoming mail treatment
14671 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
14672 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
14673 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
14674 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
14675 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
14676 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
14678 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
14679 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
14680 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
14683 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
14684 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
14685 storing the mail to disk. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
14686 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
14689 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
14690 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
14691 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
14692 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
14693 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
14696 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
14697 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
14698 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
14699 Emacs running on MS machines.
14703 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
14704 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
14705 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
14706 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
14709 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
14710 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
14711 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
14712 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
14714 (Note that this function works on both the header on the body of all
14715 messages, so it is a potentially dangerous function to use (if a body
14716 of a message contains something that looks like a header line). So
14717 rather than fix the bug, it is of course the right solution to make it
14718 into a feature by documenting it.)
14720 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
14721 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
14722 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
14723 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
14724 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
14725 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
14726 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
14729 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
14730 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
14733 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
14734 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
14737 This can also be done non-destructively with
14738 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
14740 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
14741 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
14742 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
14744 @item nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
14745 @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
14747 Eudora produces broken @code{References} headers, but OK
14748 @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This function will get rid of the
14749 @code{References} headers.
14753 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
14754 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
14755 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
14759 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
14760 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
14761 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
14768 @subsection Duplicates
14770 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
14771 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
14772 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
14773 @cindex duplicate mails
14774 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
14775 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
14776 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
14777 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
14778 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
14779 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
14780 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
14781 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
14782 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
14783 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
14784 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
14785 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
14786 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
14788 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
14789 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
14790 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
14791 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
14793 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
14796 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
14797 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
14801 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
14802 '(| ;; @r{Messages duplicates go to a separate group.}
14803 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
14804 ;; @r{Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.}
14805 (any mail "mail.misc")
14806 ;; @r{Other rules.}
14812 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14813 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
14814 ;; @r{Other rules.}
14818 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
14819 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
14820 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
14821 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
14822 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
14825 @node Not Reading Mail
14826 @subsection Not Reading Mail
14828 If you start using any of the mail back ends, they have the annoying
14829 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
14830 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
14832 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
14833 @code{nil}, none of the back ends will ever attempt to read incoming
14834 mail, which should help.
14836 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14837 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
14838 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
14839 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
14840 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
14841 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
14842 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old Rmail
14843 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All back ends have
14844 variables called back-end-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
14845 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
14846 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
14848 All the mail back ends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
14849 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
14853 @node Choosing a Mail Back End
14854 @subsection Choosing a Mail Back End
14856 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
14857 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
14858 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
14860 There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more
14861 back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use
14862 (because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
14866 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
14867 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
14868 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
14869 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
14870 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
14871 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
14872 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
14876 @node Unix Mail Box
14877 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
14879 @cindex unix mail box
14881 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
14882 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
14883 The @dfn{nnmbox} back end will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
14884 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
14885 which group it belongs in.
14887 Virtual server settings:
14890 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
14891 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
14892 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
14895 @item nnmbox-active-file
14896 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
14897 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
14898 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
14900 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
14901 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
14902 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
14903 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
14908 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
14912 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
14913 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
14914 The @dfn{nnbabyl} back end will use a Babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{Rmail
14915 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
14916 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
14918 Virtual server settings:
14921 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
14922 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
14923 The name of the Rmail mbox file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
14925 @item nnbabyl-active-file
14926 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
14927 The name of the active file for the rmail box. The default is
14928 @file{~/.rmail-active}
14930 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14931 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14932 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
14938 @subsubsection Mail Spool
14940 @cindex mail @acronym{NOV} spool
14942 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
14943 format. It should be used with some caution.
14945 @vindex nnml-directory
14946 If you use this back end, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
14947 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
14948 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
14949 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
14951 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
14954 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
14955 in your account, you should not use this back end. As each mail gets its
14956 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
14957 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
14958 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
14959 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
14960 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
14961 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
14963 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest back end when it comes to article
14964 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
14965 @acronym{NOV} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it possibly the
14966 fastest back end when it comes to reading mail.
14968 @cindex self contained nnml servers
14970 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnml}
14971 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
14972 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
14973 proper @code{nnml} server) and have all your marks be preserved. Marks
14974 for a group is usually stored in the @code{.marks} file (but see
14975 @code{nnml-marks-file-name}) within each @code{nnml} group's directory.
14976 Individual @code{nnml} groups are also possible to backup, use @kbd{G m}
14977 to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the nnml
14980 If for some reason you believe your @file{.marks} files are screwed
14981 up, you can just delete them all. Gnus will then correctly regenerate
14982 them next time it starts.
14984 Virtual server settings:
14987 @item nnml-directory
14988 @vindex nnml-directory
14989 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory. The
14990 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default value
14993 @item nnml-active-file
14994 @vindex nnml-active-file
14995 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
14996 @file{~/Mail/active}.
14998 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
14999 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
15000 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
15001 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}.
15003 @item nnml-get-new-mail
15004 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
15005 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
15008 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
15009 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
15010 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
15011 default is @code{nil}.
15013 @item nnml-nov-file-name
15014 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
15015 The name of the @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
15017 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
15018 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
15019 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
15021 @item nnml-marks-is-evil
15022 @vindex nnml-marks-is-evil
15023 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
15024 default is @code{nil}.
15026 @item nnml-marks-file-name
15027 @vindex nnml-marks-file-name
15028 The name of the @dfn{marks} files. The default is @file{.marks}.
15030 @item nnml-use-compressed-files
15031 @vindex nnml-use-compressed-files
15032 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will allow using compressed message
15037 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
15038 If your @code{nnml} groups and @acronym{NOV} files get totally out of
15039 whack, you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
15040 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
15041 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
15042 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
15043 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
15048 @subsubsection MH Spool
15050 @cindex mh-e mail spool
15052 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
15053 @acronym{NOV} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks
15054 file. This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower back end than
15055 @code{nnml}, but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts
15058 Virtual server settings:
15061 @item nnmh-directory
15062 @vindex nnmh-directory
15063 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
15064 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
15067 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
15068 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
15069 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
15073 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
15074 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
15075 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks
15076 they are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
15077 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
15078 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not
15079 have to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
15084 @subsubsection Maildir
15088 @code{nnmaildir} stores mail in the maildir format, with each maildir
15089 corresponding to a group in Gnus. This format is documented here:
15090 @uref{http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html} and here:
15091 @uref{http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html}. @code{nnmaildir}
15092 also stores extra information in the @file{.nnmaildir/} directory
15095 Maildir format was designed to allow concurrent deliveries and
15096 reading, without needing locks. With other back ends, you would have
15097 your mail delivered to a spool of some kind, and then you would
15098 configure Gnus to split mail from that spool into your groups. You
15099 can still do that with @code{nnmaildir}, but the more common
15100 configuration is to have your mail delivered directly to the maildirs
15101 that appear as group in Gnus.
15103 @code{nnmaildir} is designed to be perfectly reliable: @kbd{C-g} will
15104 never corrupt its data in memory, and @code{SIGKILL} will never
15105 corrupt its data in the filesystem.
15107 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks and @acronym{NOV} data in each
15108 maildir. So you can copy a whole maildir from one Gnus setup to
15109 another, and you will keep your marks.
15111 Virtual server settings:
15115 For each of your @code{nnmaildir} servers (it's very unlikely that
15116 you'd need more than one), you need to create a directory and populate
15117 it with maildirs or symlinks to maildirs (and nothing else; do not
15118 choose a directory already used for other purposes). Each maildir
15119 will be represented in Gnus as a newsgroup on that server; the
15120 filename of the symlink will be the name of the group. Any filenames
15121 in the directory starting with @samp{.} are ignored. The directory is
15122 scanned when you first start Gnus, and each time you type @kbd{g} in
15123 the group buffer; if any maildirs have been removed or added,
15124 @code{nnmaildir} notices at these times.
15126 The value of the @code{directory} parameter should be a Lisp form
15127 which is processed by @code{eval} and @code{expand-file-name} to get
15128 the path of the directory for this server. The form is @code{eval}ed
15129 only when the server is opened; the resulting string is used until the
15130 server is closed. (If you don't know about forms and @code{eval},
15131 don't worry---a simple string will work.) This parameter is not
15132 optional; you must specify it. I don't recommend using
15133 @code{"~/Mail"} or a subdirectory of it; several other parts of Gnus
15134 use that directory by default for various things, and may get confused
15135 if @code{nnmaildir} uses it too. @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} is a typical
15138 @item target-prefix
15139 This should be a Lisp form which is processed by @code{eval} and
15140 @code{expand-file-name}. The form is @code{eval}ed only when the
15141 server is opened; the resulting string is used until the server is
15144 When you create a group on an @code{nnmaildir} server, the maildir is
15145 created with @code{target-prefix} prepended to its name, and a symlink
15146 pointing to that maildir is created, named with the plain group name.
15147 So if @code{directory} is @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} and
15148 @code{target-prefix} is @code{"../maildirs/"}, then when you create
15149 the group @code{foo}, @code{nnmaildir} will create
15150 @file{~/.nnmaildir/../maildirs/foo} as a maildir, and will create
15151 @file{~/.nnmaildir/foo} as a symlink pointing to
15152 @file{../maildirs/foo}.
15154 You can set @code{target-prefix} to a string without any slashes to
15155 create both maildirs and symlinks in the same @code{directory}; in
15156 this case, any maildirs found in @code{directory} whose names start
15157 with @code{target-prefix} will not be listed as groups (but the
15158 symlinks pointing to them will be).
15160 As a special case, if @code{target-prefix} is @code{""} (the default),
15161 then when you create a group, the maildir will be created in
15162 @code{directory} without a corresponding symlink. Beware that you
15163 cannot use @code{gnus-group-delete-group} on such groups without the
15164 @code{force} argument.
15166 @item directory-files
15167 This should be a function with the same interface as
15168 @code{directory-files} (such as @code{directory-files} itself). It is
15169 used to scan the server's @code{directory} for maildirs. This
15170 parameter is optional; the default is
15171 @code{nnheader-directory-files-safe} if
15172 @code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is @code{nil}, and
15173 @code{directory-files} otherwise.
15174 (@code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is checked only once when the
15175 server is opened; if you want to check it each time the directory is
15176 scanned, you'll have to provide your own function that does that.)
15179 If non-@code{nil}, then after scanning for new mail in the group
15180 maildirs themselves as usual, this server will also incorporate mail
15181 the conventional Gnus way, from @code{mail-sources} according to
15182 @code{nnmail-split-methods} or @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. The default
15183 value is @code{nil}.
15185 Do @emph{not} use the same maildir both in @code{mail-sources} and as
15186 an @code{nnmaildir} group. The results might happen to be useful, but
15187 that would be by chance, not by design, and the results might be
15188 different in the future. If your split rules create new groups,
15189 remember to supply a @code{create-directory} server parameter.
15192 @subsubsection Group parameters
15194 @code{nnmaildir} uses several group parameters. It's safe to ignore
15195 all this; the default behavior for @code{nnmaildir} is the same as the
15196 default behavior for other mail back ends: articles are deleted after
15197 one week, etc. Except for the expiry parameters, all this
15198 functionality is unique to @code{nnmaildir}, so you can ignore it if
15199 you're just trying to duplicate the behavior you already have with
15202 If the value of any of these parameters is a vector, the first element
15203 is evaluated as a Lisp form and the result is used, rather than the
15204 original value. If the value is not a vector, the value itself is
15205 evaluated as a Lisp form. (This is why these parameters use names
15206 different from those of other, similar parameters supported by other
15207 back ends: they have different, though similar, meanings.) (For
15208 numbers, strings, @code{nil}, and @code{t}, you can ignore the
15209 @code{eval} business again; for other values, remember to use an extra
15210 quote and wrap the value in a vector when appropriate.)
15214 An integer specifying the minimum age, in seconds, of an article
15215 before it will be expired, or the symbol @code{never} to specify that
15216 articles should never be expired. If this parameter is not set,
15217 @code{nnmaildir} falls back to the usual
15218 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) variables (overrideable by
15219 the @code{expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) group parameters. If you
15220 wanted a value of 3 days, you could use something like @code{[(* 3 24
15221 60 60)]}; @code{nnmaildir} will evaluate the form and use the result.
15222 An article's age is measured starting from the article file's
15223 modification time. Normally, this is the same as the article's
15224 delivery time, but editing an article makes it younger. Moving an
15225 article (other than via expiry) may also make an article younger.
15228 If this is set to a string such as a full Gnus group name, like
15230 "backend+server.address.string:group.name"
15232 and if it is not the name of the same group that the parameter belongs
15233 to, then articles will be moved to the specified group during expiry
15234 before being deleted. @emph{If this is set to an @code{nnmaildir}
15235 group, the article will be just as old in the destination group as it
15236 was in the source group.} So be careful with @code{expire-age} in the
15237 destination group. If this is set to the name of the same group that
15238 the parameter belongs to, then the article is not expired at all. If
15239 you use the vector form, the first element is evaluated once for each
15240 article. So that form can refer to
15241 @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name}, etc., to decide where to put the
15242 article. @emph{If this parameter is not set, @code{nnmaildir} does
15243 not fall back to the @code{expiry-target} group parameter or the
15244 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} variable.}
15247 If this is set to @code{t}, @code{nnmaildir} will treat the articles
15248 in this maildir as read-only. This means: articles are not renamed
15249 from @file{new/} into @file{cur/}; articles are only found in
15250 @file{new/}, not @file{cur/}; articles are never deleted; articles
15251 cannot be edited. @file{new/} is expected to be a symlink to the
15252 @file{new/} directory of another maildir---e.g., a system-wide mailbox
15253 containing a mailing list of common interest. Everything in the
15254 maildir outside @file{new/} is @emph{not} treated as read-only, so for
15255 a shared mailbox, you do still need to set up your own maildir (or
15256 have write permission to the shared mailbox); your maildir just won't
15257 contain extra copies of the articles.
15259 @item directory-files
15260 A function with the same interface as @code{directory-files}. It is
15261 used to scan the directories in the maildir corresponding to this
15262 group to find articles. The default is the function specified by the
15263 server's @code{directory-files} parameter.
15265 @item distrust-Lines:
15266 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmaildir} will always count the lines of an
15267 article, rather than use the @code{Lines:} header field. If
15268 @code{nil}, the header field will be used if present.
15271 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(read expire)]}. Whenever
15272 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
15273 say that all articles have these marks, regardless of whether the
15274 marks stored in the filesystem say so. This is a proof-of-concept
15275 feature that will probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done
15276 in Gnus proper, or abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
15279 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(tick expire)]}. Whenever
15280 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
15281 say that no articles have these marks, regardless of whether the marks
15282 stored in the filesystem say so. @code{never-marks} overrides
15283 @code{always-marks}. This is a proof-of-concept feature that will
15284 probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done in Gnus proper, or
15285 abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
15287 @item nov-cache-size
15288 An integer specifying the size of the @acronym{NOV} memory cache. To
15289 speed things up, @code{nnmaildir} keeps @acronym{NOV} data in memory
15290 for a limited number of articles in each group. (This is probably not
15291 worthwhile, and will probably be removed in the future.) This
15292 parameter's value is noticed only the first time a group is seen after
15293 the server is opened---i.e., when you first start Gnus, typically.
15294 The @acronym{NOV} cache is never resized until the server is closed
15295 and reopened. The default is an estimate of the number of articles
15296 that would be displayed in the summary buffer: a count of articles
15297 that are either marked with @code{tick} or not marked with
15298 @code{read}, plus a little extra.
15301 @subsubsection Article identification
15302 Articles are stored in the @file{cur/} subdirectory of each maildir.
15303 Each article file is named like @code{uniq:info}, where @code{uniq}
15304 contains no colons. @code{nnmaildir} ignores, but preserves, the
15305 @code{:info} part. (Other maildir readers typically use this part of
15306 the filename to store marks.) The @code{uniq} part uniquely
15307 identifies the article, and is used in various places in the
15308 @file{.nnmaildir/} subdirectory of the maildir to store information
15309 about the corresponding article. The full pathname of an article is
15310 available in the variable @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name} after you
15311 request the article in the summary buffer.
15313 @subsubsection NOV data
15314 An article identified by @code{uniq} has its @acronym{NOV} data (used
15315 to generate lines in the summary buffer) stored in
15316 @code{.nnmaildir/nov/uniq}. There is no
15317 @code{nnmaildir-generate-nov-databases} function. (There isn't much
15318 need for it---an article's @acronym{NOV} data is updated automatically
15319 when the article or @code{nnmail-extra-headers} has changed.) You can
15320 force @code{nnmaildir} to regenerate the @acronym{NOV} data for a
15321 single article simply by deleting the corresponding @acronym{NOV}
15322 file, but @emph{beware}: this will also cause @code{nnmaildir} to
15323 assign a new article number for this article, which may cause trouble
15324 with @code{seen} marks, the Agent, and the cache.
15326 @subsubsection Article marks
15327 An article identified by @code{uniq} is considered to have the mark
15328 @code{flag} when the file @file{.nnmaildir/marks/flag/uniq} exists.
15329 When Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for a group's marks, @code{nnmaildir}
15330 looks for such files and reports the set of marks it finds. When Gnus
15331 asks @code{nnmaildir} to store a new set of marks, @code{nnmaildir}
15332 creates and deletes the corresponding files as needed. (Actually,
15333 rather than create a new file for each mark, it just creates hard
15334 links to @file{.nnmaildir/markfile}, to save inodes.)
15336 You can invent new marks by creating a new directory in
15337 @file{.nnmaildir/marks/}. You can tar up a maildir and remove it from
15338 your server, untar it later, and keep your marks. You can add and
15339 remove marks yourself by creating and deleting mark files. If you do
15340 this while Gnus is running and your @code{nnmaildir} server is open,
15341 it's best to exit all summary buffers for @code{nnmaildir} groups and
15342 type @kbd{s} in the group buffer first, and to type @kbd{g} or
15343 @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer afterwards. Otherwise, Gnus might not
15344 pick up the changes, and might undo them.
15348 @subsubsection Mail Folders
15350 @cindex mbox folders
15351 @cindex mail folders
15353 @code{nnfolder} is a back end for storing each mail group in a
15354 separate file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format.
15355 @code{nnfolder} will add extra headers to keep track of article
15356 numbers and arrival dates.
15358 @cindex self contained nnfolder servers
15360 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnfolder}
15361 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
15362 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
15363 proper @code{nnfolder} server) and have all your marks be preserved.
15364 Marks for a group is usually stored in a file named as the mbox file
15365 with @code{.mrk} concatenated to it (but see
15366 @code{nnfolder-marks-file-suffix}) within the @code{nnfolder}
15367 directory. Individual @code{nnfolder} groups are also possible to
15368 backup, use @kbd{G m} to restore the group (after restoring the backup
15369 into the @code{nnfolder} directory).
15371 Virtual server settings:
15374 @item nnfolder-directory
15375 @vindex nnfolder-directory
15376 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this
15377 directory. The default is the value of @code{message-directory}
15378 (whose default is @file{~/Mail})
15380 @item nnfolder-active-file
15381 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
15382 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
15384 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
15385 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
15386 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
15387 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}
15389 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
15390 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
15391 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The
15392 default is @code{t}
15394 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
15395 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
15396 @cindex backup files
15397 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
15398 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If
15399 you wish to switch this off, you could say something like the
15400 following in your @file{.emacs} file:
15403 (defun turn-off-backup ()
15404 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
15406 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
15409 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
15410 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
15411 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
15412 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
15413 extract some information from it before removing it.
15415 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
15416 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
15417 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
15418 default is @code{nil}.
15420 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
15421 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
15422 The extension for @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
15424 @item nnfolder-nov-directory
15425 @vindex nnfolder-nov-directory
15426 The directory where the @acronym{NOV} files should be stored. If
15427 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
15429 @item nnfolder-marks-is-evil
15430 @vindex nnfolder-marks-is-evil
15431 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
15432 default is @code{nil}.
15434 @item nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
15435 @vindex nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
15436 The extension for @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.mrk}.
15438 @item nnfolder-marks-directory
15439 @vindex nnfolder-marks-directory
15440 The directory where the @sc{marks} files should be stored. If
15441 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
15446 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
15447 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
15448 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
15449 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
15450 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
15451 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
15454 @node Comparing Mail Back Ends
15455 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Back Ends
15457 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{back end} is the common word for a
15458 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
15459 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
15460 and so selection of a suitable back end is required in order to get that
15461 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
15463 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
15464 typically done by @acronym{NNTP} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
15465 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
15466 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @acronym{NNTP} server), and
15467 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
15468 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
15469 @code{nnspool} back ends, to select between these methods, if one happens
15470 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
15473 The goal in selecting a mail back end is to pick one which
15474 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
15475 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
15476 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
15481 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
15482 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
15483 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
15484 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
15485 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
15486 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
15487 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
15488 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
15489 this back end, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
15490 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
15491 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
15492 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
15493 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
15498 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
15499 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
15500 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
15501 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
15502 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
15503 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
15504 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
15505 Rmail was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
15506 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote Rmail
15507 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
15508 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
15509 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
15510 headers/status bits stuff. Rmail itself still exists as well, of
15511 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
15513 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
15514 file system, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
15519 @code{nnml} is the back end which smells the most as though you were
15520 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
15521 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
15522 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
15523 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
15524 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
15525 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
15526 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
15527 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
15528 @acronym{NNTP} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
15529 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
15530 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
15531 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
15532 provided by the active file and overviews.
15534 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
15535 resource which defines available places in the file system to put new
15536 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
15537 tight, shared file systems. But if you live on a personal machine where
15538 the file system is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
15541 It is also problematic using this back end if you are living in a
15542 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
15547 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
15548 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
15549 individual files, but with little or no indexing support---@code{nnmh}
15550 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
15551 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
15552 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
15553 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
15557 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
15558 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
15559 itself puts @emph{all} one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
15560 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
15561 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
15562 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
15563 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
15564 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
15565 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
15567 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
15568 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
15569 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
15570 friendly mail back end all over.
15574 For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses
15575 incompatible group parameters, slightly different from those of other
15578 @code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable
15579 differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the
15580 filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir}
15581 also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file
15582 per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}. (Use
15583 @code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this slows
15584 you down or takes up very much space, consider switching to
15585 @uref{http://www.namesys.com/, ReiserFS} or another non-block-structured
15588 Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use
15589 as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to.
15590 This means you can skip Gnus' mail splitting if your mail is already
15591 organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory}
15592 entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would
15593 require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format,
15594 thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in
15595 whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the
15596 @code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from
15597 @code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will not
15598 undergo treatment such as duplicate checking.
15600 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the
15601 corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate
15602 them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere
15603 else, and still have your marks. @code{nnml} also stores marks, but
15604 it's not as easy to work with them from outside Gnus as with
15607 @code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up.
15608 (It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files
15609 and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this
15610 is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group
15611 parameter to something small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably
15612 would) to make it use less memory. This caching will probably be
15613 removed in the future.
15615 Startup is likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than with other
15616 back ends. Everything else is likely to be faster, depending in part
15617 on your file system.
15619 @code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo}
15620 to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived back end.
15625 @node Browsing the Web
15626 @section Browsing the Web
15628 @cindex browsing the web
15632 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
15633 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
15634 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
15635 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
15636 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
15637 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
15638 even know what a news group is.
15640 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
15641 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
15642 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
15643 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
15644 you mad in the end.
15646 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
15649 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of back ends for providing
15650 interfaces to these sources.
15654 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
15655 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
15656 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
15657 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
15658 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
15659 * Customizing w3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.
15662 All the web sources require Emacs/w3 and the url library to work.
15664 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
15665 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @acronym{HTML} data
15666 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus back end
15667 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these back ends,
15668 though, you should be ok.
15670 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
15671 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
15672 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
15673 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
15674 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
15676 @node Archiving Mail
15677 @subsection Archiving Mail
15678 @cindex archiving mail
15679 @cindex backup of mail
15681 Some of the back ends, notably @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and
15682 @code{nnmaildir}, now actually store the article marks with each group.
15683 For these servers, archiving and restoring a group while preserving
15684 marks is fairly simple.
15686 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
15687 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @file{.newsrc.eld} deity
15690 To archive an entire @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir}
15691 server, take a recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need
15692 to shut down Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or
15693 similar. You restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and
15694 adding a server definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The
15695 @ref{Article Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things
15696 might interfere with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus
15697 before you restore the data.
15699 It is also possible to archive individual @code{nnml},
15700 @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir} groups, while preserving marks.
15701 For @code{nnml} or @code{nnmaildir}, you copy all files in the group's
15702 directory. For @code{nnfolder} you need to copy both the base folder
15703 file itself (@file{FOO}, say), and the marks file (@file{FOO.mrk} in
15704 this example). Restoring the group is done with @kbd{G m} from the Group
15705 buffer. The last step makes Gnus notice the new directory.
15706 @code{nnmaildir} notices the new directory automatically, so @kbd{G m}
15707 is unnecessary in that case.
15710 @subsection Web Searches
15715 @cindex Usenet searches
15716 @cindex searching the Usenet
15718 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
15719 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
15720 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
15721 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
15722 searches without having to use a browser.
15724 The @code{nnweb} back end allows an easy interface to the mighty search
15725 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
15726 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
15727 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
15728 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
15730 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
15731 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
15732 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
15733 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
15734 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
15735 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
15736 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
15737 engines (Google, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
15738 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
15739 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
15742 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
15743 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
15744 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'@^etre} is to
15745 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
15746 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
15747 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
15749 You must have the @code{url} and @code{w3} package installed to be able
15750 to use @code{nnweb}.
15752 Virtual server variables:
15757 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
15758 are @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}. Note that
15759 @code{dejanews} is an alias to @code{google}.
15762 @vindex nnweb-search
15763 The search string to feed to the search engine.
15765 @item nnweb-max-hits
15766 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
15767 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
15770 @item nnweb-type-definition
15771 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
15772 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
15773 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
15778 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
15782 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
15785 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
15788 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
15792 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
15799 @subsection Slashdot
15803 @uref{http://slashdot.org/, Slashdot} is a popular news site, with
15804 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
15805 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
15807 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
15808 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
15811 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
15812 '((nnslashdot "")))
15815 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} back end for new comments
15816 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
15817 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
15818 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
15819 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
15822 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
15823 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
15825 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
15826 comments), some light @acronym{HTML}izations will be performed. In
15827 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
15828 @samp{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @samp{br} added to
15829 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @acronym{HTML}
15830 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
15831 @acronym{HTML} forms.
15833 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
15836 @item nnslashdot-threaded
15837 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
15838 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
15839 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
15840 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
15841 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
15842 but much, much slower than unthreaded.
15844 @item nnslashdot-login-name
15845 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
15846 The login name to use when posting.
15848 @item nnslashdot-password
15849 @vindex nnslashdot-password
15850 The password to use when posting.
15852 @item nnslashdot-directory
15853 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
15854 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default is
15855 @file{~/News/slashdot/}.
15857 @item nnslashdot-active-url
15858 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
15859 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch the
15860 information on news articles and comments. The default is@*
15861 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
15863 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
15864 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
15865 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch comments.
15867 @item nnslashdot-article-url
15868 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
15869 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch the news
15870 article. The default is
15871 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
15873 @item nnslashdot-threshold
15874 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
15875 The score threshold. The default is -1.
15877 @item nnslashdot-group-number
15878 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
15879 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
15880 updated. The default is 0.
15887 @subsection Ultimate
15889 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
15891 @uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/, The Ultimate Bulletin Board} is
15892 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
15893 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
15894 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
15896 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
15897 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
15898 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @acronym{URL}
15899 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
15900 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
15901 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
15902 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
15904 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
15907 @item nnultimate-directory
15908 @vindex nnultimate-directory
15909 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is@*
15910 @file{~/News/ultimate/}.
15915 @subsection Web Archive
15917 @cindex Web Archive
15919 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
15920 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
15921 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
15922 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
15925 @findex gnus-group-make-warchive-group
15926 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
15927 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
15928 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET @var{an_egroup} RET egroups RET
15929 www.egroups.com RET @var{your@@email.address} RET}. (Substitute the
15930 @var{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
15931 @var{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
15932 back end by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
15934 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
15937 @item nnwarchive-directory
15938 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
15939 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is@*
15940 @file{~/News/warchive/}.
15942 @item nnwarchive-login
15943 @vindex nnwarchive-login
15944 The account name on the web server.
15946 @item nnwarchive-passwd
15947 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
15948 The password for your account on the web server.
15956 Some web sites have an RDF Site Summary (@acronym{RSS}).
15957 @acronym{RSS} is a format for summarizing headlines from news related
15958 sites (such as BBC or CNN). But basically anything list-like can be
15959 presented as an @acronym{RSS} feed: weblogs, changelogs or recent
15960 changes to a wiki (e.g. @url{http://cliki.net/recent-changes.rdf}).
15962 @acronym{RSS} has a quite regular and nice interface, and it's
15963 possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
15965 @kindex G R (Summary)
15966 Use @kbd{G R} from the summary buffer to subscribe to a feed---you
15967 will be prompted for the location of the feed.
15969 An easy way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something like
15970 the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET y}, then
15971 subscribe to groups.
15974 You can also use the following commands to import and export your
15975 subscriptions from a file in @acronym{OPML} format (Outline Processor
15978 @defun nnrss-opml-import file
15979 Prompt for an @acronym{OPML} file, and subscribe to each feed in the
15983 @defun nnrss-opml-export
15984 Write your current @acronym{RSS} subscriptions to a buffer in
15985 @acronym{OPML} format.
15988 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
15991 @item nnrss-directory
15992 @vindex nnrss-directory
15993 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
15994 @file{~/News/rss/}.
15996 @item nnrss-use-local
15997 @vindex nnrss-use-local
15998 @findex nnrss-generate-download-script
15999 If you set @code{nnrss-use-local} to @code{t}, @code{nnrss} will read
16000 the feeds from local files in @code{nnrss-directory}. You can use
16001 the command @code{nnrss-generate-download-script} to generate a
16002 download script using @command{wget}.
16005 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
16006 the summary buffer.
16009 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
16010 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
16012 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
16014 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
16015 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
16018 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
16021 (require 'browse-url)
16023 (defun browse-nnrss-url( arg )
16025 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
16028 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
16029 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
16032 (browse-url (cdr url))
16033 (gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward 1))
16034 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
16036 (eval-after-load "gnus"
16037 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
16038 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
16039 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
16042 @node Customizing w3
16043 @subsection Customizing w3
16049 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/w3 to display web
16050 pages. Emacs/w3 is documented in its own manual, but there are some
16051 things that may be more relevant for Gnus users.
16053 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/w3 follow links
16054 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
16055 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
16058 (eval-after-load "w3"
16060 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
16061 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
16062 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
16063 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
16065 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
16068 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in w3-rendered
16069 @acronym{HTML} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
16076 @cindex @acronym{IMAP}
16078 @acronym{IMAP} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or @dots{}),
16079 think of it as a modernized @acronym{NNTP}. Connecting to a @acronym{IMAP}
16080 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
16081 specify the network address of the server.
16083 @acronym{IMAP} has two properties. First, @acronym{IMAP} can do
16084 everything that @acronym{POP} can, it can hence be viewed as a
16085 @acronym{POP++}. Secondly, @acronym{IMAP} is a mail storage protocol,
16086 similar to @acronym{NNTP} being a news storage protocol---however,
16087 @acronym{IMAP} offers more features than @acronym{NNTP} because news
16088 is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.
16090 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a @acronym{POP++}, use an imap
16091 entry in @code{mail-sources}. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from
16092 the @acronym{IMAP} server and store them on the local disk. This is
16093 not the usage described in this section---@xref{Mail Sources}.
16095 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
16096 entry in @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}. With this, Gnus will
16097 manipulate mails stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server. This is the kind of
16098 usage explained in this section.
16100 A server configuration in @file{~/.gnus.el} with a few @acronym{IMAP}
16101 servers might look something like the following. (Note that for
16102 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you need external programs and libraries,
16106 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
16107 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; @r{no special configuration}
16108 ; @r{perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:}
16110 (nnimap-address "localhost")
16111 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
16112 ; @r{a UW server running on localhost}
16114 (nnimap-server-port 143)
16115 (nnimap-address "localhost")
16116 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
16117 ; @r{anonymous public cyrus server:}
16118 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
16119 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
16120 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
16121 (nnimap-stream network))
16122 ; @r{a ssl server on a non-standard port:}
16124 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
16125 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
16126 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
16129 After defining the new server, you can subscribe to groups on the
16130 server using normal Gnus commands such as @kbd{U} in the Group Buffer
16131 (@pxref{Subscription Commands}) or via the Server Buffer
16132 (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
16134 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
16139 @item nnimap-address
16140 @vindex nnimap-address
16142 The address of the remote @acronym{IMAP} server. Defaults to the virtual
16143 server name if not specified.
16145 @item nnimap-server-port
16146 @vindex nnimap-server-port
16147 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}.
16149 Note that this should be an integer, example server specification:
16152 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16153 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
16156 @item nnimap-list-pattern
16157 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
16158 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
16159 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
16160 interested in a few---some servers export your home directory via
16161 @acronym{IMAP}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
16162 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
16164 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
16165 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
16166 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
16169 Example server specification:
16172 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16173 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
16174 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
16177 @item nnimap-stream
16178 @vindex nnimap-stream
16179 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
16180 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
16181 of @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}. (@acronym{IMAP} over
16182 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can
16183 be automatically detected, but it's not widely deployed yet.)
16185 Example server specification:
16188 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16189 (nnimap-stream ssl))
16192 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
16196 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually Kerberos 5). Requires the
16197 @samp{gsasl} or @samp{imtest} program.
16199 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with Kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
16201 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
16202 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
16205 @dfn{tls:} Connect through @acronym{TLS}. Requires GNUTLS (the program
16206 @samp{gnutls-cli}).
16208 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through @acronym{SSL}. Requires OpenSSL (the program
16209 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
16211 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @acronym{IMAP} connection.
16213 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
16216 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
16217 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
16218 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
16219 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
16220 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
16221 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
16222 restrictions on @acronym{IMAP} commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
16223 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
16224 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
16227 For @acronym{TLS} connection, the @code{gnutls-cli} program from GNUTLS is
16228 needed. It is available from
16229 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}.
16231 @vindex imap-gssapi-program
16232 This parameter specifies a list of command lines that invoke a GSSAPI
16233 authenticated @acronym{IMAP} stream in a subshell. They are tried
16234 sequentially until a connection is made, or the list has been
16235 exhausted. By default, @samp{gsasl} from GNU SASL, available from
16236 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/}, and the @samp{imtest}
16237 program from Cyrus IMAPD (see @code{imap-kerberos4-program}), are
16240 @vindex imap-ssl-program
16241 For @acronym{SSL} connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
16242 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
16243 and nnimap support it too---although the most recent versions of
16244 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
16245 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
16246 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
16249 @vindex imap-shell-program
16250 @vindex imap-shell-host
16251 For @acronym{IMAP} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
16252 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
16254 @item nnimap-authenticator
16255 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
16257 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
16258 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
16260 Example server specification:
16263 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16264 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
16267 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
16271 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Requires
16272 external program @code{gsasl} or @code{imtest}.
16274 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos 4 authentication. Requires external program
16277 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Requires
16278 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
16280 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
16282 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
16284 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as ``anonymous'', supplying your email address as password.
16287 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
16289 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
16290 Unlike Parmenides the @acronym{IMAP} designers have decided things that
16291 don't exist actually do exist. More specifically, @acronym{IMAP} has
16292 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
16293 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
16294 nnimap does when you delete an article in Gnus (with @kbd{B DEL} or
16297 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
16298 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
16299 running in circles yet?
16301 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
16302 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
16305 The possible options are:
16310 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as ``Deleted'' when
16313 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
16314 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @acronym{IMAP} clients
16315 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
16316 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
16318 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
16323 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
16324 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
16326 If non-@code{nil} (the default), marks dormant articles as ticked (as
16327 well), for other @acronym{IMAP} clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will
16328 naturally still (only) be marked as dormant. This is to make dormant
16329 articles stand out, just like ticked articles, in other @acronym{IMAP}
16330 clients. (In other words, Gnus has two ``Tick'' marks and @acronym{IMAP}
16333 Probably the only reason for frobing this would be if you're trying
16334 enable per-user persistent dormant flags, using something like:
16337 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
16338 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
16339 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
16340 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
16343 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
16344 as ticked for other users.
16346 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
16348 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
16350 This variable contain the @acronym{IMAP} search command sent to server when
16351 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
16352 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
16353 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
16355 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
16356 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
16357 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
16358 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
16360 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
16361 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
16363 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
16364 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
16365 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
16368 @item nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
16369 @vindex nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
16371 Unselect mailboxes before looking for new mail in them. Some servers
16372 seem to need this under some circumstances; it was reported that
16378 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
16379 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
16380 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
16381 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
16382 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
16383 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
16388 @node Splitting in IMAP
16389 @subsection Splitting in IMAP
16390 @cindex splitting imap mail
16392 Splitting is something Gnus users have loved and used for years, and now
16393 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
16394 @acronym{IMAP} servers have server side splitting and those that have
16395 splitting seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that
16396 @acronym{IMAP} support for Gnus has to do its own splitting.
16400 (Incidentally, people seem to have been dreaming on, and Sieve has
16401 gaining a market share and is supported by several IMAP servers.
16402 Fortunately, Gnus support it too, @xref{Sieve Commands}.)
16404 Here are the variables of interest:
16408 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
16409 @cindex splitting, crosspost
16411 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
16413 If non-@code{nil}, do crossposting if several split methods match the
16414 mail. If @code{nil}, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule}
16415 found will be used.
16417 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
16419 @item nnimap-split-inbox
16420 @cindex splitting, inbox
16422 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
16424 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @acronym{IMAP}
16425 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to @code{nil}, which means that
16426 splitting is disabled!
16429 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
16430 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
16433 No nnmail equivalent.
16435 @item nnimap-split-rule
16436 @cindex splitting, rules
16437 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
16439 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
16442 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
16443 sublist gives the name of the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox to move articles
16444 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
16445 Neither did I, we need examples.
16448 (setq nnimap-split-rule
16450 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
16451 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
16452 ("INBOX.private" "")))
16455 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
16456 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
16457 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
16459 The first string may contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by
16460 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
16464 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
16467 The first element can also be the symbol @code{junk} to indicate that
16468 matching messages should simply be deleted. Use with care.
16470 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
16471 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
16472 containing the headers of the article. It should return a
16473 non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
16475 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
16476 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
16477 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
16478 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
16479 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
16480 them every time you fetch new mail.)
16482 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
16483 end. The first rule to make a match will ``win'', unless you have
16484 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will ``win''.
16486 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
16487 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
16488 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
16490 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it needs to.
16492 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
16493 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
16494 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
16497 (setq nnimap-split-rule
16498 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
16499 ("junk" "From:.*Simon"))))
16500 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
16501 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
16502 ("junk" my-junk-func))))))
16505 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
16506 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
16507 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
16508 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
16509 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
16510 group/function elements.
16512 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
16514 @item nnimap-split-predicate
16516 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
16518 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
16519 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
16521 This might be useful if you use another @acronym{IMAP} client to read mail in
16522 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
16523 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
16526 @item nnimap-split-fancy
16527 @cindex splitting, fancy
16528 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
16529 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
16531 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
16532 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
16533 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
16535 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
16536 nnimap back ends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
16537 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
16538 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
16543 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
16544 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
16547 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
16549 @item nnimap-split-download-body
16550 @findex nnimap-split-download-body
16551 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
16553 Set to non-@code{nil} to download entire articles during splitting.
16554 This is generally not required, and will slow things down
16555 considerably. You may need it if you want to use an advanced
16556 splitting function that analyses the body to split the article.
16560 @node Expiring in IMAP
16561 @subsection Expiring in IMAP
16562 @cindex expiring imap mail
16564 Even though @code{nnimap} is not a proper @code{nnmail} derived back
16565 end, it supports most features in regular expiring (@pxref{Expiring
16566 Mail}). Unlike splitting in @acronym{IMAP} (@pxref{Splitting in
16567 IMAP}) it does not clone the @code{nnmail} variables (i.e., creating
16568 @var{nnimap-expiry-wait}) but reuse the @code{nnmail} variables. What
16569 follows below are the variables used by the @code{nnimap} expiry
16572 A note on how the expire mark is stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server is
16573 appropriate here as well. The expire mark is translated into a
16574 @code{imap} client specific mark, @code{gnus-expire}, and stored on the
16575 message. This means that likely only Gnus will understand and treat
16576 the @code{gnus-expire} mark properly, although other clients may allow
16577 you to view client specific flags on the message. It also means that
16578 your server must support permanent storage of client specific flags on
16579 messages. Most do, fortunately.
16583 @item nnmail-expiry-wait
16584 @item nnmail-expiry-wait-function
16586 These variables are fully supported. The expire value can be a
16587 number, the symbol @code{immediate} or @code{never}.
16589 @item nnmail-expiry-target
16591 This variable is supported, and internally implemented by calling the
16592 @code{nnmail} functions that handle this. It contains an optimization
16593 that if the destination is a @acronym{IMAP} group on the same server, the
16594 article is copied instead of appended (that is, uploaded again).
16598 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
16599 @subsection Editing IMAP ACLs
16600 @cindex editing imap acls
16601 @cindex Access Control Lists
16602 @cindex Editing @acronym{IMAP} ACLs
16603 @kindex G l (Group)
16604 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
16606 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @acronym{IMAP} for
16607 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
16608 @acronym{IMAP} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
16611 To edit an ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
16612 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with an ACL
16613 editing window with detailed instructions.
16615 Some possible uses:
16619 Giving ``anyone'' the ``lrs'' rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
16620 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
16621 follow the list without subscribing to it.
16623 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
16624 ``anyone'' posting ("p") capabilities to have ``plussing'' work (that is,
16625 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox
16629 @node Expunging mailboxes
16630 @subsection Expunging mailboxes
16634 @cindex manual expunging
16635 @kindex G x (Group)
16636 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
16638 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
16639 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
16640 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
16642 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
16645 @node A note on namespaces
16646 @subsection A note on namespaces
16647 @cindex IMAP namespace
16650 The @acronym{IMAP} protocol has a concept called namespaces, described
16651 by the following text in the RFC:
16654 5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention
16656 By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name
16657 which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of
16658 the name. This makes it possible to disambiguate between different
16659 types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.
16661 For example, implementations which offer access to USENET
16662 newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET
16663 newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes. Thus, the
16664 comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have an mailbox name of
16665 "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" could refer
16666 to a different object (e.g. a user's private mailbox).
16669 While there is nothing in this text that warrants concern for the
16670 @acronym{IMAP} implementation in Gnus, some servers use namespace
16671 prefixes in a way that does not work with how Gnus uses mailbox names.
16673 Specifically, University of Washington's @acronym{IMAP} server uses
16674 mailbox names like @code{#driver.mbx/read-mail} which are valid only
16675 in the @sc{create} and @sc{append} commands. After the mailbox is
16676 created (or a messages is appended to a mailbox), it must be accessed
16677 without the namespace prefix, i.e. @code{read-mail}. Since Gnus do
16678 not make it possible for the user to guarantee that user entered
16679 mailbox names will only be used with the CREATE and APPEND commands,
16680 you should simply not use the namespace prefixed mailbox names in
16683 See the UoW IMAPD documentation for the @code{#driver.*/} prefix
16684 for more information on how to use the prefixes. They are a power
16685 tool and should be used only if you are sure what the effects are.
16687 @node Debugging IMAP
16688 @subsection Debugging IMAP
16689 @cindex IMAP debugging
16690 @cindex protocol dump (IMAP)
16692 @acronym{IMAP} is a complex protocol, more so than @acronym{NNTP} or
16693 @acronym{POP3}. Implementation bugs are not unlikely, and we do our
16694 best to fix them right away. If you encounter odd behaviour, chances
16695 are that either the server or Gnus is buggy.
16697 If you are familiar with network protocols in general, you will
16698 probably be able to extract some clues from the protocol dump of the
16699 exchanges between Gnus and the server. Even if you are not familiar
16700 with network protocols, when you include the protocol dump in
16701 @acronym{IMAP}-related bug reports you are helping us with data
16702 critical to solving the problem. Therefore, we strongly encourage you
16703 to include the protocol dump when reporting IMAP bugs in Gnus.
16707 Because the protocol dump, when enabled, generates lots of data, it is
16708 disabled by default. You can enable it by setting @code{imap-log} as
16715 This instructs the @code{imap.el} package to log any exchanges with
16716 the server. The log is stored in the buffer @samp{*imap-log*}. Look
16717 for error messages, which sometimes are tagged with the keyword
16718 @code{BAD}---but when submitting a bug, make sure to include all the
16721 @node Other Sources
16722 @section Other Sources
16724 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
16725 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
16729 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
16730 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
16731 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
16732 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
16733 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
16737 @node Directory Groups
16738 @subsection Directory Groups
16740 @cindex directory groups
16742 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
16743 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
16746 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
16747 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
16748 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
16749 back end to read directories. Big deal.
16751 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
16752 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
16753 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
16754 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
16755 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
16757 @code{nndir} will use @acronym{NOV} files if they are present.
16759 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' back end---you can't delete or expire
16760 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
16761 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
16762 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
16765 @node Anything Groups
16766 @subsection Anything Groups
16769 From the @code{nndir} back end (which reads a single spool-like
16770 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
16771 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
16774 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
16775 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
16776 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
16777 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
16778 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
16779 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
16780 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
16781 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
16782 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
16783 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
16786 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
16787 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
16788 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
16789 in the article buffer, just as usual.
16791 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
16792 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
16793 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
16794 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
16796 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
16797 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
16798 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
16799 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
16800 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
16801 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
16802 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
16803 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
16808 @item nneething-map-file-directory
16809 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
16810 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
16811 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
16813 @item nneething-exclude-files
16814 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
16815 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
16816 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
16818 @item nneething-include-files
16819 @vindex nneething-include-files
16820 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
16821 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
16823 @item nneething-map-file
16824 @vindex nneething-map-file
16825 Name of the map files.
16829 @node Document Groups
16830 @subsection Document Groups
16832 @cindex documentation group
16835 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
16836 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
16843 The Babyl (Rmail) mail box.
16848 The standard Unix mbox file.
16850 @cindex MMDF mail box
16852 The MMDF mail box format.
16855 Several news articles appended into a file.
16858 @cindex rnews batch files
16859 The rnews batch transport format.
16860 @cindex forwarded messages
16863 Forwarded articles.
16866 Netscape mail boxes.
16869 @acronym{MIME} multipart messages.
16871 @item standard-digest
16872 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
16875 A @acronym{MIME} digest of messages.
16877 @item lanl-gov-announce
16878 Announcement messages from LANL Gov Announce.
16880 @item rfc822-forward
16881 A message forwarded according to RFC822.
16884 The Outlook mail box.
16887 The Outlook Express dbx mail box.
16890 A bounce message from the Exim MTA.
16893 A message forwarded according to informal rules.
16896 An RFC934-forwarded message.
16902 A digest of Clarinet brief news items.
16905 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
16911 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
16912 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
16913 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
16916 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
16917 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
16918 group. And that's it.
16920 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
16921 new & spiffy Gnus mail back end, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
16922 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
16923 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
16924 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
16925 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
16926 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
16927 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
16928 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
16929 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
16931 Virtual server variables:
16934 @item nndoc-article-type
16935 @vindex nndoc-article-type
16936 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
16937 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
16938 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
16939 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook},
16940 @code{oe-dbx}, @code{mailman}, and @code{mail-in-mail} or @code{guess}.
16942 @item nndoc-post-type
16943 @vindex nndoc-post-type
16944 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
16945 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
16950 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
16954 @node Document Server Internals
16955 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
16957 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
16958 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
16959 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
16960 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
16962 First, here's an example document type definition:
16966 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
16967 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
16970 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
16971 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
16972 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
16973 types can be defined with very few settings:
16976 @item first-article
16977 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
16978 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
16981 @item article-begin
16982 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
16983 says what the beginning of each article looks like.
16985 @item head-begin-function
16986 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
16989 @item nndoc-head-begin
16990 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
16993 @item nndoc-head-end
16994 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
16995 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
16997 @item body-begin-function
16998 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
17002 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
17005 @item body-end-function
17006 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
17010 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article.
17013 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
17014 regexp will be totally ignored.
17018 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
17019 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
17020 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
17021 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
17022 something that's palatable for Gnus:
17025 @item prepare-body-function
17026 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
17027 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
17028 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
17030 @item article-transform-function
17031 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
17032 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
17033 body of the article.
17035 @item generate-head-function
17036 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
17037 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
17038 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
17039 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
17043 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
17048 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
17049 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
17050 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
17051 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
17052 (head-end . "^ ?$")
17053 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
17054 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
17055 (subtype digest guess))
17058 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
17059 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
17060 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
17061 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
17062 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
17064 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
17065 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first
17066 is the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says
17067 where in the document type definition alist to put this definition.
17068 The alist is traversed sequentially, and
17069 @code{nndoc-@var{type}-type-p} is called for a given type @var{type}.
17070 So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document is of
17071 @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
17072 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it
17073 is of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
17074 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number
17075 means low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
17083 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
17084 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
17085 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
17087 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
17088 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
17089 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
17092 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
17093 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
17094 that interested in doing things properly.
17096 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
17097 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
17100 First some terminology:
17105 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
17106 get news and/or mail from.
17109 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
17110 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
17113 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
17117 @item message packets
17118 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
17119 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
17120 default, where @var{x} is a number.
17122 @item response packets
17123 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
17124 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
17125 default, where @var{x} is a number.
17135 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
17136 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
17137 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
17138 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
17141 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
17144 You put the packet in your home directory.
17147 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} back end as
17148 the native or secondary server.
17151 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
17152 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
17155 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
17159 You transfer this packet to the server.
17162 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
17165 You then repeat until you die.
17169 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
17170 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
17173 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
17174 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
17175 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
17179 @node SOUP Commands
17180 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
17182 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
17186 @kindex G s b (Group)
17187 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
17188 Pack all unread articles in the current group
17189 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
17190 process/prefix convention.
17193 @kindex G s w (Group)
17194 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
17195 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
17198 @kindex G s s (Group)
17199 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
17200 Send all replies from the replies packet
17201 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
17204 @kindex G s p (Group)
17205 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
17206 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
17209 @kindex G s r (Group)
17210 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
17211 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
17214 @kindex O s (Summary)
17215 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
17216 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
17217 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
17218 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
17223 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
17228 @item gnus-soup-directory
17229 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
17230 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
17231 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
17233 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
17234 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
17235 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
17236 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
17238 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
17239 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
17240 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
17241 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
17243 @item gnus-soup-packer
17244 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
17245 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
17246 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
17248 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
17249 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
17250 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
17251 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
17253 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
17254 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
17255 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
17257 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
17258 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
17259 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
17260 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
17266 @subsubsection SOUP Groups
17269 @code{nnsoup} is the back end for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
17270 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
17271 you can read them at leisure.
17273 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
17277 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
17278 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
17279 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
17280 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
17282 @item nnsoup-directory
17283 @vindex nnsoup-directory
17284 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
17285 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
17287 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
17288 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
17289 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
17290 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/}.
17292 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
17293 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
17294 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
17295 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
17296 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
17298 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
17299 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
17300 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
17301 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
17303 @item nnsoup-active-file
17304 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
17305 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
17306 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
17307 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
17308 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
17310 @item nnsoup-packer
17311 @vindex nnsoup-packer
17312 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
17313 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
17315 @item nnsoup-unpacker
17316 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
17317 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
17318 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
17320 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
17321 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
17322 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
17325 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
17326 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
17327 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
17330 @item nnsoup-always-save
17331 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
17332 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
17338 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
17340 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
17341 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
17342 more for that to happen.
17344 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
17345 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
17346 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
17349 In specific, this is what it does:
17352 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
17353 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
17356 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
17357 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
17358 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
17361 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
17362 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
17363 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
17366 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
17367 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
17368 The @code{nngateway} back end provides the interface.
17370 Note that you can't read anything from this back end---it can only be
17376 @item nngateway-address
17377 @vindex nngateway-address
17378 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
17380 @item nngateway-header-transformation
17381 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
17382 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
17383 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
17384 transformation should be called, and defaults to
17385 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
17386 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
17389 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
17390 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
17391 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
17394 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
17397 will get this @code{To} header inserted:
17400 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
17403 The following pre-defined functions exist:
17405 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
17408 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
17409 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
17410 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
17412 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
17414 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
17415 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
17416 @code{nngateway-address}.
17424 (setq gnus-post-method
17426 "mail2news@@replay.com"
17427 (nngateway-header-transformation
17428 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
17431 So, to use this, simply say something like:
17434 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
17439 @node Combined Groups
17440 @section Combined Groups
17442 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
17446 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
17447 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
17451 @node Virtual Groups
17452 @subsection Virtual Groups
17454 @cindex virtual groups
17455 @cindex merging groups
17457 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
17460 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
17461 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
17462 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
17464 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
17465 regexp to match component groups.
17467 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
17468 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
17469 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it
17470 came. (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be
17471 shown in the virtual group.). To create an empty virtual group, run
17472 @kbd{G V} (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}) in the group buffer
17473 and edit the method regexp with @kbd{M-e}
17474 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method})
17476 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
17477 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
17480 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
17483 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
17484 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
17486 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
17487 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
17488 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
17489 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
17492 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
17495 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
17496 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
17497 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
17499 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
17500 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
17501 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
17502 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
17503 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
17505 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
17506 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
17507 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
17509 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
17510 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
17511 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
17512 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
17513 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
17514 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
17515 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
17516 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
17517 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
17518 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
17519 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
17521 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
17522 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
17523 has to ask the back end of the component group the article comes from
17524 whether it is a news or mail back end. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
17525 there is typically no sure way for the component back end to know this,
17526 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
17527 not-news back end. (Just to be on the safe side.)
17529 @kbd{C-c C-n} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
17530 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
17532 @code{nnvirtual} groups do not inherit anything but articles and marks
17533 from component groups---group parameters, for instance, are not
17537 @node Kibozed Groups
17538 @subsection Kibozed Groups
17542 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by the @acronym{OED} as ``grepping through
17543 (parts of) the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a back end that will
17544 do this for you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @acronym{NNTP} server
17545 down to a halt with useless requests! Oh happiness!
17547 @kindex G k (Group)
17548 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
17551 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
17552 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
17553 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between
17554 @code{nnkiboze} and @code{nnvirtual} end.
17556 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an
17557 @code{nnkiboze} group must have a score file to say what articles are
17558 to be included in the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
17560 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
17561 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
17562 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
17563 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time.
17564 Lots of time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the
17565 headers from all the articles in all the component groups and run them
17566 through the scoring process to determine if there are any articles in
17567 the groups that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
17569 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
17570 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
17571 @acronym{NNTP} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
17572 Stranger things have happened.
17574 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
17575 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
17577 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
17578 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
17579 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/kiboze/} by default.
17580 One contains the @acronym{NOV} header lines for all the articles in
17581 the group, and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store
17582 information on what groups have been searched through to find
17583 component articles.
17585 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
17586 their @acronym{NOV} lines removed from the @acronym{NOV} file.
17589 @node Gnus Unplugged
17590 @section Gnus Unplugged
17595 @cindex Gnus unplugged
17597 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
17598 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
17599 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
17600 read news. Believe it or not.
17602 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
17603 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
17604 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
17605 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
17606 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
17608 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
17609 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
17610 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
17611 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
17612 reading news on a machine.
17614 Setting up Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple. In
17615 fact, you don't have to configure anything as the agent is now enabled
17616 by default (@pxref{Agent Variables, gnus-agent}).
17618 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
17621 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
17622 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
17623 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
17624 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
17625 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
17626 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
17627 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
17628 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
17629 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
17630 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
17631 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
17632 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
17633 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
17638 @subsection Agent Basics
17640 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
17642 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
17643 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
17644 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
17645 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
17647 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
17648 connected to the net continuously.
17650 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
17651 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
17653 You know that Gnus gives you all the opportunity you'd ever want for
17654 shooting yourself in the foot. Some people call it flexibility. Gnus
17655 is also customizable to a great extent, which means that the user has a
17656 say on how Gnus behaves. Other newsreaders might unconditionally shoot
17657 you in your foot, but with Gnus, you have a choice!
17659 Gnus is never really in plugged or unplugged state. Rather, it applies
17660 that state to each server individually. This means that some servers
17661 can be plugged while others can be unplugged. Additionally, some
17662 servers can be ignored by the Agent altogether (which means that
17663 they're kinda like plugged always).
17665 So when you unplug the Agent and then wonder why is Gnus opening a
17666 connection to the Net, the next step to do is to look whether all
17667 servers are agentized. If there is an unagentized server, you found
17670 Another thing is the @dfn{offline} state. Sometimes, servers aren't
17671 reachable. When Gnus notices this, it asks you whether you want the
17672 server to be switched to offline state. If you say yes, then the
17673 server will behave somewhat as if it was unplugged, except that Gnus
17674 will ask you whether you want to switch it back online again.
17676 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
17681 @findex gnus-unplugged
17682 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
17683 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
17684 already fetched while in this mode.
17687 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
17688 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
17689 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
17690 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode (@pxref{Mail
17691 Source Specifiers}).
17694 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the
17695 news onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press
17696 @kbd{g} to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J s} to fetch
17697 all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus know which
17698 articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}).
17701 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
17702 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
17703 then you read the news offline.
17706 And then you go to step 2.
17709 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
17715 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
17716 back end, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
17717 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
17718 @kbd{J a} on the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
17719 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}), or @kbd{J r} on automatically
17720 added servers you do not wish to have covered by the Agent. By default,
17721 all @code{nntp} and @code{nnimap} servers in @code{gnus-select-method} and
17722 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} are agentized.
17725 Decide on download policy. It's fairly simple once you decide whether
17726 you are going to use agent categories, topic parameters, and/or group
17727 parameters to implement your policy. If you're new to gnus, it
17728 is probably best to start with a category, @xref{Agent Categories}.
17730 Both topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) and agent categories
17731 (@pxref{Agent Categories}) provide for setting a policy that applies
17732 to multiple groups. Which you use is entirely up to you. Topic
17733 parameters do override categories so, if you mix the two, you'll have
17734 to take that into account. If you have a few groups that deviate from
17735 your policy, you can use group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to
17739 Uhm@dots{} that's it.
17743 @node Agent Categories
17744 @subsection Agent Categories
17746 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
17747 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
17748 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
17749 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
17750 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
17751 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
17752 you're interested in the articles anyway.
17754 One of the more effective methods for controlling what is to be
17755 downloaded is to create a @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all)
17756 groups to this category. Groups that do not belong in any other
17757 category belong to the @code{default} category. Gnus has its own
17758 buffer for creating and managing categories.
17760 If you prefer, you can also use group parameters (@pxref{Group
17761 Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) for an
17762 alternative approach to controlling the agent. The only real
17763 difference is that categories are specific to the agent (so there is
17764 less to learn) while group and topic parameters include the kitchen
17767 Since you can set agent parameters in several different places we have
17768 a rule to decide which source to believe. This rule specifies that
17769 the parameter sources are checked in the following order: group
17770 parameters, topic parameters, agent category, and finally customizable
17771 variables. So you can mix all of these sources to produce a wide range
17772 of behavior, just don't blame me if you don't remember where you put
17776 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
17777 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
17778 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
17782 @node Category Syntax
17783 @subsubsection Category Syntax
17785 A category consists of a name, the list of groups belonging to the
17786 category, and a number of optional parameters that override the
17787 customizable variables. The complete list of agent parameters are
17790 @cindex Agent Parameters
17792 @item agent-cat-name
17793 The name of the category.
17796 The list of groups that are in this category.
17798 @item agent-predicate
17799 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
17800 are eligible for downloading; and
17802 @item agent-score-file
17803 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
17804 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
17805 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
17807 @item agent-enable-expiration
17808 a boolean indicating whether the agent should expire old articles in
17809 this group. Most groups should be expired to conserve disk space. In
17810 fact, its probably safe to say that the gnus.* hierarchy contains the
17811 only groups that should not be expired.
17813 @item agent-days-until-old
17814 an integer indicating the number of days that the agent should wait
17815 before deciding that a read article is safe to expire.
17817 @item agent-low-score
17818 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-low-score}.
17820 @item agent-high-score
17821 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-high-score}.
17823 @item agent-length-when-short
17824 an integer that overrides the value of
17825 @code{gnus-agent-short-article}.
17827 @item agent-length-when-long
17828 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-long-article}.
17830 @item agent-enable-undownloaded-faces
17831 a symbol indicating whether the summary buffer should display
17832 undownloaded articles using the @code{gnus-summary-*-undownloaded-face}
17833 faces. Any symbol other than @code{nil} will enable the use of
17834 undownloaded faces.
17837 The name of a category can not be changed once the category has been
17840 Each category maintains a list of groups that are exclusive members of
17841 that category. The exclusivity rule is automatically enforced, add a
17842 group to a new category and it is automatically removed from its old
17845 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
17846 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
17847 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
17848 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
17850 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
17851 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
17852 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
17854 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
17855 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
17856 operators sprinkled in between.
17858 Perhaps some examples are in order.
17860 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
17861 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
17867 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
17868 short (for some value of ``short'').
17870 Here's a more complex predicate:
17879 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
17880 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
17883 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
17884 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
17885 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
17887 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
17888 you want to do, you can write your own.
17890 When evaluating each of these predicates, the named constant will be
17891 bound to the value determined by calling
17892 @code{gnus-agent-find-parameter} on the appropriate parameter. For
17893 example, gnus-agent-short-article will be bound to
17894 @code{(gnus-agent-find-parameter group 'agent-short-article)}. This
17895 means that you can specify a predicate in your category then tune that
17896 predicate to individual groups.
17900 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
17901 lines; default 100.
17904 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
17905 lines; default 200.
17908 True iff the article has a download score less than
17909 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
17912 True iff the article has a download score greater than
17913 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
17916 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
17917 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
17918 checksum and sees whether articles match.
17927 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
17928 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
17929 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
17932 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
17933 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
17934 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
17935 something along the lines of the following:
17938 (defun my-article-old-p ()
17939 "Say whether an article is old."
17940 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
17941 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
17944 with the predicate then defined as:
17947 (not my-article-old-p)
17950 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
17951 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
17955 (require 'gnus-agent)
17956 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
17957 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
17958 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
17961 and simply specify your predicate as:
17967 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
17968 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
17969 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
17970 just don't give a damn.
17972 The above predicates apply to @emph{all} the groups which belong to the
17973 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
17974 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
17975 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in its group
17976 parameters like so:
17979 (agent-predicate . short)
17982 This is the group/topic parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
17983 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
17984 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
17986 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
17989 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
17992 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
17993 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
17994 predicate is assumed to be a list.
17997 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
17998 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
17999 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
18000 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
18001 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
18002 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
18004 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
18005 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
18006 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
18007 if it's to be specific to that group.
18009 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
18016 This has the same syntax as a normal Gnus score file except only a
18017 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
18023 Category specification
18027 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
18033 Group/Topic Parameter specification
18036 (agent-score ("from"
18037 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
18042 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
18048 These score files must @emph{only} contain the permitted scoring
18049 keywords stated above.
18055 Category specification
18058 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
18064 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
18068 Group Parameter specification
18071 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
18074 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
18079 Use @code{normal} score files
18081 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
18082 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
18083 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
18084 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
18086 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
18087 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
18088 files for a group, @emph{filtering out} those sections that do not
18089 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
18093 Category Specification
18100 Group Parameter specification
18103 (agent-score . file)
18108 @node Category Buffer
18109 @subsubsection Category Buffer
18111 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
18112 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
18113 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
18115 The following commands are available in this buffer:
18119 @kindex q (Category)
18120 @findex gnus-category-exit
18121 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
18124 @kindex e (Category)
18125 @findex gnus-category-customize-category
18126 Use a customization buffer to set all of the selected category's
18127 parameters at one time (@code{gnus-category-customize-category}).
18130 @kindex k (Category)
18131 @findex gnus-category-kill
18132 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
18135 @kindex c (Category)
18136 @findex gnus-category-copy
18137 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
18140 @kindex a (Category)
18141 @findex gnus-category-add
18142 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
18145 @kindex p (Category)
18146 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
18147 Edit the predicate of the current category
18148 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
18151 @kindex g (Category)
18152 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
18153 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
18154 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
18157 @kindex s (Category)
18158 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
18159 Edit the download score rule of the current category
18160 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
18163 @kindex l (Category)
18164 @findex gnus-category-list
18165 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
18169 @node Category Variables
18170 @subsubsection Category Variables
18173 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
18174 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
18175 Hook run in category buffers.
18177 @item gnus-category-line-format
18178 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
18179 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
18180 Variables}). Valid elements are:
18184 The name of the category.
18187 The number of groups in the category.
18190 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
18191 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
18192 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
18194 @item gnus-agent-short-article
18195 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
18196 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
18198 @item gnus-agent-long-article
18199 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
18200 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
18202 @item gnus-agent-low-score
18203 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
18204 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
18207 @item gnus-agent-high-score
18208 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
18209 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
18212 @item gnus-agent-expire-days
18213 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
18214 The number of days that a @samp{read} article must stay in the agent's
18215 local disk before becoming eligible for expiration (While the name is
18216 the same, this doesn't mean expiring the article on the server. It
18217 just means deleting the local copy of the article). What is also
18218 important to understand is that the counter starts with the time the
18219 article was written to the local disk and not the time the article was
18223 @item gnus-agent-enable-expiration
18224 @vindex gnus-agent-enable-expiration
18225 Determines whether articles in a group are, by default, expired or
18226 retained indefinitely. The default is @code{ENABLE} which means that
18227 you'll have to disable expiration when desired. On the other hand,
18228 you could set this to @code{DISABLE}. In that case, you would then
18229 have to enable expiration in selected groups.
18234 @node Agent Commands
18235 @subsection Agent Commands
18236 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-plugged
18237 @kindex J j (Agent)
18239 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
18240 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged}) command works in all modes, and
18241 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
18245 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
18246 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
18247 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
18253 @node Group Agent Commands
18254 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
18258 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
18259 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
18260 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
18261 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
18264 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
18265 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
18266 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
18269 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
18270 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
18271 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
18272 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
18275 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
18276 @findex gnus-group-send-queue
18277 Send all sendable messages in the queue group
18278 (@code{gnus-group-send-queue}). @xref{Drafts}.
18281 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
18282 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
18283 Add the current group to an Agent category
18284 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
18285 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
18288 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
18289 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
18290 Remove the current group from its category, if any
18291 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
18292 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
18295 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
18296 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
18297 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
18303 @node Summary Agent Commands
18304 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
18308 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
18309 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
18310 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
18313 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
18314 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
18315 Remove the downloading mark from the article
18316 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
18320 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
18321 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
18322 Toggle whether to download the article
18323 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}). The download mark is @samp{%} by
18327 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
18328 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
18329 Mark all articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}) that are neither cached, downloaded, nor downloadable.
18332 @kindex J S (Agent Summary)
18333 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-group
18334 Download all eligible (@pxref{Agent Categories}) articles in this group.
18335 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-group}).
18338 @kindex J s (Agent Summary)
18339 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-series
18340 Download all processable articles in this group.
18341 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-series}).
18344 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
18345 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
18346 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
18347 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
18352 @node Server Agent Commands
18353 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
18357 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
18358 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
18359 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
18360 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
18363 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
18364 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
18365 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
18366 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
18371 @node Agent Visuals
18372 @subsection Agent Visuals
18374 If you open a summary while unplugged and, Gnus knows from the group's
18375 active range that there are more articles than the headers currently
18376 stored in the Agent, you may see some articles whose subject looks
18377 something like @samp{[Undownloaded article #####]}. These are
18378 placeholders for the missing headers. Aside from setting a mark,
18379 there is not much that can be done with one of these placeholders.
18380 When Gnus finally gets a chance to fetch the group's headers, the
18381 placeholders will automatically be replaced by the actual headers.
18382 You can configure the summary buffer's maneuvering to skip over the
18383 placeholders if you care (See @code{gnus-auto-goto-ignores}).
18385 While it may be obvious to all, the only headers and articles
18386 available while unplugged are those headers and articles that were
18387 fetched into the Agent while previously plugged. To put it another
18388 way, "If you forget to fetch something while plugged, you might have a
18389 less than satisfying unplugged session". For this reason, the Agent
18390 adds two visual effects to your summary buffer. These effects display
18391 the download status of each article so that you always know which
18392 articles will be available when unplugged.
18394 The first visual effect is the @samp{%O} spec. If you customize
18395 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} to include this specifier, you will add
18396 a single character field that indicates an article's download status.
18397 Articles that have been fetched into either the Agent or the Cache,
18398 will display @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} (defaults to @samp{+}). All
18399 other articles will display @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} (defaults to
18400 @samp{-}). If you open a group that has not been agentized, a space
18401 (@samp{ }) will be displayed.
18403 The second visual effect are the undownloaded faces. The faces, there
18404 are three indicating the article's score (low, normal, high), seem to
18405 result in a love/hate response from many Gnus users. The problem is
18406 that the face selection is controlled by a list of condition tests and
18407 face names (See @code{gnus-summary-highlight}). Each condition is
18408 tested in the order in which it appears in the list so early
18409 conditions have precedence over later conditions. All of this means
18410 that, if you tick an undownloaded article, the article will continue
18411 to be displayed in the undownloaded face rather than the ticked face.
18413 If you use the Agent as a cache (to avoid downloading the same article
18414 each time you visit it or to minimize your connection time), the
18415 undownloaded face will probably seem like a good idea. The reason
18416 being that you do all of our work (marking, reading, deleting) with
18417 downloaded articles so the normal faces always appear. For those
18418 users using the agent to improve online performance by caching the NOV
18419 database (most users since 5.10.2), the undownloaded faces may appear
18420 to be an absolutely horrible idea. The issue being that, since none
18421 of their articles have been fetched into the Agent, all of the
18422 normal faces will be obscured by the undownloaded faces.
18424 If you would like to use the undownloaded faces, you must enable the
18425 undownloaded faces by setting the @code{agent-enable-undownloaded-faces}
18426 group parameter to t. This parameter, like all other agent
18427 parameters, may be set on an Agent Category (@pxref{Agent
18428 Categories}), a Group Topic (@pxref{Topic Parameters}), or an
18429 individual group (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
18431 The one problem common to all users using the agent is how quickly it
18432 can consume disk space. If you using the agent on many groups, it is
18433 even more difficult to effectively recover disk space. One solution
18434 is the @samp{%F} format available in @code{gnus-group-line-format}.
18435 This format will display the actual disk space used by articles
18436 fetched into both the agent and cache. By knowing which groups use
18437 the most space, users know where to focus their efforts when ``agent
18438 expiring'' articles.
18440 @node Agent as Cache
18441 @subsection Agent as Cache
18443 When Gnus is plugged, it is not efficient to download headers or
18444 articles from the server again, if they are already stored in the
18445 Agent. So, Gnus normally only downloads headers once, and stores them
18446 in the Agent. These headers are later used when generating the summary
18447 buffer, regardless of whether you are plugged or unplugged. Articles
18448 are not cached in the Agent by default though (that would potentially
18449 consume lots of disk space), but if you have already downloaded an
18450 article into the Agent, Gnus will not download the article from the
18451 server again but use the locally stored copy instead.
18453 If you so desire, you can configure the agent (see @code{gnus-agent-cache}
18454 @pxref{Agent Variables}) to always download headers and articles while
18455 plugged. Gnus will almost certainly be slower, but it will be kept
18456 synchronized with the server. That last point probably won't make any
18457 sense if you are using a nntp or nnimap back end.
18460 @subsection Agent Expiry
18462 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
18463 @findex gnus-agent-expire
18464 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
18465 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire-group
18466 @findex gnus-agent-expire-group
18467 @cindex agent expiry
18468 @cindex Gnus agent expiry
18471 The Agent back end, @code{nnagent}, doesn't handle expiry. Well, at
18472 least it doesn't handle it like other back ends. Instead, there are
18473 special @code{gnus-agent-expire} and @code{gnus-agent-expire-group}
18474 commands that will expire all read articles that are older than
18475 @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. They can be run whenever you feel
18476 that you're running out of space. Neither are particularly fast or
18477 efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to interrupt them (with
18478 @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started one of them.
18480 Note that other functions, e.g. @code{gnus-request-expire-articles},
18481 might run @code{gnus-agent-expire} for you to keep the agent
18482 synchronized with the group.
18484 The agent parameter @code{agent-enable-expiration} may be used to
18485 prevent expiration in selected groups.
18487 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
18488 If @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, the agent
18489 expiration commands will expire all articles---unread, read, ticked
18490 and dormant. If @code{nil} (which is the default), only read articles
18491 are eligible for expiry, and unread, ticked and dormant articles will
18492 be kept indefinitely.
18494 If you find that some articles eligible for expiry are never expired,
18495 perhaps some Gnus Agent files are corrupted. There's are special
18496 commands, @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} and
18497 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group}, to fix possible problems.
18499 @node Agent Regeneration
18500 @subsection Agent Regeneration
18502 @cindex agent regeneration
18503 @cindex Gnus agent regeneration
18504 @cindex regeneration
18506 The local data structures used by @code{nnagent} may become corrupted
18507 due to certain exceptional conditions. When this happens,
18508 @code{nnagent} functionality may degrade or even fail. The solution
18509 to this problem is to repair the local data structures by removing all
18510 internal inconsistencies.
18512 For example, if your connection to your server is lost while
18513 downloaded articles into the agent, the local data structures will not
18514 know about articles successfully downloaded prior to the connection
18515 failure. Running @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} or
18516 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} will update the data structures
18517 such that you don't need to download these articles a second time.
18519 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate
18520 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate
18521 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} will perform
18522 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} on every agentized group. While
18523 you can run @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} in any buffer, it is strongly
18524 recommended that you first close all summary buffers.
18526 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate-group
18527 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate-group
18528 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} uses the local copies
18529 of individual articles to repair the local @acronym{NOV}(header) database. It
18530 then updates the internal data structures that document which articles
18531 are stored locally. An optional argument will mark articles in the
18534 @node Agent and IMAP
18535 @subsection Agent and IMAP
18537 The Agent works with any Gnus back end, including nnimap. However,
18538 since there are some conceptual differences between @acronym{NNTP} and
18539 @acronym{IMAP}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
18540 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @acronym{IMAP} Disconnected Mode client.
18542 The first thing to keep in mind is that all flags (read, ticked, etc)
18543 are kept on the @acronym{IMAP} server, rather than in @file{.newsrc} as is the
18544 case for nntp. Thus Gnus need to remember flag changes when
18545 disconnected, and synchronize these flags when you plug back in.
18547 Gnus keeps track of flag changes when reading nnimap groups under the
18548 Agent. When you plug back in, Gnus will check if you have any changed
18549 any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these with the server.
18550 The behavior is customizable by @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
18552 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
18553 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
18554 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
18555 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
18556 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
18557 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
18559 If you do not wish to synchronize flags automatically when you
18560 re-connect, you can do it manually with the
18561 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
18562 in the group buffer.
18564 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
18565 expect from a disconnected @acronym{IMAP} client, including:
18570 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
18573 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
18577 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by ``pushing''
18578 all local flags to the server, but rather incrementally update the
18579 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
18580 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on an article, quit the group and
18581 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
18582 removed from the server when you ``synchronize''. The queued flag
18583 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
18584 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
18587 @node Outgoing Messages
18588 @subsection Outgoing Messages
18590 By default, when Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail
18591 and news) are stored in the draft group ``queue'' (@pxref{Drafts}).
18592 You can view them there after posting, and edit them at will.
18594 You can control the circumstances under which outgoing mail is queued
18595 (see @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail}, @pxref{Agent Variables}). Outgoing
18596 news is always queued when Gnus is unplugged, and never otherwise.
18598 You can send the messages either from the draft group with the special
18599 commands available there, or you can use the @kbd{J S} command in the
18600 group buffer to send all the sendable messages in the draft group.
18601 Posting news will only work when Gnus is plugged, but you can send
18604 If sending mail while unplugged does not work for you and you worry
18605 about hitting @kbd{J S} by accident when unplugged, you can have Gnus
18606 ask you to confirm your action (see
18607 @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue}, @pxref{Agent Variables}).
18609 @node Agent Variables
18610 @subsection Agent Variables
18615 Is the agent enabled? The default is @code{t}. When first enabled,
18616 the agent will use @code{gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods} to
18617 automatically mark some backends as agentized. You may change which
18618 backends are agentized using the agent commands in the server buffer.
18620 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
18621 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
18624 @item gnus-agent-directory
18625 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
18626 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
18627 @file{~/News/agent/}.
18629 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
18630 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
18631 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
18632 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
18633 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
18636 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
18637 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
18638 Hook run when connecting to the network.
18640 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
18641 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
18642 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
18644 @item gnus-agent-fetched-hook
18645 @vindex gnus-agent-fetched-hook
18646 Hook run when finished fetching articles.
18648 @item gnus-agent-cache
18649 @vindex gnus-agent-cache
18650 Variable to control whether use the locally stored @acronym{NOV} and
18651 articles when plugged, e.g. essentially using the Agent as a cache.
18652 The default is non-@code{nil}, which means to use the Agent as a cache.
18654 @item gnus-agent-go-online
18655 @vindex gnus-agent-go-online
18656 If @code{gnus-agent-go-online} is @code{nil}, the Agent will never
18657 automatically switch offline servers into online status. If it is
18658 @code{ask}, the default, the Agent will ask if you wish to switch
18659 offline servers into online status when you re-connect. If it has any
18660 other value, all offline servers will be automatically switched into
18663 @item gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
18664 @vindex gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
18665 If @code{gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded} is non-@code{nil},
18666 mark articles as unread after downloading. This is usually a safe
18667 thing to do as the newly downloaded article has obviously not been
18668 read. The default is t.
18670 @item gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
18671 @vindex gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
18672 If @code{gnus-agent-consider-all-articles} is non-@code{nil}, the
18673 agent will let the agent predicate decide whether articles need to be
18674 downloaded or not, for all articles. When @code{nil}, the default,
18675 the agent will only let the predicate decide whether unread articles
18676 are downloaded or not. If you enable this, you may also want to look
18677 into the agent expiry settings (@pxref{Category Variables}), so that
18678 the agent doesn't download articles which the agent will later expire,
18679 over and over again.
18681 @item gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
18682 @vindex gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
18683 The agent fetches articles into a temporary buffer prior to parsing
18684 them into individual files. To avoid exceeding the max. buffer size,
18685 the agent alternates between fetching and parsing until all articles
18686 have been fetched. @code{gnus-agent-max-fetch-size} provides a size
18687 limit to control how often the cycling occurs. A large value improves
18688 performance. A small value minimizes the time lost should the
18689 connection be lost while fetching (You may need to run
18690 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} to update the group's state.
18691 However, all articles parsed prior to loosing the connection will be
18692 available while unplugged). The default is 10M so it is unusual to
18695 @item gnus-server-unopen-status
18696 @vindex gnus-server-unopen-status
18697 Perhaps not an Agent variable, but closely related to the Agent, this
18698 variable says what will happen if Gnus cannot open a server. If the
18699 Agent is enabled, the default, @code{nil}, makes Gnus ask the user
18700 whether to deny the server or whether to unplug the agent. If the
18701 Agent is disabled, Gnus always simply deny the server. Other choices
18702 for this variable include @code{denied} and @code{offline} the latter
18703 is only valid if the Agent is used.
18705 @item gnus-auto-goto-ignores
18706 @vindex gnus-auto-goto-ignores
18707 Another variable that isn't an Agent variable, yet so closely related
18708 that most will look for it here, this variable tells the summary
18709 buffer how to maneuver around undownloaded (only headers stored in the
18710 agent) and unfetched (neither article nor headers stored) articles.
18712 The legal values are @code{nil} (maneuver to any article),
18713 @code{undownloaded} (maneuvering while unplugged ignores articles that
18714 have not been fetched), @code{always-undownloaded} (maneuvering always
18715 ignores articles that have not been fetched), @code{unfetched}
18716 (maneuvering ignores articles whose headers have not been fetched).
18718 @item gnus-agent-queue-mail
18719 @vindex gnus-agent-queue-mail
18720 When @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail} is @code{always}, Gnus will always
18721 queue mail rather than sending it straight away. When @code{t}, Gnus
18722 will queue mail when unplugged only. When @code{nil}, never queue
18723 mail. The default is @code{t}.
18725 @item gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
18726 @vindex gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
18727 When @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue} is non-@code{nil} Gnus will
18728 prompt you to confirm that you really wish to proceed if you hit
18729 @kbd{J S} while unplugged. The default is @code{nil}.
18731 @item gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
18732 @vindex gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
18733 If you have never used the Agent before (or more technically, if
18734 @file{~/News/agent/lib/servers} does not exist), Gnus will
18735 automatically agentize a few servers for you. This variable control
18736 which backends should be auto-agentized. It is typically only useful
18737 to agentize remote backends. The auto-agentizing has the same effect
18738 as running @kbd{J a} on the servers (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}).
18739 If the file exist, you must manage the servers manually by adding or
18740 removing them, this variable is only applicable the first time you
18741 start Gnus. The default is @samp{(nntp nnimap)}.
18746 @node Example Setup
18747 @subsection Example Setup
18749 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
18750 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
18751 @file{~/.gnus.el} file to get started.
18754 ;;; @r{Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @acronym{NNTP}}
18755 ;;; @r{from your ISP's server.}
18756 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
18758 ;;; @r{Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from}
18759 ;;; @r{your ISP's @acronym{POP} server.}
18760 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
18762 ;;; @r{Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.}
18763 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
18765 ;;; @r{Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.}
18766 ;;; (gnus-agentize) ; @r{The obsolete setting.}
18767 ;;; (setq gnus-agent t) ; @r{Now the default.}
18770 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
18771 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
18774 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
18775 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
18776 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
18777 @acronym{NNTP} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
18778 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
18781 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
18782 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
18783 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
18784 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
18785 back all the killed groups.)
18787 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
18788 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
18789 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
18792 @node Batching Agents
18793 @subsection Batching Agents
18794 @findex gnus-agent-batch
18796 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
18797 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
18798 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
18800 You can run a complete batch command from the command line with the
18801 following incantation:
18805 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null 2>&1
18809 @node Agent Caveats
18810 @subsection Agent Caveats
18812 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
18813 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
18817 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the Agent?
18819 @strong{No}. If you want this behaviour, add
18820 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} to
18821 @code{gnus-select-article-hook}.
18823 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists in
18824 the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
18826 @strong{No}, unless @code{gnus-agent-cache} is @code{nil}.
18830 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
18831 articles; when it's plugged, it talks to your ISP and may also use the
18832 locally stored articles.
18839 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
18840 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
18841 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
18844 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
18845 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
18846 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
18847 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
18848 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
18850 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
18851 before generating the summary buffer.
18853 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
18854 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
18855 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
18857 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
18858 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
18859 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
18860 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
18863 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
18864 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
18865 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
18866 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
18867 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
18868 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
18869 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
18870 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
18871 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
18872 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
18873 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
18874 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
18875 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
18876 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
18877 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
18878 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
18882 @node Summary Score Commands
18883 @section Summary Score Commands
18884 @cindex score commands
18886 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
18887 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
18888 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
18889 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
18890 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
18892 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
18893 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
18894 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
18895 score file the current one.
18897 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
18902 @kindex V s (Summary)
18903 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
18904 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
18907 @kindex V S (Summary)
18908 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
18909 Display the score of the current article
18910 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
18913 @kindex V t (Summary)
18914 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
18915 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
18916 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}). In the @code{*Score Trace*} buffer, you
18917 may type @kbd{e} to edit score file corresponding to the score rule on
18918 current line and @kbd{f} to format (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) the
18919 score file and edit it.
18922 @kindex V w (Summary)
18923 @findex gnus-score-find-favourite-words
18924 List words used in scoring (@code{gnus-score-find-favourite-words}).
18927 @kindex V R (Summary)
18928 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
18929 Run the current summary through the scoring process
18930 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
18931 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
18932 effect you're having.
18935 @kindex V c (Summary)
18936 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
18937 Make a different score file the current
18938 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
18941 @kindex V e (Summary)
18942 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
18943 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
18944 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
18948 @kindex V f (Summary)
18949 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
18950 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
18951 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
18954 @kindex V F (Summary)
18955 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
18956 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
18957 after editing score files.
18960 @kindex V C (Summary)
18961 @findex gnus-score-customize
18962 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
18963 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
18967 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
18972 @kindex V m (Summary)
18973 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
18974 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
18975 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
18978 @kindex V x (Summary)
18979 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
18980 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
18981 expunge all articles below this score
18982 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
18985 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
18986 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
18989 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
18990 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
18994 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
18995 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
18997 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
18998 keys are available:
19002 Score on the author name.
19005 Score on the subject line.
19008 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
19011 Score on the @code{References} line.
19017 Score on the number of lines.
19020 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
19023 Score on an ``extra'' header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers,
19024 if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks additional header data in overviews.
19027 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
19028 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
19029 @file{ADAPT} files.)
19038 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
19044 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
19045 what headers you are scoring on.
19057 Substring matching.
19060 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
19089 Greater than number.
19094 The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
19095 expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry,
19096 or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score
19101 Temporary score entry.
19104 Permanent score entry.
19107 Immediately scoring.
19111 If you are scoring on `e' (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for
19112 the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named
19113 in gnus-extra-headers, and @samp{TAB} completion is available.
19117 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
19118 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
19119 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
19120 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
19122 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
19123 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
19124 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
19125 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
19126 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
19128 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
19129 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
19130 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
19131 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
19132 current score file.
19134 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
19135 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
19136 pretend they are keymaps or not.
19139 @node Group Score Commands
19140 @section Group Score Commands
19141 @cindex group score commands
19143 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
19148 @kindex W e (Group)
19149 @findex gnus-score-edit-all-score
19150 Edit the apply-to-all-groups all.SCORE file. You will be popped into
19151 a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score File Editing}).
19154 @kindex W f (Group)
19155 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
19156 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
19157 all the time. This command will flush the cache
19158 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
19162 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
19164 @findex gnus-batch-score
19165 @cindex batch scoring
19167 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
19171 @node Score Variables
19172 @section Score Variables
19173 @cindex score variables
19177 @item gnus-use-scoring
19178 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
19179 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
19180 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
19182 @item gnus-kill-killed
19183 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
19184 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
19185 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
19186 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
19187 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
19188 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
19189 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
19191 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
19192 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
19193 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
19194 initialized from the @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
19195 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
19197 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
19198 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
19199 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
19200 (@file{SCORE} by default.)
19202 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
19203 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
19204 @cindex score cache
19205 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
19206 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
19207 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely
19208 to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
19209 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
19210 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
19211 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
19214 @item gnus-save-score
19215 @vindex gnus-save-score
19216 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
19217 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
19218 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
19220 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
19221 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
19222 across group visits.
19224 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
19225 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
19226 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
19227 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
19228 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
19229 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
19230 manually entered data.
19232 @item gnus-summary-default-score
19233 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
19234 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
19236 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
19237 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
19238 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
19239 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
19240 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
19241 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
19243 @item gnus-score-over-mark
19244 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
19245 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
19246 default. Default is @samp{+}.
19248 @item gnus-score-below-mark
19249 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
19250 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
19251 default. Default is @samp{-}.
19253 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
19254 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
19255 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
19256 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
19258 Predefined functions available are:
19261 @item gnus-score-find-single
19262 @findex gnus-score-find-single
19263 Only apply the group's own score file.
19265 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
19266 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
19267 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
19268 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
19269 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
19270 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
19271 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
19272 then a regexp match is done.
19274 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
19275 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
19277 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
19278 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
19279 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
19280 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
19282 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
19283 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
19284 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
19285 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
19286 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
19290 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
19291 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
19292 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
19293 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
19294 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
19295 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
19296 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
19299 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
19300 overall score file, you could use the value
19302 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
19303 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
19306 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
19307 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
19308 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
19309 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
19310 are expired. It's 7 by default.
19312 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
19313 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
19314 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, temporary score entries that have
19315 been triggered (matched) will have their dates updated. (This is how Gnus
19316 controls expiry---all non-matched-entries will become too old while
19317 matched entries will stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this
19318 variable to @code{nil}, even matched entries will grow old and will
19319 have to face that oh-so grim reaper.
19321 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
19322 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
19323 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
19325 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
19326 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
19327 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be
19328 simplified for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
19329 threading---according to the current value of
19330 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions}. If the scoring entry uses
19331 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
19332 simplified in this manner.
19337 @node Score File Format
19338 @section Score File Format
19339 @cindex score file format
19341 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
19342 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
19343 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
19345 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
19349 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
19351 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
19353 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
19355 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
19360 (mark-and-expunge -10)
19364 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
19365 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
19366 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
19367 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
19371 This example demonstrates most score file elements. @xref{Advanced
19372 Scoring}, for a different approach.
19374 Even though this looks much like Lisp code, nothing here is actually
19375 @code{eval}ed. The Lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
19376 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
19378 Six keys are supported by this alist:
19383 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
19384 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
19385 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
19386 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
19387 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
19388 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
19389 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
19390 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
19391 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
19392 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
19393 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
19394 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
19395 to articles that matches these score entries.
19397 Following this key is an arbitrary number of score entries, where each
19398 score entry has one to four elements.
19402 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
19403 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
19407 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
19408 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
19409 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
19410 is successful. If this element is not present, the
19411 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
19412 instead. This is 1000 by default.
19415 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
19416 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
19417 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
19418 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
19419 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
19422 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
19423 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
19424 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
19425 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
19428 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
19429 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
19430 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
19431 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
19432 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
19433 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
19434 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
19435 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
19436 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
19437 instead, if you feel like.
19440 Just as for the standard string overview headers, if you are using
19441 gnus-extra-headers, you can score on these headers' values. In this
19442 case, there is a 5th element in the score entry, being the name of the
19443 header to be scored. The following entry is useful in your
19444 @file{all.SCORE} file in case of spam attacks from a single origin
19445 host, if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks @samp{NNTP-Posting-Host} in
19449 ("111.222.333.444" -1000 nil s
19450 "NNTP-Posting-Host")
19454 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
19455 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
19457 These predicates are true if
19460 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
19463 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
19464 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
19471 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
19472 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
19473 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
19474 it's not. I think.)
19476 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some back ends (like
19477 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
19478 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
19479 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
19482 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
19483 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
19484 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
19485 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
19486 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
19487 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
19488 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
19492 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
19493 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
19494 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
19495 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
19496 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
19497 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
19498 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
19499 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
19502 @item Head, Body, All
19503 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
19507 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
19508 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
19509 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
19510 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
19511 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
19512 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
19513 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
19517 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
19518 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
19519 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
19520 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
19521 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
19522 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
19523 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
19524 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
19525 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
19526 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
19527 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
19531 @cindex score file atoms
19533 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
19534 lower than this number will be marked as read.
19537 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
19538 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
19540 @item mark-and-expunge
19541 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
19542 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
19545 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
19546 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
19547 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
19548 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
19549 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
19552 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
19553 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
19556 @item exclude-files
19557 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
19558 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
19562 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
19563 ignored when handling global score files.
19566 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
19567 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
19568 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
19569 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
19572 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
19573 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
19574 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
19575 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
19577 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
19581 (mark-and-expunge -100)
19584 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
19585 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
19586 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
19587 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
19588 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
19590 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
19591 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
19592 scoring rules exist.
19595 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
19596 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
19597 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
19598 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
19599 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
19600 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
19601 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
19602 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
19603 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
19604 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
19605 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
19609 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
19610 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
19611 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
19612 file for a number of groups.
19615 @cindex local variables
19616 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(@var{var}
19617 @var{value})} pairs. Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the
19618 current summary buffer, and set to the value specified. This is a
19619 convenient, if somewhat strange, way of setting variables in some
19620 groups if you don't like hooks much. Note that the @var{value} won't
19625 @node Score File Editing
19626 @section Score File Editing
19628 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
19629 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
19630 with a mode for that.
19632 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
19633 additional commands:
19638 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
19639 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
19640 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
19641 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
19644 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
19645 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
19646 Insert the current date in numerical format
19647 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
19648 you were wondering.
19651 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
19652 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
19653 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
19654 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
19655 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
19660 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
19662 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
19663 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
19665 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f}, @kbd{V e} and
19666 @kbd{V t} to begin editing score files.
19669 @node Adaptive Scoring
19670 @section Adaptive Scoring
19671 @cindex adaptive scoring
19673 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
19674 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
19675 stupidity, to be precise.
19677 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
19678 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
19679 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
19680 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
19681 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
19682 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
19683 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
19684 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
19685 variable to @code{(word line)}.
19687 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
19688 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
19689 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
19690 might look something like this:
19693 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
19694 '((gnus-unread-mark)
19695 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
19696 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
19697 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
19698 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
19699 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
19700 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
19701 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
19702 (gnus-ancient-mark)
19703 (gnus-low-score-mark)
19704 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
19707 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
19708 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
19709 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
19710 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
19711 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
19712 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
19715 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
19716 will be applied to each article.
19718 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
19719 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{e}) will have a
19720 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
19721 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
19723 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
19724 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
19725 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
19726 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
19728 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
19729 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
19730 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
19731 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
19733 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
19734 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
19735 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
19736 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
19737 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
19738 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
19740 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
19741 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
19742 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
19744 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
19745 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
19746 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
19748 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
19749 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
19750 let you use different rules in different groups.
19752 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
19753 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
19754 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
19757 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
19758 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
19759 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
19760 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
19761 the length of the match is less than
19762 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
19763 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
19766 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
19767 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
19768 headers. If you adapt on words, the
19769 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
19770 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
19773 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
19774 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
19775 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
19776 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
19777 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
19780 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
19781 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
19782 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
19783 score with 30 points.
19785 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
19786 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
19787 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
19788 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
19789 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
19791 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
19792 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
19793 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
19794 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
19795 variable defaults to @code{nil}.
19797 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
19798 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
19799 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
19800 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
19802 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
19803 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
19804 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
19805 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
19807 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
19808 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
19809 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
19810 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
19811 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
19813 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
19814 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
19815 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
19817 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
19818 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
19819 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
19820 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
19823 @node Home Score File
19824 @section Home Score File
19826 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
19827 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
19828 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
19829 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
19831 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
19832 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
19833 could perhaps use the same home score file.
19835 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
19836 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
19841 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
19845 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
19846 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
19850 A list. The elements in this list can be:
19854 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
19855 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
19858 A function. If the function returns non-@code{nil}, the result will
19859 be used as the home score file.
19862 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
19865 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
19870 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
19873 (setq gnus-home-score-file
19874 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
19877 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
19878 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
19880 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
19882 (setq gnus-home-score-file
19883 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
19886 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
19887 Other functions include
19890 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
19891 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
19892 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
19893 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
19897 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
19898 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
19899 their own home score files:
19902 (setq gnus-home-score-file
19903 ;; @r{All groups that match the regexp @code{"\\.emacs"}}
19904 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
19905 ;; @r{All the comp groups in one score file}
19906 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
19909 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
19910 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
19911 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
19912 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
19913 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
19915 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
19916 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
19917 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
19918 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
19919 precedence over this variable.
19922 @node Followups To Yourself
19923 @section Followups To Yourself
19925 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
19926 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
19927 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
19928 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
19929 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
19930 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
19934 @item gnus-score-followup-article
19935 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
19936 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
19939 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
19940 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
19941 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
19945 @vindex message-sent-hook
19946 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
19947 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
19949 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
19953 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
19954 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
19958 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
19959 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
19962 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
19963 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
19968 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
19972 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
19973 is system-dependent.
19976 @node Scoring On Other Headers
19977 @section Scoring On Other Headers
19978 @cindex scoring on other headers
19980 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
19981 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
19982 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
19983 that Gnus has to request every single article from the back end to find
19984 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
19986 Now, there's not much you can do about this for news groups, but for
19987 mail groups, you have greater control. In @ref{To From Newsgroups},
19988 it's explained in greater detail what this mechanism does, but here's
19989 a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on how to allow scoring on the
19990 @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
19992 Put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
19995 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
19996 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
19999 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
20000 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
20001 time if you have much mail.
20003 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
20004 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
20010 @section Scoring Tips
20011 @cindex scoring tips
20017 @cindex scoring crossposts
20018 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
20019 the @code{Xref} header.
20021 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
20024 @item Multiple crossposts
20025 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
20026 more than, say, 3 groups:
20029 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
20033 @item Matching on the body
20034 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
20035 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
20036 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
20037 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
20038 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
20039 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
20040 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
20043 @item Marking as read
20044 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
20045 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
20046 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
20050 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
20052 @item Negated character classes
20053 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
20054 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
20055 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
20059 @node Reverse Scoring
20060 @section Reverse Scoring
20061 @cindex reverse scoring
20063 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
20064 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
20065 like this in your score file:
20069 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
20074 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
20075 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
20078 @node Global Score Files
20079 @section Global Score Files
20080 @cindex global score files
20082 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
20083 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
20084 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
20086 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
20087 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
20088 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
20090 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
20091 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
20092 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
20093 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
20094 files are applicable to which group.
20096 To use the score file
20097 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
20098 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
20102 (setq gnus-global-score-files
20103 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
20104 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
20107 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
20109 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
20110 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
20111 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
20112 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
20114 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
20115 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
20117 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
20118 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
20119 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
20120 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
20121 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
20122 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
20124 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
20130 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
20132 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
20134 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
20136 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
20137 lowered out of existence.
20139 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
20140 articles completely.
20143 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
20144 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
20145 old articles for a long time.
20148 @dots{} I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
20149 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
20150 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
20151 holding our breath yet?
20155 @section Kill Files
20158 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
20159 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
20160 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
20162 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
20163 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
20164 files into score files.
20166 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
20167 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
20168 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
20169 that isn't a very good idea.
20171 Normal kill files look like this:
20174 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20175 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
20179 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
20180 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
20182 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
20183 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
20186 Two summary functions for editing a @sc{gnus} kill file:
20191 @kindex M-k (Summary)
20192 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
20193 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
20196 @kindex M-K (Summary)
20197 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
20198 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
20201 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
20206 @kindex M-k (Group)
20207 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
20208 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
20211 @kindex M-K (Group)
20212 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
20213 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
20216 Kill file variables:
20219 @item gnus-kill-file-name
20220 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
20221 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
20222 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
20223 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
20224 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
20225 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
20227 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
20228 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
20229 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
20230 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
20233 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
20234 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
20235 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
20236 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
20237 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
20238 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
20239 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
20240 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
20241 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
20243 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
20244 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
20245 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
20250 @node Converting Kill Files
20251 @section Converting Kill Files
20253 @cindex converting kill files
20255 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
20256 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
20257 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
20260 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
20261 You can fetch it from
20262 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
20264 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
20265 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
20266 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
20270 @node Advanced Scoring
20271 @section Advanced Scoring
20273 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
20274 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
20275 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
20276 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
20277 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
20279 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
20283 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
20284 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
20285 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
20289 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
20290 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
20292 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
20293 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
20294 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
20295 non-@code{nil} value.
20297 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
20298 operator, and various match operators.
20305 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
20306 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
20307 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
20312 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
20313 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
20314 then this operator will return @code{false}.
20319 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
20320 logical negation of the value of its argument.
20324 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
20325 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
20326 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
20327 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
20328 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
20329 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
20330 the ancestry you want to go.
20332 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
20333 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
20334 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
20335 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
20336 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
20339 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
20340 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
20342 Please note that the following examples are score file rules. To
20343 make a complete score file from them, surround them with another pair
20346 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
20347 when he's talking about Gnus:
20352 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20353 ("subject" "Gnus"))
20360 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
20364 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20371 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
20372 really don't want to read what he's written:
20376 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20377 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
20381 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
20382 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
20383 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
20390 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
20391 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
20392 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
20393 ("body" "white.*socks"))
20397 The possibilities are endless.
20400 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
20401 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
20403 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
20404 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
20405 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
20406 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
20407 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
20408 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
20409 @samp{subject}) first.
20411 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
20412 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
20423 Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the
20424 current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
20430 ("subject" "Gnus")))
20437 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
20438 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
20443 @section Score Decays
20444 @cindex score decays
20447 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
20448 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
20449 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
20450 use them in any sensible way.
20452 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
20453 @findex gnus-decay-score
20454 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
20455 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
20456 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
20457 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
20458 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
20459 The decay itself if performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function}
20460 function, which is @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the
20461 definition of that function:
20464 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
20465 "Decay SCORE according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
20466 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
20468 (* (if (< score 0) -1 1)
20470 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
20472 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
20473 (if (and (featurep 'xemacs)
20474 ;; XEmacs' floor can handle only the floating point
20475 ;; number below the half of the maximum integer.
20476 (> (abs n) (lsh -1 -2)))
20478 (car (split-string (number-to-string n) "\\.")))
20482 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
20483 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
20484 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
20485 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
20489 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
20492 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
20495 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
20499 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
20500 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
20501 the new score, which should be an integer.
20503 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
20504 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
20509 @include message.texi
20510 @chapter Emacs MIME
20511 @include emacs-mime.texi
20513 @include sieve.texi
20515 @c @include pgg.texi
20517 @c @include sasl.texi
20525 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
20526 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
20527 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
20528 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
20529 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
20530 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
20531 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
20532 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
20533 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
20534 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
20535 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
20536 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
20537 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
20538 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
20539 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
20540 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
20541 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
20542 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
20543 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
20544 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
20548 @node Process/Prefix
20549 @section Process/Prefix
20550 @cindex process/prefix convention
20552 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
20553 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
20555 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
20556 command to be performed on.
20560 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
20561 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
20562 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
20563 with the current one.
20565 @vindex transient-mark-mode
20566 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
20567 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
20569 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
20570 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
20573 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
20574 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
20576 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
20579 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
20580 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
20581 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
20582 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
20584 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
20585 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
20586 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
20587 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
20588 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
20589 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
20590 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
20591 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
20593 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
20594 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
20595 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
20596 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
20597 expirable, you could say @kbd{M P b M-& E}.
20601 @section Interactive
20602 @cindex interaction
20606 @item gnus-novice-user
20607 @vindex gnus-novice-user
20608 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
20609 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
20610 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
20611 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
20614 @item gnus-expert-user
20615 @vindex gnus-expert-user
20616 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
20617 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
20618 matter how strange.
20620 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
20621 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
20622 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
20623 is @code{t} by default.
20625 @item gnus-interactive-exit
20626 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
20627 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
20632 @node Symbolic Prefixes
20633 @section Symbolic Prefixes
20634 @cindex symbolic prefixes
20636 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
20637 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
20638 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
20639 rule of 900 to the current article.
20641 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
20642 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
20643 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
20644 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
20645 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
20646 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
20647 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
20649 @kindex M-i (Summary)
20650 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
20651 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
20652 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
20653 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
20654 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a C-M-u} means ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u}
20655 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b C-M-u} means
20656 ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
20657 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
20659 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
20660 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
20661 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
20663 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
20667 @node Formatting Variables
20668 @section Formatting Variables
20669 @cindex formatting variables
20671 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
20672 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
20673 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
20674 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
20675 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
20678 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
20679 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
20680 lots of percentages everywhere.
20683 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
20684 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
20685 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
20686 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
20687 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
20688 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
20689 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
20690 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
20693 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
20694 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
20695 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
20696 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
20697 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
20698 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
20699 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
20700 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
20702 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
20703 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
20705 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
20706 @findex gnus-update-format
20707 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
20708 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
20709 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
20710 examine the resulting Lisp code to be run to generate the line.
20714 @node Formatting Basics
20715 @subsection Formatting Basics
20717 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
20718 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
20719 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
20721 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
20722 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
20723 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
20724 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
20725 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
20728 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
20729 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
20730 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
20731 less than 4 characters wide.
20733 Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as
20734 @samp{%&user-date;}.
20737 @node Mode Line Formatting
20738 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
20740 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
20741 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
20742 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
20743 with the following two differences:
20748 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
20751 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
20752 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
20753 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
20754 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
20755 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
20756 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
20757 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
20762 @node Advanced Formatting
20763 @subsection Advanced Formatting
20765 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
20766 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
20767 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
20768 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
20770 These are the valid modifiers:
20775 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
20779 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
20784 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
20787 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
20792 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
20795 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
20798 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
20801 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
20807 "~(form (current-time-string))@@"
20812 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
20813 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
20814 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
20815 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
20816 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
20817 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
20818 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
20820 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
20821 last operation, padding.
20823 @vindex gnus-compile-user-specs
20824 If @code{gnus-compile-user-specs} is set to @code{nil} (@code{t} by
20825 default) with your strong personality, and use a lots of these advanced
20826 thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets quite slow. This can be helped
20827 enormously by running @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with
20828 the look of your lines.
20829 @xref{Compilation}.
20832 @node User-Defined Specs
20833 @subsection User-Defined Specs
20835 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
20836 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
20837 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
20838 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
20839 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
20840 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
20841 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
20842 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
20843 should protect against that.
20845 Also Gnus supports extended user-defined specs, such as @samp{%u&foo;}.
20846 Gnus will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{foo}.
20848 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
20849 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
20850 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
20851 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
20855 @node Formatting Fonts
20856 @subsection Formatting Fonts
20858 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
20859 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
20860 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
20861 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
20864 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
20865 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
20866 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
20867 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
20868 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
20869 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
20871 Text inside the @samp{%<<} and @samp{%>>} specifiers will get the
20872 special @code{balloon-help} property set to
20873 @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you say @samp{%1<<}, you'll get
20874 @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The @code{gnus-balloon-face-*}
20875 variables should be either strings or symbols naming functions that
20876 return a string. When the mouse passes over text with this property
20877 set, a balloon window will appear and display the string. Please
20878 refer to @ref{Tooltips, ,Tooltips, emacs, The Emacs Manual},
20879 (in GNU Emacs) or the doc string of @code{balloon-help-mode} (in
20880 XEmacs) for more information on this. (For technical reasons, the
20881 guillemets have been approximated as @samp{<<} and @samp{>>} in this
20884 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
20887 ;; @r{Create three face types.}
20888 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
20889 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
20891 ;; @r{We want the article count to be in}
20892 ;; @r{a bold and green face. So we create}
20893 ;; @r{a new face called @code{my-green-bold}.}
20894 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
20895 ;; @r{Set the color.}
20896 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
20897 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
20899 ;; @r{Set the new & fancy format.}
20900 (setq gnus-group-line-format
20901 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
20904 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
20905 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
20907 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
20908 mode-line variables.
20910 @node Positioning Point
20911 @subsection Positioning Point
20913 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
20914 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
20915 line. You can customize this behaviour in three different ways.
20917 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
20919 @findex gnus-goto-colon
20920 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
20921 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
20923 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
20924 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%*} specifier. If you
20925 put a @samp{%*} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
20930 @subsection Tabulation
20932 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
20933 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
20934 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
20935 about lining up the following text afterwards.
20937 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs---@samp{%=}. There are two
20938 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
20940 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
20941 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
20942 This is the soft tabulator.
20944 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
20945 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
20946 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
20949 @node Wide Characters
20950 @subsection Wide Characters
20952 Fixed width fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
20953 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
20954 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
20956 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
20957 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
20958 these countries, that's not true.
20960 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
20961 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
20962 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
20963 prettier. The default value under XEmacs is @code{t} but @code{nil}
20967 @node Window Layout
20968 @section Window Layout
20969 @cindex window layout
20971 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
20973 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
20974 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
20975 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
20976 @code{t} by default.
20978 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
20979 glitches. Use at your own peril.
20981 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
20982 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
20983 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
20986 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
20987 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
20988 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
20992 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
20993 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
20994 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
20995 possible names is listed below.
20997 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
20998 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
21001 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
21005 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
21006 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
21007 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
21008 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
21009 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
21010 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
21011 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
21012 size spec per split.
21014 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
21015 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
21016 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
21017 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
21018 present) gets focus.
21020 Here's a more complicated example:
21023 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
21024 (summary 0.25 point)
21025 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
21029 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
21030 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
21031 occupy, not a percentage.
21033 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
21034 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
21035 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
21036 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
21037 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
21040 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
21043 (article (horizontal 1.0
21048 (summary 0.25 point)
21053 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
21054 @code{horizontal} thingie?
21056 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
21057 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
21058 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
21059 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
21060 the screen is to be given to this strip.
21062 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
21063 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
21064 lines from the splits.
21066 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
21071 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
21072 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
21073 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
21074 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
21075 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
21076 size = number | frame-params
21077 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
21081 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
21082 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
21083 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
21084 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
21086 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
21087 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
21088 @cindex window height
21089 @cindex window width
21090 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
21091 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
21092 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
21093 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
21094 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
21095 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
21097 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
21098 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
21099 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
21100 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
21102 @findex gnus-configure-frame
21103 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
21104 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
21105 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
21106 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
21107 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
21108 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
21109 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
21110 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
21111 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
21112 configuration list.
21115 (gnus-configure-frame
21119 (article 0.3 point))
21127 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
21128 @code{frame} split:
21131 (gnus-configure-frame
21134 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
21136 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
21137 (user-position . t)
21138 (left . -1) (top . 1))
21143 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
21144 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
21145 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
21146 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
21147 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
21148 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
21149 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
21150 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
21152 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
21153 be found in its default value.
21155 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
21156 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
21157 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
21161 (message (horizontal 1.0
21162 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
21164 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
21169 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
21170 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
21171 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
21176 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
21177 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
21178 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
21179 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
21180 (name . "Message"))
21181 (message 1.0 point))))
21184 @findex gnus-add-configuration
21185 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
21186 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
21187 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
21188 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
21191 (gnus-add-configuration
21192 '(article (vertical 1.0
21194 (summary .25 point)
21198 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
21199 @file{~/.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
21200 Gnus has been loaded.
21202 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
21203 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
21204 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
21205 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
21206 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
21208 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
21209 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
21210 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
21213 @subsection Example Window Configurations
21217 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
21218 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
21233 (gnus-add-configuration
21236 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
21238 (summary 0.16 point)
21241 (gnus-add-configuration
21244 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
21245 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
21251 @node Faces and Fonts
21252 @section Faces and Fonts
21257 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
21258 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
21259 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
21264 @section Compilation
21265 @cindex compilation
21266 @cindex byte-compilation
21268 @findex gnus-compile
21270 Remember all those line format specification variables?
21271 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
21272 on. By default, T-gnus will use the byte-compiled codes of these
21273 variables and we can keep a slow-down to a minimum. However, if you set
21274 @code{gnus-compile-user-specs} to @code{nil} (@code{t} by default),
21275 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
21276 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
21277 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
21280 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
21281 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
21282 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
21283 you'll get top speed again. Note that T-gnus will not save these
21284 compiled specs in the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
21287 @item gnus-compile-user-specs
21288 @vindex gnus-compile-user-specs
21289 If it is non-nil, the user-defined format specs will be byte-compiled
21290 automatically. The default value of this variable is @code{t}. It has
21291 an effect on the values of @code{gnus-*-line-format-spec}.
21296 @section Mode Lines
21299 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
21300 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
21301 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
21302 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
21303 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
21304 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
21305 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
21308 @cindex display-time
21310 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
21311 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
21312 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
21313 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
21314 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
21315 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
21316 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
21317 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
21320 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
21322 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
21323 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
21325 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
21326 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
21327 (length display-time-string)))))
21330 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
21331 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
21332 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
21333 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
21334 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
21337 @node Highlighting and Menus
21338 @section Highlighting and Menus
21340 @cindex highlighting
21343 @vindex gnus-visual
21344 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
21345 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
21346 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
21349 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
21350 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
21353 @item group-highlight
21354 Do highlights in the group buffer.
21355 @item summary-highlight
21356 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
21357 @item article-highlight
21358 Do highlights in the article buffer.
21360 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
21362 Create menus in the group buffer.
21364 Create menus in the summary buffers.
21366 Create menus in the article buffer.
21368 Create menus in the browse buffer.
21370 Create menus in the server buffer.
21372 Create menus in the score buffers.
21374 Create menus in all buffers.
21377 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
21378 buffers, you could say something like:
21381 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
21384 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
21387 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
21390 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
21391 in all Gnus buffers.
21393 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
21396 @item gnus-mouse-face
21397 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
21398 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
21399 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
21403 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
21407 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
21408 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
21409 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
21411 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
21412 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
21413 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
21415 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
21416 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
21417 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
21419 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
21420 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
21421 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
21423 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
21424 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
21425 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
21427 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
21428 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
21429 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
21440 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
21441 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
21442 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
21443 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
21444 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
21448 @vindex gnus-carpal
21449 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
21450 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
21451 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
21456 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
21457 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
21458 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
21460 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
21461 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
21462 Face used on buttons.
21464 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
21465 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
21466 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
21468 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
21469 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
21470 Buttons in the group buffer.
21472 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
21473 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
21474 Buttons in the summary buffer.
21476 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
21477 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
21478 Buttons in the server buffer.
21480 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
21481 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
21482 Buttons in the browse buffer.
21485 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
21486 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
21487 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
21495 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
21496 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
21497 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
21498 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
21499 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
21501 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
21502 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
21503 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
21505 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
21506 been idle for thirty minutes:
21509 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
21512 Here's a handler that scans for @acronym{PGP} headers every hour when
21516 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
21519 This @var{time} parameter and that @var{idle} parameter work together
21520 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
21521 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
21523 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
21524 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
21525 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
21526 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
21528 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
21529 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
21530 @var{idle} minutes.
21532 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
21533 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
21536 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
21537 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
21538 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
21540 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
21541 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
21542 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
21543 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
21545 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
21546 your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
21548 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
21550 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
21553 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
21554 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
21555 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
21556 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
21557 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
21558 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
21559 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
21560 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
21561 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
21562 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
21563 @file{~/.gnus.el} if you want those abilities.
21565 @findex gnus-demon-init
21566 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
21567 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
21568 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
21569 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
21570 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
21572 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
21573 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
21574 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
21583 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
21584 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
21586 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
21587 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
21588 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
21589 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
21592 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
21593 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
21594 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
21595 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
21597 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
21598 this will make spam disappear.
21600 There are some variables to customize, of course:
21603 @item gnus-use-nocem
21604 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
21605 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
21608 @item gnus-nocem-groups
21609 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
21610 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
21613 ("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
21614 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")
21617 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
21618 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
21619 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
21620 people you want to listen to. The default is
21622 ("Automoose-1" "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca"
21623 "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo" "hweede@@snafu.de")
21625 fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
21627 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at@*
21628 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
21630 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
21631 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
21632 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
21633 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
21634 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
21635 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
21636 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
21637 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
21638 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
21639 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
21641 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
21642 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
21645 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
21648 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
21649 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
21652 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
21655 The specs are applied left-to-right.
21658 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
21659 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
21661 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
21662 says she is. The default is @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
21663 function. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
21664 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
21666 If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned messages
21667 not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do something like:
21670 (setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
21672 (defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
21680 This might be dangerous, though.
21682 @item gnus-nocem-directory
21683 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
21684 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is@*
21685 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
21687 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
21688 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
21689 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
21690 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
21691 might then see old spam.
21693 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
21694 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
21695 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
21696 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
21697 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
21700 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
21701 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
21702 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
21703 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
21707 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
21708 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
21709 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
21710 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
21717 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
21718 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
21719 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
21721 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
21722 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
21723 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
21724 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
21725 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
21726 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
21727 @code{undo} function.
21729 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
21730 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
21731 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
21732 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
21733 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
21734 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
21735 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
21736 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
21737 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
21738 never be totally undoable.
21740 @findex gnus-undo-mode
21741 @vindex gnus-use-undo
21743 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
21744 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
21745 default. The @kbd{C-M-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
21746 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
21750 @node Predicate Specifiers
21751 @section Predicate Specifiers
21752 @cindex predicate specifiers
21754 Some Gnus variables are @dfn{predicate specifiers}. This is a special
21755 form that allows flexible specification of predicates without having
21756 to type all that much.
21758 These specifiers are lists consisting of functions, symbols and lists.
21763 (or gnus-article-unseen-p
21764 gnus-article-unread-p)
21767 The available symbols are @code{or}, @code{and} and @code{not}. The
21768 functions all take one parameter.
21770 @findex gnus-make-predicate
21771 Internally, Gnus calls @code{gnus-make-predicate} on these specifiers
21772 to create a function that can be called. This input parameter to this
21773 function will be passed along to all the functions in the predicate
21778 @section Moderation
21781 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
21782 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
21783 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
21786 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
21790 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
21793 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
21795 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
21800 You split your incoming mail by matching on
21801 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
21802 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
21805 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
21806 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
21809 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
21810 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
21814 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
21817 (setq gnus-moderated-list
21818 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
21822 @node Image Enhancements
21823 @section Image Enhancements
21825 XEmacs, as well as Emacs 21@footnote{Emacs 21 on MS Windows doesn't
21826 support images yet.}, is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has
21827 taken advantage of that.
21830 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
21831 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
21832 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
21833 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
21834 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
21842 @code{X-Face} headers describe a 48x48 pixel black-and-white (1 bit
21843 depth) image that's supposed to represent the author of the message.
21844 It seems to be supported by an ever-growing number of mail and news
21848 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
21849 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
21850 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
21858 Gnus now uses the internal ELisp-based @code{uncompface} program for
21859 decoding an @code{X-Face} header normally in Emacs. While it doesn't
21860 require any other external program, you may feel it is slow if you are
21861 using a slow machine. In such a case, you can modify the following
21865 @item uncompface-use-external
21866 @vindex uncompface-use-external
21867 Specify which of the internal or the external decoder should be used.
21868 @code{nil} means to use the internal ELisp-based @code{uncompface}
21869 program. @code{t} means to use the external decoder. The default value
21870 is normally @code{undecided} which means to determine it by checking
21871 whether the host machine is slow, being controlled by
21872 @code{uncompface-use-external-threshold} (which see).
21874 @item uncompface-use-external-threshold
21875 @vindex uncompface-use-external-threshold
21876 A number of seconds to check whether the host machine is slow. If the
21877 host takes time larger than this value for decoding an @code{X-Face}
21878 using the internal ELisp-based @code{uncompface} program, it will be
21879 changed to using the external decoder. The default is 0.1 seconds.
21882 If the internal decoder is invalidated or if you are using XEmacs,
21883 decoding an @code{X-Face} header either requires an Emacs that has
21884 @samp{compface} support (which most XEmacs versions has), or that you
21885 have @samp{compface} installed on your system. If either is true,
21886 Gnus will default to displaying @code{X-Face} headers.
21888 The variable that controls this is the
21889 @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable. If this variable is a
21890 string, this string will be executed in a sub-shell. If it is a
21891 function, this function will be called with the face as the argument.
21892 If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which is a regexp) matches
21893 the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
21895 The default action under Emacs 20 is to fork off the @code{display}
21896 program@footnote{@code{display} is from the ImageMagick package. For
21897 the @code{uncompface} and @code{icontopbm} programs look for a package
21898 like @code{compface} or @code{faces-xface} on a GNU/Linux system.} to
21901 Under XEmacs or Emacs 21+ with suitable image support, the default
21902 action is to display the face before the @code{From} header. (It's
21903 nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with @code{X-Face} support---that
21904 will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native @code{X-Face}
21905 support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
21906 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and
21907 friends.@footnote{On a GNU/Linux system look for packages with names
21908 like @code{netpbm}, @code{libgr-progs} and @code{compface}.})
21910 (Note: @code{x-face} is used in the variable/function names, not
21918 @vindex gnus-x-face
21919 Face to show X-Face. The colors from this face are used as the
21920 foreground and background colors of the displayed X-Faces. The
21921 default colors are black and white.
21923 @item gnus-face-properties-alist
21924 @vindex gnus-face-properties-alist
21925 Alist of image types and properties applied to Face (@pxref{Face}) and
21926 X-Face images. The default value is @code{((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face))
21927 (png . nil))} for Emacs or @code{((xface . (:face gnus-x-face)))} for
21928 XEmacs. Here are examples:
21931 ;; Specify the altitude of Face and X-Face images in the From header.
21932 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
21933 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :ascent 80))
21934 (png . (:ascent 80))))
21936 ;; Show Face and X-Face images as pressed buttons.
21937 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
21938 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :relief -2))
21939 (png . (:relief -2))))
21942 @pxref{Image Descriptors, ,Image Descriptors, elisp, The Emacs Lisp
21943 Reference Manual} for the valid properties for various image types.
21944 Currently, @code{pbm} is used for X-Face images and @code{png} is used
21945 for Face images in Emacs. Only the @code{:face} property is effective
21946 on the @code{xface} image type in XEmacs if it is built with the
21947 @samp{libcompface} library.
21950 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
21951 easier insertion of X-Face headers in outgoing messages.
21953 @findex gnus-random-x-face
21954 @vindex gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command
21955 @vindex gnus-x-face-directory
21956 @code{gnus-random-x-face} goes through all the @samp{pbm} files in
21957 @code{gnus-x-face-directory} and picks one at random, and then
21958 converts it to the X-Face format by using the
21959 @code{gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command} shell command. The
21960 @samp{pbm} files should be 48x48 pixels big. It returns the X-Face
21961 header data as a string.
21963 @findex gnus-insert-random-x-face-header
21964 @code{gnus-insert-random-x-face-header} calls
21965 @code{gnus-random-x-face} and inserts a @samp{X-Face} header with the
21966 randomly generated data.
21968 @findex gnus-x-face-from-file
21969 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command
21970 @code{gnus-x-face-from-file} takes a GIF file as the parameter, and then
21971 converts the file to X-Face format by using the
21972 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command} shell command.
21974 Here's how you would typically use the first function. Put something
21975 like the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
21978 (setq message-required-news-headers
21979 (nconc message-required-news-headers
21980 (list '(X-Face . gnus-random-x-face))))
21983 Using the last function would be something like this:
21986 (setq message-required-news-headers
21987 (nconc message-required-news-headers
21988 (list '(X-Face . (lambda ()
21989 (gnus-x-face-from-file
21990 "~/My-face.gif"))))))
21998 @c #### FIXME: faces and x-faces'implementations should really be harmonized.
22000 @code{Face} headers are essentially a funkier version of @code{X-Face}
22001 ones. They describe a 48x48 pixel colored image that's supposed to
22002 represent the author of the message.
22005 @findex gnus-article-display-face
22006 The contents of a @code{Face} header must be a base64 encoded PNG image.
22007 See @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/face/} for the precise
22010 The @code{gnus-face-properties-alist} variable affects the appearance of
22011 displayed Face images. @xref{X-Face}.
22013 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
22014 easier insertion of Face headers in outgoing messages.
22016 @findex gnus-convert-png-to-face
22017 @code{gnus-convert-png-to-face} takes a 48x48 PNG image, no longer than
22018 726 bytes long, and converts it to a face.
22020 @findex gnus-face-from-file
22021 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-face-command
22022 @code{gnus-face-from-file} takes a JPEG file as the parameter, and then
22023 converts the file to Face format by using the
22024 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-face-command} shell command.
22026 Here's how you would typically use this function. Put something like the
22027 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22030 (setq message-required-news-headers
22031 (nconc message-required-news-headers
22032 (list '(Face . (lambda ()
22033 (gnus-face-from-file "~/face.jpg"))))))
22038 @subsection Smileys
22043 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/BigFace,height=20cm}}
22048 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
22049 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
22051 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
22052 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22055 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
22058 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{8-)}, @samp{:-(} and
22059 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
22060 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
22061 text and maps that to file names.
22063 @vindex smiley-regexp-alist
22064 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist}
22065 variable. The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched;
22066 the second element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by
22067 the picture; and the third element is the name of the file to be
22070 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
22075 @item smiley-data-directory
22076 @vindex smiley-data-directory
22077 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
22079 @item gnus-smiley-file-types
22080 @vindex gnus-smiley-file-types
22081 List of suffixes on smiley file names to try.
22095 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
22096 good way to do so. It's also a great way to impress people staring
22097 over your shoulder as you read news.
22099 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
22108 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
22109 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
22110 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
22111 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
22112 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
22113 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
22114 @code{GIF} formats.
22117 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
22118 For instructions on obtaining and installing the picons databases,
22119 point your Web browser at
22120 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}.
22122 If you are using Debian GNU/Linux, saying @samp{apt-get install
22123 picons.*} will install the picons where Gnus can find them.
22125 To enable displaying picons, simply make sure that
22126 @code{gnus-picon-databases} points to the directory containing the
22129 The following variables offer control over where things are located.
22133 @item gnus-picon-databases
22134 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
22135 The location of the picons database. This is a list of directories
22136 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
22137 subdirectories. Defaults to @code{("/usr/lib/picon"
22138 "/usr/local/faces")}.
22140 @item gnus-picon-news-directories
22141 @vindex gnus-picon-news-directories
22142 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
22143 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
22145 @item gnus-picon-user-directories
22146 @vindex gnus-picon-user-directories
22147 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for user
22148 faces. @code{("users" "usenix" "local" "misc")} is the default.
22150 @item gnus-picon-domain-directories
22151 @vindex gnus-picon-domain-directories
22152 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
22153 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
22154 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
22156 @item gnus-picon-file-types
22157 @vindex gnus-picon-file-types
22158 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
22159 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not built-in your Emacs.
22165 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
22168 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
22169 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
22170 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
22171 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
22172 unusual directory structure.
22174 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
22175 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist
22176 This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are the
22177 foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
22179 @item gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
22180 @vindex gnus-xmas-logo-color-style
22181 This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described above.
22182 Valid values include @code{flame}, @code{pine}, @code{moss},
22183 @code{irish}, @code{sky}, @code{tin}, @code{velvet}, @code{grape},
22184 @code{labia}, @code{berry}, @code{neutral}, and @code{september}.
22186 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
22187 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
22188 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
22193 @subsubsection Toolbar
22197 @item gnus-use-toolbar
22198 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
22199 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
22200 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
22201 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
22203 @item gnus-group-toolbar
22204 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
22205 The toolbar in the group buffer.
22207 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
22208 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
22209 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
22211 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
22212 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
22213 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
22224 @node Fuzzy Matching
22225 @section Fuzzy Matching
22226 @cindex fuzzy matching
22228 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
22229 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
22231 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
22232 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
22233 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
22235 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
22236 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
22237 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
22238 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
22239 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
22242 @node Thwarting Email Spam
22243 @section Thwarting Email Spam
22247 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
22249 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
22250 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
22251 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
22252 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
22253 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
22254 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
22255 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
22256 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
22259 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
22260 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
22261 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
22262 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
22263 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
22264 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
22266 This is annoying. Here's what you can do about it.
22269 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
22270 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
22271 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
22272 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
22273 * Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package::
22274 * Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat::
22277 @node The problem of spam
22278 @subsection The problem of spam
22280 @cindex spam filtering approaches
22281 @cindex filtering approaches, spam
22283 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
22285 First, some background on spam.
22287 If you have access to e-mail, you are familiar with spam (technically
22288 termed @acronym{UCE}, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Simply put, it
22289 exists because e-mail delivery is very cheap compared to paper mail,
22290 so only a very small percentage of people need to respond to an UCE to
22291 make it worthwhile to the advertiser. Ironically, one of the most
22292 common spams is the one offering a database of e-mail addresses for
22293 further spamming. Senders of spam are usually called @emph{spammers},
22294 but terms like @emph{vermin}, @emph{scum}, @emph{sociopaths}, and
22295 @emph{morons} are in common use as well.
22297 Spam comes from a wide variety of sources. It is simply impossible to
22298 dispose of all spam without discarding useful messages. A good
22299 example is the TMDA system, which requires senders
22300 unknown to you to confirm themselves as legitimate senders before
22301 their e-mail can reach you. Without getting into the technical side
22302 of TMDA, a downside is clearly that e-mail from legitimate sources may
22303 be discarded if those sources can't or won't confirm themselves
22304 through the TMDA system. Another problem with TMDA is that it
22305 requires its users to have a basic understanding of e-mail delivery
22308 The simplest approach to filtering spam is filtering, at the mail
22309 server or when you sort through incoming mail. If you get 200 spam
22310 messages per day from @samp{random-address@@vmadmin.com}, you block
22311 @samp{vmadmin.com}. If you get 200 messages about @samp{VIAGRA}, you
22312 discard all messages with @samp{VIAGRA} in the message. If you get
22313 lots of spam from Bulgaria, for example, you try to filter all mail
22314 from Bulgarian IPs.
22316 This, unfortunately, is a great way to discard legitimate e-mail. The
22317 risks of blocking a whole country (Bulgaria, Norway, Nigeria, China,
22318 etc.) or even a continent (Asia, Africa, Europe, etc.) from contacting
22319 you should be obvious, so don't do it if you have the choice.
22321 In another instance, the very informative and useful RISKS digest has
22322 been blocked by overzealous mail filters because it @strong{contained}
22323 words that were common in spam messages. Nevertheless, in isolated
22324 cases, with great care, direct filtering of mail can be useful.
22326 Another approach to filtering e-mail is the distributed spam
22327 processing, for instance DCC implements such a system. In essence,
22328 @var{N} systems around the world agree that a machine @var{X} in
22329 Ghana, Estonia, or California is sending out spam e-mail, and these
22330 @var{N} systems enter @var{X} or the spam e-mail from @var{X} into a
22331 database. The criteria for spam detection vary---it may be the number
22332 of messages sent, the content of the messages, and so on. When a user
22333 of the distributed processing system wants to find out if a message is
22334 spam, he consults one of those @var{N} systems.
22336 Distributed spam processing works very well against spammers that send
22337 a large number of messages at once, but it requires the user to set up
22338 fairly complicated checks. There are commercial and free distributed
22339 spam processing systems. Distributed spam processing has its risks as
22340 well. For instance legitimate e-mail senders have been accused of
22341 sending spam, and their web sites and mailing lists have been shut
22342 down for some time because of the incident.
22344 The statistical approach to spam filtering is also popular. It is
22345 based on a statistical analysis of previous spam messages. Usually
22346 the analysis is a simple word frequency count, with perhaps pairs of
22347 words or 3-word combinations thrown into the mix. Statistical
22348 analysis of spam works very well in most of the cases, but it can
22349 classify legitimate e-mail as spam in some cases. It takes time to
22350 run the analysis, the full message must be analyzed, and the user has
22351 to store the database of spam analyses. Statistical analysis on the
22352 server is gaining popularity. This has the advantage of letting the
22353 user Just Read Mail, but has the disadvantage that it's harder to tell
22354 the server that it has misclassified mail.
22356 Fighting spam is not easy, no matter what anyone says. There is no
22357 magic switch that will distinguish Viagra ads from Mom's e-mails.
22358 Even people are having a hard time telling spam apart from non-spam,
22359 because spammers are actively looking to fool us into thinking they
22360 are Mom, essentially. Spamming is irritating, irresponsible, and
22361 idiotic behavior from a bunch of people who think the world owes them
22362 a favor. We hope the following sections will help you in fighting the
22365 @node Anti-Spam Basics
22366 @subsection Anti-Spam Basics
22370 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
22372 One way of dealing with spam is having Gnus split out all spam into a
22373 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
22375 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
22376 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
22377 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
22378 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
22379 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
22380 part of the mail address.)
22383 (setq message-default-news-headers
22384 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
22387 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
22388 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
22392 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
22393 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
22394 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
22399 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
22400 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
22401 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
22402 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
22404 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @acronym{SMTP} server
22405 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
22406 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
22407 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
22408 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
22409 your fancy split rule in this way:
22414 (to "larsi" "misc")
22418 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
22419 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
22420 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
22421 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
22422 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
22424 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
22425 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
22426 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
22427 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
22429 Be careful with this approach. Spammers are wise to it.
22433 @subsection SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc
22434 @cindex SpamAssassin
22435 @cindex Vipul's Razor
22438 The days where the hints in the previous section were sufficient in
22439 avoiding spam are coming to an end. There are many tools out there
22440 that claim to reduce the amount of spam you get. This section could
22441 easily become outdated fast, as new products replace old, but
22442 fortunately most of these tools seem to have similar interfaces. Even
22443 though this section will use SpamAssassin as an example, it should be
22444 easy to adapt it to most other tools.
22446 Note that this section does not involve the @code{spam.el} package,
22447 which is discussed in the next section. If you don't care for all
22448 the features of @code{spam.el}, you can make do with these simple
22451 If the tool you are using is not installed on the mail server, you
22452 need to invoke it yourself. Ideas on how to use the
22453 @code{:postscript} mail source parameter (@pxref{Mail Source
22454 Specifiers}) follow.
22458 '((file :prescript "formail -bs spamassassin < /var/mail/%u")
22462 "mv %t /tmp/foo; formail -bs spamc < /tmp/foo > %t")))
22465 Once you manage to process your incoming spool somehow, thus making
22466 the mail contain e.g.@: a header indicating it is spam, you are ready to
22467 filter it out. Using normal split methods (@pxref{Splitting Mail}):
22470 (setq nnmail-split-methods '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag: YES")
22474 Or using fancy split methods (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
22477 (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy
22478 nnmail-split-fancy '(| ("X-Spam-Flag" "YES" "spam")
22482 Some people might not like the idea of piping the mail through various
22483 programs using a @code{:prescript} (if some program is buggy, you
22484 might lose all mail). If you are one of them, another solution is to
22485 call the external tools during splitting. Example fancy split method:
22488 (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: kevin-spamassassin)
22490 (defun kevin-spamassassin ()
22494 (if (eq 1 (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
22495 "spamc" nil nil nil "-c"))
22499 Note that with the nnimap backend, message bodies will not be
22500 downloaded by default. You need to set
22501 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
22502 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
22504 That is about it. As some spam is likely to get through anyway, you
22505 might want to have a nifty function to call when you happen to read
22506 spam. And here is the nifty function:
22509 (defun my-gnus-raze-spam ()
22510 "Submit SPAM to Vipul's Razor, then mark it as expirable."
22512 (gnus-summary-show-raw-article)
22513 (gnus-summary-save-in-pipe "razor-report -f -d")
22514 (gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable 1))
22518 @subsection Hashcash
22521 A novel technique to fight spam is to require senders to do something
22522 costly for each message they send. This has the obvious drawback that
22523 you cannot rely on everyone in the world using this technique,
22524 since it is not part of the Internet standards, but it may be useful
22525 in smaller communities.
22527 While the tools in the previous section work well in practice, they
22528 work only because the tools are constantly maintained and updated as
22529 new form of spam appears. This means that a small percentage of spam
22530 will always get through. It also means that somewhere, someone needs
22531 to read lots of spam to update these tools. Hashcash avoids that, but
22532 instead prefers that everyone you contact through e-mail supports the
22533 scheme. You can view the two approaches as pragmatic vs dogmatic.
22534 The approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but as
22535 often in the real world, a combination of them is stronger than either
22536 one of them separately.
22539 The ``something costly'' is to burn CPU time, more specifically to
22540 compute a hash collision up to a certain number of bits. The
22541 resulting hashcash cookie is inserted in a @samp{X-Hashcash:}
22542 header. For more details, and for the external application
22543 @code{hashcash} you need to install to use this feature, see
22544 @uref{http://www.cypherspace.org/~adam/hashcash/}. Even more
22545 information can be found at @uref{http://www.camram.org/}.
22547 If you wish to call hashcash for each message you send, say something
22551 (require 'hashcash)
22552 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'mail-add-payment)
22555 The @file{hashcash.el} library can be found in the Gnus development
22556 contrib directory or at
22557 @uref{http://users.actrix.gen.nz/mycroft/hashcash.el}.
22559 You will need to set up some additional variables as well:
22563 @item hashcash-default-payment
22564 @vindex hashcash-default-payment
22565 This variable indicates the default number of bits the hash collision
22566 should consist of. By default this is 0, meaning nothing will be
22567 done. Suggested useful values include 17 to 29.
22569 @item hashcash-payment-alist
22570 @vindex hashcash-payment-alist
22571 Some receivers may require you to spend burn more CPU time than the
22572 default. This variable contains a list of @samp{(@var{addr}
22573 @var{amount})} cells, where @var{addr} is the receiver (email address
22574 or newsgroup) and @var{amount} is the number of bits in the collision
22575 that is needed. It can also contain @samp{(@var{addr} @var{string}
22576 @var{amount})} cells, where the @var{string} is the string to use
22577 (normally the email address or newsgroup name is used).
22581 Where the @code{hashcash} binary is installed.
22585 Currently there is no built in functionality in Gnus to verify
22586 hashcash cookies, it is expected that this is performed by your hand
22587 customized mail filtering scripts. Improvements in this area would be
22588 a useful contribution, however.
22590 @node Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
22591 @subsection Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
22592 @cindex spam filtering
22595 The idea behind @file{spam.el} is to have a control center for spam detection
22596 and filtering in Gnus. To that end, @file{spam.el} does two things: it
22597 filters new mail, and it analyzes mail known to be spam or ham.
22598 @dfn{Ham} is the name used throughout @file{spam.el} to indicate
22601 First of all, you @strong{must} run the function
22602 @code{spam-initialize} to autoload @code{spam.el} and to install the
22603 @code{spam.el} hooks. There is one exception: if you use the
22604 @code{spam-use-stat} (@pxref{spam-stat spam filtering}) setting, you
22605 should turn it on before @code{spam-initialize}:
22608 (setq spam-use-stat t) ;; if needed
22612 So, what happens when you load @file{spam.el}?
22614 First, some hooks will get installed by @code{spam-initialize}. There
22615 are some hooks for @code{spam-stat} so it can save its databases, and
22616 there are hooks so interesting things will happen when you enter and
22617 leave a group. More on the sequence of events later (@pxref{Spam
22618 ELisp Package Sequence of Events}).
22620 You get the following keyboard commands:
22630 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
22631 @code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}.
22633 Mark current article as spam, showing it with the @samp{$} mark.
22634 Whenever you see a spam article, make sure to mark its summary line
22635 with @kbd{M-d} before leaving the group. This is done automatically
22636 for unread articles in @emph{spam} groups.
22642 @findex spam-bogofilter-score
22643 @code{spam-bogofilter-score}.
22645 You must have Bogofilter installed for that command to work properly.
22651 Also, when you load @file{spam.el}, you will be able to customize its
22652 variables. Try @code{customize-group} on the @samp{spam} variable
22656 * Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events::
22657 * Spam ELisp Package Filtering of Incoming Mail::
22658 * Spam ELisp Package Global Variables::
22659 * Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples::
22660 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
22661 * BBDB Whitelists::
22662 * Gmane Spam Reporting::
22663 * Anti-spam Hashcash Payments::
22665 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
22667 * SpamAssassin backend::
22668 * ifile spam filtering::
22669 * spam-stat spam filtering::
22671 * Extending the Spam ELisp package::
22674 @node Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events
22675 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events
22676 @cindex spam filtering
22677 @cindex spam filtering sequence of events
22680 You must read this section to understand how @code{spam.el} works.
22681 Do not skip, speed-read, or glance through this section.
22683 There are two @emph{contact points}, if you will, between
22684 @code{spam.el} and the rest of Gnus: checking new mail for spam, and
22687 Getting new mail is done in one of two ways. You can either split
22688 your incoming mail or you can classify new articles as ham or spam
22689 when you enter the group.
22691 Splitting incoming mail is better suited to mail backends such as
22692 @code{nnml} or @code{nnimap} where new mail appears in a single file
22693 called a @dfn{Spool File}. See @xref{Spam ELisp Package Filtering of
22696 @vindex gnus-spam-autodetect
22697 @vindex gnus-spam-autodetect-methods
22698 For backends such as @code{nntp} there is no incoming mail spool, so
22699 an alternate mechanism must be used. This may also happen for
22700 backends where the server is in charge of splitting incoming mail, and
22701 Gnus does not do further splitting. The @code{spam-autodetect} and
22702 @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group parameters (accessible with
22703 @kbd{G c} and @kbd{G p} as usual), and the corresponding variables
22704 @code{gnus-spam-autodetect} and @code{gnus-spam-autodetect-methods}
22705 (accessible with @kbd{M-x customize-variable} as usual) can help.
22707 When @code{spam-autodetect} is used (you can turn it on for a
22708 group/topic or wholesale by regex, as needed), it hooks into the
22709 process of entering a group. Thus, entering a group with unseen or
22710 unread articles becomes the substitute for checking incoming mail.
22711 Whether only unseen articles or all unread articles will be processed
22712 is determined by the @code{spam-autodetect-recheck-messages}. When
22713 set to @code{t}, unread messages will be rechecked.
22715 @code{spam-autodetect} grants the user at once more and less control
22716 of spam filtering. The user will have more control over each group's
22717 spam methods, so for instance the @samp{ding} group may have
22718 @code{spam-use-BBDB} as the autodetection method, while the
22719 @samp{suspect} group may have the @code{spam-use-blacklist} and
22720 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} methods enabled. Every article detected to
22721 be spam will be marked with the spam mark @samp{$} and processed on
22722 exit from the group as normal spam. The user has less control over
22723 the @emph{sequence} of checks, as he might with @code{spam-split}.
22725 When the newly split mail goes into groups, or messages are
22726 autodetected to be ham or spam, those groups must be exited (after
22727 entering, if needed) for further spam processing to happen. It
22728 matters whether the group is considered a ham group, a spam group, or
22729 is unclassified, based on its @code{spam-content} parameter
22730 (@pxref{Spam ELisp Package Global Variables}). Spam groups have the
22731 additional characteristic that, when entered, any unseen or unread
22732 articles (depending on the @code{spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam}
22733 variable) will be marked as spam. Thus, mail split into a spam group
22734 gets automatically marked as spam when you enter the group.
22736 So, when you exit a group, the @code{spam-processors} are applied, if
22737 any are set, and the processed mail is moved to the
22738 @code{ham-process-destination} or the @code{spam-process-destination}
22739 depending on the article's classification. If the
22740 @code{ham-process-destination} or the @code{spam-process-destination},
22741 whichever is appropriate, are @code{nil}, the article is left in the
22744 If a spam is found in any group (this can be changed to only non-spam
22745 groups with @code{spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only}), it is
22746 processed by the active @code{spam-processors} (@pxref{Spam ELisp
22747 Package Global Variables}) when the group is exited. Furthermore, the
22748 spam is moved to the @code{spam-process-destination} (@pxref{Spam
22749 ELisp Package Global Variables}) for further training or deletion.
22750 You have to load the @code{gnus-registry.el} package and enable the
22751 @code{spam-log-to-registry} variable if you want spam to be processed
22752 no more than once. Thus, spam is detected and processed everywhere,
22753 which is what most people want. If the
22754 @code{spam-process-destination} is @code{nil}, the spam is marked as
22755 expired, which is usually the right thing to do.
22757 If spam can not be moved---because of a read-only backend such as
22758 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
22760 If a ham mail is found in a ham group, as determined by the
22761 @code{ham-marks} parameter, it is processed as ham by the active ham
22762 @code{spam-processor} when the group is exited. With the variables
22763 @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} and
22764 @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups} the behavior can be further
22765 altered so ham found anywhere can be processed. You have to load the
22766 @code{gnus-registry.el} package and enable the
22767 @code{spam-log-to-registry} variable if you want ham to be processed
22768 no more than once. Thus, ham is detected and processed only when
22769 necessary, which is what most people want. More on this in
22770 @xref{Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples}.
22772 If ham can not be moved---because of a read-only backend such as
22773 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
22775 If all this seems confusing, don't worry. Soon it will be as natural
22776 as typing Lisp one-liners on a neural interface@dots{} err, sorry, that's
22777 50 years in the future yet. Just trust us, it's not so bad.
22779 @node Spam ELisp Package Filtering of Incoming Mail
22780 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Filtering of Incoming Mail
22781 @cindex spam filtering
22782 @cindex spam filtering incoming mail
22785 To use the @file{spam.el} facilities for incoming mail filtering, you
22786 must add the following to your fancy split list
22787 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy}:
22793 Note that the fancy split may be called @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or
22794 @code{nnimap-split-fancy}, depending on whether you use the nnmail or
22795 nnimap back ends to retrieve your mail.
22797 Also, @code{spam-split} will not modify incoming mail in any way.
22799 The @code{spam-split} function will process incoming mail and send the
22800 mail considered to be spam into the group name given by the variable
22801 @code{spam-split-group}. By default that group name is @samp{spam},
22802 but you can customize @code{spam-split-group}. Make sure the contents
22803 of @code{spam-split-group} are an @emph{unqualified} group name, for
22804 instance in an @code{nnimap} server @samp{your-server} the value
22805 @samp{spam} will turn out to be @samp{nnimap+your-server:spam}. The
22806 value @samp{nnimap+server:spam}, therefore, is wrong and will
22807 actually give you the group
22808 @samp{nnimap+your-server:nnimap+server:spam} which may or may not
22809 work depending on your server's tolerance for strange group names.
22811 You can also give @code{spam-split} a parameter,
22812 e.g. @code{spam-use-regex-headers} or @code{"maybe-spam"}. Why is
22815 Take these split rules (with @code{spam-use-regex-headers} and
22816 @code{spam-use-blackholes} set):
22819 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
22820 (any "ding" "ding")
22822 ;; @r{default mailbox}
22826 Now, the problem is that you want all ding messages to make it to the
22827 ding folder. But that will let obvious spam (for example, spam
22828 detected by SpamAssassin, and @code{spam-use-regex-headers}) through,
22829 when it's sent to the ding list. On the other hand, some messages to
22830 the ding list are from a mail server in the blackhole list, so the
22831 invocation of @code{spam-split} can't be before the ding rule.
22833 You can let SpamAssassin headers supersede ding rules, but all other
22834 @code{spam-split} rules (including a second invocation of the
22835 regex-headers check) will be after the ding rule:
22840 ;; @r{all spam detected by @code{spam-use-regex-headers} goes to @samp{regex-spam}}
22841 (: spam-split "regex-spam" 'spam-use-regex-headers)
22842 (any "ding" "ding")
22843 ;; @r{all other spam detected by spam-split goes to @code{spam-split-group}}
22845 ;; @r{default mailbox}
22849 This lets you invoke specific @code{spam-split} checks depending on
22850 your particular needs, and to target the results of those checks to a
22851 particular spam group. You don't have to throw all mail into all the
22852 spam tests. Another reason why this is nice is that messages to
22853 mailing lists you have rules for don't have to have resource-intensive
22854 blackhole checks performed on them. You could also specify different
22855 spam checks for your nnmail split vs. your nnimap split. Go crazy.
22857 You should still have specific checks such as
22858 @code{spam-use-regex-headers} set to @code{t}, even if you
22859 specifically invoke @code{spam-split} with the check. The reason is
22860 that when loading @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done
22861 depending on what @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set. This
22862 is usually not critical, though.
22864 @emph{Note for IMAP users}
22866 The boolean variable @code{nnimap-split-download-body} needs to be
22867 set, if you want to split based on the whole message instead of just
22868 the headers. By default, the nnimap back end will only retrieve the
22869 message headers. If you use @code{spam-check-bogofilter},
22870 @code{spam-check-ifile}, or @code{spam-check-stat} (the splitters that
22871 can benefit from the full message body), you should set this variable.
22872 It is not set by default because it will slow @acronym{IMAP} down, and
22873 that is not an appropriate decision to make on behalf of the user.
22875 @xref{Splitting in IMAP}.
22877 @emph{TODO: spam.el needs to provide a uniform way of training all the
22878 statistical databases. Some have that functionality built-in, others
22881 @node Spam ELisp Package Global Variables
22882 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Global Variables
22883 @cindex spam filtering
22884 @cindex spam filtering variables
22885 @cindex spam variables
22888 @vindex gnus-spam-process-newsgroups
22889 The concepts of ham processors and spam processors are very important.
22890 Ham processors and spam processors for a group can be set with the
22891 @code{spam-process} group parameter, or the
22892 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. Ham processors take
22893 mail known to be non-spam (@emph{ham}) and process it in some way so
22894 that later similar mail will also be considered non-spam. Spam
22895 processors take mail known to be spam and process it so similar spam
22896 will be detected later.
22898 The format of the spam or ham processor entry used to be a symbol,
22899 but now it is a @sc{cons} cell. See the individual spam processor entries
22900 for more information.
22902 @vindex gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
22903 Gnus learns from the spam you get. You have to collect your spam in
22904 one or more spam groups, and set or customize the variable
22905 @code{spam-junk-mailgroups} as appropriate. You can also declare
22906 groups to contain spam by setting their group parameter
22907 @code{spam-contents} to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam}, or
22908 by customizing the corresponding variable
22909 @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}. The @code{spam-contents} group
22910 parameter and the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} variable can
22911 also be used to declare groups as @emph{ham} groups if you set their
22912 classification to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-ham}. If
22913 groups are not classified by means of @code{spam-junk-mailgroups},
22914 @code{spam-contents}, or @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}, they are
22915 considered @emph{unclassified}. All groups are unclassified by
22918 @vindex gnus-spam-mark
22920 In spam groups, all messages are considered to be spam by default:
22921 they get the @samp{$} mark (@code{gnus-spam-mark}) when you enter the
22922 group. If you have seen a message, had it marked as spam, then
22923 unmarked it, it won't be marked as spam when you enter the group
22924 thereafter. You can disable that behavior, so all unread messages
22925 will get the @samp{$} mark, if you set the
22926 @code{spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam} parameter to @code{nil}. You
22927 should remove the @samp{$} mark when you are in the group summary
22928 buffer for every message that is not spam after all. To remove the
22929 @samp{$} mark, you can use @kbd{M-u} to ``unread'' the article, or
22930 @kbd{d} for declaring it read the non-spam way. When you leave a
22931 group, all spam-marked (@samp{$}) articles are sent to a spam
22932 processor which will study them as spam samples.
22934 Messages may also be deleted in various other ways, and unless
22935 @code{ham-marks} group parameter gets overridden below, marks @samp{R}
22936 and @samp{r} for default read or explicit delete, marks @samp{X} and
22937 @samp{K} for automatic or explicit kills, as well as mark @samp{Y} for
22938 low scores, are all considered to be associated with articles which
22939 are not spam. This assumption might be false, in particular if you
22940 use kill files or score files as means for detecting genuine spam, you
22941 should then adjust the @code{ham-marks} group parameter.
22944 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
22945 marks you want to consider ham. By default, the list contains the
22946 deleted, read, killed, kill-filed, and low-score marks (the idea is
22947 that these articles have been read, but are not spam). It can be
22948 useful to also include the tick mark in the ham marks. It is not
22949 recommended to make the unread mark a ham mark, because it normally
22950 indicates a lack of classification. But you can do it, and we'll be
22955 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
22956 marks you want to consider spam. By default, the list contains only
22957 the spam mark. It is not recommended to change that, but you can if
22958 you really want to.
22961 When you leave @emph{any} group, regardless of its
22962 @code{spam-contents} classification, all spam-marked articles are sent
22963 to a spam processor, which will study these as spam samples. If you
22964 explicit kill a lot, you might sometimes end up with articles marked
22965 @samp{K} which you never saw, and which might accidentally contain
22966 spam. Best is to make sure that real spam is marked with @samp{$},
22969 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
22970 When you leave a @emph{spam} group, all spam-marked articles are
22971 marked as expired after processing with the spam processor. This is
22972 not done for @emph{unclassified} or @emph{ham} groups. Also, any
22973 @strong{ham} articles in a spam group will be moved to a location
22974 determined by either the @code{ham-process-destination} group
22975 parameter or a match in the @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}
22976 variable, which is a list of regular expressions matched with group
22977 names (it's easiest to customize this variable with @kbd{M-x
22978 customize-variable @key{RET} gnus-ham-process-destinations}). Each
22979 group name list is a standard Lisp list, if you prefer to customize
22980 the variable manually. If the @code{ham-process-destination}
22981 parameter is not set, ham articles are left in place. If the
22982 @code{spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group} parameter is
22983 set, the ham articles are marked as unread before being moved.
22985 If ham can not be moved---because of a read-only backend such as
22986 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
22988 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
22989 expression! This enables you to send your ham to a regular mail
22990 group and to a @emph{ham training} group.
22992 When you leave a @emph{ham} group, all ham-marked articles are sent to
22993 a ham processor, which will study these as non-spam samples.
22995 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups
22996 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} is
22997 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in spam groups
22998 to be processed. Normally this is not done, you are expected instead
22999 to send your ham to a ham group and process it there.
23001 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups
23002 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups} is
23003 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in non-ham (spam
23004 or unclassified) groups to be processed. Normally this is not done,
23005 you are expected instead to send your ham to a ham group and process
23008 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
23009 When you leave a @emph{ham} or @emph{unclassified} group, all
23010 @strong{spam} articles are moved to a location determined by either
23011 the @code{spam-process-destination} group parameter or a match in the
23012 @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations} variable, which is a list of
23013 regular expressions matched with group names (it's easiest to
23014 customize this variable with @kbd{M-x customize-variable @key{RET}
23015 gnus-spam-process-destinations}). Each group name list is a standard
23016 Lisp list, if you prefer to customize the variable manually. If the
23017 @code{spam-process-destination} parameter is not set, the spam
23018 articles are only expired. The group name is fully qualified, meaning
23019 that if you see @samp{nntp:servername} before the group name in the
23020 group buffer then you need it here as well.
23022 If spam can not be moved---because of a read-only backend such as
23023 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
23025 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
23026 expression! This enables you to send your spam to multiple @emph{spam
23029 @vindex spam-log-to-registry
23030 The problem with processing ham and spam is that Gnus doesn't track
23031 this processing by default. Enable the @code{spam-log-to-registry}
23032 variable so @code{spam.el} will use @code{gnus-registry.el} to track
23033 what articles have been processed, and avoid processing articles
23034 multiple times. Keep in mind that if you limit the number of registry
23035 entries, this won't work as well as it does without a limit.
23037 @vindex spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam
23038 Set this variable if you want only unseen articles in spam groups to
23039 be marked as spam. By default, it is set. If you set it to
23040 @code{nil}, unread articles will also be marked as spam.
23042 @vindex spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group
23043 Set this variable if you want ham to be unmarked before it is moved
23044 out of the spam group. This is very useful when you use something
23045 like the tick mark @samp{!} to mark ham---the article will be placed
23046 in your @code{ham-process-destination}, unmarked as if it came fresh
23047 from the mail server.
23049 @vindex spam-autodetect-recheck-messages
23050 When autodetecting spam, this variable tells @code{spam.el} whether
23051 only unseen articles or all unread articles should be checked for
23052 spam. It is recommended that you leave it off.
23054 @node Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples
23055 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples
23056 @cindex spam filtering
23057 @cindex spam filtering configuration examples
23058 @cindex spam configuration examples
23061 @subsubheading Ted's setup
23063 From Ted Zlatanov <tzz@@lifelogs.com>.
23065 ;; @r{for @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent} and spam autodetection}
23066 ;; @r{see @file{gnus-registry.el} for more information}
23067 (gnus-registry-initialize)
23070 ;; @r{I like @kbd{C-s} for marking spam}
23071 (define-key gnus-summary-mode-map "\C-s" 'gnus-summary-mark-as-spam)
23074 spam-log-to-registry t ; @r{for spam autodetection}
23076 spam-use-regex-headers t ; @r{catch X-Spam-Flag (SpamAssassin)}
23077 ;; @r{all groups with @samp{spam} in the name contain spam}
23078 gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
23079 '(("spam" gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
23080 ;; @r{see documentation for these}
23081 spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only nil
23082 spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam t
23083 spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group t
23084 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
23085 ;; @r{understand what this does before you copy it to your own setup!}
23086 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
23087 ;; @r{trace references to parents and put in their group}
23088 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
23089 ;; @r{this will catch server-side SpamAssassin tags}
23090 (: spam-split 'spam-use-regex-headers)
23091 (any "ding" "ding")
23092 ;; @r{note that spam by default will go to @samp{spam}}
23094 ;; @r{default mailbox}
23097 ;; @r{my parameters, set with @kbd{G p}}
23099 ;; @r{all nnml groups, and all nnimap groups except}
23100 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} and}
23101 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam}: any spam goes to nnimap training,}
23102 ;; @r{because it must have been detected manually}
23104 ((spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
23106 ;; @r{all @acronym{NNTP} groups}
23107 ;; @r{autodetect spam with the blacklist and ham with the BBDB}
23108 ((spam-autodetect-methods spam-use-blacklist spam-use-BBDB)
23109 ;; @r{send all spam to the training group}
23110 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
23112 ;; @r{only some @acronym{NNTP} groups, where I want to autodetect spam}
23113 ((spam-autodetect . t))
23115 ;; @r{my nnimap @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam} group}
23117 ;; @r{this is a spam group}
23118 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam)
23120 ;; @r{any spam (which happens when I enter for all unseen messages,}
23121 ;; @r{because of the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} setting above), goes to}
23122 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} unless I mark it as ham}
23124 (spam-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train")
23126 ;; @r{any ham goes to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail} folder, but}
23127 ;; @r{also to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham} folder for training}
23129 (ham-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail"
23130 "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham")
23131 ;; @r{in this group, only @samp{!} marks are ham}
23133 (gnus-ticked-mark))
23134 ;; @r{remembers senders in the blacklist on the way out---this is}
23135 ;; @r{definitely not needed, it just makes me feel better}
23136 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist)))
23138 ;; @r{Later, on the @acronym{IMAP} server I use the @samp{train} group for training}
23139 ;; @r{SpamAssassin to recognize spam, and the @samp{trainham} group fora}
23140 ;; @r{recognizing ham---but Gnus has nothing to do with it.}
23144 @subsubheading Using @file{spam.el} on an IMAP server with a statistical filter on the server
23145 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
23147 My provider has set up bogofilter (in combination with @acronym{DCC}) on
23148 the mail server (@acronym{IMAP}). Recognized spam goes to
23149 @samp{spam.detected}, the rest goes through the normal filter rules,
23150 i.e. to @samp{some.folder} or to @samp{INBOX}. Training on false
23151 positives or negatives is done by copying or moving the article to
23152 @samp{training.ham} or @samp{training.spam} respectively. A cron job on
23153 the server feeds those to bogofilter with the suitable ham or spam
23154 options and deletes them from the @samp{training.ham} and
23155 @samp{training.spam} folders.
23157 With the following entries in @code{gnus-parameters}, @code{spam.el}
23158 does most of the job for me:
23161 ("nnimap:spam\\.detected"
23162 (gnus-article-sort-functions '(gnus-article-sort-by-chars))
23163 (ham-process-destination "nnimap:INBOX" "nnimap:training.ham")
23164 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
23165 ("nnimap:\\(INBOX\\|other-folders\\)"
23166 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap:training.spam")
23167 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham))
23172 @item @b{The Spam folder:}
23174 In the folder @samp{spam.detected}, I have to check for false positives
23175 (i.e. legitimate mails, that were wrongly judged as spam by
23176 bogofilter or DCC).
23178 Because of the @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam} entry, all
23179 messages are marked as spam (with @code{$}). When I find a false
23180 positive, I mark the message with some other ham mark (@code{ham-marks},
23181 @ref{Spam ELisp Package Global Variables}). On group exit, those
23182 messages are copied to both groups, @samp{INBOX} (where I want to have
23183 the article) and @samp{training.ham} (for training bogofilter) and
23184 deleted from the @samp{spam.detected} folder.
23186 The @code{gnus-article-sort-by-chars} entry simplifies detection of
23187 false positives for me. I receive lots of worms (sweN, @dots{}), that all
23188 have a similar size. Grouping them by size (i.e. chars) makes finding
23189 other false positives easier. (Of course worms aren't @i{spam}
23190 (@acronym{UCE}, @acronym{UBE}) strictly speaking. Anyhow, bogofilter is
23191 an excellent tool for filtering those unwanted mails for me.)
23193 @item @b{Ham folders:}
23195 In my ham folders, I just hit @kbd{S x}
23196 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) whenever I see an unrecognized spam
23197 mail (false negative). On group exit, those messages are moved to
23198 @samp{training.ham}.
23201 @subsubheading Reporting spam articles in Gmane groups with @code{spam-report.el}
23203 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
23205 With following entry in @code{gnus-parameters}, @kbd{S x}
23206 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) marks articles in @code{gmane.*}
23207 groups as spam and reports the to Gmane at group exit:
23211 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane)))
23214 Additionally, I use @code{(setq spam-report-gmane-use-article-number nil)}
23215 because I don't read the groups directly from news.gmane.org, but
23216 through my local news server (leafnode). I.e. the article numbers are
23217 not the same as on news.gmane.org, thus @code{spam-report.el} has to check
23218 the @code{X-Report-Spam} header to find the correct number.
23220 @node Blacklists and Whitelists
23221 @subsubsection Blacklists and Whitelists
23222 @cindex spam filtering
23223 @cindex whitelists, spam filtering
23224 @cindex blacklists, spam filtering
23227 @defvar spam-use-blacklist
23229 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use blacklists when
23230 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are in the blacklist
23231 will be sent to the @code{spam-split-group}. This is an explicit
23232 filter, meaning that it acts only on mail senders @emph{declared} to
23237 @defvar spam-use-whitelist
23239 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists when
23240 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are not in the
23241 whitelist will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
23242 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the whitelist, their
23243 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
23247 @defvar spam-use-whitelist-exclusive
23249 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists as an
23250 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
23251 unless the sender is in the whitelist. Use with care.
23255 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist
23257 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23258 customizing the group parameters or the
23259 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23260 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
23261 spam-marked articles will be added to the blacklist.
23265 Instead of the obsolete
23266 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist}, it is recommended
23267 that you use @code{'(spam spam-use-blacklist)}. Everything will work
23268 the same way, we promise.
23272 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist
23274 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23275 customizing the group parameters or the
23276 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23277 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
23278 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
23283 Instead of the obsolete
23284 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist}, it is recommended
23285 that you use @code{'(ham spam-use-whitelist)}. Everything will work
23286 the same way, we promise.
23290 Blacklists are lists of regular expressions matching addresses you
23291 consider to be spam senders. For instance, to block mail from any
23292 sender at @samp{vmadmin.com}, you can put @samp{vmadmin.com} in your
23293 blacklist. You start out with an empty blacklist. Blacklist entries
23294 use the Emacs regular expression syntax.
23296 Conversely, whitelists tell Gnus what addresses are considered
23297 legitimate. All messages from whitelisted addresses are considered
23298 non-spam. Also see @ref{BBDB Whitelists}. Whitelist entries use the
23299 Emacs regular expression syntax.
23301 The blacklist and whitelist file locations can be customized with the
23302 @code{spam-directory} variable (@file{~/News/spam} by default), or
23303 the @code{spam-whitelist} and @code{spam-blacklist} variables
23304 directly. The whitelist and blacklist files will by default be in the
23305 @code{spam-directory} directory, named @file{whitelist} and
23306 @file{blacklist} respectively.
23308 @node BBDB Whitelists
23309 @subsubsection BBDB Whitelists
23310 @cindex spam filtering
23311 @cindex BBDB whitelists, spam filtering
23312 @cindex BBDB, spam filtering
23315 @defvar spam-use-BBDB
23317 Analogous to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
23318 Whitelists}), but uses the BBDB as the source of whitelisted
23319 addresses, without regular expressions. You must have the BBDB loaded
23320 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} to work properly. Messages whose senders are
23321 not in the BBDB will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
23322 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the BBDB, their
23323 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
23327 @defvar spam-use-BBDB-exclusive
23329 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use the BBDB as an
23330 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
23331 unless the sender is in the BBDB. Use with care. Only sender
23332 addresses in the BBDB will be allowed through; all others will be
23333 classified as spammers.
23337 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB
23339 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23340 customizing the group parameters or the
23341 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23342 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
23343 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
23348 Instead of the obsolete
23349 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB}, it is recommended
23350 that you use @code{'(ham spam-use-BBDB)}. Everything will work
23351 the same way, we promise.
23355 @node Gmane Spam Reporting
23356 @subsubsection Gmane Spam Reporting
23357 @cindex spam reporting
23358 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
23359 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
23362 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane
23364 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23365 customizing the group parameters or the
23366 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23367 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
23368 articles groups will be reported to the Gmane administrators via a
23371 Gmane can be found at @uref{http://gmane.org}.
23375 Instead of the obsolete
23376 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane}, it is recommended
23377 that you use @code{'(spam spam-use-gmane)}. Everything will work the
23378 same way, we promise.
23382 @defvar spam-report-gmane-use-article-number
23384 This variable is @code{t} by default. Set it to @code{nil} if you are
23385 running your own news server, for instance, and the local article
23386 numbers don't correspond to the Gmane article numbers. When
23387 @code{spam-report-gmane-use-article-number} is @code{nil},
23388 @code{spam-report.el} will use the @code{X-Report-Spam} header that
23393 @node Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
23394 @subsubsection Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
23395 @cindex spam filtering
23396 @cindex hashcash, spam filtering
23399 @defvar spam-use-hashcash
23401 Similar to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
23402 Whitelists}), but uses hashcash tokens for whitelisting messages
23403 instead of the sender address. You must have the @code{hashcash.el}
23404 package loaded for @code{spam-use-hashcash} to work properly.
23405 Messages without a hashcash payment token will be sent to the next
23406 spam-split rule. This is an explicit filter, meaning that unless a
23407 hashcash token is found, the messages are not assumed to be spam or
23413 @subsubsection Blackholes
23414 @cindex spam filtering
23415 @cindex blackholes, spam filtering
23418 @defvar spam-use-blackholes
23420 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus consult the
23421 blackhole-type distributed spam processing systems (DCC, for instance)
23422 when you set this option. The variable @code{spam-blackhole-servers}
23423 holds the list of blackhole servers Gnus will consult. The current
23424 list is fairly comprehensive, but make sure to let us know if it
23425 contains outdated servers.
23427 The blackhole check uses the @code{dig.el} package, but you can tell
23428 @file{spam.el} to use @code{dns.el} instead for better performance if
23429 you set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil}. It is not recommended at
23430 this time to set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil} despite the
23431 possible performance improvements, because some users may be unable to
23432 use it, but you can try it and see if it works for you.
23436 @defvar spam-blackhole-servers
23438 The list of servers to consult for blackhole checks.
23442 @defvar spam-blackhole-good-server-regex
23444 A regular expression for IPs that should not be checked against the
23445 blackhole server list. When set to @code{nil}, it has no effect.
23449 @defvar spam-use-dig
23451 Use the @code{dig.el} package instead of the @code{dns.el} package.
23452 The default setting of @code{t} is recommended.
23456 Blackhole checks are done only on incoming mail. There is no spam or
23457 ham processor for blackholes.
23459 @node Regular Expressions Header Matching
23460 @subsubsection Regular Expressions Header Matching
23461 @cindex spam filtering
23462 @cindex regular expressions header matching, spam filtering
23465 @defvar spam-use-regex-headers
23467 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus check the
23468 message headers against lists of regular expressions when you set this
23469 option. The variables @code{spam-regex-headers-spam} and
23470 @code{spam-regex-headers-ham} hold the list of regular expressions.
23471 Gnus will check against the message headers to determine if the
23472 message is spam or ham, respectively.
23476 @defvar spam-regex-headers-spam
23478 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
23479 the message, positively identify it as spam.
23483 @defvar spam-regex-headers-ham
23485 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
23486 the message, positively identify it as ham.
23490 Regular expression header checks are done only on incoming mail.
23491 There is no specific spam or ham processor for regular expressions.
23494 @subsubsection Bogofilter
23495 @cindex spam filtering
23496 @cindex bogofilter, spam filtering
23499 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter
23501 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
23504 With a minimum of care for associating the @samp{$} mark for spam
23505 articles only, Bogofilter training all gets fairly automatic. You
23506 should do this until you get a few hundreds of articles in each
23507 category, spam or not. The command @kbd{S t} in summary mode, either
23508 for debugging or for curiosity, shows the @emph{spamicity} score of
23509 the current article (between 0.0 and 1.0).
23511 Bogofilter determines if a message is spam based on a specific
23512 threshold. That threshold can be customized, consult the Bogofilter
23515 If the @code{bogofilter} executable is not in your path, Bogofilter
23516 processing will be turned off.
23518 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}.
23522 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter-headers
23524 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
23525 speedy Bogofilter, looking only at the message headers. It works
23526 similarly to @code{spam-use-bogofilter}, but the @code{X-Bogosity} header
23527 must be in the message already. Normally you would do this with a
23528 procmail recipe or something similar; consult the Bogofilter
23529 installation documents for details.
23531 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter}.
23535 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter
23536 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23537 customizing the group parameters or the
23538 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23539 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles
23540 will be added to the Bogofilter spam database.
23544 Instead of the obsolete
23545 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
23546 that you use @code{'(spam spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
23547 the same way, we promise.
23550 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter
23551 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23552 customizing the group parameters or the
23553 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23554 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
23555 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the Bogofilter database
23556 of non-spam messages.
23560 Instead of the obsolete
23561 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
23562 that you use @code{'(ham spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
23563 the same way, we promise.
23566 @defvar spam-bogofilter-database-directory
23568 This is the directory where Bogofilter will store its databases. It
23569 is not specified by default, so Bogofilter will use its own default
23570 database directory.
23574 The Bogofilter mail classifier is similar to @command{ifile} in intent and
23575 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
23576 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}
23577 variables to indicate to spam-split that Bogofilter should either be
23578 used, or has already been used on the article. The 0.9.2.1 version of
23579 Bogofilter was used to test this functionality.
23581 @node SpamAssassin backend
23582 @subsubsection SpamAssassin backend
23583 @cindex spam filtering
23584 @cindex spamassassin, spam filtering
23587 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin
23589 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use SpamAssassin.
23591 SpamAssassin assigns a score to each article based on a set of rules
23592 and tests, including a Bayesian filter. The Bayesian filter can be
23593 trained by associating the @samp{$} mark for spam articles. The
23594 spam score can be viewed by using the command @kbd{S t} in summary
23597 If you set this variable, each article will be processed by
23598 SpamAssassin when @code{spam-split} is called. If your mail is
23599 preprocessed by SpamAssassin, and you want to just use the
23600 SpamAssassin headers, set @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}
23603 You should not enable this is you use
23604 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}.
23608 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin-headers
23610 Set this variable if your mail is preprocessed by SpamAssassin and
23611 want @code{spam-split} to split based on the SpamAssassin headers.
23613 You should not enable this is you use @code{spam-use-spamassassin}.
23617 @defvar spam-spamassassin-path
23619 This variable points to the SpamAssassin executable. If you have
23620 @code{spamd} running, you can set this variable to the @code{spamc}
23621 executable for faster processing. See the SpamAssassin documentation
23622 for more information on @code{spamd}/@code{spamc}.
23626 SpamAssassin is a powerful and flexible spam filter that uses a wide
23627 variety of tests to identify spam. A ham and a spam processors are
23628 provided, plus the @code{spam-use-spamassassin} and
23629 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers} variables to indicate to
23630 spam-split that SpamAssassin should be either used, or has already
23631 been used on the article. The 2.63 version of SpamAssassin was used
23632 to test this functionality.
23634 @node ifile spam filtering
23635 @subsubsection ifile spam filtering
23636 @cindex spam filtering
23637 @cindex ifile, spam filtering
23640 @defvar spam-use-ifile
23642 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use @command{ifile}, a
23643 statistical analyzer similar to Bogofilter.
23647 @defvar spam-ifile-all-categories
23649 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-use-ifile} to give you all
23650 the ifile categories, not just spam/non-spam. If you use this, make
23651 sure you train ifile as described in its documentation.
23655 @defvar spam-ifile-spam-category
23657 This is the category of spam messages as far as ifile is concerned.
23658 The actual string used is irrelevant, but you probably want to leave
23659 the default value of @samp{spam}.
23662 @defvar spam-ifile-database-path
23664 This is the filename for the ifile database. It is not specified by
23665 default, so ifile will use its own default database name.
23669 The ifile mail classifier is similar to Bogofilter in intent and
23670 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
23671 @code{spam-use-ifile} variable to indicate to spam-split that ifile
23672 should be used. The 1.2.1 version of ifile was used to test this
23675 @node spam-stat spam filtering
23676 @subsubsection spam-stat spam filtering
23677 @cindex spam filtering
23678 @cindex spam-stat, spam filtering
23682 @xref{Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat}.
23684 @defvar spam-use-stat
23686 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use
23687 spam-stat.el, an Emacs Lisp statistical analyzer.
23691 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat
23692 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23693 customizing the group parameters or the
23694 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23695 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
23696 articles will be added to the spam-stat database of spam messages.
23700 Instead of the obsolete
23701 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
23702 that you use @code{'(spam spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
23703 the same way, we promise.
23706 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat
23707 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23708 customizing the group parameters or the
23709 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23710 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
23711 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the spam-stat database
23712 of non-spam messages.
23716 Instead of the obsolete
23717 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
23718 that you use @code{'(ham spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
23719 the same way, we promise.
23722 This enables @file{spam.el} to cooperate with @file{spam-stat.el}.
23723 @file{spam-stat.el} provides an internal (Lisp-only) spam database,
23724 which unlike ifile or Bogofilter does not require external programs.
23725 A spam and a ham processor, and the @code{spam-use-stat} variable for
23726 @code{spam-split} are provided.
23729 @subsubsection Using SpamOracle with Gnus
23730 @cindex spam filtering
23734 An easy way to filter out spam is to use SpamOracle. SpamOracle is an
23735 statistical mail filtering tool written by Xavier Leroy and needs to be
23736 installed separately.
23738 There are several ways to use SpamOracle with Gnus. In all cases, your
23739 mail is piped through SpamOracle in its @emph{mark} mode. SpamOracle will
23740 then enter an @samp{X-Spam} header indicating whether it regards the
23741 mail as a spam mail or not.
23743 One possibility is to run SpamOracle as a @code{:prescript} from the
23744 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}, (@pxref{SpamAssassin}). This method has
23745 the advantage that the user can see the @emph{X-Spam} headers.
23747 The easiest method is to make @file{spam.el} (@pxref{Filtering Spam
23748 Using The Spam ELisp Package}) call SpamOracle.
23750 @vindex spam-use-spamoracle
23751 To enable SpamOracle usage by @file{spam.el}, set the variable
23752 @code{spam-use-spamoracle} to @code{t} and configure the
23753 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy} as described in
23754 the section @xref{Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package}. In
23755 this example the @samp{INBOX} of an nnimap server is filtered using
23756 SpamOracle. Mails recognized as spam mails will be moved to
23757 @code{spam-split-group}, @samp{Junk} in this case. Ham messages stay
23761 (setq spam-use-spamoracle t
23762 spam-split-group "Junk"
23763 nnimap-split-inbox '("INBOX")
23764 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
23765 nnimap-split-fancy '(| (: spam-split) "INBOX"))
23768 @defvar spam-use-spamoracle
23769 Set to @code{t} if you want Gnus to enable spam filtering using
23773 @defvar spam-spamoracle-binary
23774 Gnus uses the SpamOracle binary called @file{spamoracle} found in the
23775 user's PATH. Using the variable @code{spam-spamoracle-binary}, this
23779 @defvar spam-spamoracle-database
23780 By default, SpamOracle uses the file @file{~/.spamoracle.db} as a database to
23781 store its analyses. This is controlled by the variable
23782 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} which defaults to @code{nil}. That means
23783 the default SpamOracle database will be used. In case you want your
23784 database to live somewhere special, set
23785 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} to this path.
23788 SpamOracle employs a statistical algorithm to determine whether a
23789 message is spam or ham. In order to get good results, meaning few
23790 false hits or misses, SpamOracle needs training. SpamOracle learns the
23791 characteristics of your spam mails. Using the @emph{add} mode
23792 (training mode) one has to feed good (ham) and spam mails to
23793 SpamOracle. This can be done by pressing @kbd{|} in the Summary buffer
23794 and pipe the mail to a SpamOracle process or using @file{spam.el}'s
23795 spam- and ham-processors, which is much more convenient. For a
23796 detailed description of spam- and ham-processors, @xref{Filtering Spam
23797 Using The Spam ELisp Package}.
23799 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle
23800 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23801 customizing the group parameter or the
23802 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
23803 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles will be
23804 sent to SpamOracle as spam samples.
23808 Instead of the obsolete
23809 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
23810 that you use @code{'(spam spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
23811 the same way, we promise.
23814 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle
23815 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23816 customizing the group parameter or the
23817 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
23818 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked articles in
23819 @emph{ham} groups will be sent to the SpamOracle as samples of ham
23824 Instead of the obsolete
23825 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
23826 that you use @code{'(ham spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
23827 the same way, we promise.
23830 @emph{Example:} These are the Group Parameters of a group that has been
23831 classified as a ham group, meaning that it should only contain ham
23834 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham)
23835 (spam-process ((ham spam-use-spamoracle)
23836 (spam spam-use-spamoracle))))
23838 For this group the @code{spam-use-spamoracle} is installed for both
23839 ham and spam processing. If the group contains spam message
23840 (e.g. because SpamOracle has not had enough sample messages yet) and
23841 the user marks some messages as spam messages, these messages will be
23842 processed by SpamOracle. The processor sends the messages to
23843 SpamOracle as new samples for spam.
23845 @node Extending the Spam ELisp package
23846 @subsubsection Extending the Spam ELisp package
23847 @cindex spam filtering
23848 @cindex spam elisp package, extending
23849 @cindex extending the spam elisp package
23851 Say you want to add a new back end called blackbox. For filtering
23852 incoming mail, provide the following:
23860 (defvar spam-use-blackbox nil
23861 "True if blackbox should be used.")
23866 (spam-use-blackbox . spam-check-blackbox)
23868 to @code{spam-list-of-checks}.
23872 (gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-blackbox ham spam-use-blackbox)
23873 (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blackbox spam spam-use-blackbox)
23876 to @code{spam-list-of-processors}.
23880 (spam-use-blackbox spam-blackbox-register-routine
23882 spam-blackbox-unregister-routine
23886 to @code{spam-registration-functions}. Write the register/unregister
23887 routines using the bogofilter register/unregister routines as a
23888 start, or other restister/unregister routines more appropriate to
23894 Write the @code{spam-check-blackbox} function. It should return
23895 @samp{nil} or @code{spam-split-group}, observing the other
23896 conventions. See the existing @code{spam-check-*} functions for
23897 examples of what you can do, and stick to the template unless you
23898 fully understand the reasons why you aren't.
23900 Make sure to add @code{spam-use-blackbox} to
23901 @code{spam-list-of-statistical-checks} if Blackbox is a statistical
23902 mail analyzer that needs the full message body to operate.
23906 For processing spam and ham messages, provide the following:
23913 Note you don't have to provide a spam or a ham processor. Only
23914 provide them if Blackbox supports spam or ham processing.
23916 Also, ham and spam processors are being phased out as single
23917 variables. Instead the form @code{'(spam spam-use-blackbox)} or
23918 @code{'(ham spam-use-blackbox)} is favored. For now, spam/ham
23919 processor variables are still around but they won't be for long.
23922 (defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-spam"
23923 "The Blackbox summary exit spam processor.
23924 Only applicable to spam groups.")
23926 (defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-ham"
23927 "The whitelist summary exit ham processor.
23928 Only applicable to non-spam (unclassified and ham) groups.")
23937 (const :tag "Spam: Blackbox" (spam spam-use-blackbox))
23938 (const :tag "Ham: Blackbox" (ham spam-use-blackbox))
23940 to the @code{spam-process} group parameter in @code{gnus.el}. Make
23941 sure you do it twice, once for the parameter and once for the
23942 variable customization.
23946 (variable-item spam-use-blackbox)
23948 to the @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group parameter in
23954 @node Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat
23955 @subsection Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat
23956 @cindex Paul Graham
23957 @cindex Graham, Paul
23958 @cindex naive Bayesian spam filtering
23959 @cindex Bayesian spam filtering, naive
23960 @cindex spam filtering, naive Bayesian
23962 Paul Graham has written an excellent essay about spam filtering using
23963 statistics: @uref{http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html,A Plan for
23964 Spam}. In it he describes the inherent deficiency of rule-based
23965 filtering as used by SpamAssassin, for example: Somebody has to write
23966 the rules, and everybody else has to install these rules. You are
23967 always late. It would be much better, he argues, to filter mail based
23968 on whether it somehow resembles spam or non-spam. One way to measure
23969 this is word distribution. He then goes on to describe a solution
23970 that checks whether a new mail resembles any of your other spam mails
23973 The basic idea is this: Create a two collections of your mail, one
23974 with spam, one with non-spam. Count how often each word appears in
23975 either collection, weight this by the total number of mails in the
23976 collections, and store this information in a dictionary. For every
23977 word in a new mail, determine its probability to belong to a spam or a
23978 non-spam mail. Use the 15 most conspicuous words, compute the total
23979 probability of the mail being spam. If this probability is higher
23980 than a certain threshold, the mail is considered to be spam.
23982 Gnus supports this kind of filtering. But it needs some setting up.
23983 First, you need two collections of your mail, one with spam, one with
23984 non-spam. Then you need to create a dictionary using these two
23985 collections, and save it. And last but not least, you need to use
23986 this dictionary in your fancy mail splitting rules.
23989 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
23990 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
23991 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
23994 @node Creating a spam-stat dictionary
23995 @subsubsection Creating a spam-stat dictionary
23997 Before you can begin to filter spam based on statistics, you must
23998 create these statistics based on two mail collections, one with spam,
23999 one with non-spam. These statistics are then stored in a dictionary
24000 for later use. In order for these statistics to be meaningful, you
24001 need several hundred emails in both collections.
24003 Gnus currently supports only the nnml back end for automated dictionary
24004 creation. The nnml back end stores all mails in a directory, one file
24005 per mail. Use the following:
24007 @defun spam-stat-process-spam-directory
24008 Create spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every file
24009 is treated as one spam mail.
24012 @defun spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory
24013 Create non-spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every
24014 file is treated as one non-spam mail.
24017 Usually you would call @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory} on a
24018 directory such as @file{~/Mail/mail/spam} (this usually corresponds
24019 the the group @samp{nnml:mail.spam}), and you would call
24020 @code{spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory} on a directory such as
24021 @file{~/Mail/mail/misc} (this usually corresponds the the group
24022 @samp{nnml:mail.misc}).
24024 When you are using @acronym{IMAP}, you won't have the mails available
24025 locally, so that will not work. One solution is to use the Gnus Agent
24026 to cache the articles. Then you can use directories such as
24027 @file{"~/News/agent/nnimap/mail.yourisp.com/personal_spam"} for
24028 @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory}. @xref{Agent as Cache}.
24031 This variable holds the hash-table with all the statistics---the
24032 dictionary we have been talking about. For every word in either
24033 collection, this hash-table stores a vector describing how often the
24034 word appeared in spam and often it appeared in non-spam mails.
24037 If you want to regenerate the statistics from scratch, you need to
24038 reset the dictionary.
24040 @defun spam-stat-reset
24041 Reset the @code{spam-stat} hash-table, deleting all the statistics.
24044 When you are done, you must save the dictionary. The dictionary may
24045 be rather large. If you will not update the dictionary incrementally
24046 (instead, you will recreate it once a month, for example), then you
24047 can reduce the size of the dictionary by deleting all words that did
24048 not appear often enough or that do not clearly belong to only spam or
24049 only non-spam mails.
24051 @defun spam-stat-reduce-size
24052 Reduce the size of the dictionary. Use this only if you do not want
24053 to update the dictionary incrementally.
24056 @defun spam-stat-save
24057 Save the dictionary.
24060 @defvar spam-stat-file
24061 The filename used to store the dictionary. This defaults to
24062 @file{~/.spam-stat.el}.
24065 @node Splitting mail using spam-stat
24066 @subsubsection Splitting mail using spam-stat
24068 In order to use @code{spam-stat} to split your mail, you need to add the
24069 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
24072 (require 'spam-stat)
24076 This will load the necessary Gnus code, and the dictionary you
24079 Next, you need to adapt your fancy splitting rules: You need to
24080 determine how to use @code{spam-stat}. The following examples are for
24081 the nnml back end. Using the nnimap back end works just as well. Just
24082 use @code{nnimap-split-fancy} instead of @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
24084 In the simplest case, you only have two groups, @samp{mail.misc} and
24085 @samp{mail.spam}. The following expression says that mail is either
24086 spam or it should go into @samp{mail.misc}. If it is spam, then
24087 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will return @samp{mail.spam}.
24090 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
24091 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
24095 @defvar spam-stat-split-fancy-spam-group
24096 The group to use for spam. Default is @samp{mail.spam}.
24099 If you also filter mail with specific subjects into other groups, use
24100 the following expression. Only mails not matching the regular
24101 expression are considered potential spam.
24104 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
24105 `(| ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
24106 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
24110 If you want to filter for spam first, then you must be careful when
24111 creating the dictionary. Note that @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} must
24112 consider both mails in @samp{mail.emacs} and in @samp{mail.misc} as
24113 non-spam, therefore both should be in your collection of non-spam
24114 mails, when creating the dictionary!
24117 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
24118 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
24119 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
24123 You can combine this with traditional filtering. Here, we move all
24124 HTML-only mails into the @samp{mail.spam.filtered} group. Note that since
24125 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will never see them, the mails in
24126 @samp{mail.spam.filtered} should be neither in your collection of spam mails,
24127 nor in your collection of non-spam mails, when creating the
24131 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
24132 `(| ("Content-Type" "text/html" "mail.spam.filtered")
24133 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
24134 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
24139 @node Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
24140 @subsubsection Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
24142 The main interface to using @code{spam-stat}, are the following functions:
24144 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-spam
24145 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new spam mail.
24146 Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
24149 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-no-spam
24150 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new non-spam
24151 mail. Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
24154 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-spam
24155 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be normal
24156 mail but spam. Use this to change the status of a mail that has
24157 already been processed as non-spam.
24160 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-non-spam
24161 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be spam but
24162 normal mail. Use this to change the status of a mail that has already
24163 been processed as spam.
24166 @defun spam-stat-save
24167 Save the hash table to the file. The filename used is stored in the
24168 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
24171 @defun spam-stat-load
24172 Load the hash table from a file. The filename used is stored in the
24173 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
24176 @defun spam-stat-score-word
24177 Return the spam score for a word.
24180 @defun spam-stat-score-buffer
24181 Return the spam score for a buffer.
24184 @defun spam-stat-split-fancy
24185 Use this function for fancy mail splitting. Add the rule @samp{(:
24186 spam-stat-split-fancy)} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
24189 Make sure you load the dictionary before using it. This requires the
24190 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
24193 (require 'spam-stat)
24197 Typical test will involve calls to the following functions:
24200 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
24201 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
24202 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
24203 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
24204 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
24205 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
24206 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
24207 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
24208 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
24209 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
24210 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
24211 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
24212 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
24213 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
24216 Here is how you would create your dictionary:
24219 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
24220 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
24221 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
24222 Repeat for any other non-spam group you need...
24223 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
24224 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
24228 @section Interaction with other modes
24233 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} provided some useful functions for dired
24234 buffers. It is enabled with
24236 (add-hook 'dired-mode-hook 'turn-on-gnus-dired-mode)
24241 @findex gnus-dired-attach
24242 Send dired's marked files as an attachment (@code{gnus-dired-attach}).
24243 You will be prompted for a message buffer.
24246 @findex gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap
24247 Visit a file according to the appropriate mailcap entry
24248 (@code{gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap}). With prefix, open file in a new
24252 @findex gnus-dired-print
24253 Print file according to the mailcap entry (@code{gnus-dired-print}). If
24254 there is no print command, print in a PostScript image.
24257 @node Various Various
24258 @section Various Various
24264 @item gnus-home-directory
24265 @vindex gnus-home-directory
24266 All Gnus file and directory variables will be initialized from this
24267 variable, which defaults to @file{~/}.
24269 @item gnus-directory
24270 @vindex gnus-directory
24271 Most Gnus storage file and directory variables will be initialized from
24272 this variable, which defaults to the @env{SAVEDIR} environment
24273 variable, or @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
24275 Note that gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
24276 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
24277 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
24278 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
24280 @item gnus-default-directory
24281 @vindex gnus-default-directory
24282 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
24283 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
24284 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
24285 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
24286 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
24287 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
24290 @vindex gnus-verbose
24291 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
24292 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
24293 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
24294 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
24295 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
24297 @item gnus-verbose-backends
24298 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
24299 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
24300 to the Gnus back ends instead of Gnus proper.
24302 @item nnheader-max-head-length
24303 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
24304 When the back ends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
24305 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
24306 the absolute max length the back ends will try to read before giving up
24307 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
24308 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
24309 @code{t}, the back ends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
24310 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
24311 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
24313 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
24314 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
24315 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
24316 read when doing the operation described above.
24318 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
24319 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
24321 @cindex invalid characters in file names
24322 @cindex characters in file names
24323 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
24324 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
24325 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
24329 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
24334 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
24335 Windows (phooey) systems.
24337 @item gnus-hidden-properties
24338 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
24339 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
24340 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
24341 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
24343 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
24344 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
24345 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
24346 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
24347 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
24349 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
24350 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
24351 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
24353 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
24354 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
24356 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
24357 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
24358 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
24359 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
24362 @acronym{IMAP} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
24370 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
24371 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
24373 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
24375 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
24381 Not because of victories @*
24384 but for the common sunshine,@*
24386 the largess of the spring.
24390 but for the day's work done@*
24391 as well as I was able;@*
24392 not for a seat upon the dais@*
24393 but at the common table.@*
24398 @chapter Appendices
24401 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
24402 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
24403 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
24404 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
24405 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
24406 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
24407 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
24408 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
24409 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
24416 @cindex installing under XEmacs
24418 XEmacs is distributed as a collection of packages. You should install
24419 whatever packages the Gnus XEmacs package requires. The current
24420 requirements are @samp{gnus}, @samp{mail-lib}, @samp{xemacs-base},
24421 @samp{eterm}, @samp{sh-script}, @samp{net-utils}, @samp{os-utils},
24422 @samp{dired}, @samp{mh-e}, @samp{sieve}, @samp{ps-print}, @samp{w3},
24423 @samp{pgg}, @samp{mailcrypt}, @samp{ecrypto}, and @samp{sasl}.
24430 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
24431 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
24433 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
24434 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
24435 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
24436 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
24437 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
24439 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
24440 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
24441 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
24442 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
24443 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
24444 appropriate name, don't you think?)
24446 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
24447 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
24448 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
24449 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
24452 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
24453 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
24454 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
24455 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
24456 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
24457 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
24458 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
24459 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
24460 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
24464 @node Gnus Versions
24465 @subsection Gnus Versions
24467 @cindex September Gnus
24469 @cindex Quassia Gnus
24470 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
24473 @cindex Gnus versions
24475 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
24476 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
24477 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
24479 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
24480 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
24482 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
24483 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
24485 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
24486 If was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
24488 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
24489 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
24492 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun.
24494 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
24495 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
24496 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'' -- don't panic. Don't let it know
24497 that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't
24498 run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper
24499 released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
24502 @node Other Gnus Versions
24503 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
24506 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
24507 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
24508 Japan. It's based on a library called @acronym{SEMI}, which provides
24509 @acronym{MIME} capabilities.
24511 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
24512 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
24513 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
24514 @acronym{MIME} and multilingualization things, especially important for
24521 What's the point of Gnus?
24523 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
24524 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
24525 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
24526 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
24527 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
24528 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
24529 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
24530 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
24531 keep track of millions of people who post?
24533 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
24534 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
24535 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
24536 to separate the newsreader from the back ends, Gnus now offers a simple
24537 interface for anybody who wants to write new back ends for fetching mail
24538 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
24539 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
24540 every one of you to explore and invent.
24542 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
24543 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
24546 @node Compatibility
24547 @subsection Compatibility
24549 @cindex compatibility
24550 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
24551 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
24552 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
24557 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
24561 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
24564 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
24567 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
24568 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
24569 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
24570 important variables have their values copied into their global
24571 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
24572 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
24574 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
24575 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
24576 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
24577 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
24578 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
24582 @cindex highlighting
24583 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
24584 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
24585 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
24586 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
24587 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
24588 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
24591 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
24592 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
24593 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
24594 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
24596 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
24597 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
24598 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
24599 to stop doing it the old way.
24601 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
24603 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
24605 @cindex reporting bugs
24607 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
24608 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
24609 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
24611 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
24612 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
24613 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
24614 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
24619 @subsection Conformity
24621 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
24622 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
24630 There are no known breaches of this standard.
24634 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
24636 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
24637 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
24638 We do have some breaches to this one.
24644 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
24645 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
24646 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
24647 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
24648 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
24653 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
24654 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
24655 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
24656 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
24658 @item MIME - RFC 2045-2049 etc
24659 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
24660 All the various @acronym{MIME} RFCs are supported.
24662 @item Disposition Notifications - RFC 2298
24663 Message Mode is able to request notifications from the receiver.
24665 @item PGP - RFC 1991 and RFC 2440
24668 RFC 1991 is the original @acronym{PGP} message specification,
24669 published as an informational RFC. RFC 2440 was the follow-up, now
24670 called Open PGP, and put on the Standards Track. Both document a
24671 non-@acronym{MIME} aware @acronym{PGP} format. Gnus supports both
24672 encoding (signing and encryption) and decoding (verification and
24675 @item PGP/MIME - RFC 2015/3156
24676 RFC 2015 (superseded by 3156 which references RFC 2440 instead of RFC
24677 1991) describes the @acronym{MIME}-wrapping around the RF 1991/2440 format.
24678 Gnus supports both encoding and decoding.
24680 @item S/MIME - RFC 2633
24681 RFC 2633 describes the @acronym{S/MIME} format.
24683 @item IMAP - RFC 1730/2060, RFC 2195, RFC 2086, RFC 2359, RFC 2595, RFC 1731
24684 RFC 1730 is @acronym{IMAP} version 4, updated somewhat by RFC 2060
24685 (@acronym{IMAP} 4 revision 1). RFC 2195 describes CRAM-MD5
24686 authentication for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2086 describes access control
24687 lists (ACLs) for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2359 describes a @acronym{IMAP}
24688 protocol enhancement. RFC 2595 describes the proper @acronym{TLS}
24689 integration (STARTTLS) with @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 1731 describes the
24690 GSSAPI/Kerberos4 mechanisms for @acronym{IMAP}.
24694 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
24695 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
24700 @subsection Emacsen
24706 Gnus should work on:
24714 XEmacs 21.4 and up.
24718 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
24719 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
24720 Emacs versions. However, T-gnus does support ``Mule 2.3 based on Emacs
24721 19.34'' and possibly the versions of XEmacs prior to 21.1.1, e.g. 20.4.
24722 See the file ``README'' in the T-gnus distribution for more details.
24724 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
24725 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
24726 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
24730 @node Gnus Development
24731 @subsection Gnus Development
24733 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
24734 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
24735 propose changes and new features, post patches and new back ends. This
24736 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
24737 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
24738 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
24739 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
24740 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
24742 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
24743 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
24744 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
24745 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
24746 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
24749 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
24750 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
24751 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
24752 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
24753 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
24755 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
24756 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
24757 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
24758 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
24759 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
24760 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
24761 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
24762 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
24763 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
24764 can't be assumed to do so.
24769 @subsection Contributors
24770 @cindex contributors
24772 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
24773 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
24774 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
24775 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
24776 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
24777 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
24778 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
24779 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
24780 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
24781 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
24783 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for@dots{} oops,
24789 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
24792 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
24793 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @acronym{MIME} and
24794 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
24795 functionality and stuff.
24798 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
24799 well as numerous other things).
24802 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
24805 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
24808 Justin Sheehy---the @acronym{FAQ} maintainer.
24811 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
24814 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
24815 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
24818 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
24821 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section.
24824 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
24827 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
24830 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
24833 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
24836 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
24837 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
24840 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
24843 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
24846 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
24849 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
24853 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
24856 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
24859 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
24862 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
24863 well as autoconf support.
24867 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
24868 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
24870 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
24885 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
24887 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka
24891 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
24901 Alexei V. Barantsev,
24916 Massimo Campostrini,
24921 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
24922 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
24926 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
24929 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
24935 Michael Welsh Duggan,
24940 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
24944 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
24952 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
24954 Michelangelo Grigni,
24958 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
24960 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c Hayashi
24962 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
24969 Fran@,{c}ois Felix Ingrand,
24970 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c Ichikawa
24971 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
24973 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
24983 Peter Skov Knudsen,
24984 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
24986 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
24987 Thor Kristoffersen,
24990 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
25008 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
25009 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
25016 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
25021 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
25025 John McClary Prevost,
25031 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
25036 Christian von Roques,
25039 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
25046 Philippe Schnoebelen,
25048 Randal L. Schwartz,
25062 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
25067 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
25087 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
25088 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
25089 (550kB and counting).
25091 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
25094 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
25095 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
25099 @subsection New Features
25100 @cindex new features
25103 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
25104 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
25105 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
25106 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
25107 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
25108 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10.
25109 * No Gnus:: Lars, FIXME!
25112 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
25113 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
25114 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
25117 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
25119 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
25124 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
25125 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
25128 Local spool and several @acronym{NNTP} servers can be used at once
25129 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
25132 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
25135 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
25136 All the mail back ends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
25137 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
25140 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
25141 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
25142 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
25143 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
25146 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
25147 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
25150 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
25151 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
25152 (@pxref{The Active File}).
25155 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
25156 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
25159 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
25160 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
25161 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
25164 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
25165 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
25166 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
25169 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{~/.gnus.el}) to avoid
25170 cluttering up the @file{.emacs} file.
25173 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
25174 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
25177 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
25178 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
25181 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
25182 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
25185 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
25186 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
25189 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
25190 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
25193 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
25196 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
25197 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
25200 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
25201 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
25204 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
25205 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
25208 Gnus can fetch @acronym{FAQ}s and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
25211 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
25212 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
25215 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
25219 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
25223 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
25224 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
25227 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
25233 @node September Gnus
25234 @subsubsection September Gnus
25238 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/september,height=20cm}}
25242 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
25247 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
25248 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
25252 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
25253 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
25257 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
25261 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
25262 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
25265 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
25269 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions.
25272 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
25275 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
25278 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
25282 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
25283 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
25286 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
25290 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
25294 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
25298 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
25302 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
25305 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
25306 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
25309 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
25313 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
25314 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
25317 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
25320 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
25321 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
25322 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
25325 Gnus has a new back end (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
25329 The Gnus cache is much faster.
25332 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
25336 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
25337 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
25340 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
25341 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
25344 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
25345 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
25348 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
25349 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
25350 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
25353 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
25354 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
25357 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
25360 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
25363 All mail back ends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
25366 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
25369 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
25370 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
25373 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
25377 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
25380 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}}
25385 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
25388 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
25392 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
25395 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
25399 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
25402 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
25405 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
25406 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
25409 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
25410 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
25414 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
25415 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
25418 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
25422 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
25423 buffer to allow easier treatment.
25426 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
25429 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
25433 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
25437 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
25438 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
25441 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
25445 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
25446 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
25449 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
25450 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
25453 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
25457 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
25460 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
25463 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
25469 @subsubsection Red Gnus
25471 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
25475 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/red,height=20cm}}
25482 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
25485 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
25486 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
25489 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
25490 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
25494 Article washing status can be displayed in the
25495 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
25498 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
25501 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
25502 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
25505 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
25509 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
25510 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
25514 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
25515 Server Internals}).
25518 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
25522 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
25525 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
25526 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
25529 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
25530 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
25531 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
25534 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
25535 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
25538 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
25539 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
25542 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{C-M-_}
25546 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
25547 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
25550 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
25551 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
25554 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
25558 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
25561 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
25565 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
25566 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
25569 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
25570 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
25573 A new command for reading collections of documents
25574 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{C-M-d}
25575 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
25578 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
25582 A new mail-to-news back end makes it possible to post even when the @acronym{NNTP}
25583 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
25586 A new back end for reading searches from Web search engines
25587 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
25588 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
25591 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
25592 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
25596 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
25600 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
25604 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}}
25609 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
25613 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
25617 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
25618 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
25621 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
25627 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
25629 New features in Gnus 5.6:
25634 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
25635 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added.
25636 @xref{Gnus Unplugged}, for the full story.
25639 The @code{nndraft} back end has returned, but works differently than
25640 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
25641 group, which is created automatically.
25644 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
25648 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
25651 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
25652 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
25655 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
25659 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
25662 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
25663 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
25666 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
25669 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. @xref{Symbolic Prefixes}, for
25673 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
25674 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the @file{all.SCORE} file.
25677 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
25678 control over simplification.
25681 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
25684 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
25688 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
25691 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
25694 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
25695 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
25696 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
25699 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
25700 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
25703 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
25707 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
25708 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
25711 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
25712 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @acronym{NNTP} servers.
25715 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
25719 A history of where mails have been split is available.
25722 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
25725 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
25726 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
25729 A new function for citing in Message has been
25730 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
25733 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
25736 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
25740 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
25741 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
25744 The ``lapsed date'' article header can be kept continually
25745 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
25748 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} back end.
25751 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
25755 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
25756 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
25758 New features in Gnus 5.8:
25763 The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
25764 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
25766 If you used procmail like in
25769 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
25770 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
25771 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
25772 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
25775 this now has changed to
25779 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
25783 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}.
25786 Gnus is now a @acronym{MIME}-capable reader. This affects many parts of
25787 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
25790 Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
25791 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
25794 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
25795 called to position point.
25798 The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
25799 summary buffers and @acronym{NOV} files.
25802 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
25803 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
25806 The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
25807 subtly different manner.
25810 New web-based back ends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
25811 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
25812 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
25815 Gnus can now read @acronym{IMAP} mail via @code{nnimap}.
25820 @subsubsection Oort Gnus
25823 New features in Gnus 5.10:
25828 @kbd{F} (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}) and @kbd{R}
25829 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}) only yank the text in the
25830 region if the region is active.
25833 @code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group} can be called interactively,
25837 In draft groups, @kbd{e} is now bound to @code{gnus-draft-edit-message}.
25838 Use @kbd{B w} for @code{gnus-summary-edit-article} instead.
25841 The revised Gnus @acronym{FAQ} is included in the manual,
25842 @xref{Frequently Asked Questions}.
25845 Upgrading from previous (stable) version if you have used Oort.
25847 If you have tried Oort (the unstable Gnus branch leading to this
25848 release) but went back to a stable version, be careful when upgrading to
25849 this version. In particular, you will probably want to remove all
25850 @file{.marks} (nnml) and @file{.mrk} (nnfolder) files, so that flags are
25851 read from your @file{.newsrc.eld} instead of from the
25852 @file{.marks}/@file{.mrk} file where this release store flags. See a
25853 later entry for more information about marks. Note that downgrading
25854 isn't save in general.
25859 More buttons for URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man
25860 pages and Emacs or Gnus related references. @xref{Article Buttons}. The
25861 variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} can be used to control the
25862 appearance of all article buttons. @xref{Article Button Levels}.
25867 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} (see @ref{Other modes}) installs key
25868 bindings in dired buffers to send a file as an attachment, open a file
25869 using the appropriate mailcap entry, and print a file using the mailcap
25873 Gnus can display RSS newsfeeds as a newsgroup. @xref{RSS}.
25876 Single-part yenc encoded attachments can be decoded.
25881 The picons code has been reimplemented to work in GNU Emacs---some of
25882 the previous options have been removed or renamed.
25884 Picons are small ``personal icons'' representing users, domain and
25885 newsgroups, which can be displayed in the Article buffer.
25889 If the new option @code{gnus-treat-body-boundary} is non-@code{nil}, a
25890 boundary line is drawn at the end of the headers.
25893 Retrieval of charters and control messages
25895 There are new commands for fetching newsgroup charters (@kbd{H c}) and
25896 control messages (@kbd{H C}).
25901 You can delay the sending of a message with @kbd{C-c C-j} in the Message
25902 buffer. The messages are delivered at specified time. This is useful
25903 for sending yourself reminders. @xref{Delayed Articles}.
25906 If @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled, attachments are automatically
25907 decompressed when activated.
25910 If the new option @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil},
25911 the nnml back end allows compressed message files.
25914 Signed article headers (X-PGP-Sig) can be verified with @kbd{W p}.
25917 The Summary Buffer uses an arrow in the fringe to indicate the current
25918 article. Use @code{(setq gnus-summary-display-arrow nil)} to disable it.
25921 Warn about email replies to news
25923 Do you often find yourself replying to news by email by mistake? Then
25924 the new option @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} is just the thing for
25928 If the new option @code{gnus-summary-display-while-building} is
25929 non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer is shown and updated as it's being
25933 The new @code{recent} mark @samp{.} indicates newly arrived messages (as
25934 opposed to old but unread messages).
25937 The new option @code{gnus-gcc-mark-as-read} automatically marks
25938 Gcc articles as read.
25941 The nndoc back end now supports mailman digests and exim bounces.
25944 Gnus supports RFC 2369 mailing list headers, and adds a number of
25945 related commands in mailing list groups. @xref{Mailing List}.
25948 The Date header can be displayed in a format that can be read aloud
25949 in English. @xref{Article Date}.
25952 The envelope sender address can be customized when using Sendmail.
25953 @xref{Mail Variables, Mail Variables,, message, Message Manual}.
25956 diffs are automatically highlighted in groups matching
25957 @code{mm-uu-diff-groups-regexp}
25960 @acronym{TLS} wrapper shipped with Gnus
25962 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is now supported in @acronym{IMAP} and
25963 @acronym{NNTP} via @file{tls.el} and GNUTLS. The old
25964 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} support via (external third party)
25965 @file{ssl.el} and OpenSSL still works.
25968 New @file{make.bat} for compiling and installing Gnus under MS Windows
25970 Use @file{make.bat} if you want to install Gnus under MS Windows, the
25971 first argument to the batch-program should be the directory where
25972 @file{xemacs.exe} respectively @file{emacs.exe} is located, iff you want
25973 to install Gnus after compiling it, give @file{make.bat} @code{/copy} as
25974 the second parameter.
25976 @file{make.bat} has been rewritten from scratch, it now features
25977 automatic recognition of XEmacs and GNU Emacs, generates
25978 @file{gnus-load.el}, checks if errors occur while compilation and
25979 generation of info files and reports them at the end of the build
25980 process. It now uses @code{makeinfo} if it is available and falls
25981 back to @file{infohack.el} otherwise. @file{make.bat} should now
25982 install all files which are necessary to run Gnus and be generally a
25983 complete replacement for the @code{configure; make; make install}
25984 cycle used under Unix systems.
25986 The new @file{make.bat} makes @file{make-x.bat} superfluous, so it has
25990 Support for non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names
25992 Message supports non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To: and
25993 Cc: and will query you whether to perform encoding when you try to
25994 send a message. The variable @code{message-use-idna} controls this.
25995 Gnus will also decode non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To:
25996 and Cc: when you view a message. The variable @code{gnus-use-idna}
26000 Better handling of Microsoft citation styles
26002 Gnus now tries to recognize the mangled header block that some Microsoft
26003 mailers use to indicate that the rest of the message is a citation, even
26004 though it is not quoted in any way. The variable
26005 @code{gnus-cite-unsightly-citation-regexp} matches the start of these
26009 @code{gnus-article-skip-boring}
26011 If you set @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} to @code{t}, then Gnus will
26012 not scroll down to show you a page that contains only boring text,
26013 which by default means cited text and signature. You can customize
26014 what is skippable using @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}.
26016 This feature is especially useful if you read many articles that
26017 consist of a little new content at the top with a long, untrimmed
26018 message cited below.
26021 The format spec @code{%C} for positioning point has changed to @code{%*}.
26024 The new variable @code{gnus-parameters} can be used to set group parameters.
26026 Earlier this was done only via @kbd{G p} (or @kbd{G c}), which stored
26027 the parameters in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, but via this variable you can
26028 enjoy the powers of customize, and simplified backups since you set the
26029 variable in @file{~/.emacs} instead of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. The
26030 variable maps regular expressions matching group names to group
26033 (setq gnus-parameters
26035 (gnus-show-threads nil)
26036 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
26037 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
26038 (to-group . "\\1"))))
26042 Smileys (@samp{:-)}, @samp{;-)} etc) are now iconized for Emacs too.
26044 Put @code{(setq gnus-treat-display-smileys nil)} in @file{~/.emacs} to
26048 Gnus no longer generate the Sender: header automatically.
26050 Earlier it was generated iff the user configurable email address was
26051 different from the Gnus guessed default user address. As the guessing
26052 algorithm is rarely correct these days, and (more controversially) the
26053 only use of the Sender: header was to check if you are entitled to
26054 cancel/supersede news (which is now solved by Cancel Locks instead,
26055 see another entry), generation of the header has been disabled by
26056 default. See the variables @code{message-required-headers},
26057 @code{message-required-news-headers}, and
26058 @code{message-required-mail-headers}.
26061 Features from third party @file{message-utils.el} added to @file{message.el}.
26063 Message now asks if you wish to remove @samp{(was: <old subject>)} from
26064 subject lines (see @code{message-subject-trailing-was-query}). @kbd{C-c
26065 M-m} and @kbd{C-c M-f} inserts markers indicating included text.
26066 @kbd{C-c C-f a} adds a X-No-Archive: header. @kbd{C-c C-f x} inserts
26067 appropriate headers and a note in the body for cross-postings and
26068 followups (see the variables @code{message-cross-post-@var{*}}).
26071 References and X-Draft-Headers are no longer generated when you start
26072 composing messages and @code{message-generate-headers-first} is
26076 Improved anti-spam features.
26078 Gnus is now able to take out spam from your mail and news streams
26079 using a wide variety of programs and filter rules. Among the supported
26080 methods are RBL blocklists, bogofilter and white/blacklists. Hooks
26081 for easy use of external packages such as SpamAssassin and Hashcash
26082 are also new. @xref{Thwarting Email Spam}.
26085 Easy inclusion of X-Faces headers.
26088 Face headers handling.
26091 In the summary buffer, the new command @kbd{/ N} inserts new messages
26092 and @kbd{/ o} inserts old messages.
26095 Gnus decodes morse encoded messages if you press @kbd{W m}.
26098 Unread count correct in nnimap groups.
26100 The estimated number of unread articles in the group buffer should now
26101 be correct for nnimap groups. This is achieved by calling
26102 @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} from the
26103 @code{gnus-setup-news-hook} (called on startup) and
26104 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook}. (called after getting new
26105 mail). If you have modified those variables from the default, you may
26106 want to add @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} again. If
26107 you were happy with the estimate and want to save some (minimal) time
26108 when getting new mail, remove the function.
26111 Group Carbon Copy (GCC) quoting
26113 To support groups that contains SPC and other weird characters, groups
26114 are quoted before they are placed in the Gcc: header. This means
26115 variables such as @code{gnus-message-archive-group} should no longer
26116 contain quote characters to make groups containing SPC work. Also, if
26117 you are using the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar} (indicating Gcc
26118 into two groups) you must change it to return the list
26119 @code{("nnml:foo" "nnml:bar")}, otherwise the Gcc: line will be quoted
26120 incorrectly. Note that returning the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar}
26121 was incorrect earlier, it just didn't generate any problems since it
26122 was inserted directly.
26125 @file{~/News/overview/} not used.
26127 As a result of the following change, the @file{~/News/overview/}
26128 directory is not used any more. You can safely delete the entire
26134 The Gnus Agent has seen a major updated and is now enabled by default,
26135 and all nntp and nnimap servers from @code{gnus-select-method} and
26136 @code{gnus-secondary-select-method} are agentized by default. Earlier
26137 only the server in @code{gnus-select-method} was agentized by the
26138 default, and the agent was disabled by default. When the agent is
26139 enabled, headers are now also retrieved from the Agent cache instead
26140 of the back ends when possible. Earlier this only happened in the
26141 unplugged state. You can enroll or remove servers with @kbd{J a} and
26142 @kbd{J r} in the server buffer. Gnus will not download articles into
26143 the Agent cache, unless you instruct it to do so, though, by using
26144 @kbd{J u} or @kbd{J s} from the Group buffer. You revert to the old
26145 behaviour of having the Agent disabled with @code{(setq gnus-agent
26146 nil)}. Note that putting @code{(gnus-agentize)} in @file{~/.gnus.el}
26147 is not needed any more.
26150 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}
26152 The default value changed to @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%)
26153 %s\n}. Moreover @code{gnus-extra-headers},
26154 @code{nnmail-extra-headers} and @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses}
26155 changed their default so that the users name will be replaced by the
26156 recipient's name or the group name posting to for @acronym{NNTP}
26160 @file{deuglify.el} (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article})
26162 A new file from Raymond Scholz @email{rscholz@@zonix.de} for deuglifying
26163 broken Outlook (Express) articles.
26166 @code{(require 'gnus-load)}
26168 If you use a stand-alone Gnus distribution, you'd better add
26169 @code{(require 'gnus-load)} into your @file{~/.emacs} after adding the Gnus
26170 lisp directory into load-path.
26172 File @file{gnus-load.el} contains autoload commands, functions and variables,
26173 some of which may not be included in distributions of Emacsen.
26176 @code{gnus-slave-unplugged}
26178 A new command which starts Gnus offline in slave mode.
26181 @code{message-insinuate-rmail}
26183 Adding @code{(message-insinuate-rmail)} and @code{(setq
26184 mail-user-agent 'gnus-user-agent)} in @file{.emacs} convinces Rmail to
26185 compose, reply and forward messages in message-mode, where you can
26186 enjoy the power of @acronym{MML}.
26189 @code{message-minibuffer-local-map}
26191 The line below enables BBDB in resending a message:
26193 (define-key message-minibuffer-local-map [(tab)]
26194 'bbdb-complete-name)
26198 Externalizing and deleting of attachments.
26200 If @code{gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments} or
26201 @code{message-fcc-externalize-attachments} is non-@code{nil}, attach
26202 local files as external parts.
26204 The command @code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip} (bound to @kbd{C-o}
26205 on @acronym{MIME} buttons) saves a part and replaces the part with an
26206 external one. @code{gnus-mime-delete-part} (bound to @kbd{d} on
26207 @acronym{MIME} buttons) removes a part. It works only on back ends
26208 that support editing.
26211 @code{gnus-default-charset}
26213 The default value is determined from the
26214 @code{current-language-environment} variable, instead of
26215 @code{iso-8859-1}. Also the @samp{.*} item in
26216 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} is removed.
26219 @code{gnus-posting-styles}
26221 Add a new format of match like
26223 ((header "to" "larsi.*org")
26224 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
26226 The old format like the lines below is obsolete, but still accepted.
26228 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
26229 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
26233 @code{message-ignored-news-headers} and @code{message-ignored-mail-headers}
26235 @samp{X-Draft-From} and @samp{X-Gnus-Agent-Meta-Information} have been
26236 added into these two variables. If you customized those, perhaps you
26237 need add those two headers too.
26240 Gnus reads the @acronym{NOV} and articles in the Agent if plugged.
26242 If one reads an article while plugged, and the article already exists
26243 in the Agent, it won't get downloaded once more. @code{(setq
26244 gnus-agent-cache nil)} reverts to the old behavior.
26247 Gnus supports the ``format=flowed'' (RFC 2646) parameter. On
26248 composing messages, it is enabled by @code{use-hard-newlines}.
26249 Decoding format=flowed was present but not documented in earlier
26253 Gnus supports the generation of RFC 2298 Disposition Notification requests.
26255 This is invoked with the @kbd{C-c M-n} key binding from message mode.
26258 Gnus supports Maildir groups.
26260 Gnus includes a new back end @file{nnmaildir.el}. @xref{Maildir}.
26263 Printing capabilities are enhanced.
26265 Gnus supports Muttprint natively with @kbd{O P} from the Summary and
26266 Article buffers. Also, each individual @acronym{MIME} part can be
26267 printed using @kbd{p} on the @acronym{MIME} button.
26270 Message supports the Importance: (RFC 2156) header.
26272 In the message buffer, @kbd{C-c C-f C-i} or @kbd{C-c C-u} cycles through
26276 Gnus supports Cancel Locks in News.
26278 This means a header @samp{Cancel-Lock} is inserted in news posting. It is
26279 used to determine if you wrote an article or not (for canceling and
26280 superseding). Gnus generates a random password string the first time
26281 you post a message, and saves it in your @file{~/.emacs} using the Custom
26282 system. While the variable is called @code{canlock-password}, it is not
26283 security sensitive data. Publishing your canlock string on the web
26284 will not allow anyone to be able to anything she could not already do.
26285 The behaviour can be changed by customizing @code{message-insert-canlock}.
26288 Gnus supports server-side mail filtering using Sieve.
26290 Sieve rules can be added as Group Parameters for groups, and the
26291 complete Sieve script is generated using @kbd{D g} from the Group
26292 buffer, and then uploaded to the server using @kbd{C-c C-l} in the
26293 generated Sieve buffer. @xref{Sieve Commands}, and the new Sieve
26294 manual @ref{Top, , Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
26297 Extended format specs.
26299 Format spec @samp{%&user-date;} is added into
26300 @code{gnus-summary-line-format-alist}. Also, user defined extended
26301 format specs are supported. The extended format specs look like
26302 @samp{%u&foo;}, which invokes function
26303 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{foo}}. Because @samp{&} is used as the
26304 escape character, old user defined format @samp{%u&} is no longer supported.
26307 @kbd{/ *} (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}) is rewritten.
26309 It was aliased to @kbd{Y c}
26310 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}). The new function filters
26311 out other articles.
26313 @item Some limiting commands accept a @kbd{C-u} prefix to negate the match.
26315 If @kbd{C-u} is used on subject, author or extra headers, i.e., @kbd{/
26316 s}, @kbd{/ a}, and @kbd{/ x}
26317 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-@{subject,author,extra@}}) respectively, the
26318 result will be to display all articles that do not match the expression.
26321 Group names are treated as UTF-8 by default.
26323 This is supposedly what USEFOR wanted to migrate to. See
26324 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} and
26325 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} for customization.
26328 The nnml and nnfolder back ends store marks for each groups.
26330 This makes it possible to take backup of nnml/nnfolder servers/groups
26331 separately of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, while preserving marks. It also
26332 makes it possible to share articles and marks between users (without
26333 sharing the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file) within e.g. a department. It
26334 works by storing the marks stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld} in a per-group
26335 file @file{.marks} (for nnml) and @file{@var{groupname}.mrk} (for
26336 nnfolder, named @var{groupname}). If the nnml/nnfolder is moved to
26337 another machine, Gnus will automatically use the @file{.marks} or
26338 @file{.mrk} file instead of the information in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
26339 The new server variables @code{nnml-marks-is-evil} and
26340 @code{nnfolder-marks-is-evil} can be used to disable this feature.
26343 The menu bar item (in Group and Summary buffer) named ``Misc'' has
26344 been renamed to ``Gnus''.
26347 The menu bar item (in Message mode) named ``@acronym{MML}'' has been
26348 renamed to ``Attachments''. Note that this menu also contains security
26349 related stuff, like signing and encryption (@pxref{Security, Security,,
26350 message, Message Manual}).
26353 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} and
26354 @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
26356 The regexps in these variables are compared with full group names
26357 instead of real group names in 5.8. Users who customize these
26358 variables should change those regexps accordingly. For example:
26360 ("^han\\>" euc-kr) -> ("\\(^\\|:\\)han\\>" euc-kr)
26364 Gnus supports @acronym{PGP} (RFC 1991/2440), @acronym{PGP/MIME} (RFC
26365 2015/3156) and @acronym{S/MIME} (RFC 2630-2633).
26367 It needs an external @acronym{S/MIME} and OpenPGP implementation, but no
26368 additional Lisp libraries. This add several menu items to the
26369 Attachments menu, and @kbd{C-c RET} key bindings, when composing
26370 messages. This also obsoletes @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook}.
26373 Gnus inlines external parts (message/external).
26376 @acronym{MML} (Mime compose) prefix changed from @kbd{M-m} to @kbd{C-c
26379 This change was made to avoid conflict with the standard binding of
26380 @code{back-to-indentation}, which is also useful in message mode.
26383 The default for @code{message-forward-show-mml} changed to symbol @code{best}.
26385 The behaviour for the @code{best} value is to show @acronym{MML} (i.e.,
26386 convert to @acronym{MIME}) when appropriate. @acronym{MML} will not be
26387 used when forwarding signed or encrypted messages, as the conversion
26388 invalidate the digital signature.
26392 @subsubsection No Gnus
26395 New features in No Gnus:
26396 @c FIXME: Gnus 5.12?
26398 @include gnus-news.texi
26404 @section The Manual
26408 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
26409 either @code{texi2dvi}
26411 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
26412 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
26414 to get what you hold in your hands now.
26416 The following conventions have been used:
26421 This is a @samp{string}
26424 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
26427 This is a @file{file}
26430 This is a @code{symbol}
26434 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
26438 (setq flargnoze "yes")
26441 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
26444 (setq flumphel 'yes)
26447 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
26448 ever get them confused.
26452 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
26453 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
26454 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
26455 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
26456 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
26457 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
26458 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
26464 @node On Writing Manuals
26465 @section On Writing Manuals
26467 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
26468 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
26469 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
26470 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
26471 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
26472 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
26475 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
26476 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
26477 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
26480 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
26481 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
26486 @section Terminology
26488 @cindex terminology
26493 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
26494 News is generally fetched from a nearby @acronym{NNTP} server, and is
26495 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
26496 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
26497 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
26501 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
26502 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
26503 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
26504 not posting, and replying is not following up.
26508 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
26512 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
26517 Gnus considers mail and news to be mostly the same, really. The only
26518 difference is how to access the actual articles. News articles are
26519 commonly fetched via the protocol @acronym{NNTP}, whereas mail
26520 messages could be read from a file on the local disk. The internal
26521 architecture of Gnus thus comprises a ``front end'' and a number of
26522 ``back ends''. Internally, when you enter a group (by hitting
26523 @key{RET}, say), you thereby invoke a function in the front end in
26524 Gnus. The front end then ``talks'' to a back end and says things like
26525 ``Give me the list of articles in the foo group'' or ``Show me article
26528 So a back end mainly defines either a protocol (the @code{nntp} back
26529 end accesses news via @acronym{NNTP}, the @code{nnimap} back end
26530 accesses mail via @acronym{IMAP}) or a file format and directory
26531 layout (the @code{nnspool} back end accesses news via the common
26532 ``spool directory'' format, the @code{nnml} back end access mail via a
26533 file format and directory layout that's quite similar).
26535 Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this is all
26536 done by the back ends. A back end is a collection of functions to
26537 access the articles.
26539 However, sometimes the term ``back end'' is also used where ``server''
26540 would have been more appropriate. And then there is the term ``select
26541 method'' which can mean either. The Gnus terminology can be quite
26546 Gnus will always use one method (and back end) as the @dfn{native}, or
26547 default, way of getting news.
26551 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
26552 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary back ends for getting
26557 Secondary back ends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
26558 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
26562 A message that has been posted as news.
26565 @cindex mail message
26566 A message that has been mailed.
26570 A mail message or news article
26574 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
26579 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
26584 A line from the head of an article.
26588 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
26589 collection of @acronym{NOV} lines.
26591 @item @acronym{NOV}
26592 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
26593 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the back end for the headers of all
26594 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
26595 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
26596 normal @sc{head} format.
26600 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
26601 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
26602 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
26603 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
26604 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
26605 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
26607 @item killed groups
26608 @cindex killed groups
26609 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
26610 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
26612 @item zombie groups
26613 @cindex zombie groups
26614 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
26617 @cindex active file
26618 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
26619 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
26620 is rather large, as you might surmise.
26623 @cindex bogus groups
26624 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
26625 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
26626 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
26629 @cindex activating groups
26630 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
26631 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
26632 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
26636 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
26638 @item select method
26639 @cindex select method
26640 A structure that specifies the back end, the server and the virtual
26643 @item virtual server
26644 @cindex virtual server
26645 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
26646 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
26647 whole is a virtual server.
26651 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
26652 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
26655 @item ephemeral groups
26656 @cindex ephemeral groups
26657 @cindex temporary groups
26658 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
26659 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
26660 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
26663 @cindex solid groups
26664 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
26665 group buffer are solid groups.
26667 @item sparse articles
26668 @cindex sparse articles
26669 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
26670 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
26674 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
26675 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
26679 @cindex thread root
26680 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
26681 articles in the thread.
26685 An article that has responses.
26689 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
26693 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
26694 specified by RFC 1153.
26697 @cindex splitting, terminolgy
26698 @cindex mail sorting
26699 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
26700 The action of sorting your emails according to certain rules. Sometimes
26701 incorrectly called mail filtering.
26707 @node Customization
26708 @section Customization
26709 @cindex general customization
26711 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
26712 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
26713 for some quite common situations.
26716 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
26717 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
26718 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
26719 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
26723 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
26724 @subsection Slow/Expensive NNTP Connection
26726 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
26727 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
26728 Gnus has to get from the @acronym{NNTP} server.
26732 @item gnus-read-active-file
26733 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
26734 entire active file from the server. This file is often v. large. You
26735 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
26736 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
26737 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
26739 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
26740 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
26741 the @acronym{NNTP} server will not be very fast. Not all @acronym{NNTP} servers
26742 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
26746 @node Slow Terminal Connection
26747 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
26749 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
26750 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
26751 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
26755 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
26756 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
26757 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
26758 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
26759 horizontal and vertical recentering.
26761 @item gnus-visible-headers
26762 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
26763 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
26764 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
26765 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
26767 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
26769 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
26770 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
26771 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
26774 @item gnus-use-full-window
26775 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
26776 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
26777 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
26778 want to read them anyway.
26780 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
26781 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
26785 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
26786 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
26787 lines, which might save some time.
26791 @node Little Disk Space
26792 @subsection Little Disk Space
26795 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
26796 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
26800 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
26801 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
26802 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
26803 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
26806 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
26807 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
26808 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
26809 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
26812 @item gnus-save-killed-list
26813 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
26814 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
26815 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
26816 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
26822 @subsection Slow Machine
26823 @cindex slow machine
26825 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
26826 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
26828 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
26829 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
26831 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
26832 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
26833 summary buffer faster.
26835 Gnus uses the internal ELisp-based @code{uncompface} program for
26836 decoding an @code{X-Face} header normally in Emacs. If you feel it is
26837 slow, set @code{uncompface-use-external} to @code{t}. @xref{X-Face}.
26841 @node Troubleshooting
26842 @section Troubleshooting
26843 @cindex troubleshooting
26845 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
26853 Make sure your computer is switched on.
26856 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
26857 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
26861 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
26862 like @samp{T-gnus 6.17.* (based on Gnus v5.10.*; for SEMI 1.1*, FLIM
26863 1.1*)} you have the right files loaded. Otherwise you have some old
26864 @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
26867 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a
26868 @acronym{FAQ} and a how-to.
26871 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
26872 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
26873 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
26874 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
26875 something like that.
26878 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
26881 @cindex reporting bugs
26883 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
26885 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
26886 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
26887 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
26888 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
26890 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
26891 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
26892 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
26893 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
26896 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
26897 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
26898 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
26899 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
26900 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
26901 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
26903 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
26904 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
26905 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
26909 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
26910 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
26913 If you want to debug your problem further before reporting, possibly
26914 in order to solve the problem yourself and send a patch, you can use
26915 edebug. Debugging Lisp code is documented in the Elisp manual
26916 (@pxref{Debugging, , Debugging Lisp Programs, elisp, The GNU Emacs
26917 Lisp Reference Manual}). To get you started with edebug, consider if
26918 you discover some weird behaviour when pressing @kbd{c}, the first
26919 step is to do @kbd{C-h k c} and click on the hyperlink (Emacs only) in
26920 the documentation buffer that leads you to the function definition,
26921 then press @kbd{M-x edebug-defun RET} with point inside that function,
26922 return to Gnus and press @kbd{c} to invoke the code. You will be
26923 placed in the lisp buffer and can single step using @kbd{SPC} and
26924 evaluate expressions using @kbd{M-:} or inspect variables using
26925 @kbd{C-h v}, abort execution with @kbd{q}, and resume execution with
26926 @kbd{c} or @kbd{g}.
26931 Sometimes, a problem do not directly generate an elisp error but
26932 manifests itself by causing Gnus to be very slow. In these cases, you
26933 can use @kbd{M-x toggle-debug-on-quit} and press @kbd{C-g} when things are
26934 slow, and then try to analyze the backtrace (repeating the procedure
26935 helps isolating the real problem areas).
26937 A fancier approach is to use the elisp profiler, ELP. The profiler is
26938 (or should be) fully documented elsewhere, but to get you started
26939 there are a few steps that need to be followed. First, instrument the
26940 part of Gnus you are interested in for profiling, e.g. @kbd{M-x
26941 elp-instrument-package RET gnus} or @kbd{M-x elp-instrument-package
26942 RET message}. Then perform the operation that is slow and press
26943 @kbd{M-x elp-results}. You will then see which operations that takes
26944 time, and can debug them further. If the entire operation takes much
26945 longer than the time spent in the slowest function in the profiler
26946 output, you probably profiled the wrong part of Gnus. To reset
26947 profiling statistics, use @kbd{M-x elp-reset-all}. @kbd{M-x
26948 elp-restore-all} is supposed to remove profiling, but given the
26949 complexities and dynamic code generation in Gnus, it might not always
26952 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
26953 @cindex ding mailing list
26954 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
26955 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful. You can also ask on
26956 @email{ding@@gnus.org, the ding mailing list}. Write to
26957 @email{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
26961 @node Gnus Reference Guide
26962 @section Gnus Reference Guide
26964 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
26965 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
26966 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
26967 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
26970 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
26971 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
26972 back ends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
26973 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
26974 and general methods of operation.
26977 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
26978 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
26979 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
26980 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
26981 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
26982 * Group Info:: The group info format.
26983 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
26984 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
26985 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
26989 @node Gnus Utility Functions
26990 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
26991 @cindex Gnus utility functions
26992 @cindex utility functions
26994 @cindex internal variables
26996 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
26997 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
26998 Below is a list of the most common ones.
27002 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
27003 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
27004 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
27006 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
27007 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
27008 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
27010 @item gnus-group-real-name
27011 @findex gnus-group-real-name
27012 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
27015 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
27016 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
27017 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
27018 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
27020 @item gnus-get-info
27021 @findex gnus-get-info
27022 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
27024 @item gnus-group-unread
27025 @findex gnus-group-unread
27026 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
27030 @findex gnus-active
27031 The active entry for @var{group}.
27033 @item gnus-set-active
27034 @findex gnus-set-active
27035 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
27037 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
27038 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
27039 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
27042 @item gnus-continuum-version
27043 @findex gnus-continuum-version
27044 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
27045 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
27048 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
27049 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
27050 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
27052 @item gnus-news-group-p
27053 @findex gnus-news-group-p
27054 Says whether @var{group} came from a news back end.
27056 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
27057 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
27058 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
27060 @item gnus-server-to-method
27061 @findex gnus-server-to-method
27062 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
27064 @item gnus-server-equal
27065 @findex gnus-server-equal
27066 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
27068 @item gnus-group-native-p
27069 @findex gnus-group-native-p
27070 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
27072 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
27073 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
27074 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
27076 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
27077 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
27078 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
27080 @item gnus-group-find-parameter
27081 @findex gnus-group-find-parameter
27082 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
27083 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
27085 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
27086 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
27087 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
27089 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
27090 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
27091 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
27093 @item gnus-check-backend-function
27094 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
27095 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the back end
27096 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
27099 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
27103 @item gnus-read-method
27104 @findex gnus-read-method
27105 Prompts the user for a select method.
27110 @node Back End Interface
27111 @subsection Back End Interface
27113 Gnus doesn't know anything about @acronym{NNTP}, spools, mail or virtual
27114 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
27115 server is a @dfn{back end} and some @dfn{back end variables}. As examples
27116 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
27117 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
27118 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
27120 When Gnus asks for information from a back end---say @code{nntp}---on
27121 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
27122 function parameters. (If not, the back end should use the ``current''
27123 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
27124 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
27125 been opened, the function should fail.
27127 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
27128 name. Take this example:
27132 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
27133 (nntp-port-number 4324))
27136 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
27137 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
27139 The back ends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
27140 The standard back ends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
27141 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
27143 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
27144 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
27145 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
27147 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
27148 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
27149 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
27150 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
27151 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
27152 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
27155 Some back ends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} back ends, and
27156 some might be said not to be. The latter are back ends that generally
27157 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
27158 ---they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
27161 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
27162 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
27163 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
27164 possible for later articles to ``re-use'' older article numbers without
27165 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
27166 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
27167 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
27168 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Back End Functions}.}
27169 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
27170 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
27172 The previous paragraph already mentions all the ``hard'' restrictions that
27173 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
27174 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
27175 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
27176 the ``no-reuse'' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
27177 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
27178 of numbers as long as possible.
27180 Note that by convention, back ends are named @code{nnsomething}, but
27181 Gnus also comes with some @code{nnnotbackends}, such as
27182 @file{nnheader.el}, @file{nnmail.el} and @file{nnoo.el}.
27184 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary back end
27187 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
27190 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
27191 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
27192 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
27193 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
27194 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
27195 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
27199 @node Required Back End Functions
27200 @subsubsection Required Back End Functions
27204 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
27206 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
27207 @code{Message-ID}s. Current back ends do not fully support either---only
27208 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most back ends do not support
27209 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
27211 The result data should either be HEADs or @acronym{NOV} lines, and the result
27212 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
27213 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
27214 of HEADs and @acronym{NOV} lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
27216 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching ``extra
27217 headers'', in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
27218 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
27219 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
27220 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the back end finds it
27221 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
27222 number, do maximum fetches.
27224 Here's an example HEAD:
27227 221 1056 Article retrieved.
27228 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
27229 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
27230 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
27231 Subject: Re: Something very droll
27232 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
27233 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
27235 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
27236 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
27237 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
27241 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
27242 these in the data buffer.
27244 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
27248 head = error / valid-head
27249 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
27250 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
27251 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
27252 header = <text> eol
27256 (The version of BNF used here is the one used in RFC822.)
27258 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
27259 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
27263 nov-buffer = *nov-line
27264 nov-line = field 7*8[ <TAB> field ] eol
27265 field = <text except TAB>
27268 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
27272 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
27274 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
27275 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
27277 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The back end
27278 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
27279 server. In fact, it should do so.
27281 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
27282 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
27285 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
27287 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
27288 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
27291 There should be no data returned.
27294 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
27296 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the back end
27297 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that back end
27298 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
27299 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
27301 There should be no data returned.
27304 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
27306 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
27307 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
27308 non-@code{nil} value. This function should under no circumstances
27309 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
27311 There should be no data returned.
27314 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
27316 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
27318 There should be no data returned.
27321 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
27323 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
27324 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
27325 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
27326 it would be nice if that were possible.
27328 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
27329 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
27330 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
27331 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
27332 into its article buffer.
27334 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
27335 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
27336 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
27337 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
27338 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
27339 on successful article retrieval.
27342 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
27344 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
27345 making @var{group} the current group.
27347 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
27350 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
27353 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
27356 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
27357 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
27358 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
27359 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
27360 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
27361 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
27362 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
27363 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader. If the group contains no
27364 articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1 and the
27368 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
27369 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
27370 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
27374 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
27376 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
27377 a no-op on most back ends.
27379 There should be no data returned.
27382 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
27384 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
27387 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
27390 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
27391 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
27394 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
27395 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag. If the group
27396 contains no articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1
27397 and the highest as 0.
27400 active-file = *active-line
27401 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
27403 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
27406 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
27407 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
27408 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
27411 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
27413 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
27414 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
27415 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
27416 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
27417 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
27418 clear if the posting could not be completed.
27420 There should be no result data from this function.
27425 @node Optional Back End Functions
27426 @subsubsection Optional Back End Functions
27430 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
27432 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
27433 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
27434 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
27436 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
27437 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
27438 former is in the same format as the data from
27439 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
27440 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
27443 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
27447 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
27449 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the back end for
27450 alterations. This comes in handy if the back end really carries all
27451 the information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
27452 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
27453 should return a non-@code{nil} value.
27455 There should be no result data from this function.
27458 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
27460 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
27461 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
27462 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
27463 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
27464 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
27465 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
27466 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
27467 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
27469 There should be no result data from this function.
27472 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
27474 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
27475 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
27476 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some back ends (such as @acronym{IMAP}) however carry
27477 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
27478 propagate the mark information to the server.
27480 @var{action} is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
27483 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
27486 @var{range} is a range of articles you wish to update marks on.
27487 @var{action} is @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove
27488 marks (preserving all marks not mentioned). @var{mark} is a list of
27489 marks; where each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are
27490 @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
27491 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
27492 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your back end should, if
27493 possible, not limit itself to these.
27495 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
27496 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
27497 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
27498 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
27500 An example action list:
27503 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
27504 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
27505 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
27508 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
27509 mark on (currently not used for anything).
27511 There should be no result data from this function.
27513 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
27515 If the user tries to set a mark that the back end doesn't like, this
27516 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
27517 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
27518 @var{mark}. If the back end doesn't care, it must return the original
27519 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
27521 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
27522 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
27523 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
27526 There should be no result data from this function.
27529 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
27531 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
27532 request that the back end check for incoming articles, in one way or
27533 another. A mail back end will typically read the spool file or query
27534 the @acronym{POP} server when this function is invoked. The
27535 @var{group} doesn't have to be heeded---if the back end decides that
27536 it is too much work just scanning for a single group, it may do a
27537 total scan of all groups. It would be nice, however, to keep things
27538 local if that's practical.
27540 There should be no result data from this function.
27543 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
27545 The result data from this function should be a description of
27549 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
27551 description = <text>
27554 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
27556 The result data from this function should be the description of all
27557 groups available on the server.
27560 description-buffer = *description-line
27564 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
27566 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
27567 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
27568 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
27569 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
27570 in the active buffer format.
27572 It is okay for this function to return ``too many'' groups; some back ends
27573 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
27574 just the new groups. But don't do this for back ends with many groups.
27575 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
27576 many groups, so @code{nnml} and the like are probably safe. But for
27577 back ends like @code{nntp}, where the groups have been created by the
27578 server, it is quite likely that there can be many groups.
27581 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
27583 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
27585 There should be no return data.
27588 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
27590 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
27591 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
27592 numbers.) It is left up to the back end to decide how old articles
27593 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
27594 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
27597 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
27600 There should be no result data returned.
27603 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM &optional LAST)
27605 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
27606 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
27608 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
27609 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
27610 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
27611 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
27612 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
27613 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
27615 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
27616 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
27619 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
27620 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
27622 The group should exist before the back end is asked to accept the
27623 article for that group.
27625 There should be no data returned.
27628 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
27630 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
27631 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
27632 this function in short order.
27634 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
27635 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
27637 There should be no data returned.
27640 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
27642 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
27643 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
27645 There should be no data returned.
27648 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
27650 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
27651 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
27652 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
27654 There should be no data returned.
27657 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
27659 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
27660 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
27662 There should be no data returned.
27667 @node Error Messaging
27668 @subsubsection Error Messaging
27670 @findex nnheader-report
27671 @findex nnheader-get-report
27672 The back ends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
27673 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
27674 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the back end
27675 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
27676 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
27677 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
27680 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
27682 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
27685 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
27686 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
27687 recently reported message for the back end in question. This function
27688 takes one argument---the server symbol.
27690 Internally, these functions access @var{back-end}@code{-status-string},
27691 so the @code{nnchoke} back end will have its error message stored in
27692 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
27695 @node Writing New Back Ends
27696 @subsubsection Writing New Back Ends
27698 Many back ends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
27699 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
27700 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
27701 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
27702 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
27705 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
27706 back ends when writing new back ends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
27707 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
27709 All the back ends declare their public variables and functions by using a
27710 package called @code{nnoo}.
27712 To inherit functions from other back ends (and allow other back ends to
27713 inherit functions from the current back end), you should use the
27719 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
27720 parameters. For instance:
27723 (nnoo-declare nndir
27727 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
27728 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
27731 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
27732 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
27733 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
27735 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
27736 variables in the parent back ends to map the variable to when executing
27737 a function in those back ends.
27740 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
27741 "Where nndir will look for groups."
27742 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
27745 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
27746 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
27747 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
27749 @item nnoo-define-basics
27750 This macro defines some common functions that almost all back ends should
27754 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
27758 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
27759 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
27760 function as being public so that other back ends can inherit it.
27762 @item nnoo-map-functions
27763 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current back end to
27764 functions from the parent back ends.
27767 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
27768 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
27769 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
27772 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
27773 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
27774 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
27775 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
27778 This macro allows importing functions from back ends. It should be the
27779 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
27780 haven't already been defined.
27786 nnmh-request-newgroups)
27790 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
27791 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
27792 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
27797 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} back end.
27800 ;;; @r{nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus}
27801 ;; @r{Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.}
27805 (require 'nnheader)
27809 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
27811 (nnoo-declare nndir
27814 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
27815 "Where nndir will look for groups."
27816 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
27818 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
27819 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
27822 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
27824 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
27825 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
27826 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
27828 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
27829 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
27831 ;;; @r{Interface functions.}
27833 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
27835 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
27836 (setq nndir-directory
27837 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
27839 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
27840 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
27841 (push `(nndir-current-group
27842 ,(file-name-nondirectory
27843 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
27845 (push `(nndir-top-directory
27846 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
27848 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
27850 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
27851 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
27852 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
27853 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
27854 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
27858 nnmh-status-message
27860 nnmh-request-newgroups))
27866 @node Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
27867 @subsubsection Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
27869 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
27870 @findex gnus-declare-backend
27871 Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy---you just
27872 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
27873 enter the back end into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
27875 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the back end name and
27876 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
27881 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
27884 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
27886 The abilities can be:
27890 This is a mailish back end---followups should (probably) go via mail.
27892 This is a newsish back end---followups should (probably) go via news.
27894 This back end supports both mail and news.
27896 This is neither a post nor mail back end---it's something completely
27899 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
27900 articles and groups.
27902 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
27903 true for almost all back ends.
27904 @item prompt-address
27905 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
27906 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like
27907 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
27911 @node Mail-like Back Ends
27912 @subsubsection Mail-like Back Ends
27914 One of the things that separate the mail back ends from the rest of the
27915 back ends is the heavy dependence by most of the mail back ends on
27916 common functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the
27917 definition of @code{nnml-request-scan}:
27920 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
27921 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
27922 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
27925 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
27926 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
27929 This function takes four parameters.
27933 This should be a symbol to designate which back end is responsible for
27936 @item exit-function
27937 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
27939 @item temp-directory
27940 Where the temporary files should be stored.
27943 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
27944 performed for one group only.
27947 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{back-end}@code{-save-mail} to
27948 save each article. @var{back-end}@code{-active-number} will be called to
27949 find the article number assigned to this article.
27951 The function also uses the following variables:
27952 @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
27953 this back end); and @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} and
27954 @var{back-end}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
27955 @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
27959 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
27960 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
27964 @node Score File Syntax
27965 @subsection Score File Syntax
27967 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
27968 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
27969 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
27971 Here's a typical score file:
27975 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
27982 BNF definition of a score file:
27985 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
27986 element = rule / atom
27987 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
27988 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
27989 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
27990 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
27992 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
27993 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
27994 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
27995 date-header = "date"
27996 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
27997 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
27998 score = "nil" / <integer>
27999 date = "nil" / <natural number>
28000 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
28001 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
28002 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
28003 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
28004 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
28005 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
28006 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
28007 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
28008 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
28009 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
28010 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
28011 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
28012 exclude-files / read-only / touched
28013 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
28014 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
28015 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
28016 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
28017 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
28018 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
28019 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
28020 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
28021 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
28022 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
28023 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
28024 eval = "eval" space <form>
28025 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
28028 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
28031 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
28032 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
28033 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
28034 one looong line, then that's ok.
28036 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
28037 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
28041 @subsection Headers
28043 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
28044 corresponds to the @acronym{NOV} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
28045 almost suspect that the author looked at the @acronym{NOV} specification and
28046 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
28048 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
28049 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
28050 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
28051 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
28052 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
28053 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
28054 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
28056 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
28057 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
28058 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
28059 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
28060 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
28062 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
28063 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
28069 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
28070 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
28072 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
28073 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
28074 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
28075 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
28077 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
28081 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
28084 is transformed into
28087 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
28090 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
28091 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
28094 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
28097 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
28098 is slightly tricky:
28101 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
28107 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
28110 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
28116 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
28123 and is equal to the previous range.
28125 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
28126 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
28127 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
28131 range = simple-range / normal-range
28132 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
28133 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
28134 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
28135 number *[ " " contents ]
28138 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
28139 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
28140 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
28141 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
28142 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
28147 @subsection Group Info
28149 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
28150 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
28151 describes the group.
28153 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
28154 second is a more complex one:
28157 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
28159 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
28160 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
28162 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
28165 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
28166 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
28167 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
28168 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
28169 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
28170 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
28171 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
28172 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
28173 this section is about.
28175 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
28176 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
28177 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
28179 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
28182 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
28183 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
28184 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
28185 group = quote <string> quote
28186 ralevel = rank / level
28187 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
28188 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
28189 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
28191 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
28192 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
28193 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
28194 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
28197 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
28198 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
28201 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
28202 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
28205 @item gnus-info-group
28206 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
28207 @findex gnus-info-group
28208 @findex gnus-info-set-group
28209 Get/set the group name.
28211 @item gnus-info-rank
28212 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
28213 @findex gnus-info-rank
28214 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
28215 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
28217 @item gnus-info-level
28218 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
28219 @findex gnus-info-level
28220 @findex gnus-info-set-level
28221 Get/set the group level.
28223 @item gnus-info-score
28224 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
28225 @findex gnus-info-score
28226 @findex gnus-info-set-score
28227 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
28229 @item gnus-info-read
28230 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
28231 @findex gnus-info-read
28232 @findex gnus-info-set-read
28233 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
28235 @item gnus-info-marks
28236 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
28237 @findex gnus-info-marks
28238 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
28239 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
28241 @item gnus-info-method
28242 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
28243 @findex gnus-info-method
28244 @findex gnus-info-set-method
28245 Get/set the group select method.
28247 @item gnus-info-params
28248 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
28249 @findex gnus-info-params
28250 @findex gnus-info-set-params
28251 Get/set the group parameters.
28254 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
28255 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
28257 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
28258 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
28259 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
28260 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
28263 @node Extended Interactive
28264 @subsection Extended Interactive
28265 @cindex interactive
28266 @findex gnus-interactive
28268 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
28269 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
28270 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
28273 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
28274 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
28279 The best thing to do would have been to implement
28280 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
28281 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
28282 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
28283 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
28284 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
28285 @code{interactive}.
28287 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
28292 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
28293 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
28297 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
28298 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
28299 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
28302 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
28306 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
28310 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
28316 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
28317 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
28321 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
28322 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
28323 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
28325 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
28326 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
28327 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
28328 Gnus, that's very useful.
28330 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
28331 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
28332 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
28333 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
28334 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
28335 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
28336 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
28337 following function:
28340 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
28344 (,function ,@@args))
28348 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
28349 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
28350 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
28353 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
28354 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
28355 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
28357 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
28358 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
28359 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
28362 @node Various File Formats
28363 @subsection Various File Formats
28366 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
28367 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
28371 @node Active File Format
28372 @subsubsection Active File Format
28374 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
28375 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
28378 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
28381 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
28382 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
28383 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
28384 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
28385 no.general 1000 900 y
28388 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
28391 active = *group-line
28392 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
28393 group = <non-white-space string>
28395 high-number = <non-negative integer>
28396 low-number = <positive integer>
28397 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
28400 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
28401 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
28404 @node Newsgroups File Format
28405 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
28407 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
28408 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
28409 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
28412 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
28413 Here's the definition:
28417 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
28418 group = <non-white-space string>
28420 description = <string>
28425 @node Emacs for Heathens
28426 @section Emacs for Heathens
28428 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
28429 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
28430 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{C-M-a}'', ``kill the
28431 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
28432 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
28433 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
28434 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
28438 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
28439 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
28444 @subsection Keystrokes
28448 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
28451 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
28454 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
28455 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
28456 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
28457 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
28458 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
28459 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
28461 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
28462 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
28463 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
28464 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
28465 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
28466 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
28467 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
28469 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
28470 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{C-M-m}
28471 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
28472 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
28473 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
28474 ``Press @kbd{C-M-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
28475 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
28477 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
28478 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
28479 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
28480 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
28481 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
28487 @subsection Emacs Lisp
28489 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
28490 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
28491 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
28492 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
28494 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
28495 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
28496 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
28497 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
28498 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
28499 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
28500 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
28503 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
28504 write the following:
28507 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
28510 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
28511 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
28512 you can go and fill your @file{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
28515 If you have put that thing in your @file{.emacs} file, it will be read
28516 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
28517 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
28518 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
28519 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
28521 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
28522 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
28523 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
28527 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
28531 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
28534 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
28535 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
28538 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
28541 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
28542 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
28545 @include gnus-faq.texi
28565 @c Local Variables:
28567 @c coding: iso-8859-1