4 @settitle T-gnus 6.17 Manual
9 @documentencoding ISO-8859-1
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334 * Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
339 @setchapternewpage odd
344 @title T-gnus 6.17 Manual
346 @author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
348 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
354 @top The gnus Newsreader
358 You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using T-gnus. The news
359 can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---@acronym{NNTP}, local
360 spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your
363 T-gnus provides @acronym{MIME} features based on @acronym{SEMI} API. So
364 T-gnus supports your right to read strange messages including big images
365 or other various kinds of formats. T-gnus also supports
366 internationalization/localization and multiscript features based on MULE
367 API. So T-gnus does not discriminate various language communities. Oh,
368 if you are a Klingon, please wait Unicode Next Generation.
370 This manual corresponds to T-gnus 6.17.
381 Gnus is the advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
382 unreal-time newsreader for GNU Emacs.
384 Oops. That sounds oddly familiar, so let's start over again to avoid
385 being accused of plagiarism:
387 Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
388 about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
389 you can browse directories with it, you can @code{ftp} with it---you
390 can even read news with it!
392 Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
393 people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
394 allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend gnus to make it behave
395 like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
396 people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
402 * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain.
403 * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
404 * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles.
405 * Article Buffer:: Displaying and handling articles.
406 * Composing Messages:: Information on sending mail and news.
407 * Select Methods:: Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
408 * Scoring:: Assigning values to articles.
409 * Various:: General purpose settings.
410 * The End:: Farewell and goodbye.
411 * Appendices:: Terminology, Emacs intro, @acronym{FAQ}, History, Internals.
412 * Index:: Variable, function and concept index.
413 * Key Index:: Key Index.
415 Other related manuals
417 * Message:(message). Composing messages.
418 * Emacs-MIME:(emacs-mime). Composing messages; @acronym{MIME}-specific parts.
419 * Sieve:(sieve). Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
420 * PGG:(pgg). @acronym{PGP/MIME} with Gnus.
421 * SASL:(sasl). @acronym{SASL} authentication in Emacs.
424 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
428 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
429 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
430 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
431 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
432 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
433 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
434 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
435 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
436 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
437 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
438 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
442 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
443 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
444 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
448 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
449 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
450 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
451 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
452 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
453 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
454 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
455 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
456 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
457 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
458 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
459 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
460 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
461 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
462 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
463 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
464 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
468 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
469 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
470 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
474 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
475 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
476 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
477 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
478 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
482 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
483 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
484 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
485 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
486 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
490 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
491 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
492 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
493 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
494 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
495 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
496 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
497 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
498 * Threading:: How threads are made.
499 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
500 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
501 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
502 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
503 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
504 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
505 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
506 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
507 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
508 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
509 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
510 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
511 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
512 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
513 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
514 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
515 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
516 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
517 or reselecting the current group.
518 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
519 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
520 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
521 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
523 Summary Buffer Format
525 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
526 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
527 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
528 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
532 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
533 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
535 Reply, Followup and Post
537 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
538 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
539 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
540 * Canceling and Superseding::
544 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
545 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
546 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
547 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
548 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
549 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
553 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
554 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
556 Customizing Threading
558 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
559 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
560 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
561 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
565 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
566 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
567 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
568 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
569 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
570 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
574 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
575 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
576 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
580 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
581 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
582 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
583 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
584 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
585 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
586 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
587 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
588 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
589 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
590 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
592 Alternative Approaches
594 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
595 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
597 Various Summary Stuff
599 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
600 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
601 * Summary Generation Commands::
602 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
606 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
607 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
608 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
609 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
610 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
614 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
615 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
616 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
617 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
618 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
619 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
620 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
621 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
622 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
626 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
627 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
628 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
629 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
630 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
631 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
632 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
633 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
634 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
638 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
639 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
640 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
641 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
642 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
643 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
644 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
648 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
649 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
653 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
654 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
655 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
656 * NNTP marks:: Storing marks for @acronym{NNTP} servers.
660 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
661 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
662 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
663 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
664 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
665 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
666 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
667 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
668 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
669 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
670 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
671 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
672 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
676 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
677 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
678 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
680 Choosing a Mail Back End
682 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
683 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
684 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
685 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
686 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
687 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
688 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
693 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
694 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
695 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
696 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
697 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
698 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
702 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
703 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
704 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
705 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
706 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
707 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
711 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
712 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
713 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
714 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
715 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
719 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
723 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
724 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
725 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
729 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
730 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
734 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
735 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
736 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
740 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
741 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
742 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
744 The Gnus Diary Library
746 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
747 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
748 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
749 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
753 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
754 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
755 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
756 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
757 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
758 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
759 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
760 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
761 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
762 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
763 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
764 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
765 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
766 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
770 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
771 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
772 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
776 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
777 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
778 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
782 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
783 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
784 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
785 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
786 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
787 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
788 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
789 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
790 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
791 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
792 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
793 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
794 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
795 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
796 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
797 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
801 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
802 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
803 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
807 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
808 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
809 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
810 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
811 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
812 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
813 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
814 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
815 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
816 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
817 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
818 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
819 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
820 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
821 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
822 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
823 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
824 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
825 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
826 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
830 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
831 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
832 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
833 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
834 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
835 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
836 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
837 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
841 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
842 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
843 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
844 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
845 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
849 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
850 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
851 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
852 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
853 * Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package::
854 * Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat::
856 Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
858 * Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events::
859 * Spam ELisp Package Filtering of Incoming Mail::
860 * Spam ELisp Package Global Variables::
861 * Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples::
862 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
864 * Gmane Spam Reporting::
865 * Anti-spam Hashcash Payments::
867 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
869 * SpamAssassin back end::
870 * ifile spam filtering::
871 * spam-stat spam filtering::
873 * Extending the Spam ELisp package::
875 Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat
877 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
878 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
879 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
883 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
884 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
885 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
886 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
887 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
888 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
889 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
890 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
891 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
895 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
896 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
897 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
898 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
899 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
900 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
901 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
902 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
903 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
907 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
908 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
909 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
910 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
911 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
912 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
913 * No Gnus:: Lars, FIXME!
917 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
918 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
919 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
920 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
924 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
925 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
926 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
927 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
928 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
929 * Group Info:: The group info format.
930 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
931 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
932 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
936 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
937 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
938 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
939 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
940 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
941 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
945 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
946 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
950 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
951 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
957 @chapter Starting gnus
962 If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting gnus
963 and reading news is extremely easy---you just type @kbd{M-x gnus} in
966 @findex gnus-other-frame
967 @kindex M-x gnus-other-frame
968 If you want to start gnus in a different frame, you can use the command
969 @kbd{M-x gnus-other-frame} instead.
971 If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some
972 variables in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file. This file is similar to
973 @file{~/.emacs}, but is read when Gnus starts.
975 If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the
976 terminology section (@pxref{Terminology}).
979 * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news.
980 * The First Time:: What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
981 * The Server is Down:: How can I read my mail then?
982 * Slave Gnusae:: You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
983 * New Groups:: What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
984 * Changing Servers:: You may want to move from one server to another.
985 * Startup Files:: Those pesky startup files---@file{.newsrc}.
986 * Auto Save:: Recovering from a crash.
987 * The Active File:: Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
988 * Startup Variables:: Other variables you might change.
992 @node Finding the News
993 @section Finding the News
996 @vindex gnus-select-method
998 The @code{gnus-select-method} variable says where gnus should look for
999 news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
1000 @dfn{how} and the second element says @dfn{where}. This method is your
1001 native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
1004 For instance, if the @samp{news.somewhere.edu} @acronym{NNTP} server is where
1005 you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
1008 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
1011 If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
1014 (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
1017 If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost
1018 certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your
1019 server is running Leafnode (which is a simple, standalone private news
1020 server); in this case, use @code{(nntp "localhost")}.
1022 @vindex gnus-nntpserver-file
1024 @cindex @acronym{NNTP} server
1025 If this variable is not set, gnus will take a look at the
1026 @env{NNTPSERVER} environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
1027 gnus will see whether @code{gnus-nntpserver-file}
1028 (@file{/etc/nntpserver} by default) has any opinions on the matter.
1029 If that fails as well, gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs
1030 as an @acronym{NNTP} server. That's a long shot, though.
1032 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1033 If @code{gnus-nntp-server} is set, this variable will override
1034 @code{gnus-select-method}. You should therefore set
1035 @code{gnus-nntp-server} to @code{nil}, which is what it is by default.
1037 @vindex gnus-secondary-servers
1038 @vindex gnus-nntp-server
1039 You can also make gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
1040 @acronym{NNTP} server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to @code{gnus}
1041 (i.e., @kbd{C-u M-x gnus}), gnus will let you choose between the servers
1042 in the @code{gnus-secondary-servers} list (if any). You can also just
1043 type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this
1044 will set @code{gnus-nntp-server}, which means that if you then @kbd{M-x
1045 gnus} later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same
1048 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
1050 However, if you use one @acronym{NNTP} server regularly and are just
1051 interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
1052 better served by using the @kbd{B} command in the group buffer. It will
1053 let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
1054 to any of the groups you want to. This also makes @file{.newsrc}
1055 maintenance much tidier. @xref{Foreign Groups}.
1057 @vindex gnus-secondary-select-methods
1059 A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
1060 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} variable. The select methods
1061 listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
1062 @code{gnus-select-method} server. They will also be queried for active
1063 files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
1064 appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
1067 For instance, if you use the @code{nnmbox} back end to read your mail,
1068 you would typically set this variable to
1071 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
1074 Note: the @acronym{NNTP} back end stores marks in marks files
1075 (@pxref{NNTP marks}). This feature makes it easy to share marks between
1076 several Gnus installations, but may slow down things a bit when fetching
1077 new articles. @xref{NNTP marks}, for more information.
1080 @node The First Time
1081 @section The First Time
1082 @cindex first time usage
1084 If no startup files exist (@pxref{Startup Files}), gnus will try to
1085 determine what groups should be subscribed by default.
1087 @vindex gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups
1088 If the variable @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is set, gnus
1089 will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest
1090 killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to
1093 Since she hasn't, gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily
1094 picked groups (i.e., @samp{*.newusers}). (@dfn{Arbitrary} is defined
1095 here as @dfn{whatever Lars thinks you should read}.)
1097 You'll also be subscribed to the gnus documentation group, which should
1098 help you with most common problems.
1100 If @code{gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups} is @code{t}, gnus will just
1101 use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything
1105 @node The Server is Down
1106 @section The Server is Down
1107 @cindex server errors
1109 If the default server is down, gnus will understandably have some
1110 problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to
1111 the news groups, you may want to start gnus anyway.
1113 Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed
1114 without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This
1115 will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have
1116 given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill
1117 for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign
1118 groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group
1119 buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!
1121 @findex gnus-no-server
1122 @kindex M-x gnus-no-server
1124 If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read
1125 your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the
1126 @code{gnus-no-server} command to start gnus. That might come in handy
1127 if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact
1128 your primary server---instead, it will just activate all groups on level
1129 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two
1130 levels.) Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
1134 @section Slave Gnusae
1137 You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one gnus at the
1138 same time. If you are using different @file{.newsrc} files (e.g., if you
1139 are using the two different gnusae to read from two different servers),
1140 that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
1142 The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
1143 @file{.newsrc} file.
1145 To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the gnus
1146 Towers have come up with a new concept: @dfn{Masters} and
1147 @dfn{slaves}. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have
1148 taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in
1149 conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to
1150 me. Usage of the patent (@dfn{Master/Slave Relationships In Computer
1151 Applications}) will be much more expensive, of course.)
1154 Anyway, you start one gnus up the normal way with @kbd{M-x gnus} (or
1155 however you do it). Each subsequent slave gnusae should be started with
1156 @kbd{M-x gnus-slave}. These slaves won't save normal @file{.newsrc}
1157 files, but instead save @dfn{slave files} that contain information only
1158 on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master gnus
1159 starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all
1160 information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence
1161 they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)
1163 Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
1164 information in the normal (i.e., master) @file{.newsrc} file.
1166 If the @file{.newsrc*} files have not been saved in the master when the
1167 slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
1168 file. If you answer ``yes'', the unsaved changes to the master will be
1169 incorporated into the slave. If you answer ``no'', the slave may see some
1170 messages as unread that have been read in the master.
1177 @cindex subscription
1179 @vindex gnus-check-new-newsgroups
1180 If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups,
1181 you can set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil}. This will
1182 also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is
1183 @code{nil}, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing
1184 @kbd{U} in the group buffer (@pxref{Group Maintenance}). This variable
1185 is @code{ask-server} by default. If you set this variable to
1186 @code{always}, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even
1187 when you do the @kbd{g} command (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
1190 * Checking New Groups:: Determining what groups are new.
1191 * Subscription Methods:: What Gnus should do with new groups.
1192 * Filtering New Groups:: Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
1196 @node Checking New Groups
1197 @subsection Checking New Groups
1199 Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the
1200 list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and
1201 dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If
1202 @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} is @code{ask-server}, gnus will ask the
1203 server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and
1204 cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed
1205 groups altogether, so you may set @code{gnus-save-killed-list} to
1206 @code{nil}, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over.
1207 Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then?
1208 Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.
1210 I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my
1211 server supports @code{ask-server}? No? Good, because I don't have a
1212 fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to
1213 @code{ask-server} and see whether any new groups appear within the next
1214 few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't
1215 work. I could write a function to make gnus guess whether the server
1216 supports @code{ask-server}, but it would just be a guess. So I won't.
1217 You could @code{telnet} to the server and say @code{HELP} and see
1218 whether it lists @samp{NEWGROUPS} among the commands it understands. If
1219 it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists
1220 @samp{NEWGROUPS} without supporting the function properly.)
1222 This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, gnus will
1223 issue an @code{ask-server} command to each of the select methods, and
1224 subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy
1225 if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is
1226 that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting.
1227 Use the mantra ``dingnusdingnusdingnus'' to achieve permanent bliss.
1230 @node Subscription Methods
1231 @subsection Subscription Methods
1233 @vindex gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method
1234 What gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the
1235 @code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} variable.
1237 This variable should contain a function. This function will be called
1238 with the name of the new group as the only parameter.
1240 Some handy pre-fab functions are:
1244 @item gnus-subscribe-zombies
1245 @vindex gnus-subscribe-zombies
1246 Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the
1247 zombies later (with @kbd{A z}) and either kill them all off properly
1248 (with @kbd{S z}), or subscribe to them (with @kbd{u}).
1250 @item gnus-subscribe-randomly
1251 @vindex gnus-subscribe-randomly
1252 Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all
1253 new groups will be added at ``the top'' of the group buffer.
1255 @item gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1256 @vindex gnus-subscribe-alphabetically
1257 Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.
1259 @item gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1260 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchically
1261 Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this
1262 function and @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} is slight.
1263 @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically} will subscribe new groups in a strictly
1264 alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its
1265 hierarchy. So if you want to have the @samp{rec} hierarchy before the
1266 @samp{comp} hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration
1267 up. Or something like that.
1269 @item gnus-subscribe-interactively
1270 @vindex gnus-subscribe-interactively
1271 Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that gnus will ask
1272 you about @strong{all} new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe
1273 to will be subscribed hierarchically.
1275 @item gnus-subscribe-killed
1276 @vindex gnus-subscribe-killed
1277 Kill all new groups.
1279 @item gnus-subscribe-topics
1280 @vindex gnus-subscribe-topics
1281 Put the groups into the topic that has a matching @code{subscribe} topic
1282 parameter (@pxref{Topic Parameters}). For instance, a @code{subscribe}
1283 topic parameter that looks like
1289 will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under
1292 If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the
1297 @vindex gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive
1298 A closely related variable is
1299 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. (That's quite a
1300 mouthful.) If this variable is non-@code{nil}, gnus will ask you in a
1301 hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus
1302 will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the
1305 One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above
1306 (@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method}) to
1307 @code{gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive}. This is an error. This
1308 will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.
1311 @node Filtering New Groups
1312 @subsection Filtering New Groups
1314 A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be
1315 subscribed (or ignored) is to put an @dfn{options} line at the start of
1316 the @file{.newsrc} file. Here's an example:
1319 options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all
1322 @vindex gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method
1323 This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific
1324 person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all
1325 groups that have names beginning with @samp{alt} and @samp{rec} should
1326 be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with @samp{sci} should
1327 be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for
1328 subscribing these groups.
1329 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method} is used instead. This
1330 variable defaults to @code{gnus-subscribe-alphabetically}.
1332 @vindex gnus-options-not-subscribe
1333 @vindex gnus-options-subscribe
1334 If you don't want to mess with your @file{.newsrc} file, you can just
1335 set the two variables @code{gnus-options-subscribe} and
1336 @code{gnus-options-not-subscribe}. These two variables do exactly the
1337 same as the @file{.newsrc} @samp{options -n} trick. Both are regexps,
1338 and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally
1339 subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.
1341 @vindex gnus-auto-subscribed-groups
1342 Yet another variable that meddles here is
1343 @code{gnus-auto-subscribed-groups}. It works exactly like
1344 @code{gnus-options-subscribe}, and is therefore really superfluous,
1345 but I thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is
1346 more meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is
1347 used more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new
1348 groups that come from mail back ends (@code{nnml}, @code{nnbabyl},
1349 @code{nnfolder}, @code{nnmbox}, @code{nnmh}, and @code{nnmaildir})
1350 subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to
1353 New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using
1354 @code{gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method}.
1357 @node Changing Servers
1358 @section Changing Servers
1359 @cindex changing servers
1361 Sometimes it is necessary to move from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another.
1362 This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is
1363 very flaky and you want to use another.
1365 Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change
1366 @code{gnus-select-method} to point to the new server?
1370 Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different
1371 @acronym{NNTP} servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles
1372 you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you
1373 change @code{gnus-select-method}, your @file{.newsrc} file becomes
1376 Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a @file{.newsrc}
1377 file from one server to another. They all have one thing in
1378 common---they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these
1379 functions more than absolutely necessary.
1381 @kindex M-x gnus-change-server
1382 @findex gnus-change-server
1383 If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all
1384 the articles you have read and compare @code{Message-ID}s and map the
1385 article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The @kbd{M-x
1386 gnus-change-server} command will do this for all your native groups. It
1387 will prompt for the method you want to move to.
1389 @kindex M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1390 @findex gnus-group-move-group-to-server
1391 You can also move individual groups with the @kbd{M-x
1392 gnus-group-move-group-to-server} command. This is useful if you want to
1393 move a (foreign) group from one server to another.
1395 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1396 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
1397 If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks
1398 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the @kbd{M-x
1399 gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} command to clear out all data
1400 that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.
1402 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data
1403 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
1404 Clear the data from the current group only---nix out marks and the
1405 list of read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
1407 After changing servers, you @strong{must} move the cache hierarchy away,
1408 since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will
1409 affect which articles Gnus thinks are read.
1410 @code{gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups} will ask you if you want
1411 to have it done automatically; for @code{gnus-group-clear-data}, you
1412 can use @kbd{M-x gnus-cache-move-cache} (but beware, it will move the
1413 cache for all groups).
1417 @section Startup Files
1418 @cindex startup files
1423 Most common Unix news readers use a shared startup file called
1424 @file{.newsrc}. This file contains all the information about what
1425 groups are subscribed, and which articles in these groups have been
1428 Things got a bit more complicated with @sc{gnus}. In addition to
1429 keeping the @file{.newsrc} file updated, it also used a file called
1430 @file{.newsrc.el} for storing all the information that didn't fit into
1431 the @file{.newsrc} file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in
1432 the @file{.newsrc} file.) @sc{gnus} would read whichever one of these
1433 files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between
1434 @sc{gnus} and other newsreaders.
1436 That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the
1437 @file{.newsrc} and @file{.newsrc.el} files, Gnus also has a file called
1438 @file{.newsrc.eld}. It will read whichever of these files that are most
1439 recent, but it will never write a @file{.newsrc.el} file. You should
1440 never delete the @file{.newsrc.eld} file---it contains much information
1441 not stored in the @file{.newsrc} file.
1443 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-file
1444 @vindex gnus-read-newsrc-file
1445 You can turn off writing the @file{.newsrc} file by setting
1446 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-file} to @code{nil}, which means you can delete
1447 the file and save some space, as well as exiting from gnus faster.
1448 However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than
1449 gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting
1450 @code{gnus-read-newsrc-file} to @code{nil} makes gnus ignore the
1451 @file{.newsrc} file and any @file{.newsrc-SERVER} files, which can be
1452 convenient if you use a different news reader occasionally, and you
1453 want to read a different subset of the available groups with that
1456 @vindex gnus-save-killed-list
1457 If @code{gnus-save-killed-list} (default @code{t}) is @code{nil}, Gnus
1458 will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will
1459 save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It
1460 will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old,
1461 so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless.
1462 You should always set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{nil} or
1463 @code{ask-server} if you set this variable to @code{nil} (@pxref{New
1464 Groups}). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's
1465 the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before
1466 saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve
1467 several servers where not all servers support @code{ask-server}.
1469 @vindex gnus-startup-file
1470 @vindex gnus-backup-startup-file
1471 @vindex version-control
1472 The @code{gnus-startup-file} variable says where the startup files are.
1473 The default value is @file{~/.newsrc}, with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup
1474 file being whatever that one is, with a @samp{.eld} appended.
1475 If you want version control for this file, set
1476 @code{gnus-backup-startup-file}. It respects the same values as the
1477 @code{version-control} variable.
1479 @vindex gnus-save-newsrc-hook
1480 @vindex gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook
1481 @vindex gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook
1482 @code{gnus-save-newsrc-hook} is called before saving any of the newsrc
1483 files, while @code{gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook} is called just before
1484 saving the @file{.newsrc.eld} file, and
1485 @code{gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook} is called just before saving the
1486 @file{.newsrc} file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version
1487 control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the
1488 startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:
1491 (defun turn-off-backup ()
1492 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
1494 (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1495 (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)
1498 @vindex gnus-init-file
1499 @vindex gnus-site-init-file
1500 When Gnus starts, it will read the @code{gnus-site-init-file}
1501 (@file{.../site-lisp/gnus-init} by default) and @code{gnus-init-file}
1502 (@file{~/.gnus} by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files
1503 and can be used to avoid cluttering your @file{~/.emacs} and
1504 @file{site-init} files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files
1505 with the same names as these, but with @file{.elc} and @file{.el}
1506 suffixes. In other words, if you have set @code{gnus-init-file} to
1507 @file{~/.gnus}, it will look for @file{~/.gnus.elc}, @file{~/.gnus.el},
1508 and finally @file{~/.gnus} (in this order). If Emacs was invoked with
1509 the @option{-q} or @option{--no-init-file} options (@pxref{Initial
1510 Options, ,Initial Options, emacs, The Emacs Manual}), Gnus doesn't read
1511 @code{gnus-init-file}.
1516 @cindex dribble file
1519 Whenever you do something that changes the gnus data (reading articles,
1520 catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a
1521 special @dfn{dribble buffer}. This buffer is auto-saved the normal
1522 Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the
1523 @file{.newsrc} files, all changes you have made can be recovered from
1526 If gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to
1527 read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is
1530 @vindex gnus-use-dribble-file
1531 If @code{gnus-use-dribble-file} is @code{nil}, gnus won't create and
1532 maintain a dribble buffer. The default is @code{t}.
1534 @vindex gnus-dribble-directory
1535 Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in @code{gnus-dribble-directory}. If
1536 this variable is @code{nil}, which it is by default, gnus will dribble
1537 into the directory where the @file{.newsrc} file is located. (This is
1538 normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same
1539 file permissions as the @file{.newsrc} file.
1541 @vindex gnus-always-read-dribble-file
1542 If @code{gnus-always-read-dribble-file} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will
1543 read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.
1546 @node The Active File
1547 @section The Active File
1549 @cindex ignored groups
1551 When gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new
1552 articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large
1553 file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.
1555 @vindex gnus-ignored-newsgroups
1556 Before examining the active file, gnus deletes all lines that match the
1557 regexp @code{gnus-ignored-newsgroups}. This is done primarily to reject
1558 any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make gnus
1559 ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not
1560 recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, @pxref{New
1561 Groups} for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.
1564 @c @code{nil} by default, and will slow down active file handling somewhat
1565 @c if you set it to anything else.
1567 @vindex gnus-read-active-file
1569 The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you
1570 can set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{nil} to prevent gnus from
1571 reading the active file. This variable is @code{some} by default.
1573 Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that
1574 you actually subscribe to.
1576 Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this
1577 variable to @code{nil} will probably make gnus slower, not faster. At
1578 present, having this variable @code{nil} will slow gnus down
1579 considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.
1581 This variable can also have the value @code{some}. Gnus will then
1582 attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some
1583 servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that
1584 support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command), on others this isn't fast
1585 at all. In any case, @code{some} should be faster than @code{nil}, and
1586 is certainly faster than @code{t} over slow lines.
1588 Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for
1589 instance) do not support the @code{LIST ACTIVE group}. For these
1590 servers, @code{nil} is probably the most efficient value for this
1593 If this variable is @code{nil}, gnus will ask for group info in total
1594 lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is @code{some} and you use an
1595 @acronym{NNTP} server, gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and
1596 read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better
1597 performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned
1598 @code{LIST ACTIVE group} command, this isn't very nice to the server.
1600 If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three
1601 different values for this variable and see what works best for you.
1603 In any case, if you use @code{some} or @code{nil}, you should definitely
1604 kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.
1606 Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from
1607 secondary select methods.
1610 @node Startup Variables
1611 @section Startup Variables
1615 @item gnus-load-hook
1616 @vindex gnus-load-hook
1617 A hook run while gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will
1618 normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many
1619 times you start gnus.
1621 @item gnus-before-startup-hook
1622 @vindex gnus-before-startup-hook
1623 A hook run after starting up gnus successfully.
1625 @item gnus-startup-hook
1626 @vindex gnus-startup-hook
1627 A hook run as the very last thing after starting up gnus
1629 @item gnus-started-hook
1630 @vindex gnus-started-hook
1631 A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up gnus
1634 @item gnus-setup-news-hook
1635 @vindex gnus-setup-news-hook
1636 A hook that is run after reading the @file{.newsrc} file(s), but before
1637 generating the group buffer.
1639 @item gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1640 @vindex gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups
1641 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at
1642 startup. A @dfn{bogus group} is a group that you have in your
1643 @file{.newsrc} file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for
1644 bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's
1645 best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once
1646 in a while from the group buffer instead (@pxref{Group Maintenance}).
1648 @item gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1649 @vindex gnus-inhibit-startup-message
1650 If non-@code{nil}, the startup message won't be displayed. That way,
1651 your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead
1652 of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before
1653 @file{~/.gnus.el} is loaded, so it should be set in @file{.emacs} instead.
1655 @item gnus-no-groups-message
1656 @vindex gnus-no-groups-message
1657 Message displayed by gnus when no groups are available.
1659 @item gnus-play-startup-jingle
1660 @vindex gnus-play-startup-jingle
1661 If non-@code{nil}, play the gnus jingle at startup.
1663 @item gnus-startup-jingle
1664 @vindex gnus-startup-jingle
1665 Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-@code{nil}. The
1666 default is @samp{Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au}.
1672 @chapter Group Buffer
1673 @cindex group buffer
1675 @c Alex Schroeder suggests to rearrange this as follows:
1677 @c <kensanata> ok, just save it for reference. I'll go to bed in a minute.
1678 @c 1. Selecting a Group, 2. (new) Finding a Group, 3. Group Levels,
1679 @c 4. Subscription Commands, 5. Group Maneuvering, 6. Group Data,
1680 @c 7. Group Score, 8. Group Buffer Format
1681 @c <kensanata> Group Levels should have more information on levels 5 to 9. I
1682 @c suggest to split the 4th paragraph ("Gnus considers groups...") as follows:
1683 @c <kensanata> First, "Gnus considers groups... (default 9)."
1684 @c <kensanata> New, a table summarizing what levels 1 to 9 mean.
1685 @c <kensanata> Third, "Gnus treats subscribed ... reasons of efficiency"
1686 @c <kensanata> Then expand the next paragraph or add some more to it.
1687 @c This short one sentence explains levels 1 and 2, therefore I understand
1688 @c that I should keep important news at 3 and boring news at 4.
1689 @c Say so! Then go on to explain why I should bother with levels 6 to 9.
1690 @c Maybe keep those that you don't want to read temporarily at 6,
1691 @c those that you never want to read at 8, those that offend your
1692 @c human rights at 9...
1695 The @dfn{group buffer} lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It
1696 is the first buffer shown when gnus starts, and will never be killed as
1697 long as gnus is active.
1701 \gnusfigure{The Group Buffer}{320}{
1702 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group,height=9cm}}
1703 \put(120,37){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Buffer name}}
1704 \put(120,38){\vector(1,2){10}}
1705 \put(40,60){\makebox(0,0)[r]{Mode line}}
1706 \put(40,58){\vector(1,0){30}}
1707 \put(200,28){\makebox(0,0)[t]{Native select method}}
1708 \put(200,26){\vector(-1,2){15}}
1714 * Group Buffer Format:: Information listed and how you can change it.
1715 * Group Maneuvering:: Commands for moving in the group buffer.
1716 * Selecting a Group:: Actually reading news.
1717 * Subscription Commands:: Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
1718 * Group Data:: Changing the info for a group.
1719 * Group Levels:: Levels? What are those, then?
1720 * Group Score:: A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
1721 * Marking Groups:: You can mark groups for later processing.
1722 * Foreign Groups:: Creating and editing groups.
1723 * Group Parameters:: Each group may have different parameters set.
1724 * Listing Groups:: Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
1725 * Sorting Groups:: Re-arrange the group order.
1726 * Group Maintenance:: Maintaining a tidy @file{.newsrc} file.
1727 * Browse Foreign Server:: You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
1728 * Exiting Gnus:: Stop reading news and get some work done.
1729 * Group Topics:: A folding group mode divided into topics.
1730 * Misc Group Stuff:: Other stuff that you can to do.
1734 @node Group Buffer Format
1735 @section Group Buffer Format
1738 * Group Line Specification:: Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
1739 * Group Mode Line Specification:: The group buffer mode line.
1740 * Group Highlighting:: Having nice colors in the group buffer.
1744 @node Group Line Specification
1745 @subsection Group Line Specification
1746 @cindex group buffer format
1748 The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can
1749 make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.
1751 Here's a couple of example group lines:
1754 25: news.announce.newusers
1755 * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin
1760 You can see that there are 25 unread articles in
1761 @samp{news.announce.newusers}. There are no unread articles, but some
1762 ticked articles, in @samp{alt.fan.andrea-dworkin} (see that little
1763 asterisk at the beginning of the line?).
1765 @vindex gnus-group-line-format
1766 You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the
1767 @code{gnus-group-line-format} variable. This variable works along the
1768 lines of a @code{format} specification, which is pretty much the same as
1769 a @code{printf} specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C.
1770 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
1772 @samp{%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n} is the value that produced those lines above.
1774 There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to
1775 the colon after performing an operation. @xref{Positioning
1776 Point}. Nothing else is required---not even the group name. All
1777 displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus.
1778 Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.
1780 (Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like
1781 layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting
1782 instead of wasting time reading news.)
1784 Here's a list of all available format characters:
1789 An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.
1792 Whether the group is subscribed.
1795 Level of subscribedness.
1798 Number of unread articles.
1801 Number of dormant articles.
1804 Number of ticked articles.
1807 Number of read articles.
1810 Number of unseen articles.
1813 Estimated total number of articles. (This is really @var{max-number}
1814 minus @var{min-number} plus 1.)
1816 Gnus uses this estimation because the @acronym{NNTP} protocol provides
1817 efficient access to @var{max-number} and @var{min-number} but getting
1818 the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For
1819 hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of
1820 unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited
1821 interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back
1822 end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job. If you
1823 want to work on this, please contact the Gnus mailing list.
1826 Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.
1829 Number of ticked and dormant articles.
1838 Group comment (@pxref{Group Parameters}) or group name if there is no
1839 comment element in the group parameters.
1842 Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions
1843 before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set
1844 @code{gnus-read-active-file} or use the group buffer @kbd{M-d}
1848 @samp{m} if moderated.
1851 @samp{(m)} if moderated.
1857 If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.
1863 A string that looks like @samp{<%s:%n>} if a foreign select method is
1867 Indentation based on the level of the topic (@pxref{Group Topics}).
1870 @vindex gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels
1871 Short (collapsed) group name. The @code{gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels}
1872 variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name.
1873 The default is 1---this will mean that group names like
1874 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} will be shortened to @samp{g.e.gnus}.
1877 @vindex gnus-new-mail-mark
1879 @samp{%} (@code{gnus-new-mail-mark}) if there has arrived new mail to
1883 @samp{#} (@code{gnus-process-mark}) if the group is process marked.
1886 A string that says when you last read the group (@pxref{Group
1890 The disk space used by the articles fetched by both the cache and
1891 agent. The value is automatically scaled to bytes(B), kilobytes(K),
1892 megabytes(M), or gigabytes(G) to minimize the column width. A format
1893 of %7F is sufficient for a fixed-width column.
1896 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
1897 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
1898 @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where @samp{X} is the letter
1899 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed a single dummy
1900 parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will
1901 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
1906 All the ``number-of'' specs will be filled with an asterisk (@samp{*})
1907 if no info is available---for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign
1908 group, or a bogus native group.
1911 @node Group Mode Line Specification
1912 @subsection Group Mode Line Specification
1913 @cindex group mode line
1915 @vindex gnus-group-mode-line-format
1916 The mode line can be changed by setting
1917 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}). It
1918 doesn't understand that many format specifiers:
1922 The native news server.
1924 The native select method.
1928 @node Group Highlighting
1929 @subsection Group Highlighting
1930 @cindex highlighting
1931 @cindex group highlighting
1933 @vindex gnus-group-highlight
1934 Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the
1935 @code{gnus-group-highlight} variable. This is an alist with elements
1936 that look like @code{(@var{form} . @var{face})}. If @var{form} evaluates to
1937 something non-@code{nil}, the @var{face} will be used on the line.
1939 Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the
1943 (cond (window-system
1944 (setq custom-background-mode 'light)
1945 (defface my-group-face-1
1946 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face")
1947 (defface my-group-face-2
1948 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t)))
1949 "Second group face")
1950 (defface my-group-face-3
1951 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face")
1952 (defface my-group-face-4
1953 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face")
1954 (defface my-group-face-5
1955 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face")))
1957 (setq gnus-group-highlight
1958 '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1)
1959 ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2)
1960 ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3)
1961 ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4)
1962 (t . my-group-face-5)))
1965 Also @pxref{Faces and Fonts}.
1967 Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated
1974 The number of unread articles in the group.
1978 Whether the group is a mail group.
1980 The level of the group.
1982 The score of the group.
1984 The number of ticked articles in the group.
1986 The total number of articles in the group. Or rather,
1987 @var{max-number} minus @var{min-number} plus one.
1989 When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current
1990 topic being inserted.
1993 When the forms are @code{eval}ed, point is at the beginning of the line
1994 of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal gnus
1995 functions for snarfing info on the group.
1997 @vindex gnus-group-update-hook
1998 @findex gnus-group-highlight-line
1999 @code{gnus-group-update-hook} is called when a group line is changed.
2000 It will not be called when @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}. This hook
2001 calls @code{gnus-group-highlight-line} by default.
2004 @node Group Maneuvering
2005 @section Group Maneuvering
2006 @cindex group movement
2008 All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as
2009 expected, hopefully.
2015 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group
2016 Go to the next group that has unread articles
2017 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group}).
2023 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group
2024 Go to the previous group that has unread articles
2025 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group}).
2029 @findex gnus-group-next-group
2030 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
2034 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
2035 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
2039 @findex gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level
2040 Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level
2041 (@code{gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level}).
2045 @findex gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level
2046 Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level
2047 (@code{gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level}).
2050 Three commands for jumping to groups:
2056 @findex gnus-group-jump-to-group
2057 Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already)
2058 (@code{gnus-group-jump-to-group}). Killed groups can be jumped to, just
2063 @findex gnus-group-best-unread-group
2064 Jump to the unread group with the lowest level
2065 (@code{gnus-group-best-unread-group}).
2069 @findex gnus-group-first-unread-group
2070 Jump to the first group with unread articles
2071 (@code{gnus-group-first-unread-group}).
2074 @vindex gnus-group-goto-unread
2075 If @code{gnus-group-goto-unread} is @code{nil}, all the movement
2076 commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even
2077 the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default
2081 @node Selecting a Group
2082 @section Selecting a Group
2083 @cindex group selection
2088 @kindex SPACE (Group)
2089 @findex gnus-group-read-group
2090 Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the
2091 first unread article (@code{gnus-group-read-group}). If there are no
2092 unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to
2093 this command, gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this
2094 group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix @var{n}, @var{n}
2095 determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If @var{n} is
2096 positive, Gnus fetches the @var{n} newest articles, if @var{n} is
2097 negative, Gnus fetches the @code{abs(@var{n})} oldest articles.
2099 Thus, @kbd{SPC} enters the group normally, @kbd{C-u SPC} offers old
2100 articles, @kbd{C-u 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 newest articles, and @kbd{C-u
2101 - 4 2 SPC} fetches the 42 oldest ones.
2103 When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type
2104 @kbd{M-g} to fetch new articles, or @kbd{C-u M-g} to also show the old
2109 @findex gnus-group-select-group
2110 Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer
2111 (@code{gnus-group-select-group}). Takes the same arguments as
2112 @code{gnus-group-read-group}---the only difference is that this command
2113 does not display the first unread article automatically upon group
2117 @kindex M-RET (Group)
2118 @findex gnus-group-quick-select-group
2119 This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the
2120 minimum amount of fuzz (@code{gnus-group-quick-select-group}). No
2121 scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no
2122 expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to
2123 enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command
2124 (i.e., @kbd{0 M-RET}), gnus won't even generate the summary buffer,
2125 which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the
2126 summary buffer (@pxref{Summary Generation Commands}).
2129 @kindex M-SPACE (Group)
2130 @findex gnus-group-visible-select-group
2131 This is yet one more command that does the same as the @kbd{RET}
2132 command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants
2133 (@code{gnus-group-visible-select-group}).
2136 @kindex C-M-RET (Group)
2137 @findex gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally
2138 Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without
2139 doing any processing of its contents
2140 (@code{gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally}). Even threading has been
2141 turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this
2142 manner will have no permanent effects.
2146 @vindex gnus-large-newsgroup
2147 The @code{gnus-large-newsgroup} variable says what Gnus should
2148 consider to be a big group. If it is @code{nil}, no groups are
2149 considered big. The default value is 200. If the group has more
2150 (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, gnus will query the user
2151 before entering the group. The user can then specify how many
2152 articles should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a
2153 negative number (@var{-n}), the @var{n} oldest articles will be
2154 fetched. If it is positive, the @var{n} articles that have arrived
2155 most recently will be fetched.
2157 @vindex gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup
2158 @code{gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup} is the same as
2159 @code{gnus-large-newsgroup}, but is only used for ephemeral
2162 @vindex gnus-select-group-hook
2163 @vindex gnus-auto-select-first
2164 @vindex gnus-auto-select-subject
2165 If @code{gnus-auto-select-first} is non-@code{nil}, select an article
2166 automatically when entering a group with the @kbd{SPACE} command.
2167 Which article this is is controlled by the
2168 @code{gnus-auto-select-subject} variable. Valid values for this
2174 Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.
2177 Place point on the subject line of the first article.
2180 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.
2182 @item unseen-or-unread
2183 Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if
2184 there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first
2188 Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.
2192 This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function
2193 will be called to place point on a subject line.
2195 If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a
2196 binary group with Huge articles) you can set the
2197 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} variable to @code{nil} in
2198 @code{gnus-select-group-hook}, which is called when a group is
2202 @node Subscription Commands
2203 @section Subscription Commands
2204 @cindex subscription
2212 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group
2213 @c @icon{gnus-group-unsubscribe}
2214 Toggle subscription to the current group
2215 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group}).
2221 @findex gnus-group-unsubscribe-group
2222 Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was
2223 subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead
2224 (@code{gnus-group-unsubscribe-group}).
2230 @findex gnus-group-kill-group
2231 @c @icon{gnus-group-kill-group}
2232 Kill the current group (@code{gnus-group-kill-group}).
2238 @findex gnus-group-yank-group
2239 Yank the last killed group (@code{gnus-group-yank-group}).
2242 @kindex C-x C-t (Group)
2243 @findex gnus-group-transpose-groups
2244 Transpose two groups (@code{gnus-group-transpose-groups}). This isn't
2245 really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a
2246 kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.
2252 @findex gnus-group-kill-region
2253 Kill all groups in the region (@code{gnus-group-kill-region}).
2257 @findex gnus-group-kill-all-zombies
2258 Kill all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-kill-all-zombies}).
2261 @kindex S C-k (Group)
2262 @findex gnus-group-kill-level
2263 Kill all groups on a certain level (@code{gnus-group-kill-level}).
2264 These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should
2265 be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in
2266 really handy is when you have a @file{.newsrc} with lots of unsubscribed
2267 groups that you want to get rid off. @kbd{S C-k} on level 7 will
2268 kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the
2269 @file{.newsrc} file.
2273 Also @pxref{Group Levels}.
2283 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current
2284 @vindex gnus-group-catchup-group-hook
2285 @c @icon{gnus-group-catchup-current}
2286 Mark all unticked articles in this group as read
2287 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current}).
2288 @code{gnus-group-catchup-group-hook} is called when catching up a group from
2293 @findex gnus-group-catchup-current-all
2294 Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read
2295 (@code{gnus-group-catchup-current-all}).
2299 @findex gnus-group-clear-data
2300 Clear the data from the current group---nix out marks and the list of
2301 read articles (@code{gnus-group-clear-data}).
2303 @item M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2304 @kindex M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2305 @findex gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups
2306 If you have switched from one @acronym{NNTP} server to another, all your marks
2307 and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to
2308 clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with
2315 @section Group Levels
2319 All groups have a level of @dfn{subscribedness}. For instance, if a
2320 group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You
2321 can ask gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower
2322 (@pxref{Listing Groups}), or to just check for new articles in groups on
2323 a given level or lower (@pxref{Scanning New Messages}).
2325 Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.
2331 @findex gnus-group-set-current-level
2332 Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the
2333 next @var{n} groups will have their levels set. The user will be
2334 prompted for a level.
2337 @vindex gnus-level-killed
2338 @vindex gnus-level-zombie
2339 @vindex gnus-level-unsubscribed
2340 @vindex gnus-level-subscribed
2341 Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to
2342 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed,
2343 @code{gnus-level-subscribed} (exclusive) and
2344 @code{gnus-level-unsubscribed} (inclusive) (default 7) to be
2345 unsubscribed, @code{gnus-level-zombie} to be zombies (walking dead)
2346 (default 8) and @code{gnus-level-killed} to be killed (completely dead)
2347 (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the
2348 same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles
2349 you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living
2350 groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for
2351 reasons of efficiency.
2353 It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite
2354 low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).
2356 Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to
2357 understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you
2358 subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting @kbd{L} you can have it show
2359 empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type @kbd{l} to
2360 go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed
2361 groups are hidden, in a way.
2363 Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they
2364 are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and
2365 unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for
2366 information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie
2367 and killed groups. Normally, you use @kbd{C-k} to kill the groups you
2368 aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.
2370 Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when
2371 a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie
2372 group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups,
2373 but you can type @kbd{A z} to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe
2374 the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (@kbd{A k} shows a
2375 list of killed groups.)
2377 If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care.
2378 Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch
2379 them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.
2381 @vindex gnus-level-default-unsubscribed
2382 @vindex gnus-level-default-subscribed
2383 Two closely related variables are @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}
2384 (default 3) and @code{gnus-level-default-unsubscribed} (default 6),
2385 which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are
2386 (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the
2387 relevant valid ranges.
2389 @vindex gnus-keep-same-level
2390 If @code{gnus-keep-same-level} is non-@code{nil}, some movement commands
2391 will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In
2392 particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group
2393 will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be
2394 handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the
2397 If this variable is @code{best}, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the
2398 one with the best level.
2400 @vindex gnus-group-default-list-level
2401 All groups with a level less than or equal to
2402 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level} will be listed in the group buffer
2405 @vindex gnus-group-list-inactive-groups
2406 If @code{gnus-group-list-inactive-groups} is non-@code{nil}, non-active
2407 groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is
2408 @code{t} by default. If it is @code{nil}, inactive groups won't be
2411 @vindex gnus-group-use-permanent-levels
2412 If @code{gnus-group-use-permanent-levels} is non-@code{nil}, once you
2413 give a level prefix to @kbd{g} or @kbd{l}, all subsequent commands will
2414 use this level as the ``work'' level.
2416 @vindex gnus-activate-level
2417 Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups
2418 on level @code{gnus-activate-level} or less. If you don't want to
2419 activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable
2420 to 5. The default is 6.
2424 @section Group Score
2429 You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme
2430 is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the
2431 group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within
2434 This is what @dfn{group score} is for. You can have Gnus assign a score
2435 to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort
2436 the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on
2437 score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is
2438 called the @dfn{rank} of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has
2439 a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score
2440 of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the
2441 least significant part.))
2443 @findex gnus-summary-bubble-group
2444 If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you
2445 read seldom you can add the @code{gnus-summary-bubble-group} function to
2446 the @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} hook. This will result (after
2447 sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in
2448 action after each summary exit, you can add
2449 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank} or
2450 @code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score} to the same hook, but that will
2451 slow things down somewhat.
2454 @node Marking Groups
2455 @section Marking Groups
2456 @cindex marking groups
2458 If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear
2459 subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a
2460 numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your
2461 bidding on those groups.
2463 However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still
2464 perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first
2465 with the process mark and then execute the command.
2473 @findex gnus-group-mark-group
2474 Set the mark on the current group (@code{gnus-group-mark-group}).
2480 @findex gnus-group-unmark-group
2481 Remove the mark from the current group
2482 (@code{gnus-group-unmark-group}).
2486 @findex gnus-group-unmark-all-groups
2487 Remove the mark from all groups (@code{gnus-group-unmark-all-groups}).
2491 @findex gnus-group-mark-region
2492 Mark all groups between point and mark (@code{gnus-group-mark-region}).
2496 @findex gnus-group-mark-buffer
2497 Mark all groups in the buffer (@code{gnus-group-mark-buffer}).
2501 @findex gnus-group-mark-regexp
2502 Mark all groups that match some regular expression
2503 (@code{gnus-group-mark-regexp}).
2506 Also @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
2508 @findex gnus-group-universal-argument
2509 If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked
2510 with the process mark, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
2511 (@code{gnus-group-universal-argument}) command. It will prompt you for
2512 the command to be executed.
2515 @node Foreign Groups
2516 @section Foreign Groups
2517 @cindex foreign groups
2519 Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign
2520 groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few
2521 special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created
2522 groups under point---@code{gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method} is not
2529 @findex gnus-group-make-group
2530 @cindex making groups
2531 Make a new group (@code{gnus-group-make-group}). Gnus will prompt you
2532 for a name, a method and possibly an @dfn{address}. For an easier way
2533 to subscribe to @acronym{NNTP} groups (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
2537 @findex gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group
2538 Make an ephemeral group (@code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group}). Gnus
2539 will prompt you for a name, a method and an @dfn{address}.
2543 @findex gnus-group-rename-group
2544 @cindex renaming groups
2545 Rename the current group to something else
2546 (@code{gnus-group-rename-group}). This is valid only on some
2547 groups---mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow
2553 @findex gnus-group-customize
2554 Customize the group parameters (@code{gnus-group-customize}).
2558 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-method
2559 @cindex renaming groups
2560 Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current
2561 group (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method}).
2565 @findex gnus-group-edit-group-parameters
2566 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters
2567 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-parameters}).
2571 @findex gnus-group-edit-group
2572 Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info
2573 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group}).
2577 @findex gnus-group-make-directory-group
2579 Make a directory group (@pxref{Directory Groups}). You will be prompted
2580 for a directory name (@code{gnus-group-make-directory-group}).
2585 @findex gnus-group-make-help-group
2586 Make the gnus help group (@code{gnus-group-make-help-group}).
2590 @cindex (ding) archive
2591 @cindex archive group
2592 @findex gnus-group-make-archive-group
2593 @vindex gnus-group-archive-directory
2594 @vindex gnus-group-recent-archive-directory
2595 Make a gnus archive group (@code{gnus-group-make-archive-group}). By
2596 default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created
2597 (@code{gnus-group-recent-archive-directory}), but given a prefix, a full
2598 group will be created from @code{gnus-group-archive-directory}.
2602 @findex gnus-group-make-kiboze-group
2604 Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to
2605 match groups to be ``included'' in the kiboze group, and a series of
2606 strings to match on headers (@code{gnus-group-make-kiboze-group}).
2607 @xref{Kibozed Groups}.
2611 @findex gnus-group-enter-directory
2613 Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the
2614 @code{nneething} back end (@code{gnus-group-enter-directory}).
2615 @xref{Anything Groups}.
2619 @findex gnus-group-make-doc-group
2620 @cindex ClariNet Briefs
2622 Make a group based on some file or other
2623 (@code{gnus-group-make-doc-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2624 command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type.
2625 Currently supported types are @code{mbox}, @code{babyl},
2626 @code{digest}, @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward},
2627 @code{rfc934}, @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts},
2628 @code{standard-digest}, @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs},
2629 @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook}, @code{oe-dbx}, and @code{mailman}. If
2630 you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file
2631 type. @xref{Document Groups}.
2635 @vindex gnus-useful-groups
2636 @findex gnus-group-make-useful-group
2637 Create one of the groups mentioned in @code{gnus-useful-groups}
2638 (@code{gnus-group-make-useful-group}).
2642 @findex gnus-group-make-web-group
2646 Make an ephemeral group based on a web search
2647 (@code{gnus-group-make-web-group}). If you give a prefix to this
2648 command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the
2649 search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types
2650 include @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}.
2651 @xref{Web Searches}.
2653 If you use the @code{google} search engine, you can limit the search
2654 to a particular group by using a match string like
2655 @samp{shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery}.
2659 @findex gnus-group-make-rss-group
2660 Make a group based on an @acronym{RSS} feed
2661 (@code{gnus-group-make-rss-group}). You will be prompted for an URL.
2665 @kindex G DEL (Group)
2666 @findex gnus-group-delete-group
2667 This function will delete the current group
2668 (@code{gnus-group-delete-group}). If given a prefix, this function will
2669 actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the
2670 group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are
2671 absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on
2672 read-only groups (like @code{nntp} groups), though.
2676 @findex gnus-group-make-empty-virtual
2677 Make a new, fresh, empty @code{nnvirtual} group
2678 (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}). @xref{Virtual Groups}.
2682 @findex gnus-group-add-to-virtual
2683 Add the current group to an @code{nnvirtual} group
2684 (@code{gnus-group-add-to-virtual}). Uses the process/prefix convention.
2687 @xref{Select Methods}, for more information on the various select
2690 @vindex gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups
2691 If @code{gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups} is a positive number,
2692 gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup.
2693 This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of
2694 groups from different @acronym{NNTP} servers. Also @pxref{Group Levels};
2695 @code{gnus-activate-level} also affects activation of foreign
2699 @node Group Parameters
2700 @section Group Parameters
2701 @cindex group parameters
2703 The group parameters store information local to a particular group.
2704 Here's an example group parameter list:
2707 ((to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")
2711 We see that each element consists of a ``dotted pair''---the thing before
2712 the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the
2713 parameters have this form @emph{except} local variable specs, which are
2714 not dotted pairs, but proper lists.
2716 Some parameters have correspondent customizable variables, each of which
2717 is an alist of regexps and values.
2719 The following group parameters can be used:
2724 Address used by when doing followups and new posts.
2727 (to-address . "some@@where.com")
2730 This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing
2731 lists---mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to
2732 the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter
2733 ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means
2734 that members won't receive two copies of your followups.
2736 Using @code{to-address} will actually work whether the group is foreign
2737 or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called
2738 @samp{fa.4ad-l}. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten
2739 the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this
2740 group is therefore impossible---you have to send mail to the mailing
2741 list address instead.
2743 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-address-alist}.
2747 Address used when doing @kbd{a} in that group.
2750 (to-list . "some@@where.com")
2753 It is totally ignored
2754 when doing a followup---except that if it is present in a news group,
2755 you'll get mail group semantics when doing @kbd{f}.
2757 If you do an @kbd{a} command in a mail group and you have neither a
2758 @code{to-list} group parameter nor a @code{to-address} group parameter,
2759 then a @code{to-list} group parameter will be added automatically upon
2760 sending the message if @code{gnus-add-to-list} is set to @code{t}.
2761 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
2763 @findex gnus-mailing-list-mode
2764 @cindex mail list groups
2765 If this variable is set, @code{gnus-mailing-list-mode} is turned on when
2766 entering summary buffer.
2768 See also @code{gnus-parameter-to-list-alist}.
2773 @cindex Mail-Followup-To
2774 @findex gnus-find-subscribed-addresses
2775 If this parameter is set to @code{t}, Gnus will consider the
2776 to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of
2777 mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is
2778 (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To
2779 headers for your posts to these lists. The second step is to put the
2780 following in your @file{.gnus.el}
2783 (setq message-subscribed-address-functions
2784 '(gnus-find-subscribed-addresses))
2787 @xref{Mailing Lists, ,Mailing Lists, message, The Message Manual}, for
2788 a complete treatment of available MFT support.
2792 If the group parameter list has the element @code{(visible . t)},
2793 that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless
2794 of whether it has any unread articles.
2796 @item broken-reply-to
2797 @cindex broken-reply-to
2798 Elements like @code{(broken-reply-to . t)} signals that @code{Reply-To}
2799 headers in this group are to be ignored, and for the header to be hidden
2800 if @code{reply-to} is part of @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}. This
2801 can be useful if you're reading a mailing list group where the listserv
2802 has inserted @code{Reply-To} headers that point back to the listserv
2803 itself. That is broken behavior. So there!
2807 Elements like @code{(to-group . "some.group.name")} means that all
2808 posts in that group will be sent to @code{some.group.name}.
2812 If you have @code{(newsgroup . t)} in the group parameter list, gnus
2813 will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles.
2814 This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a
2819 If @code{(gcc-self . t)} is present in the group parameter list, newly
2820 composed messages will be @code{Gcc}'d to the current group. If
2821 @code{(gcc-self . none)} is present, no @code{Gcc:} header will be
2822 generated, if @code{(gcc-self . "string")} is present, this string will
2823 be inserted literally as a @code{gcc} header. This parameter takes
2824 precedence over any default @code{Gcc} rules as described later
2825 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
2827 @strong{Caveat}: Adding @code{(gcc-self . t)} to the parameter list of
2828 @code{nntp} groups (or the like) isn't valid. An @code{nntp} server
2829 doesn't accept articles.
2833 If the group parameter has an element that looks like @code{(auto-expire
2834 . t)}, all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an
2835 alternative approach, @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
2837 See also @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups}.
2840 @cindex total-expire
2841 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2842 @code{(total-expire . t)}, all read articles will be put through the
2843 expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with
2844 caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for
2847 See also @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups}.
2851 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
2852 If the group parameter has an element that looks like
2853 @code{(expiry-wait . 10)}, this value will override any
2854 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} and @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function}
2855 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}) when expiring expirable messages. The value
2856 can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the
2857 symbols @code{never} or @code{immediate}.
2860 @cindex expiry-target
2861 Where expired messages end up. This parameter overrides
2862 @code{nnmail-expiry-target}.
2865 @cindex score file group parameter
2866 Elements that look like @code{(score-file . "file")} will make
2867 @file{file} into the current score file for the group in question. All
2868 interactive score entries will be put into this file.
2871 @cindex adapt file group parameter
2872 Elements that look like @code{(adapt-file . "file")} will make
2873 @file{file} into the current adaptive file for the group in question.
2874 All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.
2877 @cindex admin-address
2878 When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the
2879 unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send
2880 messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to
2881 put the admin address somewhere convenient.
2885 Elements that look like @code{(display . MODE)} say which articles to
2886 display on entering the group. Valid values are:
2890 Display all articles, both read and unread.
2893 Display the last @var{integer} articles in the group. This is the same as
2894 entering the group with @kbd{C-u @var{integer}}.
2897 Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and
2901 Display articles that satisfy a predicate.
2903 Here are some examples:
2907 Display only unread articles.
2910 Display everything except expirable articles.
2912 @item [and (not reply) (not expire)]
2913 Display everything except expirable and articles you've already
2917 The available operators are @code{not}, @code{and} and @code{or}.
2918 Predicates include @code{tick}, @code{unsend}, @code{undownload},
2919 @code{unread}, @code{dormant}, @code{expire}, @code{reply},
2920 @code{killed}, @code{bookmark}, @code{score}, @code{save},
2921 @code{cache}, @code{forward}, @code{unseen} and @code{recent}.
2925 The @code{display} parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to
2926 the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the @kbd{/ w}
2927 command (@pxref{Limiting}).
2931 Elements that look like @code{(comment . "This is a comment")} are
2932 arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the
2933 group line (@pxref{Group Line Specification}).
2937 Elements that look like @code{(charset . iso-8859-1)} will make
2938 @code{iso-8859-1} the default charset; that is, the charset that will be
2939 used for all articles that do not specify a charset.
2941 See also @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}.
2943 @item ignored-charsets
2944 @cindex ignored-charset
2945 Elements that look like @code{(ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1)}
2946 will make @code{iso-8859-1} and @code{x-unknown} ignored; that is, the
2947 default charset will be used for decoding articles.
2949 See also @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
2952 @cindex posting-style
2953 You can store additional posting style information for this group
2954 here (@pxref{Posting Styles}). The format is that of an entry in the
2955 @code{gnus-posting-styles} alist, except that there's no regexp matching
2956 the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will
2957 take precedence over the ones found in @code{gnus-posting-styles}.
2959 For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only,
2960 instead of hacking @code{gnus-posting-styles}, you could put something
2961 like this in the group parameters:
2966 ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value")
2967 (signature "Funky Signature"))
2972 If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message
2973 instead of @code{gnus-post-method}.
2977 An item like @code{(banner . @var{regexp})} causes any part of an article
2978 that matches the regular expression @var{regexp} to be stripped. Instead of
2979 @var{regexp}, you can also use the symbol @code{signature} which strips the
2980 last signature or any of the elements of the alist
2981 @code{gnus-article-banner-alist}.
2985 This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail
2986 that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a
2987 Sieve @samp{IF} control structure is generated, having the test as the
2988 condition and @samp{fileinto "group.name";} as the body.
2990 For example, if the @samp{INBOX.list.sieve} group has the @code{(sieve
2991 address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com")} group parameter, when
2992 translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (@pxref{Sieve
2993 Commands}) the following Sieve code is generated:
2996 if address "sender" "sieve-admin@@extundo.com" @{
2997 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3001 To generate tests for multiple email-addresses use a group parameter
3002 like @code{(sieve address "sender" ("name@@one.org" else@@two.org"))}.
3003 When generating a sieve script (@pxref{Sieve Commands}) Sieve code
3004 like the following is generated:
3007 if address "sender" ["name@@one.org", "else@@two.org"] @{
3008 fileinto "INBOX.list.sieve";
3012 See @pxref{Sieve Commands} for commands and variables that might be of
3013 interest in relation to the sieve parameter.
3015 The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve,
3016 Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
3018 @item (agent parameters)
3019 If the agent has been enabled, you can set any of the its parameters
3020 to control the behavior of the agent in individual groups. See Agent
3021 Parameters in @ref{Category Syntax}. Most users will choose to set
3022 agent parameters in either an agent category or group topic to
3023 minimize the configuration effort.
3025 @item (@var{variable} @var{form})
3026 You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you
3027 are entering. If you want to turn threading off in @samp{news.answers},
3028 you could put @code{(gnus-show-threads nil)} in the group parameters of
3029 that group. @code{gnus-show-threads} will be made into a local variable
3030 in the summary buffer you enter, and the form @code{nil} will be
3031 @code{eval}ed there.
3033 Note that this feature sets the variable locally to the summary buffer.
3034 But some variables are evaluated in the article buffer, or in the
3035 message buffer (of a reply or followup or otherwise newly created
3036 message). As a workaround, it might help to add the variable in
3037 question to @code{gnus-newsgroup-variables}. @xref{Various Summary
3038 Stuff}. So if you want to set @code{message-from-style} via the group
3039 parameters, then you may need the following statement elsewhere in your
3040 @file{~/.gnus} file:
3043 (add-to-list 'gnus-newsgroup-variables 'message-from-style)
3046 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
3047 A use for this feature is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in
3048 the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group
3051 nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps
3054 has the tag @samp{DOC-BOOK-APPS:} in the subject of all articles, this
3055 tag can be removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for
3056 the group by putting @code{(gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:")}
3057 into the group parameters for the group.
3059 This can also be used as a group-specific hook function. If you want to
3060 hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put something like
3061 @code{(dummy-variable (ding))} in the parameters of that group.
3062 @code{dummy-variable} will be set to the (meaningless) result of the
3065 Alternatively, since the VARIABLE becomes local to the group, this
3066 pattern can be used to temporarily change a hook. For example, if the
3067 following is added to a group parameter
3070 (gnus-summary-prepared-hook
3071 '(lambda nil (local-set-key "d" (local-key-binding "n"))))
3074 when the group is entered, the 'd' key will not mark the article as
3079 Use the @kbd{G p} or the @kbd{G c} command to edit group parameters of a
3080 group. (@kbd{G p} presents you with a Lisp-based interface, @kbd{G c}
3081 presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid
3082 silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic
3083 parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}).
3085 @vindex gnus-parameters
3086 Group parameters can be set via the @code{gnus-parameters} variable too.
3087 But some variables, such as @code{visible}, have no effect. For
3091 (setq gnus-parameters
3093 (gnus-show-threads nil)
3094 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
3095 (gnus-summary-line-format
3096 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
3100 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
3104 (gnus-use-scoring t))
3108 (broken-reply-to . t))))
3111 String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as
3112 the @code{to-group} example shows.
3114 @vindex gnus-parameters-case-fold-search
3115 By default, whether comparing the group name and one of those regexps
3116 specified in @code{gnus-parameters} is done in a case-sensitive manner
3117 or a case-insensitive manner depends on the value of
3118 @code{case-fold-search} at the time when the comparison is done. The
3119 value of @code{case-fold-search} is typically @code{t}; it means, for
3120 example, the element @code{("INBOX\\.FOO" (total-expire . t))} might be
3121 applied to both the @samp{INBOX.FOO} group and the @samp{INBOX.foo}
3122 group. If you want to make those regexps always case-sensitive, set the
3123 value of the @code{gnus-parameters-case-fold-search} variable to
3124 @code{nil}. Otherwise, set it to @code{t} if you want to compare them
3125 always in a case-insensitive manner.
3128 @node Listing Groups
3129 @section Listing Groups
3130 @cindex group listing
3132 These commands all list various slices of the groups available.
3140 @findex gnus-group-list-groups
3141 List all groups that have unread articles
3142 (@code{gnus-group-list-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used, this
3143 command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it
3144 only lists groups of level five (i.e.,
3145 @code{gnus-group-default-list-level}) or lower (i.e., just subscribed
3152 @findex gnus-group-list-all-groups
3153 List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not
3154 (@code{gnus-group-list-all-groups}). If the numeric prefix is used,
3155 this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default,
3156 it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and
3157 unsubscribed groups).
3161 @findex gnus-group-list-level
3162 List all unread groups on a specific level
3163 (@code{gnus-group-list-level}). If given a prefix, also list the groups
3164 with no unread articles.
3168 @findex gnus-group-list-killed
3169 List all killed groups (@code{gnus-group-list-killed}). If given a
3170 prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't
3171 currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file
3176 @findex gnus-group-list-zombies
3177 List all zombie groups (@code{gnus-group-list-zombies}).
3181 @findex gnus-group-list-matching
3182 List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp
3183 (@code{gnus-group-list-matching}).
3187 @findex gnus-group-list-all-matching
3188 List groups that match a regexp (@code{gnus-group-list-all-matching}).
3192 @findex gnus-group-list-active
3193 List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the
3194 server(s) you are connected to (@code{gnus-group-list-active}). This
3195 might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea
3196 to do a @kbd{A M} to list all matching, and just give @samp{.} as the
3197 thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that
3198 don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups.
3199 Take the output with some grains of salt.
3203 @findex gnus-group-apropos
3204 List all groups that have names that match a regexp
3205 (@code{gnus-group-apropos}).
3209 @findex gnus-group-description-apropos
3210 List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp
3211 (@code{gnus-group-description-apropos}).
3215 @findex gnus-group-list-cached
3216 List all groups with cached articles (@code{gnus-group-list-cached}).
3220 @findex gnus-group-list-dormant
3221 List all groups with dormant articles (@code{gnus-group-list-dormant}).
3225 @findex gnus-group-list-limit
3226 List groups limited within the current selection
3227 (@code{gnus-group-list-limit}).
3231 @findex gnus-group-list-flush
3232 Flush groups from the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-flush}).
3236 @findex gnus-group-list-plus
3237 List groups plus the current selection (@code{gnus-group-list-plus}).
3241 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
3242 @cindex visible group parameter
3243 Groups that match the @code{gnus-permanently-visible-groups} regexp will
3244 always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also
3245 add the @code{visible} element to the group parameters in question to
3246 get the same effect.
3248 @vindex gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles
3249 Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the
3250 group buffer. If @code{gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles} is
3251 @code{nil}, these groups will be treated just like totally empty
3252 groups. It is @code{t} by default.
3255 @node Sorting Groups
3256 @section Sorting Groups
3257 @cindex sorting groups
3259 @kindex C-c C-s (Group)
3260 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups
3261 @vindex gnus-group-sort-function
3262 The @kbd{C-c C-s} (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups}) command sorts the
3263 group buffer according to the function(s) given by the
3264 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable. Available sorting functions
3269 @item gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3270 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet
3271 Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.
3273 @item gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3274 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-real-name
3275 Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.
3277 @item gnus-group-sort-by-level
3278 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-level
3279 Sort by group level.
3281 @item gnus-group-sort-by-score
3282 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-score
3283 Sort by group score. @xref{Group Score}.
3285 @item gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3286 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-rank
3287 Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score
3288 are, when taken together, the group's @dfn{rank}. @xref{Group Score}.
3290 @item gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3291 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-unread
3292 Sort by number of unread articles.
3294 @item gnus-group-sort-by-method
3295 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-method
3296 Sort alphabetically on the select method.
3298 @item gnus-group-sort-by-server
3299 @findex gnus-group-sort-by-server
3300 Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.
3305 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} can also be a list of sorting
3306 functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be
3310 There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to
3311 some sorting criteria:
3315 @kindex G S a (Group)
3316 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3317 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name
3318 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3321 @kindex G S u (Group)
3322 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread
3323 Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles
3324 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3327 @kindex G S l (Group)
3328 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level
3329 Sort the group buffer by group level
3330 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level}).
3333 @kindex G S v (Group)
3334 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score
3335 Sort the group buffer by group score
3336 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3339 @kindex G S r (Group)
3340 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank
3341 Sort the group buffer by group rank
3342 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3345 @kindex G S m (Group)
3346 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method
3347 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name@*
3348 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method}).
3351 @kindex G S n (Group)
3352 @findex gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name
3353 Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3354 (@code{gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name}).
3358 All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention
3359 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3361 When given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), all these
3362 commands will sort in reverse order.
3364 You can also sort a subset of the groups:
3368 @kindex G P a (Group)
3369 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet
3370 Sort the groups alphabetically by group name
3371 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet}).
3374 @kindex G P u (Group)
3375 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread
3376 Sort the groups by the number of unread articles
3377 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread}).
3380 @kindex G P l (Group)
3381 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level
3382 Sort the groups by group level
3383 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level}).
3386 @kindex G P v (Group)
3387 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score
3388 Sort the groups by group score
3389 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3392 @kindex G P r (Group)
3393 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank
3394 Sort the groups by group rank
3395 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3398 @kindex G P m (Group)
3399 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method
3400 Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name@*
3401 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method}).
3404 @kindex G P n (Group)
3405 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name
3406 Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name
3407 (@code{gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name}).
3410 @kindex G P s (Group)
3411 @findex gnus-group-sort-selected-groups
3412 Sort the groups according to @code{gnus-group-sort-function}.
3416 And finally, note that you can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} to manually
3420 @node Group Maintenance
3421 @section Group Maintenance
3422 @cindex bogus groups
3427 @findex gnus-group-check-bogus-groups
3428 Find bogus groups and delete them
3429 (@code{gnus-group-check-bogus-groups}).
3433 @findex gnus-group-find-new-groups
3434 Find new groups and process them (@code{gnus-group-find-new-groups}).
3435 With 1 @kbd{C-u}, use the @code{ask-server} method to query the server
3436 for new groups. With 2 @kbd{C-u}'s, use most complete method possible
3437 to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as
3441 @kindex C-c C-x (Group)
3442 @findex gnus-group-expire-articles
3443 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
3444 process (if any) (@code{gnus-group-expire-articles}). That is, delete
3445 all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
3446 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3449 @kindex C-c C-M-x (Group)
3450 @findex gnus-group-expire-all-groups
3451 Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process
3452 (@code{gnus-group-expire-all-groups}).
3457 @node Browse Foreign Server
3458 @section Browse Foreign Server
3459 @cindex foreign servers
3460 @cindex browsing servers
3465 @findex gnus-group-browse-foreign-server
3466 You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will
3467 then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there
3468 (@code{gnus-group-browse-foreign-server}).
3471 @findex gnus-browse-mode
3472 A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer
3473 will use the @code{gnus-browse-mode}. This buffer looks a bit (well,
3474 a lot) like a normal group buffer.
3476 Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:
3481 @findex gnus-group-next-group
3482 Go to the next group (@code{gnus-group-next-group}).
3486 @findex gnus-group-prev-group
3487 Go to the previous group (@code{gnus-group-prev-group}).
3490 @kindex SPACE (Browse)
3491 @findex gnus-browse-read-group
3492 Enter the current group and display the first article
3493 (@code{gnus-browse-read-group}).
3496 @kindex RET (Browse)
3497 @findex gnus-browse-select-group
3498 Enter the current group (@code{gnus-browse-select-group}).
3502 @findex gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group
3503 Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here,
3504 subscribe to it (@code{gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group}).
3510 @findex gnus-browse-exit
3511 Exit browse mode (@code{gnus-browse-exit}).
3515 @findex gnus-browse-describe-group
3516 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-browse-describe-group}).
3520 @findex gnus-browse-describe-briefly
3521 Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is
3522 there) (@code{gnus-browse-describe-briefly}).
3527 @section Exiting gnus
3528 @cindex exiting gnus
3530 Yes, gnus is ex(c)iting.
3535 @findex gnus-group-suspend
3536 Suspend gnus (@code{gnus-group-suspend}). This doesn't really exit gnus,
3537 but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this
3538 is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
3542 @findex gnus-group-exit
3543 @c @icon{gnus-group-exit}
3544 Quit gnus (@code{gnus-group-exit}).
3548 @findex gnus-group-quit
3549 Quit gnus without saving the @file{.newsrc} files (@code{gnus-group-quit}).
3550 The dribble file will be saved, though (@pxref{Auto Save}).
3553 @vindex gnus-exit-gnus-hook
3554 @vindex gnus-suspend-gnus-hook
3555 @vindex gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook
3556 @code{gnus-suspend-gnus-hook} is called when you suspend gnus and
3557 @code{gnus-exit-gnus-hook} is called when you quit gnus, while
3558 @code{gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook} is called as the final item when
3564 Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go
3565 numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting
3566 behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her
3572 @section Group Topics
3575 If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
3576 them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over
3577 here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
3578 you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can
3579 even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
3580 groups or the sex groups---or both! Go wild!
3584 \gnusfigure{Group Topics}{400}{
3585 \put(75,50){\epsfig{figure=ps/group-topic,height=9cm}}
3596 2: alt.religion.emacs
3599 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3601 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3602 13: comp.sources.unix
3605 @findex gnus-topic-mode
3607 To get this @emph{fab} functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the
3608 @code{gnus-topic} minor mode---type @kbd{t} in the group buffer. (This
3609 is a toggling command.)
3611 Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de
3612 dum@dots{} Nice tune, that@dots{} la la la@dots{} What, you're back?
3613 Yes, and now press @kbd{l}. There. All your groups are now listed
3614 under @samp{misc}. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
3617 If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to
3618 the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your
3619 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
3622 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
3626 * Topic Commands:: Interactive E-Z commands.
3627 * Topic Variables:: How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
3628 * Topic Sorting:: Sorting each topic individually.
3629 * Topic Topology:: A map of the world.
3630 * Topic Parameters:: Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
3634 @node Topic Commands
3635 @subsection Topic Commands
3636 @cindex topic commands
3638 When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new @kbd{T} submap will be
3639 available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their
3640 definitions slightly.
3642 In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics.
3643 First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put
3644 groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you
3645 like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole
3646 shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and
3647 groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.
3649 Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics
3656 @findex gnus-topic-create-topic
3657 Prompt for a new topic name and create it
3658 (@code{gnus-topic-create-topic}).
3662 @kindex T TAB (Topic)
3664 @findex gnus-topic-indent
3665 ``Indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3666 previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-indent}). If given a prefix,
3667 ``un-indent'' the topic instead.
3670 @kindex M-TAB (Topic)
3671 @findex gnus-topic-unindent
3672 ``Un-indent'' the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the
3673 parent of its current parent (@code{gnus-topic-unindent}).
3677 The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around.
3678 They work like the well-known cut and paste. @kbd{C-k} is like cut and
3679 @kbd{C-y} is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms
3680 kill and yank rather than cut and paste.
3686 @findex gnus-topic-kill-group
3687 Kill a group or topic (@code{gnus-topic-kill-group}). All groups in the
3688 topic will be removed along with the topic.
3692 @findex gnus-topic-yank-group
3693 Yank the previously killed group or topic
3694 (@code{gnus-topic-yank-group}). Note that all topics will be yanked
3697 So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit
3698 @kbd{C-k} on it. This is like the ``cut'' part of cut and paste. Then,
3699 move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the ``Gnus''
3700 topic) and hit @kbd{C-y}. This is like the ``paste'' part of cut and
3701 paste. Like I said -- E-Z.
3703 You can use @kbd{C-k} and @kbd{C-y} on groups as well as on topics. So
3704 you can move topics around as well as groups.
3708 After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to
3709 hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following
3716 @findex gnus-topic-select-group
3718 Either select a group or fold a topic (@code{gnus-topic-select-group}).
3719 When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as
3720 usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was
3721 visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a
3722 toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical
3723 prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.
3727 Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.
3733 @findex gnus-topic-move-group
3734 Move the current group to some other topic
3735 (@code{gnus-topic-move-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3736 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3740 @findex gnus-topic-jump-to-topic
3741 Go to a topic (@code{gnus-topic-jump-to-topic}).
3745 @findex gnus-topic-copy-group
3746 Copy the current group to some other topic
3747 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-group}). This command uses the process/prefix
3748 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3752 @findex gnus-topic-hide-topic
3753 Hide the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-hide-topic}). If given
3754 a prefix, hide the topic permanently.
3758 @findex gnus-topic-show-topic
3759 Show the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-show-topic}). If given
3760 a prefix, show the topic permanently.
3764 @findex gnus-topic-remove-group
3765 Remove a group from the current topic (@code{gnus-topic-remove-group}).
3766 This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several
3767 topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also
3768 remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to
3769 the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups
3770 (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root
3773 This command uses the process/prefix convention
3774 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
3778 @findex gnus-topic-move-matching
3779 Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3780 (@code{gnus-topic-move-matching}).
3784 @findex gnus-topic-copy-matching
3785 Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic
3786 (@code{gnus-topic-copy-matching}).
3790 @findex gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics
3791 Toggle hiding empty topics
3792 (@code{gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics}).
3796 @findex gnus-topic-mark-topic
3797 Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark
3798 (@code{gnus-topic-mark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3799 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3802 @kindex T M-# (Topic)
3803 @findex gnus-topic-unmark-topic
3804 Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic
3805 (@code{gnus-topic-unmark-topic}). This command works recursively on
3806 sub-topics unless given a prefix.
3809 @kindex C-c C-x (Topic)
3810 @findex gnus-topic-expire-articles
3811 Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the
3812 expiry process (if any)
3813 (@code{gnus-topic-expire-articles}). (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
3817 @findex gnus-topic-rename
3818 Rename a topic (@code{gnus-topic-rename}).
3821 @kindex T DEL (Topic)
3822 @findex gnus-topic-delete
3823 Delete an empty topic (@code{gnus-topic-delete}).
3827 @findex gnus-topic-list-active
3828 List all groups that gnus knows about in a topics-ified way
3829 (@code{gnus-topic-list-active}).
3832 @kindex T M-n (Topic)
3833 @findex gnus-topic-goto-next-topic
3834 Go to the next topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-next-topic}).
3837 @kindex T M-p (Topic)
3838 @findex gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic
3839 Go to the previous topic (@code{gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic}).
3843 @findex gnus-topic-edit-parameters
3844 @cindex group parameters
3845 @cindex topic parameters
3847 Edit the topic parameters (@code{gnus-topic-edit-parameters}).
3848 @xref{Topic Parameters}.
3853 @node Topic Variables
3854 @subsection Topic Variables
3855 @cindex topic variables
3857 The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display.
3858 This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.
3860 @vindex gnus-topic-line-format
3861 The topic lines themselves are created according to the
3862 @code{gnus-topic-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
3875 Number of groups in the topic.
3877 Number of unread articles in the topic.
3879 Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.
3882 @vindex gnus-topic-indent-level
3883 Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with
3884 @code{gnus-topic-indent-level} times the topic level number of spaces.
3887 @vindex gnus-topic-mode-hook
3888 @code{gnus-topic-mode-hook} is called in topic minor mode buffers.
3890 @vindex gnus-topic-display-empty-topics
3891 The @code{gnus-topic-display-empty-topics} says whether to display even
3892 topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is @code{t}.
3896 @subsection Topic Sorting
3897 @cindex topic sorting
3899 You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following
3905 @kindex T S a (Topic)
3906 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet
3907 Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name
3908 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet}).
3911 @kindex T S u (Topic)
3912 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread
3913 Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles
3914 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread}).
3917 @kindex T S l (Topic)
3918 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level
3919 Sort the current topic by group level
3920 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level}).
3923 @kindex T S v (Topic)
3924 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score
3925 Sort the current topic by group score
3926 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score}). @xref{Group Score}.
3929 @kindex T S r (Topic)
3930 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank
3931 Sort the current topic by group rank
3932 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank}). @xref{Group Score}.
3935 @kindex T S m (Topic)
3936 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method
3937 Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name
3938 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method}).
3941 @kindex T S e (Topic)
3942 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server
3943 Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name
3944 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server}).
3947 @kindex T S s (Topic)
3948 @findex gnus-topic-sort-groups
3949 Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the
3950 @code{gnus-group-sort-function} variable
3951 (@code{gnus-topic-sort-groups}).
3955 When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse
3956 order. @xref{Sorting Groups}, for more information about group
3960 @node Topic Topology
3961 @subsection Topic Topology
3962 @cindex topic topology
3965 So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:
3972 2: alt.religion.emacs
3975 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
3977 8: comp.binaries.fractals
3978 13: comp.sources.unix
3982 So, here we have one top-level topic (@samp{Gnus}), two topics under
3983 that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always
3984 just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as
3989 (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
3990 (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
3994 @vindex gnus-topic-topology
3995 This is in fact how the variable @code{gnus-topic-topology} would look
3996 for the display above. That variable is saved in the @file{.newsrc.eld}
3997 file, and shouldn't be messed with manually---unless you really want
3998 to. Since this variable is read from the @file{.newsrc.eld} file,
3999 setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.
4001 This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right),
4002 and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently
4003 allowed---@code{visible} and @code{invisible}.
4006 @node Topic Parameters
4007 @subsection Topic Parameters
4008 @cindex topic parameters
4010 All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent
4011 (and ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid
4012 topic parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}). When the agent is
4013 enabled, all agent parameters (See Agent Parameters in @ref{Category
4014 Syntax}) are also valid topic parameters.
4016 In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic
4021 When subscribing new groups by topic (@pxref{Subscription Methods}), the
4022 @code{subscribe} topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its
4023 value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that
4026 @item subscribe-level
4027 When subscribing new groups by topic (see the @code{subscribe} parameter),
4028 the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the
4029 @code{subscribe-level} instead of @code{gnus-level-default-subscribed}.
4033 Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic
4034 parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You
4035 know. Normal inheritance rules. (@dfn{Rules} is here a noun, not a
4036 verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)
4043 2: alt.religion.emacs
4047 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
4049 8: comp.binaries.fractals
4050 13: comp.sources.unix
4055 The @samp{Emacs} topic has the topic parameter @code{(score-file
4056 . "emacs.SCORE")}; the @samp{Relief} topic has the topic parameter
4057 @code{(score-file . "relief.SCORE")}; and the @samp{Misc} topic has the
4058 topic parameter @code{(score-file . "emacs.SCORE")}. In addition,
4059 @* @samp{alt.religion.emacs} has the group parameter @code{(score-file
4060 . "religion.SCORE")}.
4062 Now, when you enter @samp{alt.sex.emacs} in the @samp{Relief} topic, you
4063 will get the @file{relief.SCORE} home score file. If you enter the same
4064 group in the @samp{Emacs} topic, you'll get the @file{emacs.SCORE} home
4065 score file. If you enter the group @samp{alt.religion.emacs}, you'll
4066 get the @file{religion.SCORE} home score file.
4068 This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But
4069 there are some problems, especially with the @code{total-expiry}
4070 parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with
4071 @code{total-expiry} and one without. What happens when you do @kbd{M-x
4072 gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups}? Gnus has no way of telling which one
4073 of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may
4074 happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is @dfn{undefined} what
4075 happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.
4078 @node Misc Group Stuff
4079 @section Misc Group Stuff
4082 * Scanning New Messages:: Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
4083 * Group Information:: Information and help on groups and Gnus.
4084 * Group Timestamp:: Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
4085 * File Commands:: Reading and writing the Gnus files.
4086 * Sieve Commands:: Managing Sieve scripts.
4093 @findex gnus-group-enter-server-mode
4094 Enter the server buffer (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}).
4095 @xref{Server Buffer}.
4099 @findex gnus-group-post-news
4100 Start composing a message (a news by default)
4101 (@code{gnus-group-post-news}). If given a prefix, post to the group
4102 under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
4103 Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared
4104 article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified
4105 with the prefix argument. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4109 @findex gnus-group-mail
4110 Mail a message somewhere (@code{gnus-group-mail}). If given a prefix,
4111 use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1,
4112 prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
4113 @xref{Composing Messages}.
4117 @findex gnus-group-news
4118 Start composing a news (@code{gnus-group-news}). If given a prefix,
4119 post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt
4120 for group to post to. @xref{Composing Messages}.
4122 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
4123 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
4124 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
4125 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
4126 for this to work though.
4130 Variables for the group buffer:
4134 @item gnus-group-mode-hook
4135 @vindex gnus-group-mode-hook
4136 is called after the group buffer has been
4139 @item gnus-group-prepare-hook
4140 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4141 is called after the group buffer is
4142 generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange,
4145 @item gnus-group-prepared-hook
4146 @vindex gnus-group-prepare-hook
4147 is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been
4148 generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.
4150 @item gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4151 @vindex gnus-permanently-visible-groups
4152 Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer,
4153 whether they are empty or not.
4155 @item gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4156 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4157 An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show
4158 non-@acronym{ASCII} group names.
4162 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist
4163 '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))
4166 @item gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4167 @cindex UTF-8 group names
4168 @vindex gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4169 An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names. It
4170 is used to show non-@acronym{ASCII} group names. @code{((".*"
4171 utf-8))} is the default value if UTF-8 is supported, otherwise the
4172 default is @code{nil}.
4176 (setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist
4177 '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))
4182 @node Scanning New Messages
4183 @subsection Scanning New Messages
4184 @cindex new messages
4185 @cindex scanning new news
4191 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news
4192 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news}
4193 Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used,
4194 this command will check only groups of level @var{arg} and lower
4195 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news}). If given a non-numerical prefix, this
4196 command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the
4201 @findex gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group
4202 @vindex gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
4203 @c @icon{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}
4204 Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group
4205 (@code{gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group}).
4206 @code{gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating} says whether this command is
4207 to move point to the next group or not. It is @code{t} by default.
4209 @findex gnus-activate-all-groups
4210 @cindex activating groups
4212 @kindex C-c M-g (Group)
4213 Activate absolutely all groups (@code{gnus-activate-all-groups}).
4218 @findex gnus-group-restart
4219 Restart gnus (@code{gnus-group-restart}). This saves the @file{.newsrc}
4220 file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time
4221 gnus variables, and then starts gnus all over again.
4225 @vindex gnus-get-new-news-hook
4226 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is run just before checking for new news.
4228 @vindex gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook
4229 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook} is run after checking for new
4233 @node Group Information
4234 @subsection Group Information
4235 @cindex group information
4236 @cindex information on groups
4243 @findex gnus-group-fetch-faq
4244 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
4247 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} for the current group
4248 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try to get the @acronym{FAQ}
4249 from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which is usually a directory on
4250 a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories.
4251 In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose
4252 between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp} (or @code{efs}) will be
4253 used for fetching the file.
4255 If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, gnus will attempt to go
4256 through @code{gnus-group-faq-directory} and try to open them one by one.
4260 @findex gnus-group-fetch-charter
4261 @vindex gnus-group-charter-alist
4263 Try to open the charter for the current group in a web browser
4264 (@code{gnus-group-fetch-charter}). Query for a group if given a
4267 Gnus will use @code{gnus-group-charter-alist} to find the location of
4268 the charter. If no location is known, Gnus will fetch the control
4269 messages for the group, which in some cases includes the charter.
4273 @findex gnus-group-fetch-control
4274 @vindex gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url
4275 @cindex control message
4276 Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at
4277 @code{ftp.isc.org} (@code{gnus-group-fetch-control}). Query for a
4278 group if given a prefix argument.
4280 If @code{gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url} is non-@code{nil},
4281 Gnus will open the control messages in a browser using
4282 @code{browse-url}. Otherwise they are fetched using @code{ange-ftp}
4283 and displayed in an ephemeral group.
4285 Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command
4286 you need to turn on @code{auto-compression-mode} (@pxref{Compressed
4287 Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs Manual}).
4291 @c @icon{gnus-group-describe-group}
4293 @kindex C-c C-d (Group)
4294 @cindex describing groups
4295 @cindex group description
4296 @findex gnus-group-describe-group
4297 Describe the current group (@code{gnus-group-describe-group}). If given
4298 a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.
4302 @findex gnus-group-describe-all-groups
4303 Describe all groups (@code{gnus-group-describe-all-groups}). If given a
4304 prefix, force gnus to re-read the description file from the server.
4311 @findex gnus-version
4312 Display current gnus version numbers (@code{gnus-version}).
4316 @findex gnus-group-describe-briefly
4317 Give a very short help message (@code{gnus-group-describe-briefly}).
4320 @kindex C-c C-i (Group)
4323 @findex gnus-info-find-node
4324 Go to the gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
4328 @node Group Timestamp
4329 @subsection Group Timestamp
4331 @cindex group timestamps
4333 It can be convenient to let gnus keep track of when you last read a
4334 group. To set the ball rolling, you should add
4335 @code{gnus-group-set-timestamp} to @code{gnus-select-group-hook}:
4338 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)
4341 After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.
4343 This information can be displayed in various ways---the easiest is to
4344 use the @samp{%d} spec in the group line format:
4347 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4348 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")
4351 This will result in lines looking like:
4354 * 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943
4355 0: custom 19961002T012713
4358 As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This
4359 may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say
4363 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4364 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")
4367 If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a
4368 user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the
4372 (setq gnus-group-line-format
4373 "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n")
4374 (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers)
4375 (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group)))
4377 (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time)
4383 @subsection File Commands
4384 @cindex file commands
4390 @findex gnus-group-read-init-file
4391 @vindex gnus-init-file
4392 @cindex reading init file
4393 Re-read the init file (@code{gnus-init-file}, which defaults to
4394 @file{~/.gnus.el}) (@code{gnus-group-read-init-file}).
4398 @findex gnus-group-save-newsrc
4399 @cindex saving .newsrc
4400 Save the @file{.newsrc.eld} file (and @file{.newsrc} if wanted)
4401 (@code{gnus-group-save-newsrc}). If given a prefix, force saving the
4402 file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.
4405 @c @kindex Z (Group)
4406 @c @findex gnus-group-clear-dribble
4407 @c Clear the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-group-clear-dribble}).
4412 @node Sieve Commands
4413 @subsection Sieve Commands
4414 @cindex group sieve commands
4416 Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use
4417 the @code{sieve} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to specify
4418 sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two
4419 commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve
4420 script that can be transfered to the server somehow.
4422 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4423 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-start
4424 @vindex gnus-sieve-region-end
4425 The generated Sieve script is placed in @code{gnus-sieve-file} (by
4426 default @file{~/.sieve}). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed
4427 between two delimiters, @code{gnus-sieve-region-start} and
4428 @code{gnus-sieve-region-end}, so you may write additional Sieve code
4429 outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you
4430 regenerate the Sieve script.
4432 @vindex gnus-sieve-crosspost
4433 The variable @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} controls how the Sieve script
4434 is generated. If it is non-@code{nil} (the default) articles is
4435 placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article
4436 is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For
4437 example, the group parameter @samp{(sieve address "sender"
4438 "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu")} will generate the following piece of Sieve
4439 code if @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is @code{nil}. (When
4440 @code{gnus-sieve-crosspost} is non-@code{nil}, it looks the same
4441 except that the line containing the call to @code{stop} is removed.)
4444 if address "sender" "owner-ding@@hpc.uh.edu" @{
4445 fileinto "INBOX.ding";
4450 @xref{Top, Emacs Sieve, Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
4456 @findex gnus-sieve-generate
4457 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4458 @cindex generating sieve script
4459 Regenerate a Sieve script from the @code{sieve} group parameters and
4460 put you into the @code{gnus-sieve-file} without saving it.
4464 @findex gnus-sieve-update
4465 @vindex gnus-sieve-file
4466 @cindex updating sieve script
4467 Regenerates the Gnus managed part of @code{gnus-sieve-file} using the
4468 @code{sieve} group parameters, save the file and upload it to the
4469 server using the @code{sieveshell} program.
4474 @node Summary Buffer
4475 @chapter Summary Buffer
4476 @cindex summary buffer
4478 A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can
4479 move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.
4481 The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the
4482 group buffer (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
4484 You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.
4487 * Summary Buffer Format:: Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
4488 * Summary Maneuvering:: Moving around the summary buffer.
4489 * Choosing Articles:: Reading articles.
4490 * Paging the Article:: Scrolling the current article.
4491 * Reply Followup and Post:: Posting articles.
4492 * Delayed Articles:: Send articles at a later time.
4493 * Marking Articles:: Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
4494 * Limiting:: You can limit the summary buffer.
4495 * Threading:: How threads are made.
4496 * Sorting the Summary Buffer:: How articles and threads are sorted.
4497 * Asynchronous Fetching:: Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
4498 * Article Caching:: You may store articles in a cache.
4499 * Persistent Articles:: Making articles expiry-resistant.
4500 * Article Backlog:: Having already read articles hang around.
4501 * Saving Articles:: Ways of customizing article saving.
4502 * Decoding Articles:: Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
4503 * Article Treatment:: The article buffer can be mangled at will.
4504 * MIME Commands:: Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
4505 * Charsets:: Character set issues.
4506 * Article Commands:: Doing various things with the article buffer.
4507 * Summary Sorting:: Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
4508 * Finding the Parent:: No child support? Get the parent.
4509 * Alternative Approaches:: Reading using non-default summaries.
4510 * Tree Display:: A more visual display of threads.
4511 * Mail Group Commands:: Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
4512 * Various Summary Stuff:: What didn't fit anywhere else.
4513 * Exiting the Summary Buffer:: Returning to the Group buffer,
4514 or reselecting the current group.
4515 * Crosspost Handling:: How crossposted articles are dealt with.
4516 * Duplicate Suppression:: An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
4517 * Security:: Decrypt and Verify.
4518 * Mailing List:: Mailing list minor mode.
4522 @node Summary Buffer Format
4523 @section Summary Buffer Format
4524 @cindex summary buffer format
4528 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{180}{
4529 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary,width=7.5cm}}
4530 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-article,width=7.5cm}}}
4536 * Summary Buffer Lines:: You can specify how summary lines should look.
4537 * To From Newsgroups:: How to not display your own name.
4538 * Summary Buffer Mode Line:: You can say how the mode line should look.
4539 * Summary Highlighting:: Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
4542 @findex mail-extract-address-components
4543 @findex gnus-extract-address-components
4544 @vindex gnus-extract-address-components
4545 Gnus will use the value of the @code{gnus-extract-address-components}
4546 variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a
4547 @code{From} header. Three pre-defined functions exist:
4548 @code{gnus-extract-address-components}, which is the default, quite
4549 fast, and too simplistic solution;
4550 @code{mail-extract-address-components}, which works nicely, but is
4551 slower; and @code{std11-extract-address-components}, which works very
4552 nicely, but is slower. The default function will return the wrong
4553 answer in 5% of the cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the
4554 other function instead:
4557 (setq gnus-extract-address-components
4558 'mail-extract-address-components)
4561 @vindex gnus-summary-same-subject
4562 @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} is a string indicating that the current
4563 article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used
4564 with those specs that require it. The default is @code{""}.
4567 @node Summary Buffer Lines
4568 @subsection Summary Buffer Lines
4570 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4571 You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing
4572 the @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable. It works along the same
4573 lines as a normal @code{format} string, with some extensions
4574 (@pxref{Formatting Variables}).
4576 There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line;
4577 the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after
4578 performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't
4579 possible to change this. Just write a new function
4580 @code{gnus-goto-colon} which does whatever you like with the cursor.)
4581 @xref{Positioning Point}.
4583 The default string is @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n}.
4585 The following format specification characters and extended format
4586 specification(s) are understood:
4592 Subject string. List identifiers stripped,
4593 @code{gnus-list-identifies}. @xref{Article Hiding}.
4595 Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article
4596 had a different subject, @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} otherwise.
4597 (@code{gnus-summary-same-subject} defaults to @code{""}.)
4599 Full @code{From} header.
4601 The name (from the @code{From} header).
4603 The name, @code{To} header or the @code{Newsgroups} header (@pxref{To
4606 The name (from the @code{From} header). This differs from the @code{n}
4607 spec in that it uses the function designated by the
4608 @code{gnus-extract-address-components} variable, which is slower, but
4609 may be more thorough.
4611 The address (from the @code{From} header). This works the same way as
4614 Number of lines in the article.
4616 Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported
4617 in some methods (like nnfolder).
4619 Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article;
4620 for example, @samp{1.2k} or @samp{0.4M}.
4622 Indentation based on thread level (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4624 A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace
4625 lines. A thread could be drawn like this:
4638 You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note
4639 that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by
4640 replacing the default @acronym{ASCII} characters with graphic
4641 line-drawing glyphs.
4643 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4644 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-root
4645 Used for the root of a thread. If @code{nil}, use subject
4646 instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4648 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4649 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root
4650 Used for the false root of a thread (@pxref{Loose Threads}). If
4651 @code{nil}, use subject instead. The default is @samp{> }.
4653 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4654 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent
4655 Used for a thread with just one message. If @code{nil}, use subject
4656 instead. The default is @samp{}.
4658 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4659 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical
4660 Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is @samp{| }.
4662 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4663 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent
4664 Used for indenting. The default is @samp{ }.
4666 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4667 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other
4668 Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is @samp{+-> }.
4670 @item gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4671 @vindex gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf
4672 Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is @samp{\-> }
4677 Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it
4678 pushes everything after it off the screen).
4680 Opening bracket, which is normally @samp{[}, but can also be @samp{<}
4681 for adopted articles (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
4683 Closing bracket, which is normally @samp{]}, but can also be @samp{>}
4684 for adopted articles.
4686 One space for each thread level.
4688 Twenty minus thread level spaces.
4690 Unread. @xref{Read Articles}.
4693 This misleadingly named specifier is the @dfn{secondary mark}. This
4694 mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached,
4695 or has been saved. @xref{Other Marks}.
4698 Score as a number (@pxref{Scoring}).
4700 @vindex gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz
4701 Zcore, @samp{+} if above the default level and @samp{-} if below the
4702 default level. If the difference between
4703 @code{gnus-summary-default-score} and the score is less than
4704 @code{gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz}, this spec will not be used.
4712 The @code{Date} in @code{DD-MMM} format.
4714 The @code{Date} in @var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS} format.
4720 Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow
4721 down summary buffer generation somewhat.
4723 An @samp{=} (@code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark}) will be displayed if the
4724 article has any children.
4730 Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in
4731 @code{gnus-user-date-format-alist}.
4733 User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should
4734 be a letter. Gnus will call the function
4735 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{x}}, where @var{x} is the letter
4736 following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed the current header as
4737 argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted
4738 into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.
4741 Text between @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} will be highlighted with
4742 @code{gnus-mouse-face} when the mouse point is placed inside the area.
4743 There can only be one such area.
4745 The @samp{%U} (status), @samp{%R} (replied) and @samp{%z} (zcore) specs
4746 have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, gnus will
4747 compute what column these characters will end up in, and ``hard-code''
4748 that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a
4749 variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary
4750 buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.
4752 The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible.
4753 (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)
4755 This restriction may disappear in later versions of gnus.
4758 @node To From Newsgroups
4759 @subsection To From Newsgroups
4763 In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the @code{From} header
4764 isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by
4765 you. To display the information in the @code{To} or @code{Newsgroups}
4766 headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to
4767 gather; where to display it; and when to display it.
4771 @vindex gnus-extra-headers
4772 The reading of extra header information is controlled by the
4773 @code{gnus-extra-headers}. This is a list of header symbols. For
4777 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4778 '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))
4781 This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and
4782 storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.
4785 @findex gnus-extra-header
4786 The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the
4787 @code{gnus-extra-header} function. Here's a format line spec that will
4788 access the @code{X-Newsreader} header:
4791 "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@@"
4795 @vindex gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4796 The @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses} variable says when the @samp{%f}
4797 summary line spec returns the @code{To}, @code{Newsreader} or
4798 @code{From} header. If this regexp matches the contents of the
4799 @code{From} header, the value of the @code{To} or @code{Newsreader}
4800 headers are used instead.
4802 To distinguish regular articles from those where the @code{From} field
4803 has been swapped, a string is prefixed to the @code{To} or
4804 @code{Newsgroups} header in the summary line. By default the string is
4805 @samp{-> } for @code{To} and @samp{=> } for @code{Newsgroups}, you can
4806 customize these strings with @code{gnus-summary-to-prefix} and
4807 @code{gnus-summary-newsgroup-prefix}.
4811 @vindex nnmail-extra-headers
4812 A related variable is @code{nnmail-extra-headers}, which controls when
4813 to include extra headers when generating overview (@acronym{NOV}) files.
4814 If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after
4815 changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using @kbd{^},
4816 and then @kbd{g} on the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause
4819 @vindex gnus-summary-line-format
4820 You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the
4821 @code{%n} spec to the @code{%f} spec in the
4822 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} variable.
4824 In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in
4828 (setq gnus-extra-headers
4830 (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
4831 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
4832 "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n")
4833 (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses
4837 (The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them
4840 A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to
4841 convince their news server administrator to provide some additional
4844 The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over
4845 the @acronym{NOV} files that are created. However, if you can persuade your
4846 nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):
4852 to the end of her @file{overview.fmt} file, then you can use that just
4853 as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.
4856 @node Summary Buffer Mode Line
4857 @subsection Summary Buffer Mode Line
4859 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-line-format
4860 You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (@pxref{Mode Line
4861 Formatting}). Set @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} to whatever you
4862 like. The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z}.
4864 Here are the elements you can play with:
4870 Unprefixed group name.
4872 Current article number.
4874 Current article score.
4878 Number of unread articles in this group.
4880 Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the
4883 A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented
4884 either as @samp{<%U(+%e) more>} if there are both unread and unselected
4885 articles, and just as @samp{<%U more>} if there are just unread articles
4886 and no unselected ones.
4888 Shortish group name. For instance, @samp{rec.arts.anime} will be
4889 shortened to @samp{r.a.anime}.
4891 Subject of the current article.
4893 User-defined spec (@pxref{User-Defined Specs}).
4895 Name of the current score file (@pxref{Scoring}).
4897 Number of dormant articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4899 Number of ticked articles (@pxref{Unread Articles}).
4901 Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.
4903 Number of articles expunged by the score files.
4907 @node Summary Highlighting
4908 @subsection Summary Highlighting
4912 @item gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4913 @vindex gnus-visual-mark-article-hook
4914 This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for
4915 highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if
4916 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4918 @item gnus-summary-update-hook
4919 @vindex gnus-summary-update-hook
4920 This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if
4921 @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
4923 @item gnus-summary-selected-face
4924 @vindex gnus-summary-selected-face
4925 This is the face (or @dfn{font} as some people call it) used to
4926 highlight the current article in the summary buffer.
4928 @item gnus-summary-highlight
4929 @vindex gnus-summary-highlight
4930 Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a
4931 list where the elements are of the format @code{(@var{form}
4932 . @var{face})}. If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be
4933 italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable
4936 (((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic)
4937 ((> score default) . bold))
4939 As you may have guessed, if @var{form} returns a non-@code{nil} value,
4940 @var{face} will be applied to the line.
4944 @node Summary Maneuvering
4945 @section Summary Maneuvering
4946 @cindex summary movement
4948 All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and
4949 behave pretty much as you'd expect.
4951 None of these commands select articles.
4956 @kindex M-n (Summary)
4957 @kindex G M-n (Summary)
4958 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-subject
4959 Go to the next summary line of an unread article
4960 (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-subject}).
4964 @kindex M-p (Summary)
4965 @kindex G M-p (Summary)
4966 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject
4967 Go to the previous summary line of an unread article
4968 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject}).
4971 @kindex G g (Summary)
4972 @findex gnus-summary-goto-subject
4973 Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article
4974 without displaying the article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-subject}).
4977 If gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you
4978 can use the @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} keys to move around the group
4979 buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning
4980 to the group buffer.
4982 Variables related to summary movement:
4986 @vindex gnus-auto-select-next
4987 @item gnus-auto-select-next
4988 If you issue one of the movement commands (like @kbd{n}) and there are
4989 no more unread articles after the current one, gnus will offer to go to
4990 the next group. If this variable is @code{t} and the next group is
4991 empty, gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If
4992 this variable is neither @code{t} nor @code{nil}, gnus will select the
4993 next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable
4994 is @code{quietly}, Gnus will select the next group without asking for
4995 confirmation. If this variable is @code{almost-quietly}, the same
4996 will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group.
4997 Finally, if this variable is @code{slightly-quietly}, the @kbd{Z n}
4998 command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also
4999 @pxref{Group Levels}.
5001 @item gnus-auto-select-same
5002 @vindex gnus-auto-select-same
5003 If non-@code{nil}, all the movement commands will try to go to the next
5004 article with the same subject as the current. (@dfn{Same} here might
5005 mean @dfn{roughly equal}. See @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}
5006 for details (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).) If there are no more
5007 articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.
5009 This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.
5011 @item gnus-summary-check-current
5012 @vindex gnus-summary-check-current
5013 If non-@code{nil}, all the ``unread'' movement commands will not proceed
5014 to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread.
5015 Instead, they will choose the current article.
5017 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
5018 @vindex gnus-auto-center-summary
5019 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer
5020 centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a
5021 slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can
5022 set this variable to @code{nil} to get the normal Emacs scrolling
5023 action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary
5024 buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long
5027 This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at
5028 the given number of lines from the top.
5033 @node Choosing Articles
5034 @section Choosing Articles
5035 @cindex selecting articles
5038 * Choosing Commands:: Commands for choosing articles.
5039 * Choosing Variables:: Variables that influence these commands.
5043 @node Choosing Commands
5044 @subsection Choosing Commands
5046 None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix,
5047 and they all select and display an article.
5049 If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see
5050 @ref{Exiting the Summary Buffer}.
5054 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5055 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5056 Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next
5057 unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5059 If you have an article window open already and you press @kbd{SPACE}
5060 again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently
5061 @kbd{SPACE} through an entire newsgroup. @xref{Paging the Article}.
5066 @kindex G n (Summary)
5067 @findex gnus-summary-next-unread-article
5068 @c @icon{gnus-summary-next-unread}
5069 Go to next unread article (@code{gnus-summary-next-unread-article}).
5074 @findex gnus-summary-prev-unread-article
5075 @c @icon{gnus-summary-prev-unread}
5076 Go to previous unread article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-unread-article}).
5081 @kindex G N (Summary)
5082 @findex gnus-summary-next-article
5083 Go to the next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-article}).
5088 @kindex G P (Summary)
5089 @findex gnus-summary-prev-article
5090 Go to the previous article (@code{gnus-summary-prev-article}).
5093 @kindex G C-n (Summary)
5094 @findex gnus-summary-next-same-subject
5095 Go to the next article with the same subject
5096 (@code{gnus-summary-next-same-subject}).
5099 @kindex G C-p (Summary)
5100 @findex gnus-summary-prev-same-subject
5101 Go to the previous article with the same subject
5102 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-same-subject}).
5106 @kindex G f (Summary)
5108 @findex gnus-summary-first-unread-article
5109 Go to the first unread article
5110 (@code{gnus-summary-first-unread-article}).
5114 @kindex G b (Summary)
5116 @findex gnus-summary-best-unread-article
5117 Go to the unread article with the highest score
5118 (@code{gnus-summary-best-unread-article}). If given a prefix argument,
5119 go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.
5124 @kindex G l (Summary)
5125 @findex gnus-summary-goto-last-article
5126 Go to the previous article read (@code{gnus-summary-goto-last-article}).
5129 @kindex G o (Summary)
5130 @findex gnus-summary-pop-article
5132 @cindex article history
5133 Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article
5134 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-article}). This command differs from the
5135 command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the
5136 history as you like, while @kbd{l} toggles the two last read articles.
5137 For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot),
5138 @pxref{Article Backlog}.
5143 @kindex G j (Summary)
5144 @findex gnus-summary-goto-article
5145 Ask for an article number or @code{Message-ID}, and then go to that
5146 article (@code{gnus-summary-goto-article}).
5151 @node Choosing Variables
5152 @subsection Choosing Variables
5154 Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:
5157 @item gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5158 @vindex gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup
5159 All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next)
5160 article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if
5161 this variable is non-@code{nil}. Gnus will then fetch the article from
5162 the server and display it in the article buffer.
5164 @item gnus-select-article-hook
5165 @vindex gnus-select-article-hook
5166 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. The default is
5167 @code{nil}. If you would like each article to be saved in the Agent as
5168 you read it, putting @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} on this
5171 @item gnus-mark-article-hook
5172 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
5173 @findex gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read
5174 @findex gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read
5175 @findex gnus-unread-mark
5176 This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to
5177 be used for marking articles as read. The default value is
5178 @code{gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read}, and will change the
5179 mark of almost any article you read to @code{gnus-read-mark}. The only
5180 articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and
5181 expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles
5182 marked as read, you can use @code{gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read}
5183 instead. It will leave marks like @code{gnus-low-score-mark},
5184 @code{gnus-del-mark} (and so on) alone.
5189 @node Paging the Article
5190 @section Scrolling the Article
5191 @cindex article scrolling
5196 @kindex SPACE (Summary)
5197 @findex gnus-summary-next-page
5198 Pressing @kbd{SPACE} will scroll the current article forward one page,
5199 or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the
5200 next article (@code{gnus-summary-next-page}).
5202 @vindex gnus-article-boring-faces
5203 @vindex gnus-article-skip-boring
5204 If @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} is non-@code{nil} and the rest of
5205 the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be
5206 skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize
5207 what is considered uninteresting with
5208 @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}. You can manually view the article's
5209 pages, no matter how boring, using @kbd{C-M-v}.
5212 @kindex DEL (Summary)
5213 @findex gnus-summary-prev-page
5214 Scroll the current article back one page (@code{gnus-summary-prev-page}).
5217 @kindex RET (Summary)
5218 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-up
5219 Scroll the current article one line forward
5220 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-up}).
5223 @kindex M-RET (Summary)
5224 @findex gnus-summary-scroll-down
5225 Scroll the current article one line backward
5226 (@code{gnus-summary-scroll-down}).
5230 @kindex A g (Summary)
5232 @findex gnus-summary-show-article
5233 @vindex gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5234 (Re)fetch the current article (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). If
5235 given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the
5236 article treatment functions. This will give you a ``raw'' article, just
5237 the way it came from the server.
5239 If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff.
5240 @kbd{C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET} will decode the message as if it were
5241 encoded in the @code{cn-gb-2312} charset. If you have
5244 (setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist
5249 then you can say @kbd{C-u 1 g} to get the same effect.
5254 @kindex A < (Summary)
5255 @findex gnus-summary-beginning-of-article
5256 Scroll to the beginning of the article
5257 (@code{gnus-summary-beginning-of-article}).
5262 @kindex A > (Summary)
5263 @findex gnus-summary-end-of-article
5264 Scroll to the end of the article (@code{gnus-summary-end-of-article}).
5268 @kindex A s (Summary)
5270 @findex gnus-summary-isearch-article
5271 Perform an isearch in the article buffer
5272 (@code{gnus-summary-isearch-article}).
5276 @findex gnus-summary-select-article-buffer
5277 Select the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-select-article-buffer}).
5282 @node Reply Followup and Post
5283 @section Reply, Followup and Post
5286 * Summary Mail Commands:: Sending mail.
5287 * Summary Post Commands:: Sending news.
5288 * Summary Message Commands:: Other Message-related commands.
5289 * Canceling and Superseding::
5293 @node Summary Mail Commands
5294 @subsection Summary Mail Commands
5296 @cindex composing mail
5298 Commands for composing a mail message:
5304 @kindex S r (Summary)
5306 @findex gnus-summary-reply
5307 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-reply}
5308 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply}
5309 Mail a reply to the author of the current article
5310 (@code{gnus-summary-reply}).
5315 @kindex S R (Summary)
5316 @findex gnus-summary-reply-with-original
5317 @c @icon{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}
5318 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5319 original message (@code{gnus-summary-reply-with-original}). This
5320 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5323 @kindex S w (Summary)
5324 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply
5325 Mail a wide reply to the author of the current article
5326 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{wide reply} is a reply that
5327 goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5328 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers. If @code{Mail-Followup-To} is
5329 present, that's used instead.
5332 @kindex S W (Summary)
5333 @findex gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original
5334 Mail a wide reply to the current article and include the original
5335 message (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply-with-original}). This command uses
5336 the process/prefix convention.
5339 @kindex S v (Summary)
5340 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply
5341 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article
5342 (@code{gnus-summary-wide-reply}). A @dfn{very wide reply} is a reply
5343 that goes out to all people listed in the @code{To}, @code{From} (or
5344 @code{Reply-to}) and @code{Cc} headers in all the process/prefixed
5345 articles. This command uses the process/prefix convention.
5348 @kindex S V (Summary)
5349 @findex gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original
5350 Mail a very wide reply to the author of the current article and include the
5351 original message (@code{gnus-summary-very-wide-reply-with-original}). This
5352 command uses the process/prefix convention.
5355 @kindex S B r (Summary)
5356 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to
5357 Mail a reply to the author of the current article but ignore the
5358 @code{Reply-To} field (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to}).
5359 If you need this because a mailing list incorrectly sets a
5360 @code{Reply-To} header pointing to the list, you probably want to set
5361 the @code{broken-reply-to} group parameter instead, so things will work
5362 correctly. @xref{Group Parameters}.
5365 @kindex S B R (Summary)
5366 @findex gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original
5367 Mail a reply to the author of the current article and include the
5368 original message but ignore the @code{Reply-To} field
5369 (@code{gnus-summary-reply-broken-reply-to-with-original}).
5373 @kindex S o m (Summary)
5374 @kindex C-c C-f (Summary)
5375 @findex gnus-summary-mail-forward
5376 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-forward}
5377 Forward the current article to some other person
5378 (@code{gnus-summary-mail-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
5379 headers of the forwarded article.
5384 @kindex S m (Summary)
5385 @findex gnus-summary-mail-other-window
5386 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-originate}
5387 Prepare a mail (@code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}). By default, use
5388 the posting style of the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5389 If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style.
5394 @kindex S i (Summary)
5395 @findex gnus-summary-news-other-window
5396 Prepare a news (@code{gnus-summary-news-other-window}). By default,
5397 post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that. If the
5398 prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to.
5400 This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups.
5401 This is useful for ``posting'' messages to mail groups without actually
5402 sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group
5403 in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method
5404 for this to work though.
5407 @kindex S D b (Summary)
5408 @findex gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail
5409 @cindex bouncing mail
5410 If you have sent a mail, but the mail was bounced back to you for some
5411 reason (wrong address, transient failure), you can use this command to
5412 resend that bounced mail (@code{gnus-summary-resend-bounced-mail}). You
5413 will be popped into a mail buffer where you can edit the headers before
5414 sending the mail off again. If you give a prefix to this command, and
5415 the bounced mail is a reply to some other mail, gnus will try to fetch
5416 that mail and display it for easy perusal of its headers. This might
5417 very well fail, though.
5420 @kindex S D r (Summary)
5421 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message
5422 Not to be confused with the previous command,
5423 @code{gnus-summary-resend-message} will prompt you for an address to
5424 send the current message off to, and then send it to that place. The
5425 headers of the message won't be altered---but lots of headers that say
5426 @code{Resent-To}, @code{Resent-From} and so on will be added. This
5427 means that you actually send a mail to someone that has a @code{To}
5428 header that (probably) points to yourself. This will confuse people.
5429 So, natcherly you'll only do that if you're really eVIl.
5431 This command is mainly used if you have several accounts and want to
5432 ship a mail to a different account of yours. (If you're both
5433 @code{root} and @code{postmaster} and get a mail for @code{postmaster}
5434 to the @code{root} account, you may want to resend it to
5435 @code{postmaster}. Ordnung muss sein!
5437 This command understands the process/prefix convention
5438 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5441 @kindex S D e (Summary)
5442 @findex gnus-summary-resend-message-edit
5444 Like the previous command, but will allow you to edit the message as
5445 if it were a new message before resending.
5448 @kindex S O m (Summary)
5449 @findex gnus-summary-digest-mail-forward
5450 Digest the current series (@pxref{Decoding Articles}) and forward the
5451 result using mail (@code{gnus-summary-digest-mail-forward}). This
5452 command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5455 @kindex S M-c (Summary)
5456 @findex gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint
5457 @cindex crossposting
5458 @cindex excessive crossposting
5459 Send a complaint about excessive crossposting to the author of the
5460 current article (@code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint}).
5462 @findex gnus-crosspost-complaint
5463 This command is provided as a way to fight back against the current
5464 crossposting pandemic that's sweeping Usenet. It will compose a reply
5465 using the @code{gnus-crosspost-complaint} variable as a preamble. This
5466 command understands the process/prefix convention
5467 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) and will prompt you before sending each mail.
5471 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5472 Manual}, for more information.
5475 @node Summary Post Commands
5476 @subsection Summary Post Commands
5478 @cindex composing news
5480 Commands for posting a news article:
5486 @kindex S p (Summary)
5487 @findex gnus-summary-post-news
5488 @c @icon{gnus-summary-post-news}
5489 Prepare for posting an article (@code{gnus-summary-post-news}). By
5490 default, post to the current group. If given a prefix, disable that.
5491 If the prefix is 1, prompt for another group instead.
5496 @kindex S f (Summary)
5497 @findex gnus-summary-followup
5498 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup}
5499 Post a followup to the current article (@code{gnus-summary-followup}).
5503 @kindex S F (Summary)
5505 @c @icon{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}
5506 @findex gnus-summary-followup-with-original
5507 Post a followup to the current article and include the original message
5508 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-with-original}). This command uses the
5509 process/prefix convention.
5512 @kindex S n (Summary)
5513 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail
5514 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5515 message through mail (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail}).
5518 @kindex S N (Summary)
5519 @findex gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original
5520 Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got the
5521 message through mail and include the original message
5522 (@code{gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original}). This command uses
5523 the process/prefix convention.
5526 @kindex S o p (Summary)
5527 @findex gnus-summary-post-forward
5528 Forward the current article to a newsgroup
5529 (@code{gnus-summary-post-forward}). If given a prefix, include the full
5530 headers of the forwarded article.
5533 @kindex S O p (Summary)
5534 @findex gnus-summary-digest-post-forward
5536 @cindex making digests
5537 Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
5538 (@code{gnus-summary-digest-post-forward}). This command uses the
5539 process/prefix convention.
5542 @kindex S u (Summary)
5543 @findex gnus-uu-post-news
5544 @c @icon{gnus-uu-post-news}
5545 Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
5546 (@code{gnus-uu-post-news}). (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
5549 Also @xref{Header Commands, ,Header Commands, message, The Message
5550 Manual}, for more information.
5553 @node Summary Message Commands
5554 @subsection Summary Message Commands
5558 @kindex S y (Summary)
5559 @findex gnus-summary-yank-message
5560 Yank the current article into an already existing Message composition
5561 buffer (@code{gnus-summary-yank-message}). This command prompts for
5562 what message buffer you want to yank into, and understands the
5563 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5568 @node Canceling and Superseding
5569 @subsection Canceling Articles
5570 @cindex canceling articles
5571 @cindex superseding articles
5573 Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
5574 really, really wish you hadn't posted that?
5576 Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.
5578 @findex gnus-summary-cancel-article
5580 @c @icon{gnus-summary-cancel-article}
5581 Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
5582 articles, so don't try any funny stuff). Then press @kbd{C} or @kbd{S
5583 c} (@code{gnus-summary-cancel-article}). Your article will be
5584 canceled---machines all over the world will be deleting your article.
5585 This command uses the process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
5587 Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article may
5588 live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
5591 Gnus will use the ``current'' select method when canceling. If you
5592 want to use the standard posting method, use the @samp{a} symbolic
5593 prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}).
5595 Gnus ensures that only you can cancel your own messages using a
5596 @code{Cancel-Lock} header (@pxref{Canceling News, Canceling News, ,
5597 message, Message Manual}).
5599 If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
5600 corrections, you can post a @dfn{superseding} article that will replace
5601 your original article.
5603 @findex gnus-summary-supersede-article
5605 Go to the original article and press @kbd{S s}
5606 (@code{gnus-summary-supersede-article}). You will be put in a buffer
5607 where you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the
5610 The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
5611 sites do not honor superseding. On those sites, it will appear that you
5612 have posted almost the same article twice.
5614 If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
5615 there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
5616 waiting for the article to appear on your site first. You simply return
5617 to the post buffer (which is called @code{*sent ...*}). There you will
5618 find the article you just posted, with all the headers intact. Change
5619 the @code{Message-ID} header to a @code{Cancel} or @code{Supersedes}
5620 header by substituting one of those words for the word
5621 @code{Message-ID}. Then just press @kbd{C-c C-c} to send the article as
5622 you would do normally. The previous article will be
5623 canceled/superseded.
5625 Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.
5627 @node Delayed Articles
5628 @section Delayed Articles
5629 @cindex delayed sending
5630 @cindex send delayed
5632 Sometimes, you might wish to delay the sending of a message. For
5633 example, you might wish to arrange for a message to turn up just in time
5634 to remind your about the birthday of your Significant Other. For this,
5635 there is the @code{gnus-delay} package. Setup is simple:
5638 (gnus-delay-initialize)
5641 @findex gnus-delay-article
5642 Normally, to send a message you use the @kbd{C-c C-c} command from
5643 Message mode. To delay a message, use @kbd{C-c C-j}
5644 (@code{gnus-delay-article}) instead. This will ask you for how long the
5645 message should be delayed. Possible answers are:
5649 A time span. Consists of an integer and a letter. For example,
5650 @code{42d} means to delay for 42 days. Available letters are @code{m}
5651 (minutes), @code{h} (hours), @code{d} (days), @code{w} (weeks), @code{M}
5652 (months) and @code{Y} (years).
5655 A specific date. Looks like @code{YYYY-MM-DD}. The message will be
5656 delayed until that day, at a specific time (eight o'clock by default).
5657 See also @code{gnus-delay-default-hour}.
5660 A specific time of day. Given in @code{hh:mm} format, 24h, no am/pm
5661 stuff. The deadline will be at that time today, except if that time has
5662 already passed, then it's at the given time tomorrow. So if it's ten
5663 o'clock in the morning and you specify @code{11:15}, then the deadline
5664 is one hour and fifteen minutes hence. But if you specify @code{9:20},
5665 that means a time tomorrow.
5668 The action of the @code{gnus-delay-article} command is influenced by a
5669 couple of variables:
5672 @item gnus-delay-default-hour
5673 @vindex gnus-delay-default-hour
5674 When you specify a specific date, the message will be due on that hour
5675 on the given date. Possible values are integers 0 through 23.
5677 @item gnus-delay-default-delay
5678 @vindex gnus-delay-default-delay
5679 This is a string and gives the default delay. It can be of any of the
5680 formats described above.
5682 @item gnus-delay-group
5683 @vindex gnus-delay-group
5684 Delayed articles will be kept in this group on the drafts server until
5685 they are due. You probably don't need to change this. The default
5686 value is @code{"delayed"}.
5688 @item gnus-delay-header
5689 @vindex gnus-delay-header
5690 The deadline for each article will be stored in a header. This variable
5691 is a string and gives the header name. You probably don't need to
5692 change this. The default value is @code{"X-Gnus-Delayed"}.
5695 The way delaying works is like this: when you use the
5696 @code{gnus-delay-article} command, you give a certain delay. Gnus
5697 calculates the deadline of the message and stores it in the
5698 @code{X-Gnus-Delayed} header and puts the message in the
5699 @code{nndraft:delayed} group.
5701 @findex gnus-delay-send-queue
5702 And whenever you get new news, Gnus looks through the group for articles
5703 which are due and sends them. It uses the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue}
5704 function for this. By default, this function is added to the hook
5705 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But of course, you can change this.
5706 Maybe you want to use the demon to send drafts? Just tell the demon to
5707 execute the @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} function.
5710 @item gnus-delay-initialize
5711 @findex gnus-delay-initialize
5713 By default, this function installs @code{gnus-delay-send-queue} in
5714 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook}. But it accepts the optional second
5715 argument @code{no-check}. If it is non-@code{nil},
5716 @code{gnus-get-new-news-hook} is not changed. The optional first
5717 argument is ignored.
5719 For example, @code{(gnus-delay-initialize nil t)} means to do nothing.
5720 Presumably, you want to use the demon for sending due delayed articles.
5721 Just don't forget to set that up :-)
5725 @node Marking Articles
5726 @section Marking Articles
5727 @cindex article marking
5728 @cindex article ticking
5731 There are several marks you can set on an article.
5733 You have marks that decide the @dfn{readedness} (whoo, neato-keano
5734 neologism ohoy!) of the article. Alphabetic marks generally mean
5735 @dfn{read}, while non-alphabetic characters generally mean @dfn{unread}.
5737 In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.
5740 There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks.
5744 * Unread Articles:: Marks for unread articles.
5745 * Read Articles:: Marks for read articles.
5746 * Other Marks:: Marks that do not affect readedness.
5747 * Setting Marks:: How to set and remove marks.
5748 * Generic Marking Commands:: How to customize the marking.
5749 * Setting Process Marks:: How to mark articles for later processing.
5753 @node Unread Articles
5754 @subsection Unread Articles
5756 The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
5761 @vindex gnus-ticked-mark
5762 Marked as ticked (@code{gnus-ticked-mark}).
5764 @dfn{Ticked articles} are articles that will remain visible always. If
5765 you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put off
5766 reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd typically
5767 tick it. However, articles can be expired (from news servers by the
5768 news server software, Gnus itself never expires ticked messages), so if
5769 you want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
5770 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
5773 @vindex gnus-dormant-mark
5774 Marked as dormant (@code{gnus-dormant-mark}).
5776 @dfn{Dormant articles} will only appear in the summary buffer if there
5777 are followups to it. If you want to see them even if they don't have
5778 followups, you can use the @kbd{/ D} command (@pxref{Limiting}).
5779 Otherwise (except for the visibility issue), they are just like ticked
5783 @vindex gnus-unread-mark
5784 Marked as unread (@code{gnus-unread-mark}).
5786 @dfn{Unread articles} are articles that haven't been read at all yet.
5791 @subsection Read Articles
5792 @cindex expirable mark
5794 All the following marks mark articles as read.
5799 @vindex gnus-del-mark
5800 These are articles that the user has marked as read with the @kbd{d}
5801 command manually, more or less (@code{gnus-del-mark}).
5804 @vindex gnus-read-mark
5805 Articles that have actually been read (@code{gnus-read-mark}).
5808 @vindex gnus-ancient-mark
5809 Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
5810 @dfn{old} (@code{gnus-ancient-mark}).
5813 @vindex gnus-killed-mark
5814 Marked as killed (@code{gnus-killed-mark}).
5817 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mark
5818 Marked as killed by kill files (@code{gnus-kill-file-mark}).
5821 @vindex gnus-low-score-mark
5822 Marked as read by having too low a score (@code{gnus-low-score-mark}).
5825 @vindex gnus-catchup-mark
5826 Marked as read by a catchup (@code{gnus-catchup-mark}).
5829 @vindex gnus-canceled-mark
5830 Canceled article (@code{gnus-canceled-mark})
5833 @vindex gnus-souped-mark
5834 @sc{soup}ed article (@code{gnus-souped-mark}). @xref{SOUP}.
5837 @vindex gnus-sparse-mark
5838 Sparsely reffed article (@code{gnus-sparse-mark}). @xref{Customizing
5842 @vindex gnus-duplicate-mark
5843 Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
5844 (@code{gnus-duplicate-mark}). @xref{Duplicate Suppression}.
5848 All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
5849 They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.
5851 One more special mark, though:
5855 @vindex gnus-expirable-mark
5856 Marked as expirable (@code{gnus-expirable-mark}).
5858 Marking articles as @dfn{expirable} (or have them marked as such
5859 automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups---a user doesn't
5860 control expiring of news articles, but in mail groups, for instance,
5861 articles marked as @dfn{expirable} can be deleted by gnus at
5867 @subsection Other Marks
5868 @cindex process mark
5871 There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the article is
5877 You can set a bookmark in the current article. Say you are reading a
5878 long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home for dinner
5879 before you've finished reading the thesis. You can then set a bookmark
5880 in the article, and gnus will jump to this bookmark the next time it
5881 encounters the article. @xref{Setting Marks}.
5884 @vindex gnus-replied-mark
5885 All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e., have
5886 answered) will be marked with an @samp{A} in the second column
5887 (@code{gnus-replied-mark}).
5890 @vindex gnus-forwarded-mark
5891 All articles that you have forwarded will be marked with an @samp{F} in
5892 the second column (@code{gnus-forwarded-mark}).
5895 @vindex gnus-cached-mark
5896 Articles stored in the article cache will be marked with an @samp{*} in
5897 the second column (@code{gnus-cached-mark}). @xref{Article Caching}.
5900 @vindex gnus-saved-mark
5901 Articles ``saved'' (in some manner or other; not necessarily
5902 religiously) are marked with an @samp{S} in the second column
5903 (@code{gnus-saved-mark}).
5906 @vindex gnus-recent-mark
5907 Articles that according to the server haven't been shown to the user
5908 before are marked with a @samp{N} in the second column
5909 (@code{gnus-recent-mark}). Note that not all servers support this
5910 mark, in which case it simply never appears. Compare with
5911 @code{gnus-unseen-mark}.
5914 @vindex gnus-unseen-mark
5915 Articles that haven't been seen before in Gnus by the user are marked
5916 with a @samp{.} in the second column (@code{gnus-unseen-mark}).
5917 Compare with @code{gnus-recent-mark}.
5920 @vindex gnus-downloaded-mark
5921 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), articles may be
5922 downloaded for unplugged (offline) viewing. If you are using the
5923 @samp{%O} spec, these articles get the @samp{+} mark in that spec.
5924 (The variable @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} controls which character to
5928 @vindex gnus-undownloaded-mark
5929 When using the Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}), some articles might
5930 not have been downloaded. Such articles cannot be viewed while you
5931 are unplugged (offline). If you are using the @samp{%O} spec, these
5932 articles get the @samp{-} mark in that spec. (The variable
5933 @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} controls which character to use.)
5936 @vindex gnus-downloadable-mark
5937 The Gnus agent (@pxref{Agent Basics}) downloads some articles
5938 automatically, but it is also possible to explicitly mark articles for
5939 download, even if they would not be downloaded automatically. Such
5940 explicitly-marked articles get the @samp{%} mark in the first column.
5941 (The variable @code{gnus-downloadable-mark} controls which character to
5945 @vindex gnus-not-empty-thread-mark
5946 @vindex gnus-empty-thread-mark
5947 If the @samp{%e} spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
5948 marked with @code{gnus-not-empty-thread-mark} and
5949 @code{gnus-empty-thread-mark} in the third column, respectively.
5952 @vindex gnus-process-mark
5953 Finally we have the @dfn{process mark} (@code{gnus-process-mark}). A
5954 variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark. For
5955 instance, @kbd{X u} (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}) will uudecode and view
5956 all articles that have been marked with the process mark. Articles
5957 marked with the process mark have a @samp{#} in the second column.
5961 You might have noticed that most of these ``non-readedness'' marks
5962 appear in the second column by default. So if you have a cached, saved,
5963 replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?
5965 Nothing much. The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache ->
5966 replied -> saved. So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
5967 you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.
5971 @subsection Setting Marks
5972 @cindex setting marks
5974 All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.
5979 @kindex M c (Summary)
5980 @kindex M-u (Summary)
5981 @findex gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward
5982 @cindex mark as unread
5983 Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
5984 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward}). In other words, mark the
5990 @kindex M t (Summary)
5991 @findex gnus-summary-tick-article-forward
5992 Tick the current article (@code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}).
5993 @xref{Article Caching}.
5998 @kindex M ? (Summary)
5999 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant
6000 Mark the current article as dormant
6001 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant}). @xref{Article Caching}.
6005 @kindex M d (Summary)
6007 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward
6008 Mark the current article as read
6009 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward}).
6013 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward
6014 Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous line
6015 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward}).
6020 @kindex M k (Summary)
6021 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select
6022 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read,
6023 and then select the next unread article
6024 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select}).
6028 @kindex M K (Summary)
6029 @kindex C-k (Summary)
6030 @findex gnus-summary-kill-same-subject
6031 Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as read
6032 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-same-subject}).
6035 @kindex M C (Summary)
6036 @findex gnus-summary-catchup
6037 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup}
6038 Mark all unread articles as read (@code{gnus-summary-catchup}).
6041 @kindex M C-c (Summary)
6042 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all
6043 Mark all articles in the group as read---even the ticked and dormant
6044 articles (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all}).
6047 @kindex M H (Summary)
6048 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-to-here
6049 Catchup the current group to point (before the point)
6050 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-to-here}).
6053 @kindex M h (Summary)
6054 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-from-here
6055 Catchup the current group from point (after the point)
6056 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-from-here}).
6059 @kindex C-w (Summary)
6060 @findex gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read
6061 Mark all articles between point and mark as read
6062 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read}).
6065 @kindex M V k (Summary)
6066 @findex gnus-summary-kill-below
6067 Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
6068 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-kill-below}).
6072 @kindex M e (Summary)
6074 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable
6075 Mark the current article as expirable
6076 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable}).
6079 @kindex M b (Summary)
6080 @findex gnus-summary-set-bookmark
6081 Set a bookmark in the current article
6082 (@code{gnus-summary-set-bookmark}).
6085 @kindex M B (Summary)
6086 @findex gnus-summary-remove-bookmark
6087 Remove the bookmark from the current article
6088 (@code{gnus-summary-remove-bookmark}).
6091 @kindex M V c (Summary)
6092 @findex gnus-summary-clear-above
6093 Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score (or
6094 over the numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
6097 @kindex M V u (Summary)
6098 @findex gnus-summary-tick-above
6099 Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
6100 numeric prefix) (@code{gnus-summary-tick-above}).
6103 @kindex M V m (Summary)
6104 @findex gnus-summary-mark-above
6105 Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the default
6106 score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
6107 (@code{gnus-summary-clear-above}).
6110 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
6111 The @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} variable controls what action should
6112 be taken after setting a mark. If non-@code{nil}, point will move to
6113 the next/previous unread article. If @code{nil}, point will just move
6114 one line up or down. As a special case, if this variable is
6115 @code{never}, all the marking commands as well as other commands (like
6116 @kbd{SPACE}) will move to the next article, whether it is unread or not.
6117 The default is @code{t}.
6120 @node Generic Marking Commands
6121 @subsection Generic Marking Commands
6123 Some people would like the command that ticks an article (@kbd{!}) go to
6124 the next article. Others would like it to go to the next unread
6125 article. Yet others would like it to stay on the current article. And
6126 even though I haven't heard of anybody wanting it to go to the
6127 previous (unread) article, I'm sure there are people that want that as
6130 Multiply these five behaviors with five different marking commands, and
6131 you get a potentially complex set of variable to control what each
6134 To sidestep that mess, Gnus provides commands that do all these
6135 different things. They can be found on the @kbd{M M} map in the summary
6136 buffer. Type @kbd{M M C-h} to see them all---there are too many of them
6137 to list in this manual.
6139 While you can use these commands directly, most users would prefer
6140 altering the summary mode keymap. For instance, if you would like the
6141 @kbd{!} command to go to the next article instead of the next unread
6142 article, you could say something like:
6146 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'my-alter-summary-map)
6147 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6148 (local-set-key "!" 'gnus-summary-put-mark-as-ticked-next))
6156 (defun my-alter-summary-map ()
6157 (local-set-key "!" "MM!n"))
6161 @node Setting Process Marks
6162 @subsection Setting Process Marks
6163 @cindex setting process marks
6165 Process marks are displayed as @code{#} in the summary buffer, and are
6166 used for marking articles in such a way that other commands will
6167 process these articles. For instance, if you process mark four
6168 articles and then use the @kbd{*} command, Gnus will enter these four
6169 commands into the cache. For more information,
6170 @pxref{Process/Prefix}.
6177 @kindex M P p (Summary)
6178 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-processable
6179 Mark the current article with the process mark
6180 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-processable}).
6181 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable
6185 @kindex M P u (Summary)
6186 @kindex M-# (Summary)
6187 Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
6188 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable}).
6191 @kindex M P U (Summary)
6192 @findex gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable
6193 Remove the process mark from all articles
6194 (@code{gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable}).
6197 @kindex M P i (Summary)
6198 @findex gnus-uu-invert-processable
6199 Invert the list of process marked articles
6200 (@code{gnus-uu-invert-processable}).
6203 @kindex M P R (Summary)
6204 @findex gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp
6205 Mark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6206 expression (@code{gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp}).
6209 @kindex M P G (Summary)
6210 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp
6211 Unmark articles that have a @code{Subject} header that matches a regular
6212 expression (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-by-regexp}).
6215 @kindex M P r (Summary)
6216 @findex gnus-uu-mark-region
6217 Mark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-mark-region}).
6220 @kindex M P g (Summary)
6221 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-region
6222 Unmark articles in region (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-region}).
6225 @kindex M P t (Summary)
6226 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6227 Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6228 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6231 @kindex M P T (Summary)
6232 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6233 Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
6234 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6237 @kindex M P v (Summary)
6238 @findex gnus-uu-mark-over
6239 Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
6240 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-over}).
6243 @kindex M P s (Summary)
6244 @findex gnus-uu-mark-series
6245 Mark all articles in the current series (@code{gnus-uu-mark-series}).
6248 @kindex M P S (Summary)
6249 @findex gnus-uu-mark-sparse
6250 Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
6251 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-sparse}).
6254 @kindex M P a (Summary)
6255 @findex gnus-uu-mark-all
6256 Mark all articles in series order (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}).
6259 @kindex M P b (Summary)
6260 @findex gnus-uu-mark-buffer
6261 Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
6262 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-buffer}).
6265 @kindex M P k (Summary)
6266 @findex gnus-summary-kill-process-mark
6267 Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all articles
6268 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-process-mark}).
6271 @kindex M P y (Summary)
6272 @findex gnus-summary-yank-process-mark
6273 Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
6274 (@code{gnus-summary-yank-process-mark}).
6277 @kindex M P w (Summary)
6278 @findex gnus-summary-save-process-mark
6279 Push the current process mark set onto the stack
6280 (@code{gnus-summary-save-process-mark}).
6284 Also see the @kbd{&} command in @ref{Searching for Articles}, for how to
6285 set process marks based on article body contents.
6292 It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
6293 subset of the articles currently in the group. The effect most limit
6294 commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
6297 All limiting commands work on subsets of the articles already fetched
6298 from the servers. None of these commands query the server for
6299 additional articles.
6305 @kindex / / (Summary)
6306 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-subject
6307 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
6308 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-subject}). If given a prefix, exclude
6312 @kindex / a (Summary)
6313 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-author
6314 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
6315 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-author}). If given a prefix, exclude
6319 @kindex / R (Summary)
6320 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient
6321 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some recipient
6322 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-recipient}). If given a prefix, exclude
6326 @kindex / x (Summary)
6327 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-extra
6328 Limit the summary buffer to articles that match one of the ``extra''
6329 headers (@pxref{To From Newsgroups})
6330 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-extra}). If given a prefix, exclude
6335 @kindex / u (Summary)
6337 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unread
6338 Limit the summary buffer to articles not marked as read
6339 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unread}). If given a prefix, limit the
6340 buffer to articles strictly unread. This means that ticked and
6341 dormant articles will also be excluded.
6344 @kindex / m (Summary)
6345 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-marks
6346 Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have been marked
6347 with that mark (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-marks}).
6350 @kindex / t (Summary)
6351 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-age
6352 Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles older than (or equal to) that number of days
6353 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-age}). If given a prefix, limit to
6354 articles younger than that number of days.
6357 @kindex / n (Summary)
6358 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-articles
6359 Limit the summary buffer to the current article
6360 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-articles}). Uses the process/prefix
6361 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
6364 @kindex / w (Summary)
6365 @findex gnus-summary-pop-limit
6366 Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
6367 (@code{gnus-summary-pop-limit}). If given a prefix, pop all limits off
6371 @kindex / . (Summary)
6372 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen
6373 Limit the summary buffer to the unseen articles
6374 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-unseen}).
6377 @kindex / v (Summary)
6378 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-score
6379 Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above some
6380 score (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-score}).
6383 @kindex / p (Summary)
6384 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate
6385 Limit the summary buffer to articles that satisfy the @code{display}
6386 group parameter predicate
6387 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-display-predicate}). @xref{Group
6388 Parameters}, for more on this predicate.
6391 @kindex / r (Summary)
6392 @findex gnus-summary-limit-to-replied
6393 Limit the summary buffer to replied articles
6394 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-replied}). If given a prefix, exclude
6399 @kindex M S (Summary)
6400 @kindex / E (Summary)
6401 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged
6402 Include all expunged articles in the limit
6403 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged}).
6406 @kindex / D (Summary)
6407 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant
6408 Include all dormant articles in the limit
6409 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant}).
6412 @kindex / * (Summary)
6413 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-cached
6414 Include all cached articles in the limit
6415 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}).
6418 @kindex / d (Summary)
6419 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant
6420 Exclude all dormant articles from the limit
6421 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant}).
6424 @kindex / M (Summary)
6425 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks
6426 Exclude all marked articles (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-marks}).
6429 @kindex / T (Summary)
6430 @findex gnus-summary-limit-include-thread
6431 Include all the articles in the current thread in the limit.
6434 @kindex / c (Summary)
6435 @findex gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant
6436 Exclude all dormant articles that have no children from the limit@*
6437 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant}).
6440 @kindex / C (Summary)
6441 @findex gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read
6442 Mark all excluded unread articles as read
6443 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read}). If given a prefix,
6444 also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.
6447 @kindex / N (Summary)
6448 @findex gnus-summary-insert-new-articles
6449 Insert all new articles in the summary buffer. It scans for new emails
6450 if @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} is non-@code{nil}.
6453 @kindex / o (Summary)
6454 @findex gnus-summary-insert-old-articles
6455 Insert all old articles in the summary buffer. If given a numbered
6456 prefix, fetch this number of articles.
6464 @cindex article threading
6466 Gnus threads articles by default. @dfn{To thread} is to put responses
6467 to articles directly after the articles they respond to---in a
6468 hierarchical fashion.
6470 Threading is done by looking at the @code{References} headers of the
6471 articles. In a perfect world, this would be enough to build pretty
6472 trees, but unfortunately, the @code{References} header is often broken
6473 or simply missing. Weird news propagation exacerbates the problem,
6474 so one has to employ other heuristics to get pleasing results. A
6475 plethora of approaches exists, as detailed in horrible detail in
6476 @ref{Customizing Threading}.
6478 First, a quick overview of the concepts:
6482 The top-most article in a thread; the first article in the thread.
6485 A tree-like article structure.
6488 A small(er) section of this tree-like structure.
6491 Threads often lose their roots due to article expiry, or due to the root
6492 already having been read in a previous session, and not displayed in the
6493 summary buffer. We then typically have many sub-threads that really
6494 belong to one thread, but are without connecting roots. These are
6495 called loose threads.
6497 @item thread gathering
6498 An attempt to gather loose threads into bigger threads.
6500 @item sparse threads
6501 A thread where the missing articles have been ``guessed'' at, and are
6502 displayed as empty lines in the summary buffer.
6508 * Customizing Threading:: Variables you can change to affect the threading.
6509 * Thread Commands:: Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
6513 @node Customizing Threading
6514 @subsection Customizing Threading
6515 @cindex customizing threading
6518 * Loose Threads:: How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
6519 * Filling In Threads:: Making the threads displayed look fuller.
6520 * More Threading:: Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
6521 * Low-Level Threading:: You thought it was over@dots{} but you were wrong!
6526 @subsubsection Loose Threads
6529 @cindex loose threads
6532 @item gnus-summary-make-false-root
6533 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root
6534 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
6535 and create a dummy root at the top. (Wait a minute. Root at the top?
6536 Yup.) Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired, or you've
6537 read or killed the root in a previous session.
6539 When there is no real root of a thread, gnus will have to fudge
6540 something. This variable says what fudging method gnus should use.
6541 There are four possible values:
6545 \gnusfigure{The Summary Buffer}{390}{
6546 \put(0,0){\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-adopt,width=7.5cm}}
6547 \put(445,0){\makebox(0,0)[br]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-empty,width=7.5cm}}}
6548 \put(0,400){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-none,width=7.5cm}}}
6549 \put(445,400){\makebox(0,0)[tr]{\epsfig{figure=ps/summary-dummy,width=7.5cm}}}
6554 @cindex adopting articles
6559 Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent. This
6560 parent will adopt all the other articles. The adopted articles will be
6561 marked as such by pointy brackets (@samp{<>}) instead of the standard
6562 square brackets (@samp{[]}). This is the default method.
6565 @vindex gnus-summary-dummy-line-format
6566 @vindex gnus-summary-make-false-root-always
6567 Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be the
6568 parent. This dummy line does not correspond to any real article, so
6569 selecting it will just select the first real article after the dummy
6570 article. @code{gnus-summary-dummy-line-format} is used to specify the
6571 format of the dummy roots. It accepts only one format spec: @samp{S},
6572 which is the subject of the article. @xref{Formatting Variables}.
6573 If you want all threads to have a dummy root, even the non-gathered
6574 ones, set @code{gnus-summary-make-false-root-always} to @code{t}.
6577 Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply leave the
6578 subject field of all orphans except the first empty. (Actually, it will
6579 use @code{gnus-summary-same-subject} as the subject (@pxref{Summary
6583 Don't make any article parent at all. Just gather the threads and
6584 display them after one another.
6587 Don't gather loose threads.
6590 @item gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6591 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit
6592 Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles. If this
6593 variable is @code{nil}, gnus requires an exact match between the
6594 subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
6595 super-thread. This might be too strict a requirement, what with the
6596 presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subject lines. If
6597 you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require that only the
6598 first 20 characters of the subjects have to match. If you set this
6599 variable to a really low number, you'll find that gnus will gather
6600 everything in sight into one thread, which isn't very helpful.
6602 @cindex fuzzy article gathering
6603 If you set this variable to the special value @code{fuzzy}, gnus will
6604 use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (@pxref{Fuzzy
6607 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6608 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp
6609 This can either be a regular expression or list of regular expressions
6610 that match strings that will be removed from subjects if fuzzy subject
6611 simplification is used.
6613 @item gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6614 @vindex gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6615 If you set @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit} to something as low
6616 as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something sensible:
6618 @c Written by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.rice.edu>
6620 (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
6626 "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
6627 "help" "query" "problem" "question"
6628 "answer" "reference" "announce"
6629 "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
6634 (mapconcat 'identity
6635 '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
6637 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))
6640 All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing two
6643 @item gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6644 @vindex gnus-simplify-subject-functions
6645 If non-@code{nil}, this variable overrides
6646 @code{gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit}. This variable should be a
6647 list of functions to apply to the @code{Subject} string iteratively to
6648 arrive at the simplified version of the string.
6650 Useful functions to put in this list include:
6653 @item gnus-simplify-subject-re
6654 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-re
6655 Strip the leading @samp{Re:}.
6657 @item gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6658 @findex gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy
6661 @item gnus-simplify-whitespace
6662 @findex gnus-simplify-whitespace
6663 Remove excessive whitespace.
6665 @item gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6666 @findex gnus-simplify-all-whitespace
6667 Remove all whitespace.
6670 You may also write your own functions, of course.
6673 @item gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6674 @vindex gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject
6675 Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might lead
6676 to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects like
6677 @samp{} and @samp{(none)}. To make the situation slightly better,
6678 you can use the regexp @code{gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject} to say
6679 what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.@*
6680 The default is @samp{^ *$\\|^(none)$}.
6682 @item gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6683 @vindex gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6684 Gnus gathers threads by looking at @code{Subject} headers. This means
6685 that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same ``thread'', which
6686 is confusing. An alternate approach is to look at all the
6687 @code{Message-ID}s in all the @code{References} headers to find matches.
6688 This will ensure that no gathered threads ever include unrelated
6689 articles, but it also means that people who have posted with broken
6690 newsreaders won't be gathered properly. The choice is yours---plague or
6694 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6695 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-subject
6696 This function is the default gathering function and looks at
6697 @code{Subject}s exclusively.
6699 @item gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6700 @findex gnus-gather-threads-by-references
6701 This function looks at @code{References} headers exclusively.
6704 If you want to test gathering by @code{References}, you could say
6708 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
6709 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
6715 @node Filling In Threads
6716 @subsubsection Filling In Threads
6719 @item gnus-fetch-old-headers
6720 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-headers
6721 If non-@code{nil}, gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
6722 more old headers---headers to articles marked as read. If you would
6723 like to display as few summary lines as possible, but still connect as
6724 many loose threads as possible, you should set this variable to
6725 @code{some} or a number. If you set it to a number, no more than that
6726 number of extra old headers will be fetched. In either case, fetching
6727 old headers only works if the back end you are using carries overview
6728 files---this would normally be @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool},
6729 @code{nnml}, and @code{nnmaildir}. Also remember that if the root of
6730 the thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can
6733 This variable can also be set to @code{invisible}. This won't have any
6734 visible effects, but is useful if you use the @kbd{A T} command a lot
6735 (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
6737 @item gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
6738 @vindex gnus-fetch-old-ephemeral-headers
6739 Same as @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}, but only used for ephemeral
6742 @item gnus-build-sparse-threads
6743 @vindex gnus-build-sparse-threads
6744 Fetching old headers can be slow. A low-rent similar effect can be
6745 gotten by setting this variable to @code{some}. Gnus will then look at
6746 the complete @code{References} headers of all articles and try to string
6747 together articles that belong in the same thread. This will leave
6748 @dfn{gaps} in the threading display where gnus guesses that an article
6749 is missing from the thread. (These gaps appear like normal summary
6750 lines. If you select a gap, gnus will try to fetch the article in
6751 question.) If this variable is @code{t}, gnus will display all these
6752 ``gaps'' without regard for whether they are useful for completing the
6753 thread or not. Finally, if this variable is @code{more}, gnus won't cut
6754 off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere. This variable is
6755 @code{nil} by default.
6757 @item gnus-read-all-available-headers
6758 @vindex gnus-read-all-available-headers
6759 This is a rather obscure variable that few will find useful. It's
6760 intended for those non-news newsgroups where the back end has to fetch
6761 quite a lot to present the summary buffer, and where it's impossible to
6762 go back to parents of articles. This is mostly the case in the
6763 web-based groups, like the @code{nnultimate} groups.
6765 If you don't use those, then it's safe to leave this as the default
6766 @code{nil}. If you want to use this variable, it should be a regexp
6767 that matches the group name, or @code{t} for all groups.
6772 @node More Threading
6773 @subsubsection More Threading
6776 @item gnus-show-threads
6777 @vindex gnus-show-threads
6778 If this variable is @code{nil}, no threading will be done, and all of
6779 the rest of the variables here will have no effect. Turning threading
6780 off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure to make reading
6781 slower and more awkward.
6783 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6784 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6785 If non-@code{nil}, all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
6788 This can also be a predicate specifier (@pxref{Predicate Specifiers}).
6789 Available predicates are @code{gnus-article-unread-p} and
6790 @code{gnus-article-unseen-p}.
6795 (setq gnus-thread-hide-subtree
6796 '(or gnus-article-unread-p
6797 gnus-article-unseen-p))
6800 (It's a pretty nonsensical example, since all unseen articles are also
6801 unread, but you get my drift.)
6804 @item gnus-thread-expunge-below
6805 @vindex gnus-thread-expunge-below
6806 All threads that have a total score (as defined by
6807 @code{gnus-thread-score-function}) less than this number will be
6808 expunged. This variable is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
6809 threads are expunged.
6811 @item gnus-thread-hide-killed
6812 @vindex gnus-thread-hide-killed
6813 if you kill a thread and this variable is non-@code{nil}, the subtree
6816 @item gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6817 @vindex gnus-thread-ignore-subject
6818 Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread. If
6819 this variable is non-@code{nil}, which is the default, the subject
6820 change is ignored. If it is @code{nil}, a change in the subject will
6821 result in a new thread.
6823 @item gnus-thread-indent-level
6824 @vindex gnus-thread-indent-level
6825 This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be indented.
6828 @item gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6829 @vindex gnus-sort-gathered-threads-function
6830 Sometimes, particularly with mailing lists, the order in which mails
6831 arrive locally is not necessarily the same as the order in which they
6832 arrived on the mailing list. Consequently, when sorting sub-threads
6833 using the default @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number}, responses can end
6834 up appearing before the article to which they are responding to.
6835 Setting this variable to an alternate value
6836 (e.g. @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}), in a group's parameters or in an
6837 appropriate hook (e.g. @code{gnus-summary-generate-hook}) can produce a
6838 more logical sub-thread ordering in such instances.
6843 @node Low-Level Threading
6844 @subsubsection Low-Level Threading
6848 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
6849 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
6850 Hook run before parsing any headers. The default value is
6851 @code{(gnus-set-summary-default-charset)}, which sets up local value of
6852 @code{default-mime-charset} in summary buffer based on variable
6853 @code{gnus-newsgroup-default-charset-alist}.
6855 @item gnus-alter-header-function
6856 @vindex gnus-alter-header-function
6857 If non-@code{nil}, this function will be called to allow alteration of
6858 article header structures. The function is called with one parameter,
6859 the article header vector, which it may alter in any way. For instance,
6860 if you have a mail-to-news gateway which alters the @code{Message-ID}s
6861 in systematic ways (by adding prefixes and such), you can use this
6862 variable to un-scramble the @code{Message-ID}s so that they are more
6863 meaningful. Here's one example:
6866 (setq gnus-alter-header-function 'my-alter-message-id)
6868 (defun my-alter-message-id (header)
6869 (let ((id (mail-header-id header)))
6871 "\\(<[^<>@@]*\\)\\.?cygnus\\..*@@\\([^<>@@]*>\\)" id)
6873 (concat (match-string 1 id) "@@" (match-string 2 id))
6880 @node Thread Commands
6881 @subsection Thread Commands
6882 @cindex thread commands
6888 @kindex T k (Summary)
6889 @kindex C-M-k (Summary)
6890 @findex gnus-summary-kill-thread
6891 Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
6892 (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}). If the prefix argument is positive,
6893 remove all marks instead. If the prefix argument is negative, tick
6898 @kindex T l (Summary)
6899 @kindex C-M-l (Summary)
6900 @findex gnus-summary-lower-thread
6901 Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
6902 (@code{gnus-summary-lower-thread}).
6905 @kindex T i (Summary)
6906 @findex gnus-summary-raise-thread
6907 Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
6908 (@code{gnus-summary-raise-thread}).
6911 @kindex T # (Summary)
6912 @findex gnus-uu-mark-thread
6913 Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
6914 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-thread}).
6917 @kindex T M-# (Summary)
6918 @findex gnus-uu-unmark-thread
6919 Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
6920 (@code{gnus-uu-unmark-thread}).
6923 @kindex T T (Summary)
6924 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-threads
6925 Toggle threading (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-threads}).
6928 @kindex T s (Summary)
6929 @findex gnus-summary-show-thread
6930 Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any@*
6931 (@code{gnus-summary-show-thread}).
6934 @kindex T h (Summary)
6935 @findex gnus-summary-hide-thread
6936 Hide the current (sub-)thread (@code{gnus-summary-hide-thread}).
6939 @kindex T S (Summary)
6940 @findex gnus-summary-show-all-threads
6941 Expose all hidden threads (@code{gnus-summary-show-all-threads}).
6944 @kindex T H (Summary)
6945 @findex gnus-summary-hide-all-threads
6946 Hide all threads (@code{gnus-summary-hide-all-threads}).
6949 @kindex T t (Summary)
6950 @findex gnus-summary-rethread-current
6951 Re-thread the current article's thread
6952 (@code{gnus-summary-rethread-current}). This works even when the
6953 summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.
6956 @kindex T ^ (Summary)
6957 @findex gnus-summary-reparent-thread
6958 Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous) article
6959 (@code{gnus-summary-reparent-thread}).
6963 The following commands are thread movement commands. They all
6964 understand the numeric prefix.
6969 @kindex T n (Summary)
6971 @kindex C-M-n (Summary)
6973 @kindex M-down (Summary)
6974 @findex gnus-summary-next-thread
6975 Go to the next thread (@code{gnus-summary-next-thread}).
6978 @kindex T p (Summary)
6980 @kindex C-M-p (Summary)
6982 @kindex M-up (Summary)
6983 @findex gnus-summary-prev-thread
6984 Go to the previous thread (@code{gnus-summary-prev-thread}).
6987 @kindex T d (Summary)
6988 @findex gnus-summary-down-thread
6989 Descend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-down-thread}).
6992 @kindex T u (Summary)
6993 @findex gnus-summary-up-thread
6994 Ascend the thread (@code{gnus-summary-up-thread}).
6997 @kindex T o (Summary)
6998 @findex gnus-summary-top-thread
6999 Go to the top of the thread (@code{gnus-summary-top-thread}).
7002 @vindex gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject
7003 If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
7004 threads that have several different subjects in them. If you then issue
7005 a command like @kbd{T k} (@code{gnus-summary-kill-thread}) you might not
7006 wish to kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that
7007 have the same subject as the current article. If you like this idea,
7008 you can fiddle with @code{gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject}. If it
7009 is non-@code{nil} (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored
7010 when doing thread commands. If this variable is @code{nil}, articles in
7011 the same thread with different subjects will not be included in the
7012 operation in question. If this variable is @code{fuzzy}, only articles
7013 that have subjects fuzzily equal will be included (@pxref{Fuzzy
7017 @node Sorting the Summary Buffer
7018 @section Sorting the Summary Buffer
7020 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score
7021 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date
7022 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-date-reverse
7023 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-score
7024 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
7025 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-author
7026 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient
7027 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-number
7028 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-random
7029 @vindex gnus-thread-sort-functions
7030 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number
7031 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date
7032 If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the threads by
7033 setting @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, which can be either a single
7034 function, a list of functions, or a list containing functions and
7035 @code{(not some-function)} elements.
7037 By default, sorting is done on article numbers. Ready-made sorting
7038 predicate functions include @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number},
7039 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-author}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-recipient},
7040 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-subject},
7041 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date}, @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-date-reverse},
7042 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-score},
7043 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-number},
7044 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-most-recent-date},
7045 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-random} and
7046 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score}.
7048 Each function takes two threads and returns non-@code{nil} if the first
7049 thread should be sorted before the other. Note that sorting really is
7050 normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.
7052 If you use more than one function, the primary sort key should be the
7053 last function in the list. You should probably always include
7054 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-number} in the list of sorting
7055 functions---preferably first. This will ensure that threads that are
7056 equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
7057 ascending article order.
7059 If you would like to sort by reverse score, then by subject, and finally
7060 by number, you could do something like:
7063 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
7064 '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
7065 gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
7066 (not gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score)))
7069 The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
7070 summary buffer. When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
7071 alphabetically. The threads that have the same score and the same
7072 subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
7073 which the articles arrived.
7075 If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you could
7079 (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
7081 (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
7082 gnus-thread-sort-by-score))
7085 Yet more examples. You can define different sorting to different
7086 groups. Here is an example for where one @acronym{NNTP} group is
7087 sorted by subject and the @acronym{RSS} group is sorted by date to see
7088 the latest news at the top.
7093 (defun my-gnus-summary-mode-hook-group-select ()
7094 (flet ((lsetq (x val) ;; Local setq
7095 (set (make-local-variable x) val)))
7097 ;; In Group buffer to make Debian daily news group press: G m
7098 ;; and point it to nntp server news.gmane.org and
7099 ;; group gmane.linux.debian.user.news
7100 ((string-match "nntp.*debian.user.news" gnus-newsgroup-name)
7101 (lsetq 'gnus-show-threads nil)
7102 (lsetq 'gnus-article-sort-functions 'gnus-article-sort-by-date-reverse)
7103 (lsetq 'gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
7104 (lsetq 'gnus-use-scoring nil))
7105 ;; In Group buffer to read Debian weekly news RSS feed press: G R
7106 ;; and point it to url:
7107 ;; http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main.en.rdf
7108 ((string-match "nnrss.*debian" gnus-newsgroup-name)
7109 (lsetq 'gnus-show-threads nil)
7110 (lsetq 'gnus-article-sort-functions 'gnus-article-sort-by-subject)
7111 (lsetq 'gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil)
7112 (lsetq 'gnus-use-scoring t)
7113 (lsetq 'gnus-score-find-score-files-function 'gnus-score-find-single)
7114 (lsetq 'gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%d %I%(%[ %s %]%)\n")))))
7116 (defun my-gnus-summary-mode-hook ()
7117 (my-gnus-summary-mode-hook-group-select))
7120 @vindex gnus-thread-score-function
7121 The function in the @code{gnus-thread-score-function} variable (default
7122 @code{+}) is used for calculating the total score of a thread. Useful
7123 functions might be @code{max}, @code{min}, or squared means, or whatever
7126 @findex gnus-article-sort-functions
7127 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-date
7128 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-score
7129 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-subject
7130 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-author
7131 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-random
7132 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-number
7133 If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
7134 other, you have to fiddle with the @code{gnus-article-sort-functions}
7135 variable. It is very similar to the
7136 @code{gnus-thread-sort-functions}, except that it uses slightly
7137 different functions for article comparison. Available sorting
7138 predicate functions are @code{gnus-article-sort-by-number},
7139 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-author},
7140 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-subject}, @code{gnus-article-sort-by-date},
7141 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-random}, and
7142 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-score}.
7144 If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you could
7148 (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
7149 '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
7150 gnus-article-sort-by-subject))
7155 @node Asynchronous Fetching
7156 @section Asynchronous Article Fetching
7157 @cindex asynchronous article fetching
7158 @cindex article pre-fetch
7161 If you read your news from an @acronym{NNTP} server that's far away, the
7162 network latencies may make reading articles a chore. You have to wait
7163 for a while after pressing @kbd{n} to go to the next article before the
7164 article appears. Why can't gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
7165 while you are reading the previous one? Why not, indeed.
7167 First, some caveats. There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
7168 article fetching, especially the way gnus does it.
7170 Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
7171 quite long, and you are not interested in reading that. Gnus does not
7172 know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2. You decide to read
7173 article 3, but since gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
7174 connection is blocked.
7176 To avoid these situations, gnus will open two (count 'em two)
7177 connections to the server. Some people may think this isn't a very nice
7178 thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives. Setting up that
7179 extra connection takes some time, so gnus startup will be slower.
7181 Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read. This will mean that
7182 the link between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server will become more
7183 loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch. The server itself will
7184 also become more loaded---both with the extra article requests, and the
7187 Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing@dots{} unless
7190 @vindex gnus-asynchronous
7191 Here's how: Set @code{gnus-asynchronous} to @code{t}. The rest should
7192 happen automatically.
7194 @vindex gnus-use-article-prefetch
7195 You can control how many articles are to be pre-fetched by setting
7196 @code{gnus-use-article-prefetch}. This is 30 by default, which means
7197 that when you read an article in the group, the back end will pre-fetch
7198 the next 30 articles. If this variable is @code{t}, the back end will
7199 pre-fetch all the articles it can without bound. If it is
7200 @code{nil}, no pre-fetching will be done.
7202 @vindex gnus-async-prefetch-article-p
7203 @findex gnus-async-read-p
7204 There are probably some articles that you don't want to pre-fetch---read
7205 articles, for instance. The @code{gnus-async-prefetch-article-p}
7206 variable controls whether an article is to be pre-fetched. This
7207 function should return non-@code{nil} when the article in question is
7208 to be pre-fetched. The default is @code{gnus-async-read-p}, which
7209 returns @code{nil} on read articles. The function is called with an
7210 article data structure as the only parameter.
7212 If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles shorter
7213 than 100 lines, you could say something like:
7216 (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
7217 "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
7218 (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
7219 (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
7222 (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)
7225 These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
7226 preferably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down gnus too much.
7227 It's probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.
7229 @vindex gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy
7230 Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later. The
7231 @code{gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy} says when to remove
7232 articles. This is a list that may contain the following elements:
7236 Remove articles when they are read.
7239 Remove articles when exiting the group.
7242 The default value is @code{(read exit)}.
7244 @c @vindex gnus-use-header-prefetch
7245 @c If @code{gnus-use-header-prefetch} is non-@code{nil}, prefetch articles
7246 @c from the next group.
7249 @node Article Caching
7250 @section Article Caching
7251 @cindex article caching
7254 If you have an @emph{extremely} slow @acronym{NNTP} connection, you may
7255 consider turning article caching on. Each article will then be stored
7256 locally under your home directory. As you may surmise, this could
7257 potentially use @emph{huge} amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all
7258 your inodes so fast it will make your head swim. In vodka.
7260 Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save articles.
7262 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7263 @vindex gnus-cache-directory
7264 @vindex gnus-use-cache
7265 To turn caching on, set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{t}. By default,
7266 all articles ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied
7267 over to your local cache (@code{gnus-cache-directory}). Whether this
7268 cache is flat or hierarchical is controlled by the
7269 @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable, as usual.
7271 When re-selecting a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from the
7272 cache instead of from the server. As articles in your cache will never
7273 expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while still
7274 keeping them where they belong. Just mark all articles you want to save
7275 as dormant, and don't worry.
7277 When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.
7279 @vindex gnus-cache-remove-articles
7280 @vindex gnus-cache-enter-articles
7281 The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
7282 @code{gnus-cache-enter-articles} and @code{gnus-cache-remove-articles}
7283 variables. Both are lists of symbols. The first is @code{(ticked
7284 dormant)} by default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be
7285 put in the cache. The latter is @code{(read)} by default, meaning that
7286 articles marked as read are removed from the cache. Possibly
7287 symbols in these two lists are @code{ticked}, @code{dormant},
7288 @code{unread} and @code{read}.
7290 @findex gnus-jog-cache
7291 So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
7292 picture? The @code{gnus-jog-cache} command will go through all
7293 subscribed newsgroups, request all unread articles, score them, and
7294 store them in the cache. You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this
7295 command if 1) your connection to the @acronym{NNTP} server is really, really,
7296 really slow and 2) you have a really, really, really huge disk.
7297 Seriously. One way to cut down on the number of articles downloaded is
7298 to score unwanted articles down and have them marked as read. They will
7299 not then be downloaded by this command.
7301 @vindex gnus-uncacheable-groups
7302 @vindex gnus-cacheable-groups
7303 It is likely that you do not want caching on all groups. For instance,
7304 if your @code{nnml} mail is located under your home directory, it makes no
7305 sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory. Unless you
7306 feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.
7308 To limit the caching, you could set @code{gnus-cacheable-groups} to a
7309 regexp of groups to cache, @samp{^nntp} for instance, or set the
7310 @code{gnus-uncacheable-groups} regexp to @samp{^nnml}, for instance.
7311 Both variables are @code{nil} by default. If a group matches both
7312 variables, the group is not cached.
7314 @findex gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases
7315 @findex gnus-cache-generate-active
7316 @vindex gnus-cache-active-file
7317 The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its active
7318 file (@code{gnus-cache-active-file}). If this file (or any other parts
7319 of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, gnus
7320 offers two functions that will try to set things right. @kbd{M-x
7321 gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases} will (re)build all the @acronym{NOV}
7322 files, and @kbd{gnus-cache-generate-active} will (re)generate the active
7325 @findex gnus-cache-move-cache
7326 @code{gnus-cache-move-cache} will move your whole
7327 @code{gnus-cache-directory} to some other location. You get asked to
7328 where, isn't that cool?
7330 @node Persistent Articles
7331 @section Persistent Articles
7332 @cindex persistent articles
7334 Closely related to article caching, we have @dfn{persistent articles}.
7335 In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
7336 useful in my opinion.
7338 Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable gem
7339 that you want to keep and treasure forever. You'd normally just save it
7340 (using one of the many saving commands) in some file. The problem with
7341 that is that it's just, well, yucky. Ideally you'd prefer just having
7342 the article remain in the group where you found it forever; untouched by
7343 the expiry going on at the news server.
7345 This is what a @dfn{persistent article} is---an article that just won't
7346 be deleted. It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but
7347 you use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:
7353 @findex gnus-cache-enter-article
7354 Make the current article persistent (@code{gnus-cache-enter-article}).
7357 @kindex M-* (Summary)
7358 @findex gnus-cache-remove-article
7359 Remove the current article from the persistent articles
7360 (@code{gnus-cache-remove-article}). This will normally delete the
7364 Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.
7366 To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the cache,
7367 you should set @code{gnus-use-cache} to @code{passive} if you're just
7368 interested in persistent articles:
7371 (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)
7375 @node Article Backlog
7376 @section Article Backlog
7378 @cindex article backlog
7380 If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
7381 unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
7382 by switching on the @dfn{backlog}. This is where gnus will buffer
7383 already read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles
7384 you've already read. This only helps if you are in the habit of
7385 re-selecting articles you've recently read, of course. If you never do
7386 that, turning the backlog on will slow gnus down a little bit, and
7387 increase memory usage some.
7389 @vindex gnus-keep-backlog
7390 If you set @code{gnus-keep-backlog} to a number @var{n}, gnus will store
7391 at most @var{n} old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching. If this
7392 variable is non-@code{nil} and is not a number, gnus will store
7393 @emph{all} read articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without
7394 bound before exploding and taking your machine down with you. I put
7395 that in there just to keep y'all on your toes.
7397 The default value is 20.
7400 @node Saving Articles
7401 @section Saving Articles
7402 @cindex saving articles
7404 Gnus can save articles in a number of ways. Below is the documentation
7405 for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion (i.e., little
7406 processing of the article is done before it is saved). For a different
7407 approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use @code{gnus-uu}
7408 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
7410 For the commands listed here, the target is a file. If you want to
7411 save to a group, see the @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article})
7412 command (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
7414 @vindex gnus-save-all-headers
7415 If @code{gnus-save-all-headers} is non-@code{nil}, gnus will not delete
7416 unwanted headers before saving the article.
7418 @vindex gnus-saved-headers
7419 If the preceding variable is @code{nil}, all headers that match the
7420 @code{gnus-saved-headers} regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
7421 deleted before saving.
7427 @kindex O o (Summary)
7429 @findex gnus-summary-save-article
7430 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article}
7431 Save the current article using the default article saver
7432 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article}).
7435 @kindex O m (Summary)
7436 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-mail
7437 Save the current article in mail format
7438 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-mail}).
7441 @kindex O r (Summary)
7442 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-rmail
7443 Save the current article in Rmail format
7444 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-rmail}).
7447 @kindex O f (Summary)
7448 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-file
7449 @c @icon{gnus-summary-save-article-file}
7450 Save the current article in plain file format
7451 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-file}).
7454 @kindex O F (Summary)
7455 @findex gnus-summary-write-article-file
7456 Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any previous
7457 file contents (@code{gnus-summary-write-article-file}).
7460 @kindex O b (Summary)
7461 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-body-file
7462 Save the current article body in plain file format
7463 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-body-file}).
7466 @kindex O h (Summary)
7467 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-folder
7468 Save the current article in mh folder format
7469 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-folder}).
7472 @kindex O v (Summary)
7473 @findex gnus-summary-save-article-vm
7474 Save the current article in a VM folder
7475 (@code{gnus-summary-save-article-vm}).
7479 @kindex O p (Summary)
7481 @findex gnus-summary-pipe-output
7482 Save the current article in a pipe. Uhm, like, what I mean is---Pipe
7483 the current article to a process (@code{gnus-summary-pipe-output}).
7484 If given a symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}), include the
7485 complete headers in the piped output.
7488 @kindex O P (Summary)
7489 @findex gnus-summary-muttprint
7490 @vindex gnus-summary-muttprint-program
7491 Save the current article into muttprint. That is, print it using the
7492 external program @uref{http://muttprint.sourceforge.net/,
7493 Muttprint}. The program name and options to use is controlled by the
7494 variable @code{gnus-summary-muttprint-program}.
7495 (@code{gnus-summary-muttprint}).
7499 @vindex gnus-prompt-before-saving
7500 All these commands use the process/prefix convention
7501 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). If you save bunches of articles using these
7502 functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
7503 and every article in. The prompting action is controlled by
7504 the @code{gnus-prompt-before-saving} variable, which is @code{always} by
7505 default, giving you that excessive prompting action you know and
7506 loathe. If you set this variable to @code{t} instead, you'll be prompted
7507 just once for each series of articles you save. If you like to really
7508 have Gnus do all your thinking for you, you can even set this variable
7509 to @code{nil}, which means that you will never be prompted for files to
7510 save articles in. Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default
7514 @vindex gnus-default-article-saver
7515 You can customize the @code{gnus-default-article-saver} variable to make
7516 gnus do what you want it to. You can use any of the six ready-made
7517 functions below, or you can create your own.
7521 @item gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7522 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-rmail
7523 @vindex gnus-rmail-save-name
7524 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7525 This is the default format, @dfn{Babyl}. Uses the function in the
7526 @code{gnus-rmail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7527 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7529 @item gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7530 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-mail
7531 @vindex gnus-mail-save-name
7532 Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file. Uses the function in the
7533 @code{gnus-mail-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7534 article in. The default is @code{gnus-plain-save-name}.
7536 @item gnus-summary-save-in-file
7537 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-file
7538 @vindex gnus-file-save-name
7539 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7540 Append the article straight to an ordinary file. Uses the function in
7541 the @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7542 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7544 @item gnus-summary-write-to-file
7545 @findex gnus-summary-write-to-file
7546 Write the article straight to an ordinary file. The file is
7547 overwritten if it exists. Uses the function in the
7548 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7549 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7551 @item gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7552 @findex gnus-summary-save-body-in-file
7553 Append the article body to an ordinary file. Uses the function in the
7554 @code{gnus-file-save-name} variable to get a file name to save the
7555 article in. The default is @code{gnus-numeric-save-name}.
7557 @item gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7558 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-folder
7559 @findex gnus-folder-save-name
7560 @findex gnus-Folder-save-name
7561 @vindex gnus-folder-save-name
7564 Save the article to an MH folder using @code{rcvstore} from the MH
7565 library. Uses the function in the @code{gnus-folder-save-name} variable
7566 to get a file name to save the article in. The default is
7567 @code{gnus-folder-save-name}, but you can also use
7568 @code{gnus-Folder-save-name}, which creates capitalized names.
7570 @item gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7571 @findex gnus-summary-save-in-vm
7572 Save the article in a VM folder. You have to have the VM mail
7573 reader to use this setting.
7576 @vindex gnus-article-save-directory
7577 All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the article
7578 in the @code{gnus-article-save-directory}, which is initialized from the
7579 @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable. This is @file{~/News/} by
7582 As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
7583 suitable name of a file to save the article in. Below is a list of
7584 available functions that generate names:
7588 @item gnus-Numeric-save-name
7589 @findex gnus-Numeric-save-name
7590 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7592 @item gnus-numeric-save-name
7593 @findex gnus-numeric-save-name
7594 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45}.
7596 @item gnus-Plain-save-name
7597 @findex gnus-Plain-save-name
7598 File names like @file{~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7600 @item gnus-plain-save-name
7601 @findex gnus-plain-save-name
7602 File names like @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.
7604 @item gnus-sender-save-name
7605 @findex gnus-sender-save-name
7606 File names like @file{~/News/larsi}.
7609 @vindex gnus-split-methods
7610 You can have gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a regexp into
7611 the @code{gnus-split-methods} alist. For instance, if you would like to
7612 save articles related to gnus in the file @file{gnus-stuff}, and articles
7613 related to VM in @file{vm-stuff}, you could set this variable to something
7617 (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
7618 ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
7619 (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
7620 ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))
7623 We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
7624 elements---the @dfn{match} and the @dfn{file}. The match can either be
7625 a string (in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article
7626 head); it can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the
7627 group name as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be
7628 @code{eval}ed). If any of these actions have a non-@code{nil} result,
7629 the @dfn{file} will be used as a default prompt. In addition, the
7630 result of the operation itself will be used if the function or form
7631 called returns a string or a list of strings.
7633 You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used when
7634 saving the current article. (All ``matches'' will be used.) You will
7635 then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with file
7636 name completion over the results from applying this variable.
7638 This variable is @code{((gnus-article-archive-name))} by default, which
7639 means that gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
7640 @code{Archive-name} line and use that as a suggestion for the file
7643 Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat. If you have
7644 lots of mail groups called things like
7645 @samp{nnml:mail.whatever}, you may want to chop off the beginning of
7646 these group names before creating the file name to save to. The
7647 following will do just that:
7650 (defun my-save-name (group)
7651 (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
7652 (substring group (match-end 0))))
7654 (setq gnus-split-methods
7655 '((gnus-article-archive-name)
7660 @vindex gnus-use-long-file-name
7661 Finally, you have the @code{gnus-use-long-file-name} variable. If it is
7662 @code{nil}, all the preceding functions will replace all periods
7663 (@samp{.}) in the group names with slashes (@samp{/})---which means that
7664 the functions will generate hierarchies of directories instead of having
7665 all the files in the top level directory
7666 (@file{~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin} instead of
7667 @file{~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin}.) This variable is @code{t} by default
7668 on most systems. However, for historical reasons, this is @code{nil} on
7669 Xenix and usg-unix-v machines by default.
7671 This function also affects kill and score file names. If this variable
7672 is a list, and the list contains the element @code{not-score}, long file
7673 names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
7674 @code{not-save}, long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
7675 contains the element @code{not-kill}, long file names will not be used
7678 If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something like
7682 (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; @r{to get a hierarchy}
7683 (setq gnus-default-article-saver
7684 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; @r{no encoding}
7687 Then just save with @kbd{o}. You'd then read this hierarchy with
7688 ephemeral @code{nneething} groups---@kbd{G D} in the group buffer, and
7689 the top level directory as the argument (@file{~/News/}). Then just walk
7690 around to the groups/directories with @code{nneething}.
7693 @node Decoding Articles
7694 @section Decoding Articles
7695 @cindex decoding articles
7697 Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
7698 encoded in some way or other. Gnus can decode them for you.
7701 * Uuencoded Articles:: Uudecode articles.
7702 * Shell Archives:: Unshar articles.
7703 * PostScript Files:: Split PostScript.
7704 * Other Files:: Plain save and binhex.
7705 * Decoding Variables:: Variables for a happy decoding.
7706 * Viewing Files:: You want to look at the result of the decoding?
7710 @cindex article series
7711 All these functions use the process/prefix convention
7712 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}) for finding out what articles to work on, with
7713 the extension that a ``single article'' means ``a single series''. Gnus
7714 can find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
7715 articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).
7717 Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the following
7718 simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical, except for the
7719 last two numbers of the line. (Spaces are largely ignored, however.)
7721 For example: If you choose a subject called @samp{cat.gif (2/3)}, gnus
7722 will find all the articles that match the regexp @samp{^cat.gif
7723 ([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$}.
7725 Subjects that are non-standard, like @samp{cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
7726 series}, will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
7727 commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with @kbd{#}.
7730 @node Uuencoded Articles
7731 @subsection Uuencoded Articles
7733 @cindex uuencoded articles
7738 @kindex X u (Summary)
7739 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu
7740 @c @icon{gnus-uu-decode-uu}
7741 Uudecodes the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu}).
7744 @kindex X U (Summary)
7745 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save
7746 Uudecodes and saves the current series
7747 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7750 @kindex X v u (Summary)
7751 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-view
7752 Uudecodes and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-view}).
7755 @kindex X v U (Summary)
7756 @findex gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view
7757 Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
7758 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view}).
7762 Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
7763 the process mark. If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
7764 entire newsgroup, you'd typically do @kbd{M P a}
7765 (@code{gnus-uu-mark-all}) and then @kbd{X U}
7766 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save}).
7768 All this is very much different from how @code{gnus-uu} worked with
7769 @sc{gnus 4.1}, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under
7770 the sun. This version of @code{gnus-uu} generally assumes that you mark
7771 articles in some way (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}) and then press
7774 @vindex gnus-uu-notify-files
7775 Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
7776 @code{gnus-uu-notify-files}, which is hard-coded to
7777 @samp{[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)}, @code{gnus-uu} will
7778 automatically post an article on @samp{comp.unix.wizards} saying that
7779 you have just viewed the file in question. This feature can't be turned
7783 @node Shell Archives
7784 @subsection Shell Archives
7786 @cindex shell archives
7787 @cindex shared articles
7789 Shell archives (``shar files'') used to be a popular way to distribute
7790 sources, but it isn't used all that much today. In any case, we have
7791 some commands to deal with these:
7796 @kindex X s (Summary)
7797 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar
7798 Unshars the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar}).
7801 @kindex X S (Summary)
7802 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save
7803 Unshars and saves the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save}).
7806 @kindex X v s (Summary)
7807 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view
7808 Unshars and views the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view}).
7811 @kindex X v S (Summary)
7812 @findex gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view
7813 Unshars, views and saves the current series
7814 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view}).
7818 @node PostScript Files
7819 @subsection PostScript Files
7825 @kindex X p (Summary)
7826 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript
7827 Unpack the current PostScript series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript}).
7830 @kindex X P (Summary)
7831 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save
7832 Unpack and save the current PostScript series
7833 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save}).
7836 @kindex X v p (Summary)
7837 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view
7838 View the current PostScript series
7839 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view}).
7842 @kindex X v P (Summary)
7843 @findex gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view
7844 View and save the current PostScript series
7845 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view}).
7850 @subsection Other Files
7854 @kindex X o (Summary)
7855 @findex gnus-uu-decode-save
7856 Save the current series
7857 (@code{gnus-uu-decode-save}).
7860 @kindex X b (Summary)
7861 @findex gnus-uu-decode-binhex
7862 Unbinhex the current series (@code{gnus-uu-decode-binhex}). This
7863 doesn't really work yet.
7867 @node Decoding Variables
7868 @subsection Decoding Variables
7870 Adjective, not verb.
7873 * Rule Variables:: Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
7874 * Other Decode Variables:: Other decode variables.
7875 * Uuencoding and Posting:: Variables for customizing uuencoding.
7879 @node Rule Variables
7880 @subsubsection Rule Variables
7881 @cindex rule variables
7883 Gnus uses @dfn{rule variables} to decide how to view a file. All these
7884 variables are of the form
7887 (list '(regexp1 command2)
7894 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7895 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7897 This variable is consulted first when viewing files. If you wish to use,
7898 for instance, @code{sox} to convert an @file{.au} sound file, you could
7901 (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
7902 (list '("\\\\.au$" "sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio")))
7905 @item gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7906 @vindex gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end
7907 This variable is consulted if gnus couldn't make any matches from the
7908 user and default view rules.
7910 @item gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7911 @vindex gnus-uu-user-archive-rules
7912 This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to unpack
7917 @node Other Decode Variables
7918 @subsubsection Other Decode Variables
7921 @vindex gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7923 @item gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions
7924 All functions in this list will be called right after each file has been
7925 successfully decoded---so that you can move or view files right away,
7926 and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded before you can do
7927 anything. Ready-made functions you can put in this list are:
7931 @item gnus-uu-grab-view
7932 @findex gnus-uu-grab-view
7935 @item gnus-uu-grab-move
7936 @findex gnus-uu-grab-move
7937 Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)
7940 @item gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7941 @vindex gnus-uu-be-dangerous
7942 Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding. If
7943 @code{nil}, be as conservative as possible. If @code{t}, ignore things
7944 that didn't work, and overwrite existing files. Otherwise, ask each
7947 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7948 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name
7949 Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.
7951 @item gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7952 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type
7953 Files with a @acronym{MIME} type matching this variable won't be viewed.
7954 Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the name.
7955 @code{gnus-uu} is not a @acronym{MIME} package (yet), so this is slightly
7958 @item gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7959 @vindex gnus-uu-tmp-dir
7960 Where @code{gnus-uu} does its work.
7962 @item gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7963 @vindex gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives
7964 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} won't peek inside archives
7965 looking for files to display.
7967 @item gnus-uu-view-and-save
7968 @vindex gnus-uu-view-and-save
7969 Non-@code{nil} means that the user will always be asked to save a file
7972 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7973 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules
7974 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default viewing
7977 @item gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7978 @vindex gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules
7979 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the default archive
7982 @item gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7983 @vindex gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return
7984 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will strip all carriage returns
7987 @item gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7988 @vindex gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded
7989 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will mark unsuccessfully
7990 decoded articles as unread.
7992 @item gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7993 @vindex gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode
7994 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will @emph{try} to fix
7995 uuencoded files that have had trailing spaces deleted.
7997 @item gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7998 @vindex gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook
7999 Hook run before sending a message to @code{uudecode}.
8001 @item gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
8002 @vindex gnus-uu-view-with-metamail
8004 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ignore the viewing
8005 commands defined by the rule variables and just fudge a @acronym{MIME}
8006 content type based on the file name. The result will be fed to
8007 @code{metamail} for viewing.
8009 @item gnus-uu-save-in-digest
8010 @vindex gnus-uu-save-in-digest
8011 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu}, when asked to save without
8012 decoding, will save in digests. If this variable is @code{nil},
8013 @code{gnus-uu} will just save everything in a file without any
8014 embellishments. The digesting almost conforms to RFC 1153---no easy way
8015 to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found, so I
8016 simply dropped them.
8021 @node Uuencoding and Posting
8022 @subsubsection Uuencoding and Posting
8026 @item gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
8027 @vindex gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing
8028 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will ask for a file to encode
8029 before you compose the article. If this variable is @code{t}, you can
8030 either include an encoded file with @kbd{C-c C-i} or have one included
8031 for you when you post the article.
8033 @item gnus-uu-post-length
8034 @vindex gnus-uu-post-length
8035 Maximum length of an article. The encoded file will be split into how
8036 many articles it takes to post the entire file.
8038 @item gnus-uu-post-threaded
8039 @vindex gnus-uu-post-threaded
8040 Non-@code{nil} means that @code{gnus-uu} will post the encoded file in a
8041 thread. This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is able
8042 to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles. (Well, I have
8043 seen one package that does that---@code{gnus-uu}, but somehow, I don't
8044 think that counts@dots{}) Default is @code{nil}.
8046 @item gnus-uu-post-separate-description
8047 @vindex gnus-uu-post-separate-description
8048 Non-@code{nil} means that the description will be posted in a separate
8049 article. The first article will typically be numbered (0/x). If this
8050 variable is @code{nil}, the description the user enters will be included
8051 at the beginning of the first article, which will be numbered (1/x).
8052 Default is @code{t}.
8058 @subsection Viewing Files
8059 @cindex viewing files
8060 @cindex pseudo-articles
8062 After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, gnus will attempt
8063 to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the archive can be
8064 viewed. For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file @file{pics.tar.gz}
8065 containing the files @file{pic1.jpg} and @file{pic2.gif}, gnus will
8066 uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
8067 This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
8068 of archives, it'll all be unpacked.
8070 Finally, gnus will normally insert a @dfn{pseudo-article} for each
8071 extracted file into the summary buffer. If you go to these
8072 ``articles'', you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus
8073 will make a suggestion), and then the command will be run.
8075 @vindex gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously
8076 If @code{gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously} is @code{nil}, Emacs will wait
8077 until the viewing is done before proceeding.
8079 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos
8080 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos} is @code{automatic}, Gnus will not insert
8081 the pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them
8082 immediately. If this variable is @code{not-confirm}, the user won't even
8083 be asked for a confirmation before viewing is done.
8085 @vindex gnus-view-pseudos-separately
8086 If @code{gnus-view-pseudos-separately} is non-@code{nil}, one
8087 pseudo-article will be created for each file to be viewed. If
8088 @code{nil}, all files that use the same viewing command will be given as
8089 a list of parameters to that command.
8091 @vindex gnus-insert-pseudo-articles
8092 If @code{gnus-insert-pseudo-articles} is non-@code{nil}, insert
8093 pseudo-articles when decoding. It is @code{t} by default.
8095 So; there you are, reading your @emph{pseudo-articles} in your
8096 @emph{virtual newsgroup} from the @emph{virtual server}; and you think:
8097 Why isn't anything real anymore? How did we get here?
8100 @node Article Treatment
8101 @section Article Treatment
8103 Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that the
8104 object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
8105 written. Reading articles. Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
8106 writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
8107 these articles easier.
8110 * Article Highlighting:: You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
8111 * Article Fontisizing:: Making emphasized text look nice.
8112 * Article Hiding:: You also want to make certain info go away.
8113 * Article Washing:: Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
8114 * Article Header:: Doing various header transformations.
8115 * Article Buttons:: Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
8116 * Article Button Levels:: Controlling appearance of buttons.
8117 * Article Date:: Grumble, UT!
8118 * Article Display:: Display various stuff---X-Face, Picons, Smileys
8119 * Article Signature:: What is a signature?
8120 * Article Miscellanea:: Various other stuff.
8124 @node Article Highlighting
8125 @subsection Article Highlighting
8126 @cindex highlighting
8128 Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad, but
8129 you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.
8134 @kindex W H a (Summary)
8135 @findex gnus-article-highlight
8136 @findex gnus-article-maybe-highlight
8137 Do much highlighting of the current article
8138 (@code{gnus-article-highlight}). This function highlights header, cited
8139 text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.
8142 @kindex W H h (Summary)
8143 @findex gnus-article-highlight-headers
8144 @vindex gnus-header-face-alist
8145 Highlight the headers (@code{gnus-article-highlight-headers}). The
8146 highlighting will be done according to the @code{gnus-header-face-alist}
8147 variable, which is a list where each element has the form
8148 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{name} @var{content})}.
8149 @var{regexp} is a regular expression for matching the
8150 header, @var{name} is the face used for highlighting the header name
8151 (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}) and @var{content} is the face for highlighting
8152 the header value. The first match made will be used. Note that
8153 @var{regexp} shouldn't have @samp{^} prepended---Gnus will add one.
8156 @kindex W H c (Summary)
8157 @findex gnus-article-highlight-citation
8158 Highlight cited text (@code{gnus-article-highlight-citation}).
8160 Some variables to customize the citation highlights:
8163 @vindex gnus-cite-parse-max-size
8165 @item gnus-cite-parse-max-size
8166 If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is 25000 by
8167 default), no citation highlighting will be performed.
8169 @item gnus-cite-max-prefix
8170 @vindex gnus-cite-max-prefix
8171 Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).
8173 @item gnus-cite-face-list
8174 @vindex gnus-cite-face-list
8175 List of faces used for highlighting citations (@pxref{Faces and Fonts}).
8176 When there are citations from multiple articles in the same message,
8177 gnus will try to give each citation from each article its own face.
8178 This should make it easier to see who wrote what.
8180 @item gnus-supercite-regexp
8181 @vindex gnus-supercite-regexp
8182 Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.
8184 @item gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
8185 @vindex gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp
8186 Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.
8188 @item gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
8189 @vindex gnus-cite-minimum-match-count
8190 Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we believe
8191 that it's a citation.
8193 @item gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
8194 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-prefix
8195 Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.
8197 @item gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
8198 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-suffix
8199 Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.
8201 @item gnus-cite-attribution-face
8202 @vindex gnus-cite-attribution-face
8203 Face used for attribution lines. It is merged with the face for the
8204 cited text belonging to the attribution.
8206 @item gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
8207 @vindex gnus-cite-ignore-quoted-from
8208 If non-@code{nil}, no citation highlighting will be performed on lines
8209 beginning with @samp{>From }. Those lines may have been quoted by MTAs
8210 in order not to mix up with the envelope From line. The default value
8217 @kindex W H s (Summary)
8218 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
8219 @vindex gnus-signature-face
8220 @findex gnus-article-highlight-signature
8221 Highlight the signature (@code{gnus-article-highlight-signature}).
8222 Everything after @code{gnus-signature-separator} (@pxref{Article
8223 Signature}) in an article will be considered a signature and will be
8224 highlighted with @code{gnus-signature-face}, which is @code{italic} by
8229 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to highlight articles automatically.
8232 @node Article Fontisizing
8233 @subsection Article Fontisizing
8235 @cindex article emphasis
8237 @findex gnus-article-emphasize
8238 @kindex W e (Summary)
8239 People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing things
8240 like @samp{_this_} or @samp{*this*} or @samp{/this/}. Gnus can make
8241 this look nicer by running the article through the @kbd{W e}
8242 (@code{gnus-article-emphasize}) command.
8244 @vindex gnus-emphasis-alist
8245 How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
8246 @code{gnus-emphasis-alist} variable. This is an alist where the first
8247 element is a regular expression to be matched. The second is a number
8248 that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
8249 emphasized word. The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
8250 should be displayed and highlighted. (The text between these two
8251 groupings will be hidden.) The fourth is the face used for
8255 (setq gnus-emphasis-alist
8256 '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
8257 ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))
8266 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline
8267 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold
8268 @vindex gnus-emphasis-italic
8269 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold
8270 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-italic
8271 @vindex gnus-emphasis-bold-italic
8272 @vindex gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic
8273 By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
8274 @code{gnus-emphasis-bold}, @code{gnus-emphasis-italic},
8275 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline}, @code{gnus-emphasis-bold-italic},
8276 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-italic},
8277 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold}, and
8278 @code{gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic}.
8280 If you want to change these faces, you can either use @kbd{M-x
8281 customize}, or you can use @code{copy-face}. For instance, if you want
8282 to make @code{gnus-emphasis-italic} use a red face instead, you could
8286 (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)
8289 @vindex gnus-group-highlight-words-alist
8291 If you want to highlight arbitrary words, you can use the
8292 @code{gnus-group-highlight-words-alist} variable, which uses the same
8293 syntax as @code{gnus-emphasis-alist}. The @code{highlight-words} group
8294 parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) can also be used.
8296 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to fontize articles automatically.
8299 @node Article Hiding
8300 @subsection Article Hiding
8301 @cindex article hiding
8303 Or rather, hiding certain things in each article. There usually is much
8304 too much cruft in most articles.
8309 @kindex W W a (Summary)
8310 @findex gnus-article-hide
8311 Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
8312 (@kbd{gnus-article-hide}). In particular, this function will hide
8313 headers, @acronym{PGP}, cited text and the signature.
8316 @kindex W W h (Summary)
8317 @findex gnus-article-hide-headers
8318 Hide headers (@code{gnus-article-hide-headers}). @xref{Hiding
8322 @kindex W W b (Summary)
8323 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
8324 Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
8325 (@code{gnus-article-hide-boring-headers}). @xref{Hiding Headers}.
8328 @kindex W W s (Summary)
8329 @findex gnus-article-hide-signature
8330 Hide signature (@code{gnus-article-hide-signature}). @xref{Article
8334 @kindex W W l (Summary)
8335 @findex gnus-article-hide-list-identifiers
8336 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8337 Strip list identifiers specified in @code{gnus-list-identifiers}. These
8338 are strings some mailing list servers add to the beginning of all
8339 @code{Subject} headers---for example, @samp{[zebra 4711]}. Any leading
8340 @samp{Re: } is skipped before stripping. @code{gnus-list-identifiers}
8341 may not contain @code{\\(..\\)}.
8345 @item gnus-list-identifiers
8346 @vindex gnus-list-identifiers
8347 A regular expression that matches list identifiers to be removed from
8348 subject. This can also be a list of regular expressions.
8353 @kindex W W P (Summary)
8354 @findex gnus-article-hide-pem
8355 Hide @acronym{PEM} (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
8356 (@code{gnus-article-hide-pem}).
8359 @kindex W W B (Summary)
8360 @findex gnus-article-strip-banner
8361 @vindex gnus-article-banner-alist
8362 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8365 @cindex stripping advertisements
8366 @cindex advertisements
8367 Strip the banner specified by the @code{banner} group parameter
8368 (@code{gnus-article-strip-banner}). This is mainly used to hide those
8369 annoying banners and/or signatures that some mailing lists and moderated
8370 groups adds to all the messages. The way to use this function is to add
8371 the @code{banner} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to the
8372 group you want banners stripped from. The parameter either be a string,
8373 which will be interpreted as a regular expression matching text to be
8374 removed, or the symbol @code{signature}, meaning that the (last)
8375 signature should be removed, or other symbol, meaning that the
8376 corresponding regular expression in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist} is
8379 Regardless of a group, you can hide things like advertisements only when
8380 the sender of an article has a certain mail address specified in
8381 @code{gnus-article-address-banner-alist}.
8385 @item gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8386 @vindex gnus-article-address-banner-alist
8387 Alist of mail addresses and banners. Each element has the form
8388 @code{(@var{address} . @var{banner})}, where @var{address} is a regexp
8389 matching a mail address in the From header, @var{banner} is one of a
8390 symbol @code{signature}, an item in @code{gnus-article-banner-alist},
8391 a regexp and @code{nil}. If @var{address} matches author's mail
8392 address, it will remove things like advertisements. For example, if a
8393 sender has the mail address @samp{hail@@yoo-hoo.co.jp} and there is a
8394 banner something like @samp{Do You Yoo-hoo!?} in all articles he
8395 sends, you can use the following element to remove them:
8398 ("@@yoo-hoo\\.co\\.jp\\'" .
8399 "\n_+\nDo You Yoo-hoo!\\?\n.*\n.*\n")
8405 @kindex W W c (Summary)
8406 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation
8407 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation}). Some variables for
8408 customizing the hiding:
8412 @item gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8413 @itemx gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8414 @vindex gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format
8415 @vindex gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format
8416 Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been hidden, and to
8417 allow toggle hiding the text. The format of the variable is specified
8418 by these format-like variable (@pxref{Formatting Variables}). These
8423 Starting point of the hidden text.
8425 Ending point of the hidden text.
8427 Number of characters in the hidden region.
8429 Number of lines of hidden text.
8432 @item gnus-cited-lines-visible
8433 @vindex gnus-cited-lines-visible
8434 The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to leave
8435 shown. This can also be a cons cell with the number of lines at the top
8436 and bottom of the text, respectively, to remain visible.
8441 @kindex W W C-c (Summary)
8442 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe
8444 Hide citation (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe}) depending on the
8445 following two variables:
8448 @item gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8449 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-percentage
8450 If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this variable (default
8451 50), hide the cited text.
8453 @item gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8454 @vindex gnus-cite-hide-absolute
8455 The cited text must have at least this length (default 10) before it
8460 @kindex W W C (Summary)
8461 @findex gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups
8462 Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
8463 (@code{gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups}). This isn't very
8464 useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to stick
8465 have happen automatically (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8469 All these ``hiding'' commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
8470 prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
8471 hidden. If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.
8473 Also @pxref{Article Highlighting} for further variables for
8474 citation customization.
8476 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to hide article elements
8480 @node Article Washing
8481 @subsection Article Washing
8483 @cindex article washing
8485 We call this ``article washing'' for a really good reason. Namely, the
8486 @kbd{A} key was taken, so we had to use the @kbd{W} key instead.
8488 @dfn{Washing} is defined by us as ``changing something from something to
8489 something else'', but normally results in something looking better.
8492 @xref{Customizing Articles}, if you want to change how Gnus displays
8493 articles by default.
8498 This is not really washing, it's sort of the opposite of washing. If
8499 you type this, you see the article exactly as it exists on disk or on
8503 Force redisplaying of the current article
8504 (@code{gnus-summary-show-article}). This is also not really washing.
8505 If you type this, you see the article without any previously applied
8506 interactive Washing functions but with all default treatments
8507 (@pxref{Customizing Articles}).
8510 @kindex W l (Summary)
8511 @findex gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking
8512 Remove page breaks from the current article
8513 (@code{gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking}). @xref{Misc Article}, for page
8517 @kindex W r (Summary)
8518 @findex gnus-summary-caesar-message
8519 @c @icon{gnus-summary-caesar-message}
8520 Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
8521 (@code{gnus-summary-caesar-message}).
8522 Unreadable articles that tell you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.
8523 (Typically offensive jokes and such.)
8525 It's commonly called ``rot13'' because each letter is rotated 13
8526 positions in the alphabet, e. g. @samp{B} (letter #2) -> @samp{O} (letter
8527 #15). It is sometimes referred to as ``Caesar rotate'' because Caesar
8528 is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak encryption.
8531 @kindex W m (Summary)
8532 @findex gnus-summary-morse-message
8533 Morse decode the article buffer (@code{gnus-summary-morse-message}).
8536 @kindex W i (Summary)
8537 @findex gnus-summary-idna-message
8538 Decode IDNA encoded domain names in the current articles. IDNA
8539 encoded domain names looks like @samp{xn--bar}. If a string remain
8540 unencoded after running invoking this, it is likely an invalid IDNA
8541 string (@samp{xn--bar} is invalid). You must have GNU Libidn
8542 (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/}) installed for this command
8547 @kindex W t (Summary)
8549 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-header
8550 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
8551 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-header}).
8554 @kindex W v (Summary)
8555 @findex gnus-summary-verbose-headers
8556 Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer permanently
8557 (@code{gnus-summary-verbose-headers}).
8560 @kindex W m (Summary)
8561 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-mime
8562 Toggle whether to run the article through @acronym{MIME} before
8563 displaying (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-mime}).
8566 @kindex W o (Summary)
8567 @findex gnus-article-treat-overstrike
8568 Treat overstrike (@code{gnus-article-treat-overstrike}).
8571 @kindex W d (Summary)
8572 @findex gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes
8573 @vindex gnus-article-dumbquotes-map
8575 @cindex M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s
8577 Treat M****s*** sm*rtq**t*s according to
8578 @code{gnus-article-dumbquotes-map}
8579 (@code{gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes}). Note that this function guesses
8580 whether a character is a sm*rtq**t* or not, so it should only be used
8583 Sm*rtq**t*s are M****s***'s unilateral extension to the character map in
8584 an attempt to provide more quoting characters. If you see something
8585 like @code{\222} or @code{\264} where you're expecting some kind of
8586 apostrophe or quotation mark, then try this wash.
8589 @kindex W Y f (Summary)
8590 @findex gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article
8591 @cindex Outlook Express
8592 Full deuglify of broken Outlook (Express) articles: Treat dumbquotes,
8593 unwrap lines, repair attribution and rearrange citation.
8594 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article}).
8597 @kindex W Y u (Summary)
8598 @findex gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines
8599 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min
8600 @vindex gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max
8601 Unwrap lines that appear to be wrapped citation lines. You can control
8602 what lines will be unwrapped by frobbing
8603 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-min} and
8604 @code{gnus-outlook-deuglify-unwrap-max}, indicating the minimum and
8605 maximum length of an unwrapped citation line.
8606 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-unwrap-lines}).
8609 @kindex W Y a (Summary)
8610 @findex gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution
8611 Repair a broken attribution line.@*
8612 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-repair-attribution}).
8615 @kindex W Y c (Summary)
8616 @findex gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation
8617 Repair broken citations by rearranging the text.
8618 (@code{gnus-article-outlook-rearrange-citation}).
8621 @kindex W w (Summary)
8622 @findex gnus-article-fill-cited-article
8623 Do word wrap (@code{gnus-article-fill-cited-article}).
8625 You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width to use
8629 @kindex W Q (Summary)
8630 @findex gnus-article-fill-long-lines
8631 Fill long lines (@code{gnus-article-fill-long-lines}).
8634 @kindex W C (Summary)
8635 @findex gnus-article-capitalize-sentences
8636 Capitalize the first word in each sentence
8637 (@code{gnus-article-capitalize-sentences}).
8640 @kindex W c (Summary)
8641 @findex gnus-article-remove-cr
8642 Translate CRLF pairs (i. e., @samp{^M}s on the end of the lines) into LF
8643 (this takes care of DOS line endings), and then translate any remaining
8644 CRs into LF (this takes care of Mac line endings)
8645 (@code{gnus-article-remove-cr}).
8647 @kindex W q (Summary)
8648 @findex gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable
8649 Treat quoted-printable (@code{gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable}).
8650 Quoted-Printable is one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when
8651 sending non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. It typically
8652 makes strings like @samp{d@'ej@`a vu} look like @samp{d=E9j=E0 vu},
8653 which doesn't look very readable to me. Note that this is usually
8654 done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8655 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
8656 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8659 @kindex W 6 (Summary)
8660 @findex gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable
8661 Treat base64 (@code{gnus-article-de-base64-unreadable}). Base64 is
8662 one common @acronym{MIME} encoding employed when sending
8663 non-@acronym{ASCII} (i.e., 8-bit) articles. Note that this is
8664 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8665 @code{Content-Transfer-Encoding} header that says that this encoding
8666 has been done. If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8669 @kindex W Z (Summary)
8670 @findex gnus-article-decode-HZ
8671 Treat HZ or HZP (@code{gnus-article-decode-HZ}). HZ (or HZP) is one
8672 common encoding employed when sending Chinese articles. It typically
8673 makes strings look like @samp{~@{<:Ky2;S@{#,NpJ)l6HK!#~@}}.
8676 @kindex W A (Summary)
8677 @findex gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences
8678 @cindex @acronym{ANSI} control sequences
8679 Translate @acronym{ANSI} SGR control sequences into overlays or
8680 extents (@code{gnus-article-treat-ansi-sequences}). @acronym{ANSI}
8681 sequences are used in some Chinese hierarchies for highlighting.
8684 @kindex W u (Summary)
8685 @findex gnus-article-unsplit-urls
8686 Remove newlines from within URLs. Some mailers insert newlines into
8687 outgoing email messages to keep lines short. This reformatting can
8688 split long URLs onto multiple lines. Repair those URLs by removing
8689 the newlines (@code{gnus-article-unsplit-urls}).
8692 @kindex W h (Summary)
8693 @findex gnus-article-wash-html
8694 Treat @acronym{HTML} (@code{gnus-article-wash-html}). Note that this is
8695 usually done automatically by Gnus if the message in question has a
8696 @code{Content-Type} header that says that the message is @acronym{HTML}.
8698 If a prefix is given, a charset will be asked for.
8700 @vindex gnus-article-wash-function
8701 The default is to use the function specified by
8702 @code{mm-text-html-renderer} (@pxref{Display Customization, ,Display
8703 Customization, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME Manual}) to convert the
8704 @acronym{HTML}, but this is controlled by the
8705 @code{gnus-article-wash-function} variable. Pre-defined functions you
8713 Use @uref{http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/, emacs-w3m}.
8716 Use @uref{http://links.sf.net/, Links}.
8719 Use @uref{http://lynx.isc.org/, Lynx}.
8722 Use html2text---a simple @acronym{HTML} converter included with Gnus.
8727 @kindex W b (Summary)
8728 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons
8729 Add clickable buttons to the article (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons}).
8730 @xref{Article Buttons}.
8733 @kindex W B (Summary)
8734 @findex gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head
8735 Add clickable buttons to the article headers
8736 (@code{gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head}).
8739 @kindex W p (Summary)
8740 @findex gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig
8741 Verify a signed control message
8742 (@code{gnus-article-verify-x-pgp-sig}). Control messages such as
8743 @code{newgroup} and @code{checkgroups} are usually signed by the
8744 hierarchy maintainer. You need to add the @acronym{PGP} public key of
8745 the maintainer to your keyring to verify the
8746 message.@footnote{@acronym{PGP} keys for many hierarchies are
8747 available at @uref{ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html}}
8750 @kindex W s (Summary)
8751 @findex gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt
8752 Verify a signed (@acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME} or
8753 @acronym{S/MIME}) message
8754 (@code{gnus-summary-force-verify-and-decrypt}). @xref{Security}.
8757 @kindex W a (Summary)
8758 @findex gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body
8759 Strip headers like the @code{X-No-Archive} header from the beginning of
8760 article bodies (@code{gnus-article-strip-headers-in-body}).
8763 @kindex W E l (Summary)
8764 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines
8765 Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
8766 (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines}).
8769 @kindex W E m (Summary)
8770 @findex gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines
8771 Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple empty
8772 lines with a single empty line.
8773 (@code{gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines}).
8776 @kindex W E t (Summary)
8777 @findex gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines
8778 Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
8779 (@code{gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines}).
8782 @kindex W E a (Summary)
8783 @findex gnus-article-strip-blank-lines
8784 Do all the three commands above
8785 (@code{gnus-article-strip-blank-lines}).
8788 @kindex W E A (Summary)
8789 @findex gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines
8790 Remove all blank lines
8791 (@code{gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines}).
8794 @kindex W E s (Summary)
8795 @findex gnus-article-strip-leading-space
8796 Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the article
8797 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-leading-space}).
8800 @kindex W E e (Summary)
8801 @findex gnus-article-strip-trailing-space
8802 Remove all white space from the end of all lines of the article
8803 body (@code{gnus-article-strip-trailing-space}).
8807 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to wash articles automatically.
8810 @node Article Header
8811 @subsection Article Header
8813 These commands perform various transformations of article header.
8818 @kindex W G u (Summary)
8819 @findex gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers
8820 Unfold folded header lines (@code{gnus-article-treat-unfold-headers}).
8823 @kindex W G n (Summary)
8824 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups
8825 Fold the @code{Newsgroups} and @code{Followup-To} headers
8826 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-newsgroups}).
8829 @kindex W G f (Summary)
8830 @findex gnus-article-treat-fold-headers
8831 Fold all the message headers
8832 (@code{gnus-article-treat-fold-headers}).
8835 @kindex W E w (Summary)
8836 @findex gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace
8837 Remove excessive whitespace from all headers
8838 (@code{gnus-article-remove-leading-whitespace}).
8843 @node Article Buttons
8844 @subsection Article Buttons
8847 People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it would
8848 be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk about
8849 with the minimum of fuzz when you hit @kbd{RET} or use the middle mouse
8850 button on these references.
8852 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
8853 Gnus adds @dfn{buttons} to certain standard references by default:
8854 Well-formed URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man pages and
8855 Emacs or Gnus related references. This is controlled by two variables,
8856 one that handles article bodies and one that handles article heads:
8860 @item gnus-button-alist
8861 @vindex gnus-button-alist
8862 This is an alist where each entry has this form:
8865 (@var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
8871 All text that match this regular expression (case insensitive) will be
8872 considered an external reference. Here's a typical regexp that matches
8873 embedded URLs: @samp{<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>}. This can also be a
8874 variable containing a regexp, useful variables to use include
8875 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp} and @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp}.
8878 Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be highlighted. This
8879 is a number that says what sub-expression of the regexp is to be
8880 highlighted. If you want it all highlighted, you use 0 here.
8883 This form will be @code{eval}ed, and if the result is non-@code{nil},
8884 this is considered a match. This is useful if you want extra sifting to
8885 avoid false matches. Often variables named
8886 @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} are used here, @xref{Article Button
8887 Levels}, but any other form may be used too.
8889 @c @code{use-p} is @code{eval}ed only if @code{regexp} matches.
8892 This function will be called when you click on this button.
8895 As with @var{button-par}, this is a sub-expression number, but this one
8896 says which part of the match is to be sent as data to @var{function}.
8900 So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then
8903 ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)
8906 @item gnus-header-button-alist
8907 @vindex gnus-header-button-alist
8908 This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
8909 article head only, and that each entry has an additional element that is
8910 used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:
8913 (@var{header} @var{regexp} @var{button-par} @var{use-p} @var{function} @var{data-par})
8916 @var{header} is a regular expression.
8919 @subsubsection Related variables and functions
8922 @item gnus-button-@var{*}-level
8923 @xref{Article Button Levels}.
8925 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-browse-level
8927 @item gnus-button-url-regexp
8928 @vindex gnus-button-url-regexp
8929 A regular expression that matches embedded URLs. It is used in the
8930 default values of the variables above.
8932 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-man-level
8934 @item gnus-button-man-handler
8935 @vindex gnus-button-man-handler
8936 The function to use for displaying man pages. It must take at least one
8937 argument with a string naming the man page.
8939 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-message-level
8941 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
8942 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp
8943 Regular expression that matches a message ID or a mail address.
8945 @item gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
8946 @vindex gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail
8947 This variable determines what to do when the button on a string as
8948 @samp{foo123@@bar.invalid} is pushed. Strings like this can be either a
8949 message ID or a mail address. If it is one of the symbols @code{mid} or
8950 @code{mail}, Gnus will always assume that the string is a message ID or
8951 a mail address, respectively. If this variable is set to the symbol
8952 @code{ask}, always query the user what do do. If it is a function, this
8953 function will be called with the string as its only argument. The
8954 function must return @code{mid}, @code{mail}, @code{invalid} or
8955 @code{ask}. The default value is the function
8956 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
8958 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
8959 @findex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic
8960 Function that guesses whether its argument is a message ID or a mail
8961 address. Returns @code{mid} if it's a message IDs, @code{mail} if
8962 it's a mail address, @code{ask} if unsure and @code{invalid} if the
8965 @item gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
8966 @vindex gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist
8967 An alist of @code{(RATE . REGEXP)} pairs used by the function
8968 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}.
8970 @c Stuff related to gnus-button-tex-level
8972 @item gnus-button-ctan-handler
8973 @findex gnus-button-ctan-handler
8974 The function to use for displaying CTAN links. It must take one
8975 argument, the string naming the URL.
8978 @vindex gnus-ctan-url
8979 Top directory of a CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) archive used
8980 by @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler}.
8984 @item gnus-article-button-face
8985 @vindex gnus-article-button-face
8986 Face used on buttons.
8988 @item gnus-article-mouse-face
8989 @vindex gnus-article-mouse-face
8990 Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.
8994 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to buttonize articles automatically.
8997 @node Article Button Levels
8998 @subsection Article button levels
8999 @cindex button levels
9000 The higher the value of the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level},
9001 the more buttons will appear. If the level is zero, no corresponding
9002 buttons are displayed. With the default value (which is 5) you should
9003 already see quite a lot of buttons. With higher levels, you will see
9004 more buttons, but you may also get more false positives. To avoid them,
9005 you can set the variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} local to
9006 specific groups (@pxref{Group Parameters}). Here's an example for the
9007 variable @code{gnus-parameters}:
9010 ;; @r{increase @code{gnus-button-*-level} in some groups:}
9011 (setq gnus-parameters
9012 '(("\\<\\(emacs\\|gnus\\)\\>" (gnus-button-emacs-level 10))
9013 ("\\<unix\\>" (gnus-button-man-level 10))
9014 ("\\<tex\\>" (gnus-button-tex-level 10))))
9019 @item gnus-button-browse-level
9020 @vindex gnus-button-browse-level
9021 Controls the display of references to message IDs, mail addresses and
9022 news URLs. Related variables and functions include
9023 @code{gnus-button-url-regexp}, @code{browse-url}, and
9024 @code{browse-url-browser-function}.
9026 @item gnus-button-emacs-level
9027 @vindex gnus-button-emacs-level
9028 Controls the display of Emacs or Gnus references. Related functions are
9029 @code{gnus-button-handle-custom},
9030 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-function},
9031 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-variable},
9032 @code{gnus-button-handle-symbol},
9033 @code{gnus-button-handle-describe-key},
9034 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos},
9035 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-command},
9036 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-variable},
9037 @code{gnus-button-handle-apropos-documentation}, and
9038 @code{gnus-button-handle-library}.
9040 @item gnus-button-man-level
9041 @vindex gnus-button-man-level
9042 Controls the display of references to (Unix) man pages.
9043 See @code{gnus-button-man-handler}.
9045 @item gnus-button-message-level
9046 @vindex gnus-button-message-level
9047 Controls the display of message IDs, mail addresses and news URLs.
9048 Related variables and functions include
9049 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-regexp},
9050 @code{gnus-button-prefer-mid-or-mail},
9051 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic}, and
9052 @code{gnus-button-mid-or-mail-heuristic-alist}.
9054 @item gnus-button-tex-level
9055 @vindex gnus-button-tex-level
9056 Controls the display of references to @TeX{} or LaTeX stuff, e.g. for CTAN
9057 URLs. See the variables @code{gnus-ctan-url},
9058 @code{gnus-button-ctan-handler},
9059 @code{gnus-button-ctan-directory-regexp}, and
9060 @code{gnus-button-handle-ctan-bogus-regexp}.
9066 @subsection Article Date
9068 The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've never
9069 heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time was
9070 when the article was sent.
9075 @kindex W T u (Summary)
9076 @findex gnus-article-date-ut
9077 Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
9078 (@code{gnus-article-date-ut}).
9081 @kindex W T i (Summary)
9082 @findex gnus-article-date-iso8601
9084 Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
9085 (@code{gnus-article-date-iso8601}).
9088 @kindex W T l (Summary)
9089 @findex gnus-article-date-local
9090 Display the date in the local timezone (@code{gnus-article-date-local}).
9093 @kindex W T p (Summary)
9094 @findex gnus-article-date-english
9095 Display the date in a format that's easily pronounceable in English
9096 (@code{gnus-article-date-english}).
9099 @kindex W T s (Summary)
9100 @vindex gnus-article-time-format
9101 @findex gnus-article-date-user
9102 @findex format-time-string
9103 Display the date using a user-defined format
9104 (@code{gnus-article-date-user}). The format is specified by the
9105 @code{gnus-article-time-format} variable, and is a string that's passed
9106 to @code{format-time-string}. See the documentation of that variable
9107 for a list of possible format specs.
9110 @kindex W T e (Summary)
9111 @findex gnus-article-date-lapsed
9112 @findex gnus-start-date-timer
9113 @findex gnus-stop-date-timer
9114 Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and now
9115 (@code{gnus-article-date-lapsed}). It looks something like:
9118 X-Sent: 6 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes, 8 seconds ago
9121 @vindex gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header
9122 The value of @code{gnus-article-date-lapsed-new-header} determines
9123 whether this header will just be added below the old Date one, or will
9126 An advantage of using Gnus to read mail is that it converts simple bugs
9127 into wonderful absurdities.
9129 If you want to have this line updated continually, you can put
9132 (gnus-start-date-timer)
9135 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file, or you can run it off of some hook. If
9136 you want to stop the timer, you can use the @code{gnus-stop-date-timer}
9140 @kindex W T o (Summary)
9141 @findex gnus-article-date-original
9142 Display the original date (@code{gnus-article-date-original}). This can
9143 be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and are
9144 worried that it might be doing something totally wrong. Say, claiming
9145 that the article was posted in 1854. Although something like that is
9146 @emph{totally} impossible. Don't you trust me? *titter*
9150 @xref{Customizing Articles}, for how to display the date in your
9151 preferred format automatically.
9154 @node Article Display
9155 @subsection Article Display
9160 These commands add various frivolous display gimmicks to the article
9161 buffer in Emacs versions that support them.
9163 @code{X-Face} headers are small black-and-white images supplied by the
9164 message headers (@pxref{X-Face}).
9166 @code{Face} headers are small colored images supplied by the message
9167 headers (@pxref{Face}).
9169 Smileys are those little @samp{:-)} symbols that people like to litter
9170 their messages with (@pxref{Smileys}).
9172 Picons, on the other hand, reside on your own system, and Gnus will
9173 try to match the headers to what you have (@pxref{Picons}).
9175 All these functions are toggles---if the elements already exist,
9180 @kindex W D x (Summary)
9181 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
9182 Display an @code{X-Face} in the @code{From} header.
9183 (@code{gnus-article-display-x-face}).
9186 @kindex W D d (Summary)
9187 @findex gnus-article-display-face
9188 Display a @code{Face} in the @code{From} header.
9189 (@code{gnus-article-display-face}).
9192 @kindex W D s (Summary)
9193 @findex gnus-treat-smiley
9194 Display smileys (@code{gnus-treat-smiley}).
9197 @kindex W D f (Summary)
9198 @findex gnus-treat-from-picon
9199 Piconify the @code{From} header (@code{gnus-treat-from-picon}).
9202 @kindex W D m (Summary)
9203 @findex gnus-treat-mail-picon
9204 Piconify all mail headers (i. e., @code{Cc}, @code{To})
9205 (@code{gnus-treat-mail-picon}).
9208 @kindex W D n (Summary)
9209 @findex gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon
9210 Piconify all news headers (i. e., @code{Newsgroups} and
9211 @code{Followup-To}) (@code{gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon}).
9214 @kindex W D D (Summary)
9215 @findex gnus-article-remove-images
9216 Remove all images from the article buffer
9217 (@code{gnus-article-remove-images}).
9223 @node Article Signature
9224 @subsection Article Signature
9226 @cindex article signature
9228 @vindex gnus-signature-separator
9229 Each article is divided into two parts---the head and the body. The
9230 body can be divided into a signature part and a text part. The variable
9231 that says what is to be considered a signature is
9232 @code{gnus-signature-separator}. This is normally the standard
9233 @samp{^-- $} as mandated by son-of-RFC 1036. However, many people use
9234 non-standard signature separators, so this variable can also be a list
9235 of regular expressions to be tested, one by one. (Searches are done
9236 from the end of the body towards the beginning.) One likely value is:
9239 (setq gnus-signature-separator
9240 '("^-- $" ; @r{The standard}
9241 "^-- *$" ; @r{A common mangling}
9242 "^-------*$" ; @r{Many people just use a looong}
9243 ; @r{line of dashes. Shame!}
9244 "^ *--------*$" ; @r{Double-shame!}
9245 "^________*$" ; @r{Underscores are also popular}
9246 "^========*$")) ; @r{Pervert!}
9249 The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get false
9252 @vindex gnus-signature-limit
9253 @code{gnus-signature-limit} provides a limit to what is considered a
9254 signature when displaying articles.
9258 If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters) than
9261 If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in lines)
9264 If it is a function, the function will be called without any parameters,
9265 and if it returns @code{nil}, there is no signature in the buffer.
9267 If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp. If it matches, the text
9268 in question is not a signature.
9271 This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the types
9272 listed above. Here's an example:
9275 (setq gnus-signature-limit
9276 '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))
9279 This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
9280 separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by
9281 the regular expression @samp{^---*Forwarded article}, then it isn't a
9282 signature after all.
9285 @node Article Miscellanea
9286 @subsection Article Miscellanea
9290 @kindex A t (Summary)
9291 @findex gnus-article-babel
9292 Translate the article from one language to another
9293 (@code{gnus-article-babel}).
9299 @section MIME Commands
9300 @cindex MIME decoding
9302 @cindex viewing attachments
9304 The following commands all understand the numerical prefix. For
9305 instance, @kbd{3 K v} means ``view the third @acronym{MIME} part''.
9311 @kindex K v (Summary)
9312 View the @acronym{MIME} part.
9315 @kindex K o (Summary)
9316 Save the @acronym{MIME} part.
9319 @kindex K O (Summary)
9320 Prompt for a file name, then save the @acronym{MIME} part and strip it
9321 from the article. The stripped @acronym{MIME} object will be referred
9322 via the message/external-body @acronym{MIME} type.
9325 @kindex K r (Summary)
9326 Replace the @acronym{MIME} part with an external body.
9329 @kindex K d (Summary)
9330 Delete the @acronym{MIME} part and add some information about the
9334 @kindex K c (Summary)
9335 Copy the @acronym{MIME} part.
9338 @kindex K e (Summary)
9339 View the @acronym{MIME} part externally.
9342 @kindex K i (Summary)
9343 View the @acronym{MIME} part internally.
9346 @kindex K | (Summary)
9347 Pipe the @acronym{MIME} part to an external command.
9350 The rest of these @acronym{MIME} commands do not use the numerical prefix in
9355 @kindex K b (Summary)
9356 Make all the @acronym{MIME} parts have buttons in front of them. This is
9357 mostly useful if you wish to save (or perform other actions) on inlined
9361 @kindex K m (Summary)
9362 @findex gnus-summary-repair-multipart
9363 Some multipart messages are transmitted with missing or faulty headers.
9364 This command will attempt to ``repair'' these messages so that they can
9365 be viewed in a more pleasant manner
9366 (@code{gnus-summary-repair-multipart}).
9369 @kindex X m (Summary)
9370 @findex gnus-summary-save-parts
9371 Save all parts matching a @acronym{MIME} type to a directory
9372 (@code{gnus-summary-save-parts}). Understands the process/prefix
9373 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
9376 @kindex M-t (Summary)
9377 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized
9378 Toggle the buttonized display of the article buffer
9379 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-display-buttonized}).
9382 @kindex W M w (Summary)
9383 @findex gnus-article-decode-mime-words
9384 Decode RFC 2047-encoded words in the article headers
9385 (@code{gnus-article-decode-mime-words}).
9388 @kindex W M c (Summary)
9389 @findex gnus-article-decode-charset
9390 Decode encoded article bodies as well as charsets
9391 (@code{gnus-article-decode-charset}).
9393 This command looks in the @code{Content-Type} header to determine the
9394 charset. If there is no such header in the article, you can give it a
9395 prefix, which will prompt for the charset to decode as. In regional
9396 groups where people post using some common encoding (but do not
9397 include @acronym{MIME} headers), you can set the @code{charset} group/topic
9398 parameter to the required charset (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
9401 @kindex W M v (Summary)
9402 @findex gnus-mime-view-all-parts
9403 View all the @acronym{MIME} parts in the current article
9404 (@code{gnus-mime-view-all-parts}).
9411 @item gnus-ignored-mime-types
9412 @vindex gnus-ignored-mime-types
9413 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9414 this list will be completely ignored by Gnus. The default value is
9417 To have all Vcards be ignored, you'd say something like this:
9420 (setq gnus-ignored-mime-types
9424 @item gnus-article-loose-mime
9425 @vindex gnus-article-loose-mime
9426 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus won't require the @samp{MIME-Version} header
9427 before interpreting the message as a @acronym{MIME} message. This helps
9428 when reading messages from certain broken mail user agents. The
9429 default is @code{nil}.
9431 @item gnus-article-emulate-mime
9432 @vindex gnus-article-emulate-mime
9433 There are other, non-@acronym{MIME} encoding methods used. The most common
9434 is @samp{uuencode}, but yEncode is also getting to be popular. If
9435 this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will look in message bodies to
9436 see if it finds these encodings, and if so, it'll run them through the
9437 Gnus @acronym{MIME} machinery. The default is @code{t}.
9439 @item gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9440 @vindex gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types
9441 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9442 this list won't have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9443 displayed or this variable is overridden by
9444 @code{gnus-buttonized-mime-types}. The default value is
9445 @code{(".*/.*")}. This variable is only used when
9446 @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing} is @code{nil}.
9448 @item gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9449 @vindex gnus-buttonized-mime-types
9450 This is a list of regexps. @acronym{MIME} types that match a regexp from
9451 this list will have @acronym{MIME} buttons inserted unless they aren't
9452 displayed. This variable overrides
9453 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types}. The default value is @code{nil}.
9454 This variable is only used when @code{gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing}
9457 To see e.g. security buttons but no other buttons, you could set this
9458 variable to @code{("multipart/signed")} and leave
9459 @code{gnus-unbuttonized-mime-types} at the default value.
9461 @item gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9462 @vindex gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing
9463 If this is non-@code{nil}, then all @acronym{MIME} parts get buttons. The
9464 default value is @code{nil}.
9466 @item gnus-article-mime-part-function
9467 @vindex gnus-article-mime-part-function
9468 For each @acronym{MIME} part, this function will be called with the @acronym{MIME}
9469 handle as the parameter. The function is meant to be used to allow
9470 users to gather information from the article (e. g., add Vcard info to
9471 the bbdb database) or to do actions based on parts (e. g., automatically
9472 save all jpegs into some directory).
9474 Here's an example function the does the latter:
9477 (defun my-save-all-jpeg-parts (handle)
9478 (when (equal (car (mm-handle-type handle)) "image/jpeg")
9480 (insert (mm-get-part handle))
9481 (write-region (point-min) (point-max)
9482 (read-file-name "Save jpeg to: ")))))
9483 (setq gnus-article-mime-part-function
9484 'my-save-all-jpeg-parts)
9487 @vindex gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9488 @item gnus-mime-multipart-functions
9489 Alist of @acronym{MIME} multipart types and functions to handle them.
9491 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
9492 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed
9493 Display "multipart/alternative" parts as "multipart/mixed".
9495 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
9496 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed
9497 Display "multipart/related" parts as "multipart/mixed".
9499 If displaying "text/html" is discouraged, see
9500 @code{mm-discouraged-alternatives} in @ref{Display Customization,
9501 Display Customization, , emacs-mime, Emacs-Mime Manual}. Images or
9502 other material inside a "multipart/related" part might be overlooked
9503 when this variable is @code{nil}.
9505 @vindex gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
9506 @item gnus-mime-display-multipart-as-mixed
9507 Display "multipart" parts as "multipart/mixed". If @code{t}, it
9508 overrides @code{nil} values of
9509 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-alternative-as-mixed} and
9510 @code{gnus-mime-display-multipart-related-as-mixed}.
9512 @vindex mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9513 @item mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9514 List of functions used for rewriting file names of @acronym{MIME} parts.
9515 Each function takes a file name as input and returns a file name.
9517 Ready-made functions include@*
9518 @code{mm-file-name-delete-whitespace},
9519 @code{mm-file-name-trim-whitespace},
9520 @code{mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace}, and
9521 @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace}. The later uses the value of
9522 the variable @code{mm-file-name-replace-whitespace} to replace each
9523 whitespace character in a file name with that string; default value
9524 is @code{"_"} (a single underscore).
9525 @findex mm-file-name-delete-whitespace
9526 @findex mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9527 @findex mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9528 @findex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9529 @vindex mm-file-name-replace-whitespace
9531 The standard functions @code{capitalize}, @code{downcase},
9532 @code{upcase}, and @code{upcase-initials} may be useful, too.
9534 Everybody knows that whitespace characters in file names are evil,
9535 except those who don't know. If you receive lots of attachments from
9536 such unenlightened users, you can make live easier by adding
9539 (setq mm-file-name-rewrite-functions
9540 '(mm-file-name-trim-whitespace
9541 mm-file-name-collapse-whitespace
9542 mm-file-name-replace-whitespace))
9546 to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
9555 People use different charsets, and we have @acronym{MIME} to let us know what
9556 charsets they use. Or rather, we wish we had. Many people use
9557 newsreaders and mailers that do not understand or use @acronym{MIME}, and
9558 just send out messages without saying what character sets they use. To
9559 help a bit with this, some local news hierarchies have policies that say
9560 what character set is the default. For instance, the @samp{fj}
9561 hierarchy uses @code{iso-2022-jp}.
9563 @vindex gnus-group-charset-alist
9564 This knowledge is encoded in the @code{gnus-group-charset-alist}
9565 variable, which is an alist of regexps (use the first item to match full
9566 group names) and default charsets to be used when reading these groups.
9568 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets
9569 In addition, some people do use soi-disant @acronym{MIME}-aware agents that
9570 aren't. These blithely mark messages as being in @code{iso-8859-1}
9571 even if they really are in @code{koi-8}. To help here, the
9572 @code{gnus-newsgroup-ignored-charsets} variable can be used. The
9573 charsets that are listed here will be ignored. The variable can be
9574 set on a group-by-group basis using the group parameters (@pxref{Group
9575 Parameters}). The default value is @code{(unknown-8bit x-unknown)},
9576 which includes values some agents insist on having in there.
9578 @vindex gnus-group-posting-charset-alist
9579 When posting, @code{gnus-group-posting-charset-alist} is used to
9580 determine which charsets should not be encoded using the @acronym{MIME}
9581 encodings. For instance, some hierarchies discourage using
9582 quoted-printable header encoding.
9584 This variable is an alist of regexps and permitted unencoded charsets
9585 for posting. Each element of the alist has the form @code{(}@var{test
9586 header body-list}@code{)}, where:
9590 is either a regular expression matching the newsgroup header or a
9593 is the charset which may be left unencoded in the header (@code{nil}
9594 means encode all charsets),
9596 is a list of charsets which may be encoded using 8bit content-transfer
9597 encoding in the body, or one of the special values @code{nil} (always
9598 encode using quoted-printable) or @code{t} (always use 8bit).
9605 @cindex coding system aliases
9606 @cindex preferred charset
9608 @xref{Encoding Customization, , Encoding Customization, emacs-mime,
9609 The Emacs MIME Manual}, for additional variables that control which
9610 MIME charsets are used when sending messages.
9612 Other charset tricks that may be useful, although not Gnus-specific:
9614 If there are several @acronym{MIME} charsets that encode the same Emacs
9615 charset, you can choose what charset to use by saying the following:
9618 (put-charset-property 'cyrillic-iso8859-5
9619 'preferred-coding-system 'koi8-r)
9622 This means that Russian will be encoded using @code{koi8-r} instead of
9623 the default @code{iso-8859-5} @acronym{MIME} charset.
9625 If you want to read messages in @code{koi8-u}, you can cheat and say
9628 (define-coding-system-alias 'koi8-u 'koi8-r)
9631 This will almost do the right thing.
9633 And finally, to read charsets like @code{windows-1251}, you can say
9637 (codepage-setup 1251)
9638 (define-coding-system-alias 'windows-1251 'cp1251)
9642 @node Article Commands
9643 @section Article Commands
9650 @kindex A P (Summary)
9651 @vindex gnus-ps-print-hook
9652 @findex gnus-summary-print-article
9653 Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
9654 (@code{gnus-summary-print-article}). @code{gnus-ps-print-hook} will
9655 be run just before printing the buffer. An alternative way to print
9656 article is to use Muttprint (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
9661 @node Summary Sorting
9662 @section Summary Sorting
9663 @cindex summary sorting
9665 You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
9666 can't really see why you'd want that.
9671 @kindex C-c C-s C-n (Summary)
9672 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-number
9673 Sort by article number (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-number}).
9676 @kindex C-c C-s C-a (Summary)
9677 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-author
9678 Sort by author (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-author}).
9681 @kindex C-c C-s C-t (Summary)
9682 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient
9683 Sort by recipient (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-recipient}).
9686 @kindex C-c C-s C-s (Summary)
9687 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-subject
9688 Sort by subject (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-subject}).
9691 @kindex C-c C-s C-d (Summary)
9692 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-date
9693 Sort by date (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-date}).
9696 @kindex C-c C-s C-l (Summary)
9697 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-lines
9698 Sort by lines (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-lines}).
9701 @kindex C-c C-s C-c (Summary)
9702 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-chars
9703 Sort by article length (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-chars}).
9706 @kindex C-c C-s C-i (Summary)
9707 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-score
9708 Sort by score (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-score}).
9711 @kindex C-c C-s C-r (Summary)
9712 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-random
9713 Randomize (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-random}).
9716 @kindex C-c C-s C-o (Summary)
9717 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-original
9718 Sort using the default sorting method
9719 (@code{gnus-summary-sort-by-original}).
9722 These functions will work both when you use threading and when you don't
9723 use threading. In the latter case, all summary lines will be sorted,
9724 line by line. In the former case, sorting will be done on a
9725 root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for. To
9726 toggle whether to use threading, type @kbd{T T} (@pxref{Thread
9730 @node Finding the Parent
9731 @section Finding the Parent
9732 @cindex parent articles
9733 @cindex referring articles
9738 @findex gnus-summary-refer-parent-article
9739 If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is not
9740 displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to. That is,
9741 if the current group is fetched by @acronym{NNTP}, the parent hasn't expired
9742 and the @code{References} in the current article are not mangled, you
9743 can just press @kbd{^} or @kbd{A r}
9744 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-parent-article}). If everything goes well,
9745 you'll get the parent. If the parent is already displayed in the
9746 summary buffer, point will just move to this article.
9748 If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles back into
9749 the ancestry. If given a negative numerical prefix, fetch just that
9750 ancestor. So if you say @kbd{3 ^}, gnus will fetch the parent, the
9751 grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the current article. If you say
9752 @kbd{-3 ^}, gnus will only fetch the grandgrandparent of the current
9756 @findex gnus-summary-refer-references
9757 @kindex A R (Summary)
9758 Fetch all articles mentioned in the @code{References} header of the
9759 article (@code{gnus-summary-refer-references}).
9762 @findex gnus-summary-refer-thread
9763 @kindex A T (Summary)
9764 Display the full thread where the current article appears
9765 (@code{gnus-summary-refer-thread}). This command has to fetch all the
9766 headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while. If
9767 you do it often, you may consider setting @code{gnus-fetch-old-headers}
9768 to @code{invisible} (@pxref{Filling In Threads}). This won't have any
9769 visible effects normally, but it'll make this command work a whole lot
9770 faster. Of course, it'll make group entry somewhat slow.
9772 @vindex gnus-refer-thread-limit
9773 The @code{gnus-refer-thread-limit} variable says how many old (i. e.,
9774 articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers to
9775 fetch when doing this command. The default is 200. If @code{t}, all
9776 the available headers will be fetched. This variable can be overridden
9777 by giving the @kbd{A T} command a numerical prefix.
9780 @findex gnus-summary-refer-article
9781 @kindex M-^ (Summary)
9783 @cindex fetching by Message-ID
9784 You can also ask Gnus for an arbitrary article, no matter what group it
9785 belongs to. @kbd{M-^} (@code{gnus-summary-refer-article}) will ask you
9786 for a @code{Message-ID}, which is one of those long, hard-to-read
9787 thingies that look something like @samp{<38o6up$6f2@@hymir.ifi.uio.no>}.
9788 You have to get it all exactly right. No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.
9790 Gnus looks for the @code{Message-ID} in the headers that have already
9791 been fetched, but also tries all the select methods specified by
9792 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} if it is not found.
9795 @vindex gnus-refer-article-method
9796 If the group you are reading is located on a back end that does not
9797 support fetching by @code{Message-ID} very well (like @code{nnspool}),
9798 you can set @code{gnus-refer-article-method} to an @acronym{NNTP} method. It
9799 would, perhaps, be best if the @acronym{NNTP} server you consult is the one
9800 updating the spool you are reading from, but that's not really
9803 It can also be a list of select methods, as well as the special symbol
9804 @code{current}, which means to use the current select method. If it
9805 is a list, Gnus will try all the methods in the list until it finds a
9808 Here's an example setting that will first try the current method, and
9809 then ask Google if that fails:
9812 (setq gnus-refer-article-method
9814 (nnweb "google" (nnweb-type google))))
9817 Most of the mail back ends support fetching by @code{Message-ID}, but
9818 do not do a particularly excellent job at it. That is, @code{nnmbox},
9819 @code{nnbabyl}, @code{nnmaildir}, @code{nnml}, are able to locate
9820 articles from any groups, while @code{nnfolder}, and @code{nnimap} are
9821 only able to locate articles that have been posted to the current
9822 group. (Anything else would be too time consuming.) @code{nnmh} does
9823 not support this at all.
9826 @node Alternative Approaches
9827 @section Alternative Approaches
9829 Different people like to read news using different methods. This being
9830 gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary buffers.
9833 * Pick and Read:: First mark articles and then read them.
9834 * Binary Groups:: Auto-decode all articles.
9839 @subsection Pick and Read
9840 @cindex pick and read
9842 Some newsreaders (like @code{nn} and, uhm, @code{Netnews} on VM/CMS) use
9843 a two-phased reading interface. The user first marks in a summary
9844 buffer the articles she wants to read. Then she starts reading the
9845 articles with just an article buffer displayed.
9847 @findex gnus-pick-mode
9848 @kindex M-x gnus-pick-mode
9849 Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
9850 this---@code{gnus-pick-mode}. This basically means that a few process
9851 mark commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and
9852 it provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.
9854 Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:
9859 @findex gnus-pick-article-or-thread
9860 Pick the article or thread on the current line
9861 (@code{gnus-pick-article-or-thread}). If the variable
9862 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key selects the
9863 entire thread when used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise,
9864 it selects just the article. If given a numerical prefix, go to that
9865 thread or article and pick it. (The line number is normally displayed
9866 at the beginning of the summary pick lines.)
9869 @kindex SPACE (Pick)
9870 @findex gnus-pick-next-page
9871 Scroll the summary buffer up one page (@code{gnus-pick-next-page}). If
9872 at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.
9876 @findex gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread.
9877 Unpick the thread or article
9878 (@code{gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread}). If the variable
9879 @code{gnus-thread-hide-subtree} is true, then this key unpicks the
9880 thread if used at the first article of the thread. Otherwise it unpicks
9881 just the article. You can give this key a numerical prefix to unpick
9882 the thread or article at that line.
9886 @findex gnus-pick-start-reading
9887 @vindex gnus-pick-display-summary
9888 Start reading the picked articles (@code{gnus-pick-start-reading}). If
9889 given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first. If
9890 @code{gnus-pick-display-summary} is non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer
9891 will still be visible when you are reading.
9895 All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
9896 pick-mode, with the exception of @kbd{u}. However @kbd{!} is available
9897 which is mapped to the same function
9898 @code{gnus-summary-tick-article-forward}.
9900 If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:
9903 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
9906 @vindex gnus-pick-mode-hook
9907 @code{gnus-pick-mode-hook} is run in pick minor mode buffers.
9909 @vindex gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read
9910 If @code{gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read} is non-@code{nil}, mark
9911 all unpicked articles as read. The default is @code{nil}.
9913 @vindex gnus-summary-pick-line-format
9914 The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
9915 standard format. At the beginning of each line the line number is
9916 displayed. The pick mode line format is controlled by the
9917 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format} variable (@pxref{Formatting
9918 Variables}). It accepts the same format specs that
9919 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} does (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}).
9923 @subsection Binary Groups
9924 @cindex binary groups
9926 @findex gnus-binary-mode
9927 @kindex M-x gnus-binary-mode
9928 If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of hitting
9929 @kbd{X u}, @kbd{n}, @kbd{RET} all the time. @kbd{M-x gnus-binary-mode}
9930 is a minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
9931 selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
9932 instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.
9935 @findex gnus-binary-show-article
9936 The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the @kbd{g}
9937 command, when you have turned on this mode
9938 (@code{gnus-binary-show-article}).
9940 @vindex gnus-binary-mode-hook
9941 @code{gnus-binary-mode-hook} is called in binary minor mode buffers.
9945 @section Tree Display
9948 @vindex gnus-use-trees
9949 If you don't like the normal gnus summary display, you might try setting
9950 @code{gnus-use-trees} to @code{t}. This will create (by default) an
9951 additional @dfn{tree buffer}. You can execute all summary mode commands
9954 There are a few variables to customize the tree display, of course:
9957 @item gnus-tree-mode-hook
9958 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-hook
9959 A hook called in all tree mode buffers.
9961 @item gnus-tree-mode-line-format
9962 @vindex gnus-tree-mode-line-format
9963 A format string for the mode bar in the tree mode buffers (@pxref{Mode
9964 Line Formatting}). The default is @samp{Gnus: %%b %S %Z}. For a list
9965 of valid specs, @pxref{Summary Buffer Mode Line}.
9967 @item gnus-selected-tree-face
9968 @vindex gnus-selected-tree-face
9969 Face used for highlighting the selected article in the tree buffer. The
9970 default is @code{modeline}.
9972 @item gnus-tree-line-format
9973 @vindex gnus-tree-line-format
9974 A format string for the tree nodes. The name is a bit of a misnomer,
9975 though---it doesn't define a line, but just the node. The default value
9976 is @samp{%(%[%3,3n%]%)}, which displays the first three characters of
9977 the name of the poster. It is vital that all nodes are of the same
9978 length, so you @emph{must} use @samp{%4,4n}-like specifiers.
9984 The name of the poster.
9986 The @code{From} header.
9988 The number of the article.
9990 The opening bracket.
9992 The closing bracket.
9997 @xref{Formatting Variables}.
9999 Variables related to the display are:
10002 @item gnus-tree-brackets
10003 @vindex gnus-tree-brackets
10004 This is used for differentiating between ``real'' articles and
10005 ``sparse'' articles. The format is
10007 ((@var{real-open} . @var{real-close})
10008 (@var{sparse-open} . @var{sparse-close})
10009 (@var{dummy-open} . @var{dummy-close}))
10011 and the default is @code{((?[ . ?]) (?( . ?)) (?@{ . ?@}) (?< . ?>))}.
10013 @item gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
10014 @vindex gnus-tree-parent-child-edges
10015 This is a list that contains the characters used for connecting parent
10016 nodes to their children. The default is @code{(?- ?\\ ?|)}.
10020 @item gnus-tree-minimize-window
10021 @vindex gnus-tree-minimize-window
10022 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, gnus will try to keep the tree
10023 buffer as small as possible to allow more room for the other gnus
10024 windows. If this variable is a number, the tree buffer will never be
10025 higher than that number. The default is @code{t}. Note that if you
10026 have several windows displayed side-by-side in a frame and the tree
10027 buffer is one of these, minimizing the tree window will also resize all
10028 other windows displayed next to it.
10030 You may also wish to add the following hook to keep the window minimized
10034 (add-hook 'gnus-configure-windows-hook
10035 'gnus-tree-perhaps-minimize)
10038 @item gnus-generate-tree-function
10039 @vindex gnus-generate-tree-function
10040 @findex gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
10041 @findex gnus-generate-vertical-tree
10042 The function that actually generates the thread tree. Two predefined
10043 functions are available: @code{gnus-generate-horizontal-tree} and
10044 @code{gnus-generate-vertical-tree} (which is the default).
10048 Here's an example from a horizontal tree buffer:
10051 @{***@}-(***)-[odd]-[Gun]
10061 Here's the same thread displayed in a vertical tree buffer:
10066 |--------------------------\-----\-----\
10067 (***) [Bjo] [Gun] [Gun]
10069 [odd] [Jan] [odd] (***) [Jor]
10071 [Gun] [Eri] [Eri] [odd]
10077 If you're using horizontal trees, it might be nice to display the trees
10078 side-by-side with the summary buffer. You could add something like the
10079 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
10082 (setq gnus-use-trees t
10083 gnus-generate-tree-function 'gnus-generate-horizontal-tree
10084 gnus-tree-minimize-window nil)
10085 (gnus-add-configuration
10089 (summary 0.75 point)
10094 @xref{Window Layout}.
10097 @node Mail Group Commands
10098 @section Mail Group Commands
10099 @cindex mail group commands
10101 Some commands only make sense in mail groups. If these commands are
10102 invalid in the current group, they will raise a hell and let you know.
10104 All these commands (except the expiry and edit commands) use the
10105 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10110 @kindex B e (Summary)
10111 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles
10112 Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry
10113 process (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles}). That is, delete all
10114 expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while.
10115 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
10118 @kindex B C-M-e (Summary)
10119 @findex gnus-summary-expire-articles-now
10120 Delete all the expirable articles in the group
10121 (@code{gnus-summary-expire-articles-now}). This means that @strong{all}
10122 articles eligible for expiry in the current group will
10123 disappear forever into that big @file{/dev/null} in the sky.
10126 @kindex B DEL (Summary)
10127 @findex gnus-summary-delete-article
10128 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-delete}
10129 Delete the mail article. This is ``delete'' as in ``delete it from your
10130 disk forever and ever, never to return again.'' Use with caution.
10131 (@code{gnus-summary-delete-article}).
10134 @kindex B m (Summary)
10136 @findex gnus-summary-move-article
10137 @vindex gnus-preserve-marks
10138 Move the article from one mail group to another
10139 (@code{gnus-summary-move-article}). Marks will be preserved if
10140 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
10143 @kindex B c (Summary)
10145 @findex gnus-summary-copy-article
10146 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-copy}
10147 Copy the article from one group (mail group or not) to a mail group
10148 (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}). Marks will be preserved if
10149 @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil} (which is the default).
10152 @kindex B B (Summary)
10153 @cindex crosspost mail
10154 @findex gnus-summary-crosspost-article
10155 Crosspost the current article to some other group
10156 (@code{gnus-summary-crosspost-article}). This will create a new copy of
10157 the article in the other group, and the Xref headers of the article will
10158 be properly updated.
10161 @kindex B i (Summary)
10162 @findex gnus-summary-import-article
10163 Import an arbitrary file into the current mail newsgroup
10164 (@code{gnus-summary-import-article}). You will be prompted for a file
10165 name, a @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
10168 @kindex B I (Summary)
10169 @findex gnus-summary-create-article
10170 Create an empty article in the current mail newsgroups
10171 (@code{gnus-summary-create-article}). You will be prompted for a
10172 @code{From} header and a @code{Subject} header.
10175 @kindex B r (Summary)
10176 @findex gnus-summary-respool-article
10177 @vindex gnus-summary-respool-default-method
10178 Respool the mail article (@code{gnus-summary-respool-article}).
10179 @code{gnus-summary-respool-default-method} will be used as the default
10180 select method when respooling. This variable is @code{nil} by default,
10181 which means that the current group select method will be used instead.
10182 Marks will be preserved if @code{gnus-preserve-marks} is non-@code{nil}
10183 (which is the default).
10187 @kindex B w (Summary)
10188 @kindex e (Summary)
10189 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article
10190 @kindex C-c C-c (Article)
10191 @findex gnus-summary-edit-article-done
10192 Edit the current article (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article}). To finish
10193 editing and make the changes permanent, type @kbd{C-c C-c}
10194 (@code{gnus-summary-edit-article-done}). If you give a prefix to the
10195 @kbd{C-c C-c} command, gnus won't re-highlight the article.
10198 @kindex B q (Summary)
10199 @findex gnus-summary-respool-query
10200 If you want to re-spool an article, you might be curious as to what group
10201 the article will end up in before you do the re-spooling. This command
10202 will tell you (@code{gnus-summary-respool-query}).
10205 @kindex B t (Summary)
10206 @findex gnus-summary-respool-trace
10207 Similarly, this command will display all fancy splitting patterns used
10208 when respooling, if any (@code{gnus-summary-respool-trace}).
10211 @kindex B p (Summary)
10212 @findex gnus-summary-article-posted-p
10213 Some people have a tendency to send you ``courtesy'' copies when they
10214 follow up to articles you have posted. These usually have a
10215 @code{Newsgroups} header in them, but not always. This command
10216 (@code{gnus-summary-article-posted-p}) will try to fetch the current
10217 article from your news server (or rather, from
10218 @code{gnus-refer-article-method} or @code{gnus-select-method}) and will
10219 report back whether it found the article or not. Even if it says that
10220 it didn't find the article, it may have been posted anyway---mail
10221 propagation is much faster than news propagation, and the news copy may
10222 just not have arrived yet.
10225 @kindex K E (Summary)
10226 @findex gnus-article-encrypt-body
10227 @vindex gnus-article-encrypt-protocol
10228 Encrypt the body of an article (@code{gnus-article-encrypt-body}).
10229 The body is encrypted with the encryption protocol specified by the
10230 variable @code{gnus-article-encrypt-protocol}.
10234 @vindex gnus-move-split-methods
10235 @cindex moving articles
10236 If you move (or copy) articles regularly, you might wish to have gnus
10237 suggest where to put the articles. @code{gnus-move-split-methods} is a
10238 variable that uses the same syntax as @code{gnus-split-methods}
10239 (@pxref{Saving Articles}). You may customize that variable to create
10240 suggestions you find reasonable. (Note that
10241 @code{gnus-move-split-methods} uses group names where
10242 @code{gnus-split-methods} uses file names.)
10245 (setq gnus-move-split-methods
10246 '(("^From:.*Lars Magne" "nnml:junk")
10247 ("^Subject:.*gnus" "nnfolder:important")
10248 (".*" "nnml:misc")))
10252 @node Various Summary Stuff
10253 @section Various Summary Stuff
10256 * Summary Group Information:: Information oriented commands.
10257 * Searching for Articles:: Multiple article commands.
10258 * Summary Generation Commands::
10259 * Really Various Summary Commands:: Those pesky non-conformant commands.
10263 @vindex gnus-summary-display-while-building
10264 @item gnus-summary-display-while-building
10265 If non-@code{nil}, show and update the summary buffer as it's being
10266 built. If @code{t}, update the buffer after every line is inserted.
10267 If the value is an integer, @var{n}, update the display every @var{n}
10268 lines. The default is @code{nil}.
10270 @vindex gnus-summary-display-arrow
10271 @item gnus-summary-display-arrow
10272 If non-@code{nil}, display an arrow in the fringe to indicate the
10275 @vindex gnus-summary-mode-hook
10276 @item gnus-summary-mode-hook
10277 This hook is called when creating a summary mode buffer.
10279 @vindex gnus-summary-generate-hook
10280 @item gnus-summary-generate-hook
10281 This is called as the last thing before doing the threading and the
10282 generation of the summary buffer. It's quite convenient for customizing
10283 the threading variables based on what data the newsgroup has. This hook
10284 is called from the summary buffer after most summary buffer variables
10287 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-hook
10288 @item gnus-summary-prepare-hook
10289 It is called after the summary buffer has been generated. You might use
10290 it to, for instance, highlight lines or modify the look of the buffer in
10291 some other ungodly manner. I don't care.
10293 @vindex gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10294 @item gnus-summary-prepared-hook
10295 A hook called as the very last thing after the summary buffer has been
10298 @vindex gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10299 @item gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
10300 When gnus discovers two articles that have the same @code{Message-ID},
10301 it has to do something drastic. No articles are allowed to have the
10302 same @code{Message-ID}, but this may happen when reading mail from some
10303 sources. Gnus allows you to customize what happens with this variable.
10304 If it is @code{nil} (which is the default), gnus will rename the
10305 @code{Message-ID} (for display purposes only) and display the article as
10306 any other article. If this variable is @code{t}, it won't display the
10307 article---it'll be as if it never existed.
10309 @vindex gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10310 @item gnus-alter-articles-to-read-function
10311 This function, which takes two parameters (the group name and the list
10312 of articles to be selected), is called to allow the user to alter the
10313 list of articles to be selected.
10315 For instance, the following function adds the list of cached articles to
10316 the list in one particular group:
10319 (defun my-add-cached-articles (group articles)
10320 (if (string= group "some.group")
10321 (append gnus-newsgroup-cached articles)
10325 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-variables
10326 @item gnus-newsgroup-variables
10327 A list of newsgroup (summary buffer) local variables, or cons of
10328 variables and their default expressions to be evalled (when the default
10329 values are not @code{nil}), that should be made global while the summary
10332 Note: The default expressions will be evaluated (using function
10333 @code{eval}) before assignment to the local variable rather than just
10334 assigned to it. If the default expression is the symbol @code{global},
10335 that symbol will not be evaluated but the global value of the local
10336 variable will be used instead.
10338 These variables can be used to set variables in the group parameters
10339 while still allowing them to affect operations done in other
10340 buffers. For example:
10343 (setq gnus-newsgroup-variables
10344 '(message-use-followup-to
10345 (gnus-visible-headers .
10346 "^From:\\|^Newsgroups:\\|^Subject:\\|^Date:\\|^To:")))
10349 Also @pxref{Group Parameters}.
10353 @node Summary Group Information
10354 @subsection Summary Group Information
10359 @kindex H f (Summary)
10360 @findex gnus-summary-fetch-faq
10361 @vindex gnus-group-faq-directory
10362 Try to fetch the @acronym{FAQ} (list of frequently asked questions)
10363 for the current group (@code{gnus-summary-fetch-faq}). Gnus will try
10364 to get the @acronym{FAQ} from @code{gnus-group-faq-directory}, which
10365 is usually a directory on a remote machine. This variable can also be
10366 a list of directories. In that case, giving a prefix to this command
10367 will allow you to choose between the various sites. @code{ange-ftp}
10368 or @code{efs} will probably be used for fetching the file.
10371 @kindex H d (Summary)
10372 @findex gnus-summary-describe-group
10373 Give a brief description of the current group
10374 (@code{gnus-summary-describe-group}). If given a prefix, force
10375 rereading the description from the server.
10378 @kindex H h (Summary)
10379 @findex gnus-summary-describe-briefly
10380 Give an extremely brief description of the most important summary
10381 keystrokes (@code{gnus-summary-describe-briefly}).
10384 @kindex H i (Summary)
10385 @findex gnus-info-find-node
10386 Go to the gnus info node (@code{gnus-info-find-node}).
10390 @node Searching for Articles
10391 @subsection Searching for Articles
10396 @kindex M-s (Summary)
10397 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-forward
10398 Search through all subsequent (raw) articles for a regexp
10399 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-forward}).
10402 @kindex M-r (Summary)
10403 @findex gnus-summary-search-article-backward
10404 Search through all previous (raw) articles for a regexp
10405 (@code{gnus-summary-search-article-backward}).
10408 @kindex & (Summary)
10409 @findex gnus-summary-execute-command
10410 This command will prompt you for a header, a regular expression to match
10411 on this field, and a command to be executed if the match is made
10412 (@code{gnus-summary-execute-command}). If the header is an empty
10413 string, the match is done on the entire article. If given a prefix,
10414 search backward instead.
10416 For instance, @kbd{& RET some.*string RET #} will put the process mark on
10417 all articles that have heads or bodies that match @samp{some.*string}.
10420 @kindex M-& (Summary)
10421 @findex gnus-summary-universal-argument
10422 Perform any operation on all articles that have been marked with
10423 the process mark (@code{gnus-summary-universal-argument}).
10426 @node Summary Generation Commands
10427 @subsection Summary Generation Commands
10432 @kindex Y g (Summary)
10433 @findex gnus-summary-prepare
10434 Regenerate the current summary buffer (@code{gnus-summary-prepare}).
10437 @kindex Y c (Summary)
10438 @findex gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles
10439 Pull all cached articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10440 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}).
10443 @kindex Y d (Summary)
10444 @findex gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles
10445 Pull all dormant articles (for the current group) into the summary buffer
10446 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-dormant-articles}).
10451 @node Really Various Summary Commands
10452 @subsection Really Various Summary Commands
10458 @kindex C-d (Summary)
10459 @kindex A D (Summary)
10460 @findex gnus-summary-enter-digest-group
10461 If the current article is a collection of other articles (for instance,
10462 a digest), you might use this command to enter a group based on the that
10463 article (@code{gnus-summary-enter-digest-group}). Gnus will try to
10464 guess what article type is currently displayed unless you give a prefix
10465 to this command, which forces a ``digest'' interpretation. Basically,
10466 whenever you see a message that is a collection of other messages of
10467 some format, you @kbd{C-d} and read these messages in a more convenient
10471 @kindex C-M-d (Summary)
10472 @findex gnus-summary-read-document
10473 This command is very similar to the one above, but lets you gather
10474 several documents into one biiig group
10475 (@code{gnus-summary-read-document}). It does this by opening several
10476 @code{nndoc} groups for each document, and then opening an
10477 @code{nnvirtual} group on top of these @code{nndoc} groups. This
10478 command understands the process/prefix convention
10479 (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
10482 @kindex C-t (Summary)
10483 @findex gnus-summary-toggle-truncation
10484 Toggle truncation of summary lines
10485 (@code{gnus-summary-toggle-truncation}). This will probably confuse the
10486 line centering function in the summary buffer, so it's not a good idea
10487 to have truncation switched off while reading articles.
10490 @kindex = (Summary)
10491 @findex gnus-summary-expand-window
10492 Expand the summary buffer window (@code{gnus-summary-expand-window}).
10493 If given a prefix, force an @code{article} window configuration.
10496 @kindex C-M-e (Summary)
10497 @findex gnus-summary-edit-parameters
10498 Edit the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10499 group (@code{gnus-summary-edit-parameters}).
10502 @kindex C-M-a (Summary)
10503 @findex gnus-summary-customize-parameters
10504 Customize the group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) of the current
10505 group (@code{gnus-summary-customize-parameters}).
10510 @node Exiting the Summary Buffer
10511 @section Exiting the Summary Buffer
10512 @cindex summary exit
10513 @cindex exiting groups
10515 Exiting from the summary buffer will normally update all info on the
10516 group and return you to the group buffer.
10523 @kindex Z Z (Summary)
10524 @kindex Z Q (Summary)
10525 @kindex q (Summary)
10526 @findex gnus-summary-exit
10527 @vindex gnus-summary-exit-hook
10528 @vindex gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook
10529 @vindex gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook
10530 @c @icon{gnus-summary-exit}
10531 Exit the current group and update all information on the group
10532 (@code{gnus-summary-exit}). @code{gnus-summary-prepare-exit-hook} is
10533 called before doing much of the exiting, which calls
10534 @code{gnus-summary-expire-articles} by default.
10535 @code{gnus-summary-exit-hook} is called after finishing the exit
10536 process. @code{gnus-group-no-more-groups-hook} is run when returning to
10537 group mode having no more (unread) groups.
10541 @kindex Z E (Summary)
10542 @kindex Q (Summary)
10543 @findex gnus-summary-exit-no-update
10544 Exit the current group without updating any information on the group
10545 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}).
10549 @kindex Z c (Summary)
10550 @kindex c (Summary)
10551 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit
10552 @c @icon{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}
10553 Mark all unticked articles in the group as read and then exit
10554 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-exit}).
10557 @kindex Z C (Summary)
10558 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit
10559 Mark all articles, even the ticked ones, as read and then exit
10560 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-all-and-exit}).
10563 @kindex Z n (Summary)
10564 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group
10565 Mark all articles as read and go to the next group
10566 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group}).
10569 @kindex Z p (Summary)
10570 @findex gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group
10571 Mark all articles as read and go to the previous group
10572 (@code{gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-prev-group}).
10576 @kindex Z R (Summary)
10577 @kindex C-x C-s (Summary)
10578 @findex gnus-summary-reselect-current-group
10579 Exit this group, and then enter it again
10580 (@code{gnus-summary-reselect-current-group}). If given a prefix, select
10581 all articles, both read and unread.
10585 @kindex Z G (Summary)
10586 @kindex M-g (Summary)
10587 @findex gnus-summary-rescan-group
10588 @c @icon{gnus-summary-mail-get}
10589 Exit the group, check for new articles in the group, and select the
10590 group (@code{gnus-summary-rescan-group}). If given a prefix, select all
10591 articles, both read and unread.
10594 @kindex Z N (Summary)
10595 @findex gnus-summary-next-group
10596 Exit the group and go to the next group
10597 (@code{gnus-summary-next-group}).
10600 @kindex Z P (Summary)
10601 @findex gnus-summary-prev-group
10602 Exit the group and go to the previous group
10603 (@code{gnus-summary-prev-group}).
10606 @kindex Z s (Summary)
10607 @findex gnus-summary-save-newsrc
10608 Save the current number of read/marked articles in the dribble buffer
10609 and then save the dribble buffer (@code{gnus-summary-save-newsrc}). If
10610 given a prefix, also save the @file{.newsrc} file(s). Using this
10611 command will make exit without updating (the @kbd{Q} command) worthless.
10614 @vindex gnus-exit-group-hook
10615 @code{gnus-exit-group-hook} is called when you exit the current group
10616 with an ``updating'' exit. For instance @kbd{Q}
10617 (@code{gnus-summary-exit-no-update}) does not call this hook.
10619 @findex gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead
10620 @findex gnus-dead-summary-mode
10621 @vindex gnus-kill-summary-on-exit
10622 If you're in the habit of exiting groups, and then changing your mind
10623 about it, you might set @code{gnus-kill-summary-on-exit} to @code{nil}.
10624 If you do that, gnus won't kill the summary buffer when you exit it.
10625 (Quelle surprise!) Instead it will change the name of the buffer to
10626 something like @samp{*Dead Summary ... *} and install a minor mode
10627 called @code{gnus-dead-summary-mode}. Now, if you switch back to this
10628 buffer, you'll find that all keys are mapped to a function called
10629 @code{gnus-summary-wake-up-the-dead}. So tapping any keys in a dead
10630 summary buffer will result in a live, normal summary buffer.
10632 There will never be more than one dead summary buffer at any one time.
10634 @vindex gnus-use-cross-reference
10635 The data on the current group will be updated (which articles you have
10636 read, which articles you have replied to, etc.) when you exit the
10637 summary buffer. If the @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} variable is
10638 @code{t} (which is the default), articles that are cross-referenced to
10639 this group and are marked as read, will also be marked as read in the
10640 other subscribed groups they were cross-posted to. If this variable is
10641 neither @code{nil} nor @code{t}, the article will be marked as read in
10642 both subscribed and unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}).
10645 @node Crosspost Handling
10646 @section Crosspost Handling
10650 Marking cross-posted articles as read ensures that you'll never have to
10651 read the same article more than once. Unless, of course, somebody has
10652 posted it to several groups separately. Posting the same article to
10653 several groups (not cross-posting) is called @dfn{spamming}, and you are
10654 by law required to send nasty-grams to anyone who perpetrates such a
10655 heinous crime. You may want to try NoCeM handling to filter out spam
10658 Remember: Cross-posting is kinda ok, but posting the same article
10659 separately to several groups is not. Massive cross-posting (aka.
10660 @dfn{velveeta}) is to be avoided at all costs, and you can even use the
10661 @code{gnus-summary-mail-crosspost-complaint} command to complain about
10662 excessive crossposting (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
10664 @cindex cross-posting
10666 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
10667 One thing that may cause Gnus to not do the cross-posting thing
10668 correctly is if you use an @acronym{NNTP} server that supports @sc{xover}
10669 (which is very nice, because it speeds things up considerably) which
10670 does not include the @code{Xref} header in its @acronym{NOV} lines. This is
10671 Evil, but all too common, alas, alack. Gnus tries to Do The Right Thing
10672 even with @sc{xover} by registering the @code{Xref} lines of all
10673 articles you actually read, but if you kill the articles, or just mark
10674 them as read without reading them, Gnus will not get a chance to snoop
10675 the @code{Xref} lines out of these articles, and will be unable to use
10676 the cross reference mechanism.
10678 @cindex LIST overview.fmt
10679 @cindex overview.fmt
10680 To check whether your @acronym{NNTP} server includes the @code{Xref} header
10681 in its overview files, try @samp{telnet your.nntp.server nntp},
10682 @samp{MODE READER} on @code{inn} servers, and then say @samp{LIST
10683 overview.fmt}. This may not work, but if it does, and the last line you
10684 get does not read @samp{Xref:full}, then you should shout and whine at
10685 your news admin until she includes the @code{Xref} header in the
10688 @vindex gnus-nov-is-evil
10689 If you want Gnus to get the @code{Xref}s right all the time, you have to
10690 set @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{t}, which slows things down
10695 For an alternative approach, @pxref{Duplicate Suppression}.
10698 @node Duplicate Suppression
10699 @section Duplicate Suppression
10701 By default, gnus tries to make sure that you don't have to read the same
10702 article more than once by utilizing the crossposting mechanism
10703 (@pxref{Crosspost Handling}). However, that simple and efficient
10704 approach may not work satisfactory for some users for various
10709 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to generate the @code{Xref} header. This
10710 is evil and not very common.
10713 The @acronym{NNTP} server may fail to include the @code{Xref} header in the
10714 @file{.overview} data bases. This is evil and all too common, alas.
10717 You may be reading the same group (or several related groups) from
10718 different @acronym{NNTP} servers.
10721 You may be getting mail that duplicates articles posted to groups.
10724 I'm sure there are other situations where @code{Xref} handling fails as
10725 well, but these four are the most common situations.
10727 If, and only if, @code{Xref} handling fails for you, then you may
10728 consider switching on @dfn{duplicate suppression}. If you do so, Gnus
10729 will remember the @code{Message-ID}s of all articles you have read or
10730 otherwise marked as read, and then, as if by magic, mark them as read
10731 all subsequent times you see them---in @emph{all} groups. Using this
10732 mechanism is quite likely to be somewhat inefficient, but not overly
10733 so. It's certainly preferable to reading the same articles more than
10736 Duplicate suppression is not a very subtle instrument. It's more like a
10737 sledge hammer than anything else. It works in a very simple
10738 fashion---if you have marked an article as read, it adds this Message-ID
10739 to a cache. The next time it sees this Message-ID, it will mark the
10740 article as read with the @samp{M} mark. It doesn't care what group it
10741 saw the article in.
10744 @item gnus-suppress-duplicates
10745 @vindex gnus-suppress-duplicates
10746 If non-@code{nil}, suppress duplicates.
10748 @item gnus-save-duplicate-list
10749 @vindex gnus-save-duplicate-list
10750 If non-@code{nil}, save the list of duplicates to a file. This will
10751 make startup and shutdown take longer, so the default is @code{nil}.
10752 However, this means that only duplicate articles read in a single gnus
10753 session are suppressed.
10755 @item gnus-duplicate-list-length
10756 @vindex gnus-duplicate-list-length
10757 This variable says how many @code{Message-ID}s to keep in the duplicate
10758 suppression list. The default is 10000.
10760 @item gnus-duplicate-file
10761 @vindex gnus-duplicate-file
10762 The name of the file to store the duplicate suppression list in. The
10763 default is @file{~/News/suppression}.
10766 If you have a tendency to stop and start gnus often, setting
10767 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{t} is probably a good idea. If
10768 you leave gnus running for weeks on end, you may have it @code{nil}. On
10769 the other hand, saving the list makes startup and shutdown much slower,
10770 so that means that if you stop and start gnus often, you should set
10771 @code{gnus-save-duplicate-list} to @code{nil}. Uhm. I'll leave this up
10772 to you to figure out, I think.
10777 Gnus is able to verify signed messages or decrypt encrypted messages.
10778 The formats that are supported are @acronym{PGP}, @acronym{PGP/MIME}
10779 and @acronym{S/MIME}, however you need some external programs to get
10784 To handle @acronym{PGP} and @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages, you have to
10785 install an OpenPGP implementation such as GnuPG. The Lisp interface
10786 to GnuPG included with Gnus is called PGG (@pxref{Top, ,PGG, pgg, PGG
10787 Manual}), but Mailcrypt and gpg.el are also supported.
10790 To handle @acronym{S/MIME} message, you need to install OpenSSL. OpenSSL 0.9.6
10791 or newer is recommended.
10795 More information on how to set things up can be found in the message
10796 manual (@pxref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}).
10799 @item mm-verify-option
10800 @vindex mm-verify-option
10801 Option of verifying signed parts. @code{never}, not verify;
10802 @code{always}, always verify; @code{known}, only verify known
10803 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10805 @item mm-decrypt-option
10806 @vindex mm-decrypt-option
10807 Option of decrypting encrypted parts. @code{never}, no decryption;
10808 @code{always}, always decrypt; @code{known}, only decrypt known
10809 protocols. Otherwise, ask user.
10812 @vindex mml1991-use
10813 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
10814 @acronym{PGP} messages. The default is @code{pgg}, but
10815 @code{mailcrypt} and @code{gpg} are also supported although
10819 @vindex mml2015-use
10820 Symbol indicating elisp interface to OpenPGP implementation for
10821 @acronym{PGP/MIME} messages. The default is @code{pgg}, but
10822 @code{mailcrypt} and @code{gpg} are also supported although
10827 @cindex snarfing keys
10828 @cindex importing PGP keys
10829 @cindex PGP key ring import
10830 Snarfing OpenPGP keys (i.e., importing keys from articles into your
10831 key ring) is not supported explicitly through a menu item or command,
10832 rather Gnus do detect and label keys as @samp{application/pgp-keys},
10833 allowing you to specify whatever action you think is appropriate
10834 through the usual @acronym{MIME} infrastructure. You can use a
10835 @file{~/.mailcap} entry (@pxref{mailcap, , mailcap, emacs-mime, The
10836 Emacs MIME Manual}) such as the following to import keys using GNU
10837 Privacy Guard when you click on the @acronym{MIME} button
10838 (@pxref{Using MIME}).
10841 application/pgp-keys; gpg --import --interactive --verbose; needsterminal
10844 This happens to also be the default action defined in
10845 @code{mailcap-mime-data}.
10848 @section Mailing List
10849 @cindex mailing list
10852 @kindex A M (summary)
10853 @findex gnus-mailing-list-insinuate
10854 Gnus understands some mailing list fields of RFC 2369. To enable it,
10855 add a @code{to-list} group parameter (@pxref{Group Parameters}),
10856 possibly using @kbd{A M} (@code{gnus-mailing-list-insinuate}) in the
10859 That enables the following commands to the summary buffer:
10864 @kindex C-c C-n h (Summary)
10865 @findex gnus-mailing-list-help
10866 Send a message to fetch mailing list help, if List-Help field exists.
10869 @kindex C-c C-n s (Summary)
10870 @findex gnus-mailing-list-subscribe
10871 Send a message to subscribe the mailing list, if List-Subscribe field exists.
10874 @kindex C-c C-n u (Summary)
10875 @findex gnus-mailing-list-unsubscribe
10876 Send a message to unsubscribe the mailing list, if List-Unsubscribe
10880 @kindex C-c C-n p (Summary)
10881 @findex gnus-mailing-list-post
10882 Post to the mailing list, if List-Post field exists.
10885 @kindex C-c C-n o (Summary)
10886 @findex gnus-mailing-list-owner
10887 Send a message to the mailing list owner, if List-Owner field exists.
10890 @kindex C-c C-n a (Summary)
10891 @findex gnus-mailing-list-archive
10892 Browse the mailing list archive, if List-Archive field exists.
10897 @node Article Buffer
10898 @chapter Article Buffer
10899 @cindex article buffer
10901 The articles are displayed in the article buffer, of which there is only
10902 one. All the summary buffers share the same article buffer unless you
10903 tell gnus otherwise.
10906 * Hiding Headers:: Deciding what headers should be displayed.
10907 * Using MIME:: Pushing articles through @acronym{MIME} before reading them.
10908 * Customizing Articles:: Tailoring the look of the articles.
10909 * Article Keymap:: Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
10910 * Misc Article:: Other stuff.
10914 @node Hiding Headers
10915 @section Hiding Headers
10916 @cindex hiding headers
10917 @cindex deleting headers
10919 The top section of each article is the @dfn{head}. (The rest is the
10920 @dfn{body}, but you may have guessed that already.)
10922 @vindex gnus-show-all-headers
10923 There is a lot of useful information in the head: the name of the person
10924 who wrote the article, the date it was written and the subject of the
10925 article. That's well and nice, but there's also lots of information
10926 most people do not want to see---what systems the article has passed
10927 through before reaching you, the @code{Message-ID}, the
10928 @code{References}, etc. ad nauseam---and you'll probably want to get rid
10929 of some of those lines. If you want to keep all those lines in the
10930 article buffer, you can set @code{gnus-show-all-headers} to @code{t}.
10932 Gnus provides you with two variables for sifting headers:
10936 @item gnus-visible-headers
10937 @vindex gnus-visible-headers
10938 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a regular expression
10939 that says what headers you wish to keep in the article buffer. All
10940 headers that do not match this variable will be hidden.
10942 For instance, if you only want to see the name of the person who wrote
10943 the article and the subject, you'd say:
10946 (setq gnus-visible-headers "^From:\\|^Subject:")
10949 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
10952 @item gnus-ignored-headers
10953 @vindex gnus-ignored-headers
10954 This variable is the reverse of @code{gnus-visible-headers}. If this
10955 variable is set (and @code{gnus-visible-headers} is @code{nil}), it
10956 should be a regular expression that matches all lines that you want to
10957 hide. All lines that do not match this variable will remain visible.
10959 For instance, if you just want to get rid of the @code{References} field
10960 and the @code{Xref} field, you might say:
10963 (setq gnus-ignored-headers "^References:\\|^Xref:")
10966 This variable can also be a list of regexps to match headers to
10969 Note that if @code{gnus-visible-headers} is non-@code{nil}, this
10970 variable will have no effect.
10974 @vindex gnus-sorted-header-list
10975 Gnus can also sort the headers for you. (It does this by default.) You
10976 can control the sorting by setting the @code{gnus-sorted-header-list}
10977 variable. It is a list of regular expressions that says in what order
10978 the headers are to be displayed.
10980 For instance, if you want the name of the author of the article first,
10981 and then the subject, you might say something like:
10984 (setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Subject:"))
10987 Any headers that are to remain visible, but are not listed in this
10988 variable, will be displayed in random order after all the headers listed in this variable.
10990 @findex gnus-article-hide-boring-headers
10991 @vindex gnus-boring-article-headers
10992 You can hide further boring headers by setting
10993 @code{gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers} to @code{head}. What this function
10994 does depends on the @code{gnus-boring-article-headers} variable. It's a
10995 list, but this list doesn't actually contain header names. Instead it
10996 lists various @dfn{boring conditions} that Gnus can check and remove
10999 These conditions are:
11002 Remove all empty headers.
11004 Remove the @code{Followup-To} header if it is identical to the
11005 @code{Newsgroups} header.
11007 Remove the @code{Reply-To} header if it lists the same addresses as
11008 the @code{From} header, or if the @code{broken-reply-to} group
11011 Remove the @code{Newsgroups} header if it only contains the current group
11014 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
11015 the current group's @code{to-address} parameter.
11017 Remove the @code{To} header if it only contains the address identical to
11018 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
11020 Remove the @code{CC} header if it only contains the address identical to
11021 the current group's @code{to-list} parameter.
11023 Remove the @code{Date} header if the article is less than three days
11026 Remove the @code{To} header if it is very long.
11028 Remove all @code{To} headers if there are more than one.
11031 To include these three elements, you could say something like:
11034 (setq gnus-boring-article-headers
11035 '(empty followup-to reply-to))
11038 This is also the default value for this variable.
11042 @section Using MIME
11043 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
11045 Mime is a standard for waving your hands through the air, aimlessly,
11046 while people stand around yawning.
11048 @acronym{MIME}, however, is a standard for encoding your articles, aimlessly,
11049 while all newsreaders die of fear.
11051 @acronym{MIME} may specify what character set the article uses, the encoding
11052 of the characters, and it also makes it possible to embed pictures and
11053 other naughty stuff in innocent-looking articles.
11055 @vindex gnus-show-mime
11056 @vindex gnus-article-display-method-for-mime
11057 @findex gnus-article-display-mime-message
11058 gnus handles @acronym{MIME} by pushing the articles through
11059 @code{gnus-article-display-method-for-mime}, which is
11060 @code{gnus-article-display-mime-message} by default. This function
11061 calls the @acronym{SEMI} MIME-View program to actually do the work. For
11062 more information on @acronym{SEMI} MIME-View, see its manual page
11063 (however it is not existed yet, sorry).
11065 Set @code{gnus-show-mime} to @code{t} if you want to use
11066 @acronym{MIME} all the time. If you have @code{gnus-show-mime} set,
11067 then you'll see some unfortunate display glitches in the article buffer.
11068 These can't be avoided.
11070 In GNUS or Gnus, it might be best to just use the toggling functions
11071 from the summary buffer to avoid getting nasty surprises. (For instance,
11072 you enter the group @samp{alt.sing-a-long} and, before you know it,
11073 @acronym{MIME} has decoded the sound file in the article and some
11074 horrible sing-a-long song comes screaming out your speakers, and you
11075 can't find the volume button, because there isn't one, and people are
11076 starting to look at you, and you try to stop the program, but you can't,
11077 and you can't find the program to control the volume, and everybody else
11078 in the room suddenly decides to look at you disdainfully, and you'll
11079 feel rather stupid.)
11081 Any similarity to real events and people is purely coincidental. Ahem.
11083 To avoid such kind of situation, gnus stops to use
11084 @code{metamail-buffer}. So now, you can set @code{gnus-show-mime} to
11085 non-@code{nil} every-time, then you can push button in the article
11086 buffer when there are nobody else.
11088 Also @pxref{MIME Commands}.
11091 @node Customizing Articles
11092 @section Customizing Articles
11093 @cindex article customization
11095 A slew of functions for customizing how the articles are to look like
11096 exist. You can call these functions interactively
11097 (@pxref{Article Washing}), or you can have them
11098 called automatically when you select the articles.
11100 To have them called automatically, you should set the corresponding
11101 ``treatment'' variable. For instance, to have headers hidden, you'd set
11102 @code{gnus-treat-hide-headers}. Below is a list of variables that can
11103 be set, but first we discuss the values these variables can have.
11105 Note: Some values, while valid, make little sense. Check the list below
11106 for sensible values.
11110 @code{nil}: Don't do this treatment.
11113 @code{t}: Do this treatment on all body parts.
11116 @code{head}: Do the treatment on the headers.
11119 @code{first}: Do this treatment on the first body part.
11122 @code{last}: Do this treatment on the last body part.
11125 An integer: Do this treatment on all body parts that have a length less
11129 A list of strings: Do this treatment on all body parts that are in
11130 articles that are read in groups that have names that match one of the
11131 regexps in the list.
11134 A list where the first element is not a string:
11136 The list is evaluated recursively. The first element of the list is a
11137 predicate. The following predicates are recognized: @code{or},
11138 @code{and}, @code{not} and @code{typep}. Here's an example:
11142 (typep "text/x-vcard"))
11146 @code{mime}: Do this treatment if the value of @code{gnus-show-mime}' is
11151 You may have noticed that the word @dfn{part} is used here. This refers
11152 to the fact that some messages are @acronym{MIME} multipart articles that may
11153 be divided into several parts. Articles that are not multiparts are
11154 considered to contain just a single part.
11156 @vindex gnus-article-treat-types
11157 Are the treatments applied to all sorts of multipart parts? Yes, if you
11158 want to, but by default, only @samp{text/plain} parts are given the
11159 treatment. This is controlled by the @code{gnus-article-treat-types}
11160 variable, which is a list of regular expressions that are matched to the
11161 type of the part. This variable is ignored if the value of the
11162 controlling variable is a predicate list, as described above.
11164 The following treatment options are available. The easiest way to
11165 customize this is to examine the @code{gnus-article-treat} customization
11166 group. Values in parenthesis are suggested sensible values. Others are
11167 possible but those listed are probably sufficient for most people.
11170 @item gnus-treat-buttonize (t, integer)
11171 @item gnus-treat-buttonize-head (head)
11173 @xref{Article Buttons}.
11175 @item gnus-treat-capitalize-sentences (t, integer)
11176 @item gnus-treat-overstrike (t, integer)
11177 @item gnus-treat-strip-cr (t, integer)
11178 @item gnus-treat-strip-headers-in-body (t, integer)
11179 @item gnus-treat-strip-leading-blank-lines (t, first, integer)
11180 @item gnus-treat-strip-multiple-blank-lines (t, integer)
11181 @item gnus-treat-strip-pem (t, last, integer)
11182 @item gnus-treat-strip-trailing-blank-lines (t, last, integer)
11183 @item gnus-treat-unsplit-urls (t, integer)
11184 @item gnus-treat-wash-html (t, integer)
11185 @item gnus-treat-decode-article-as-default-mime-charset (t, integer)
11187 @xref{Article Washing}.
11189 @item gnus-treat-date-english (head)
11190 @item gnus-treat-date-iso8601 (head)
11191 @item gnus-treat-date-lapsed (head)
11192 @item gnus-treat-date-local (head)
11193 @item gnus-treat-date-original (head)
11194 @item gnus-treat-date-user-defined (head)
11195 @item gnus-treat-date-ut (head)
11197 @xref{Article Date}.
11199 @item gnus-treat-from-picon (head)
11200 @item gnus-treat-mail-picon (head)
11201 @item gnus-treat-newsgroups-picon (head)
11205 @item gnus-treat-display-smileys (t, integer)
11207 @item gnus-treat-body-boundary (head)
11209 @vindex gnus-body-boundary-delimiter
11210 Adds a delimiter between header and body, the string used as delimiter
11211 is controlled by @code{gnus-body-boundary-delimiter}.
11215 @item gnus-treat-display-x-face (head)
11219 @item gnus-treat-display-face (head)
11223 @item gnus-treat-emphasize (t, head, integer)
11224 @item gnus-treat-fill-article (t, integer)
11225 @item gnus-treat-fill-long-lines (t, integer)
11226 @item gnus-treat-hide-boring-headers (head)
11227 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation (t, integer)
11228 @item gnus-treat-hide-citation-maybe (t, integer)
11229 @item gnus-treat-hide-headers (head)
11230 @item gnus-treat-hide-signature (t, last)
11231 @item gnus-treat-strip-banner (t, last)
11232 @item gnus-treat-strip-list-identifiers (head)
11234 @xref{Article Hiding}.
11236 @item gnus-treat-highlight-citation (t, integer)
11237 @item gnus-treat-highlight-headers (head)
11238 @item gnus-treat-highlight-signature (t, last, integer)
11240 @xref{Article Highlighting}.
11242 @item gnus-treat-play-sounds
11243 @item gnus-treat-translate
11244 @item gnus-treat-ansi-sequences (t)
11245 @item gnus-treat-x-pgp-sig (head)
11247 @item gnus-treat-unfold-headers (head)
11248 @item gnus-treat-fold-headers (head)
11249 @item gnus-treat-fold-newsgroups (head)
11250 @item gnus-treat-leading-whitespace (head)
11252 @xref{Article Header}.
11257 @vindex gnus-part-display-hook
11258 You can, of course, write your own functions to be called from
11259 @code{gnus-part-display-hook}. The functions are called narrowed to the
11260 part, and you can do anything you like, pretty much. There is no
11261 information that you have to keep in the buffer---you can change
11265 @node Article Keymap
11266 @section Article Keymap
11268 Most of the keystrokes in the summary buffer can also be used in the
11269 article buffer. They should behave as if you typed them in the summary
11270 buffer, which means that you don't actually have to have a summary
11271 buffer displayed while reading. You can do it all from the article
11274 A few additional keystrokes are available:
11279 @kindex SPACE (Article)
11280 @findex gnus-article-next-page
11281 Scroll forwards one page (@code{gnus-article-next-page}).
11282 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h SPACE h}.
11285 @kindex DEL (Article)
11286 @findex gnus-article-prev-page
11287 Scroll backwards one page (@code{gnus-article-prev-page}).
11288 This is exactly the same as @kbd{h DEL h}.
11291 @kindex C-c ^ (Article)
11292 @findex gnus-article-refer-article
11293 If point is in the neighborhood of a @code{Message-ID} and you press
11294 @kbd{C-c ^}, Gnus will try to get that article from the server
11295 (@code{gnus-article-refer-article}).
11298 @kindex C-c C-m (Article)
11299 @findex gnus-article-mail
11300 Send a reply to the address near point (@code{gnus-article-mail}). If
11301 given a prefix, include the mail.
11304 @kindex s (Article)
11305 @findex gnus-article-show-summary
11306 Reconfigure the buffers so that the summary buffer becomes visible
11307 (@code{gnus-article-show-summary}).
11310 @kindex ? (Article)
11311 @findex gnus-article-describe-briefly
11312 Give a very brief description of the available keystrokes
11313 (@code{gnus-article-describe-briefly}).
11316 @kindex TAB (Article)
11317 @findex gnus-article-next-button
11318 Go to the next button, if any (@code{gnus-article-next-button}). This
11319 only makes sense if you have buttonizing turned on.
11322 @kindex M-TAB (Article)
11323 @findex gnus-article-prev-button
11324 Go to the previous button, if any (@code{gnus-article-prev-button}).
11327 @kindex R (Article)
11328 @findex gnus-article-reply-with-original
11329 Send a reply to the current article and yank the current article
11330 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}). If given a prefix, make a
11331 wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
11335 @kindex F (Article)
11336 @findex gnus-article-followup-with-original
11337 Send a followup to the current article and yank the current article
11338 (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}). If given a prefix, make
11339 a wide reply. If the region is active, only yank the text in the
11347 @section Misc Article
11351 @item gnus-single-article-buffer
11352 @vindex gnus-single-article-buffer
11353 If non-@code{nil}, use the same article buffer for all the groups.
11354 (This is the default.) If @code{nil}, each group will have its own
11357 @vindex gnus-article-decode-hook
11358 @item gnus-article-decode-hook
11359 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
11360 Hook used to decode @acronym{MIME} articles. The default value is
11361 @code{(article-decode-charset article-decode-encoded-words)}
11363 @vindex gnus-article-prepare-hook
11364 @item gnus-article-prepare-hook
11365 This hook is called right after the article has been inserted into the
11366 article buffer. It is mainly intended for functions that do something
11367 depending on the contents; it should probably not be used for changing
11368 the contents of the article buffer.
11370 @item gnus-article-mode-hook
11371 @vindex gnus-article-mode-hook
11372 Hook called in article mode buffers.
11374 @item gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
11375 @vindex gnus-article-mode-syntax-table
11376 Syntax table used in article buffers. It is initialized from
11377 @code{text-mode-syntax-table}.
11379 @vindex gnus-article-over-scroll
11380 @item gnus-article-over-scroll
11381 If non-@code{nil}, allow scrolling the article buffer even when there
11382 no more new text to scroll in. The default is @code{nil}.
11384 @vindex gnus-article-mode-line-format
11385 @item gnus-article-mode-line-format
11386 This variable is a format string along the same lines as
11387 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format} (@pxref{Summary Buffer Mode
11388 Line}). It accepts the same format specifications as that variable,
11389 with two extensions:
11394 The @dfn{wash status} of the article. This is a short string with one
11395 character for each possible article wash operation that may have been
11396 performed. The characters and their meaning:
11401 Displayed when cited text may be hidden in the article buffer.
11404 Displayed when headers are hidden in the article buffer.
11407 Displayed when article is digitally signed or encrypted, and Gnus has
11408 hidden the security headers. (N.B. does not tell anything about
11409 security status, i.e. good or bad signature.)
11412 Displayed when the signature has been hidden in the Article buffer.
11415 Displayed when Gnus has treated overstrike characters in the article buffer.
11418 Displayed when Gnus has treated emphasised strings in the article buffer.
11423 The number of @acronym{MIME} parts in the article.
11427 @vindex gnus-break-pages
11429 @item gnus-break-pages
11430 Controls whether @dfn{page breaking} is to take place. If this variable
11431 is non-@code{nil}, the articles will be divided into pages whenever a
11432 page delimiter appears in the article. If this variable is @code{nil},
11433 paging will not be done.
11435 @item gnus-page-delimiter
11436 @vindex gnus-page-delimiter
11437 This is the delimiter mentioned above. By default, it is @samp{^L}
11441 @cindex internationalized domain names
11442 @vindex gnus-use-idna
11443 @item gnus-use-idna
11444 This variable controls whether Gnus performs IDNA decoding of
11445 internationalized domain names inside @samp{From}, @samp{To} and
11446 @samp{Cc} headers. @xref{IDNA, ,IDNA,message, The Message Manual},
11447 for how to compose such messages. This requires
11448 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/, GNU Libidn}, and this
11449 variable is only enabled if you have installed it.
11454 @node Composing Messages
11455 @chapter Composing Messages
11456 @cindex composing messages
11459 @cindex sending mail
11464 @cindex using s/mime
11465 @cindex using smime
11467 @kindex C-c C-c (Post)
11468 All commands for posting and mailing will put you in a message buffer
11469 where you can edit the article all you like, before you send the
11470 article by pressing @kbd{C-c C-c}. @xref{Top, , Overview, message,
11471 Message Manual}. Where the message will be posted/mailed to depends
11472 on your setup (@pxref{Posting Server}).
11475 * Mail:: Mailing and replying.
11476 * Posting Server:: What server should you post and mail via?
11477 * POP before SMTP:: You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
11478 * Mail and Post:: Mailing and posting at the same time.
11479 * Archived Messages:: Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
11480 * Posting Styles:: An easier way to specify who you are.
11481 * Drafts:: Postponing messages and rejected messages.
11482 * Rejected Articles:: What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
11483 * Signing and encrypting:: How to compose secure messages.
11486 Also @pxref{Canceling and Superseding} for information on how to
11487 remove articles you shouldn't have posted.
11493 Variables for customizing outgoing mail:
11496 @item gnus-uu-digest-headers
11497 @vindex gnus-uu-digest-headers
11498 List of regexps to match headers included in digested messages. The
11499 headers will be included in the sequence they are matched. If
11500 @code{nil} include all headers.
11502 @item gnus-add-to-list
11503 @vindex gnus-add-to-list
11504 If non-@code{nil}, add a @code{to-list} group parameter to mail groups
11505 that have none when you do a @kbd{a}.
11507 @item gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
11508 @vindex gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news
11509 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus will ask you for a confirmation when you are
11510 about to reply to news articles by mail. If it is @code{nil}, nothing
11511 interferes in what you want to do. This can also be a function
11512 receiving the group name as the only parameter which should return
11513 non-@code{nil} if a confirmation is needed, or a regular expression
11514 matching group names, where confirmation should be asked for.
11516 If you find yourself never wanting to reply to mail, but occasionally
11517 press R anyway, this variable might be for you.
11519 @item gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
11520 @vindex gnus-confirm-treat-mail-like-news
11521 If non-@code{nil}, Gnus also requests confirmation according to
11522 @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} when replying to mail. This is
11523 useful for treating mailing lists like newsgroups.
11528 @node Posting Server
11529 @section Posting Server
11531 When you press those magical @kbd{C-c C-c} keys to ship off your latest
11532 (extremely intelligent, of course) article, where does it go?
11534 Thank you for asking. I hate you.
11536 It can be quite complicated.
11538 @vindex gnus-post-method
11539 When posting news, Message usually invokes @code{message-send-news}
11540 (@pxref{News Variables, , News Variables, message, Message Manual}).
11541 Normally, Gnus will post using the same select method as you're
11542 reading from (which might be convenient if you're reading lots of
11543 groups from different private servers). However. If the server
11544 you're reading from doesn't allow posting, just reading, you probably
11545 want to use some other server to post your (extremely intelligent and
11546 fabulously interesting) articles. You can then set the
11547 @code{gnus-post-method} to some other method:
11550 (setq gnus-post-method '(nnspool ""))
11553 Now, if you've done this, and then this server rejects your article, or
11554 this server is down, what do you do then? To override this variable you
11555 can use a non-zero prefix to the @kbd{C-c C-c} command to force using
11556 the ``current'' server, to get back the default behavior, for posting.
11558 If you give a zero prefix (i.e., @kbd{C-u 0 C-c C-c}) to that command,
11559 gnus will prompt you for what method to use for posting.
11561 You can also set @code{gnus-post-method} to a list of select methods.
11562 If that's the case, gnus will always prompt you for what method to use
11565 Finally, if you want to always post using the native select method,
11566 you can set this variable to @code{native}.
11568 When sending mail, Message invokes @code{message-send-mail-function}.
11569 The default function, @code{message-send-mail-with-sendmail}, pipes
11570 your article to the @code{sendmail} binary for further queuing and
11571 sending. When your local system is not configured for sending mail
11572 using @code{sendmail}, and you have access to a remote @acronym{SMTP}
11573 server, you can set @code{message-send-mail-function} to
11574 @code{smtpmail-send-it} and make sure to setup the @code{smtpmail}
11575 package correctly. An example:
11578 (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
11579 smtpmail-default-smtp-server "YOUR SMTP HOST")
11580 ;; @r{The following variable needs to be set if you are using smtpmail.el}
11581 ;; @r{distributed with FLIM, lesser than the version 1.14.6.}
11582 (setq smtp-default-server "YOUR SMTP HOST")
11585 To the thing similar to this, there is
11586 @code{message-smtpmail-send-it}. It is useful if your @acronym{ISP}
11587 requires the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication.
11588 @xref{POP before SMTP}.
11590 Other possible choices for @code{message-send-mail-function} includes
11591 @code{message-send-mail-with-mh}, @code{message-send-mail-with-qmail},
11592 and @code{feedmail-send-it}.
11594 @node POP before SMTP
11595 @section POP before SMTP
11596 @cindex pop before smtp
11597 @findex message-smtpmail-send-it
11598 @findex mail-source-touch-pop
11600 Does your @acronym{ISP} require the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP}
11601 authentication? It is whether you need to connect to the @acronym{POP}
11602 mail server within a certain time before sending mails. If so, there is
11603 a convenient way. To do that, put the following lines in your
11604 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
11607 (setq message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)
11608 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook 'mail-source-touch-pop)
11612 It means to let Gnus connect to the @acronym{POP} mail server in advance
11613 whenever you send a mail. The @code{mail-source-touch-pop} function
11614 does only a @acronym{POP} authentication according to the value of
11615 @code{mail-sources} without fetching mails, just before sending a mail.
11616 Note that you have to use @code{message-smtpmail-send-it} which runs
11617 @code{message-send-mail-hook} rather than @code{smtpmail-send-it} and
11618 set the value of @code{mail-sources} for a @acronym{POP} connection
11619 correctly. @xref{Mail Sources}.
11621 If you have two or more @acronym{POP} mail servers set in
11622 @code{mail-sources}, you may want to specify one of them to
11623 @code{mail-source-primary-source} as the @acronym{POP} mail server to be
11624 used for the @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication. If it
11625 is your primary @acronym{POP} mail server (i.e., you are fetching mails
11626 mainly from that server), you can set it permanently as follows:
11629 (setq mail-source-primary-source
11630 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
11631 :password "secret"))
11635 Otherwise, bind it dynamically only when performing the
11636 @acronym{POP}-before-@acronym{SMTP} authentication as follows:
11639 (add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook
11641 (let ((mail-source-primary-source
11642 '(pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
11643 :password "secret")))
11644 (mail-source-touch-pop))))
11647 @node Mail and Post
11648 @section Mail and Post
11650 Here's a list of variables relevant to both mailing and
11654 @item gnus-mailing-list-groups
11655 @findex gnus-mailing-list-groups
11656 @cindex mailing lists
11658 If your news server offers groups that are really mailing lists
11659 gatewayed to the @acronym{NNTP} server, you can read those groups without
11660 problems, but you can't post/followup to them without some difficulty.
11661 One solution is to add a @code{to-address} to the group parameters
11662 (@pxref{Group Parameters}). An easier thing to do is set the
11663 @code{gnus-mailing-list-groups} to a regexp that matches the groups that
11664 really are mailing lists. Then, at least, followups to the mailing
11665 lists will work most of the time. Posting to these groups (@kbd{a}) is
11666 still a pain, though.
11668 @item gnus-user-agent
11669 @vindex gnus-user-agent
11672 This variable controls which information should be exposed in the
11673 User-Agent header. It can be one of the symbols @code{gnus} (show only
11674 Gnus version), @code{emacs-gnus} (show only Emacs and Gnus versions),
11675 @code{emacs-gnus-config} (same as @code{emacs-gnus} plus system
11676 configuration), @code{emacs-gnus-type} (same as @code{emacs-gnus} plus
11677 system type) or a custom string. If you set it to a string, be sure to
11678 use a valid format, see RFC 2616.
11682 You may want to do spell-checking on messages that you send out. Or, if
11683 you don't want to spell-check by hand, you could add automatic
11684 spell-checking via the @code{ispell} package:
11687 @findex ispell-message
11689 (add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
11692 If you want to change the @code{ispell} dictionary based on what group
11693 you're in, you could say something like the following:
11696 (add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
11700 "^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
11701 (ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch"))
11703 (ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
11706 Modify to suit your needs.
11709 @node Archived Messages
11710 @section Archived Messages
11711 @cindex archived messages
11712 @cindex sent messages
11714 Gnus provides a few different methods for storing the mail and news you
11715 send. The default method is to use the @dfn{archive virtual server} to
11716 store the messages. If you want to disable this completely, the
11717 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable should be @code{nil}, which
11720 For archiving interesting messages in a group you read, see the
11721 @kbd{B c} (@code{gnus-summary-copy-article}) command (@pxref{Mail
11724 @vindex gnus-message-archive-method
11725 @code{gnus-message-archive-method} says what virtual server gnus is to
11726 use to store sent messages. The default is:
11729 (nnfolder "archive"
11730 (nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/archive")
11731 (nnfolder-active-file "~/Mail/archive/active")
11732 (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
11733 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))
11736 You can, however, use any mail select method (@code{nnml},
11737 @code{nnmbox}, etc.). @code{nnfolder} is a quite likable select method
11738 for doing this sort of thing, though. If you don't like the default
11739 directory chosen, you could say something like:
11742 (setq gnus-message-archive-method
11743 '(nnfolder "archive"
11744 (nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t)
11745 (nnfolder-active-file "~/News/sent-mail/active")
11746 (nnfolder-directory "~/News/sent-mail/")))
11749 @vindex gnus-message-archive-group
11751 Gnus will insert @code{Gcc} headers in all outgoing messages that point
11752 to one or more group(s) on that server. Which group to use is
11753 determined by the @code{gnus-message-archive-group} variable.
11755 This variable can be used to do the following:
11759 Messages will be saved in that group.
11761 Note that you can include a select method in the group name, then the
11762 message will not be stored in the select method given by
11763 @code{gnus-message-archive-method}, but in the select method specified
11764 by the group name, instead. Suppose @code{gnus-message-archive-method}
11765 has the default value shown above. Then setting
11766 @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{"foo"} means that outgoing
11767 messages are stored in @samp{nnfolder+archive:foo}, but if you use the
11768 value @code{"nnml:foo"}, then outgoing messages will be stored in
11771 @item a list of strings
11772 Messages will be saved in all those groups.
11774 @item an alist of regexps, functions and forms
11775 When a key ``matches'', the result is used.
11778 No message archiving will take place. This is the default.
11783 Just saving to a single group called @samp{MisK}:
11785 (setq gnus-message-archive-group "MisK")
11788 Saving to two groups, @samp{MisK} and @samp{safe}:
11790 (setq gnus-message-archive-group '("MisK" "safe"))
11793 Save to different groups based on what group you are in:
11795 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11796 '(("^alt" "sent-to-alt")
11797 ("mail" "sent-to-mail")
11798 (".*" "sent-to-misc")))
11801 More complex stuff:
11803 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11804 '((if (message-news-p)
11809 How about storing all news messages in one file, but storing all mail
11810 messages in one file per month:
11813 (setq gnus-message-archive-group
11814 '((if (message-news-p)
11816 (concat "mail." (format-time-string "%Y-%m")))))
11819 @c (XEmacs 19.13 doesn't have @code{format-time-string}, so you'll have to
11820 @c use a different value for @code{gnus-message-archive-group} there.)
11822 Now, when you send a message off, it will be stored in the appropriate
11823 group. (If you want to disable storing for just one particular message,
11824 you can just remove the @code{Gcc} header that has been inserted.) The
11825 archive group will appear in the group buffer the next time you start
11826 gnus, or the next time you press @kbd{F} in the group buffer. You can
11827 enter it and read the articles in it just like you'd read any other
11828 group. If the group gets really big and annoying, you can simply rename
11829 if (using @kbd{G r} in the group buffer) to something
11830 nice---@samp{misc-mail-september-1995}, or whatever. New messages will
11831 continue to be stored in the old (now empty) group.
11833 That's the default method of archiving sent messages. Gnus offers a
11834 different way for the people who don't like the default method. In that
11835 case you should set @code{gnus-message-archive-group} to @code{nil};
11836 this will disable archiving.
11839 @item gnus-outgoing-message-group
11840 @vindex gnus-outgoing-message-group
11841 All outgoing messages will be put in this group. If you want to store
11842 all your outgoing mail and articles in the group @samp{nnml:archive},
11843 you set this variable to that value. This variable can also be a list of
11846 If you want to have greater control over what group to put each
11847 message in, you can set this variable to a function that checks the
11848 current newsgroup name and then returns a suitable group name (or list
11851 This variable can be used instead of @code{gnus-message-archive-group},
11852 but the latter is the preferred method.
11854 @item gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
11855 @vindex gnus-gcc-mark-as-read
11856 If non-@code{nil}, automatically mark @code{Gcc} articles as read.
11858 @item gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
11859 @vindex gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments
11860 If @code{nil}, attach files as normal parts in Gcc copies; if a regexp
11861 and matches the Gcc group name, attach files as external parts; if it is
11862 @code{all}, attach local files as external parts; if it is other
11863 non-@code{nil}, the behavior is the same as @code{all}, but it may be
11864 changed in the future.
11869 @node Posting Styles
11870 @section Posting Styles
11871 @cindex posting styles
11874 All them variables, they make my head swim.
11876 So what if you want a different @code{Organization} and signature based
11877 on what groups you post to? And you post both from your home machine
11878 and your work machine, and you want different @code{From} lines, and so
11881 @vindex gnus-posting-styles
11882 One way to do stuff like that is to write clever hooks that change the
11883 variables you need to have changed. That's a bit boring, so somebody
11884 came up with the bright idea of letting the user specify these things in
11885 a handy alist. Here's an example of a @code{gnus-posting-styles}
11890 (signature "Peace and happiness")
11891 (organization "What me?"))
11893 (signature "Death to everybody"))
11894 ("comp.emacs.i-love-it"
11895 (organization "Emacs is it")))
11898 As you might surmise from this example, this alist consists of several
11899 @dfn{styles}. Each style will be applicable if the first element
11900 ``matches'', in some form or other. The entire alist will be iterated
11901 over, from the beginning towards the end, and each match will be
11902 applied, which means that attributes in later styles that match override
11903 the same attributes in earlier matching styles. So
11904 @samp{comp.programming.literate} will have the @samp{Death to everybody}
11905 signature and the @samp{What me?} @code{Organization} header.
11907 The first element in each style is called the @code{match}. If it's a
11908 string, then Gnus will try to regexp match it against the group name.
11909 If it is the form @code{(header @var{match} @var{regexp})}, then Gnus
11910 will look in the original article for a header whose name is
11911 @var{match} and compare that @var{regexp}. @var{match} and
11912 @var{regexp} are strings. (The original article is the one you are
11913 replying or following up to. If you are not composing a reply or a
11914 followup, then there is nothing to match against.) If the
11915 @code{match} is a function symbol, that function will be called with
11916 no arguments. If it's a variable symbol, then the variable will be
11917 referenced. If it's a list, then that list will be @code{eval}ed. In
11918 any case, if this returns a non-@code{nil} value, then the style is
11919 said to @dfn{match}.
11921 Each style may contain an arbitrary amount of @dfn{attributes}. Each
11922 attribute consists of a @code{(@var{name} @var{value})} pair. In
11923 addition, you can also use the @code{(@var{name} :file @var{value})}
11924 form or the @code{(@var{name} :value @var{value})} form. Where
11925 @code{:file} signifies @var{value} represents a file name and its
11926 contents should be used as the attribute value, @code{:value} signifies
11927 @var{value} does not represent a file name explicitly. The attribute
11928 name can be one of:
11931 @item @code{signature}
11932 @item @code{signature-file}
11933 @item @code{x-face-file}
11934 @item @code{address}, overriding @code{user-mail-address}
11935 @item @code{name}, overriding @code{(user-full-name)}
11939 The attribute name can also be a string or a symbol. In that case,
11940 this will be used as a header name, and the value will be inserted in
11941 the headers of the article; if the value is @code{nil}, the header
11942 name will be removed. If the attribute name is @code{eval}, the form
11943 is evaluated, and the result is thrown away.
11945 The attribute value can be a string (used verbatim), a function with
11946 zero arguments (the return value will be used), a variable (its value
11947 will be used) or a list (it will be @code{eval}ed and the return value
11948 will be used). The functions and sexps are called/@code{eval}ed in the
11949 message buffer that is being set up. The headers of the current article
11950 are available through the @code{message-reply-headers} variable, which
11951 is a vector of the following headers: number subject from date id
11952 references chars lines xref extra.
11954 @vindex message-reply-headers
11956 If you wish to check whether the message you are about to compose is
11957 meant to be a news article or a mail message, you can check the values
11958 of the @code{message-news-p} and @code{message-mail-p} functions.
11960 @findex message-mail-p
11961 @findex message-news-p
11963 So here's a new example:
11966 (setq gnus-posting-styles
11968 (signature-file "~/.signature")
11970 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
11971 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
11973 (signature my-funny-signature-randomizer))
11974 ((equal (system-name) "gnarly") ;; @r{A form}
11975 (signature my-quote-randomizer))
11976 (message-news-p ;; @r{A function symbol}
11977 (signature my-news-signature))
11978 (window-system ;; @r{A value symbol}
11979 ("X-Window-System" (format "%s" window-system)))
11980 ;; @r{If I'm replying to Larsi, set the Organization header.}
11981 ((header "from" "larsi.*org")
11982 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
11983 ((posting-from-work-p) ;; @r{A user defined function}
11984 (signature-file "~/.work-signature")
11985 (address "user@@bar.foo")
11986 (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
11987 (organization "Important Work, Inc"))
11989 (From (save-excursion
11990 (set-buffer gnus-article-buffer)
11991 (message-fetch-field "to"))))
11993 (signature-file "~/.mail-signature"))))
11996 The @samp{nnml:.*} rule means that you use the @code{To} address as the
11997 @code{From} address in all your outgoing replies, which might be handy
11998 if you fill many roles.
12000 Setting the @code{gnus-named-posting-styles} variable will make
12001 posting-styles allow to have distinctive names. You can specify an
12002 arbitrary posting-style when article posting with @kbd{S P} in the
12003 summary buffer. @code{gnus-named-posting-styles} is an alist which maps
12004 the names to styles. Once a posting-style is added to the alist, we can
12005 import it from @code{gnus-posting-styles}. If an attribute whose name
12006 is @code{import} is found, Gnus will look for the attribute value in
12007 @code{gnus-named-posting-styles} and expand it in place.
12012 (setq gnus-named-posting-styles
12014 (signature-file "~/.signature")
12016 ("X-Home-Page" (getenv "WWW_HOME"))
12017 (organization "People's Front Against MWM"))
12020 (organization "The Church of Emacs"))))
12023 The posting-style named "Emacs" will inherit all the attributes from
12024 "Default" except @code{organization}.
12031 If you are writing a message (mail or news) and suddenly remember that
12032 you have a steak in the oven (or some pesto in the food processor, you
12033 craaazy vegetarians), you'll probably wish there was a method to save
12034 the message you are writing so that you can continue editing it some
12035 other day, and send it when you feel its finished.
12037 Well, don't worry about it. Whenever you start composing a message of
12038 some sort using the gnus mail and post commands, the buffer you get will
12039 automatically associate to an article in a special @dfn{draft} group.
12040 If you save the buffer the normal way (@kbd{C-x C-s}, for instance), the
12041 article will be saved there. (Auto-save files also go to the draft
12045 @vindex nndraft-directory
12046 The draft group is a special group (which is implemented as an
12047 @code{nndraft} group, if you absolutely have to know) called
12048 @samp{nndraft:drafts}. The variable @code{nndraft-directory} says where
12049 @code{nndraft} is to store its files. What makes this group special is
12050 that you can't tick any articles in it or mark any articles as
12051 read---all articles in the group are permanently unread.
12053 If the group doesn't exist, it will be created and you'll be subscribed
12054 to it. The only way to make it disappear from the Group buffer is to
12055 unsubscribe it. The special properties of the draft group comes from
12056 a group property (@pxref{Group Parameters}), and if lost the group
12057 behaves like any other group. This means the commands below will not
12058 be available. To restore the special properties of the group, the
12059 simplest way is to kill the group, using @kbd{C-k}, and restart
12060 Gnus. The group is automatically created again with the
12061 correct parameters. The content of the group is not lost.
12063 @c @findex gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft
12064 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Mail)
12065 @c @kindex C-c M-d (Post)
12066 @c @findex gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft
12067 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Mail)
12068 @c @kindex C-c C-d (Post)
12069 @c If you're writing some super-secret message that you later want to
12070 @c encode with PGP before sending, you may wish to turn the auto-saving
12071 @c (and association with the draft group) off. You never know who might be
12072 @c interested in reading all your extremely valuable and terribly horrible
12073 @c and interesting secrets. The @kbd{C-c M-d}
12074 @c (@code{gnus-dissociate-buffer-from-draft}) command does that for you.
12075 @c If you change your mind and want to turn the auto-saving back on again,
12076 @c @kbd{C-c C-d} (@code{gnus-associate-buffer-with-draft} does that.
12078 @c @vindex gnus-use-draft
12079 @c To leave association with the draft group off by default, set
12080 @c @code{gnus-use-draft} to @code{nil}. It is @code{t} by default.
12082 @findex gnus-draft-edit-message
12083 @kindex D e (Draft)
12084 When you want to continue editing the article, you simply enter the
12085 draft group and push @kbd{D e} (@code{gnus-draft-edit-message}) to do
12086 that. You will be placed in a buffer where you left off.
12088 Rejected articles will also be put in this draft group (@pxref{Rejected
12091 @findex gnus-draft-send-all-messages
12092 @kindex D s (Draft)
12093 @findex gnus-draft-send-message
12094 @kindex D S (Draft)
12095 If you have lots of rejected messages you want to post (or mail) without
12096 doing further editing, you can use the @kbd{D s} command
12097 (@code{gnus-draft-send-message}). This command understands the
12098 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}). The @kbd{D S}
12099 command (@code{gnus-draft-send-all-messages}) will ship off all messages
12102 @findex gnus-draft-toggle-sending
12103 @kindex D t (Draft)
12104 If you have some messages that you wish not to send, you can use the
12105 @kbd{D t} (@code{gnus-draft-toggle-sending}) command to mark the message
12106 as unsendable. This is a toggling command.
12109 @node Rejected Articles
12110 @section Rejected Articles
12111 @cindex rejected articles
12113 Sometimes a news server will reject an article. Perhaps the server
12114 doesn't like your face. Perhaps it just feels miserable. Perhaps
12115 @emph{there be demons}. Perhaps you have included too much cited text.
12116 Perhaps the disk is full. Perhaps the server is down.
12118 These situations are, of course, totally beyond the control of gnus.
12119 (Gnus, of course, loves the way you look, always feels great, has angels
12120 fluttering around inside of it, doesn't care about how much cited text
12121 you include, never runs full and never goes down.) So gnus saves these
12122 articles until some later time when the server feels better.
12124 The rejected articles will automatically be put in a special draft group
12125 (@pxref{Drafts}). When the server comes back up again, you'd then
12126 typically enter that group and send all the articles off.
12128 @node Signing and encrypting
12129 @section Signing and encrypting
12131 @cindex using s/mime
12132 @cindex using smime
12134 Gnus can digitally sign and encrypt your messages, using vanilla
12135 @acronym{PGP} format or @acronym{PGP/MIME} or @acronym{S/MIME}. For
12136 decoding such messages, see the @code{mm-verify-option} and
12137 @code{mm-decrypt-option} options (@pxref{Security}).
12139 @vindex gnus-message-replysign
12140 @vindex gnus-message-replyencrypt
12141 @vindex gnus-message-replysignencrypted
12142 Often, you would like to sign replies to people who send you signed
12143 messages. Even more often, you might want to encrypt messages which
12144 are in reply to encrypted messages. Gnus offers
12145 @code{gnus-message-replysign} to enable the former, and
12146 @code{gnus-message-replyencrypt} for the latter. In addition, setting
12147 @code{gnus-message-replysignencrypted} (on by default) will sign
12148 automatically encrypted messages.
12150 Instructing @acronym{MML} to perform security operations on a
12151 @acronym{MIME} part is done using the @kbd{C-c C-m s} key map for
12152 signing and the @kbd{C-c C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
12157 @kindex C-c C-m s s (Message)
12158 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-smime
12160 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
12163 @kindex C-c C-m s o (Message)
12164 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
12166 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP}.
12169 @kindex C-c C-m s p (Message)
12170 @findex mml-secure-message-sign-pgp
12172 Digitally sign current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
12175 @kindex C-c C-m c s (Message)
12176 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-smime
12178 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{S/MIME}.
12181 @kindex C-c C-m c o (Message)
12182 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgp
12184 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP}.
12187 @kindex C-c C-m c p (Message)
12188 @findex mml-secure-message-encrypt-pgpmime
12190 Digitally encrypt current message using @acronym{PGP/MIME}.
12193 @kindex C-c C-m C-n (Message)
12194 @findex mml-unsecure-message
12195 Remove security related @acronym{MML} tags from message.
12199 @xref{Security, ,Security, message, Message Manual}, for more information.
12201 @node Select Methods
12202 @chapter Select Methods
12203 @cindex foreign groups
12204 @cindex select methods
12206 A @dfn{foreign group} is a group not read by the usual (or
12207 default) means. It could be, for instance, a group from a different
12208 @acronym{NNTP} server, it could be a virtual group, or it could be your own
12209 personal mail group.
12211 A foreign group (or any group, really) is specified by a @dfn{name} and
12212 a @dfn{select method}. To take the latter first, a select method is a
12213 list where the first element says what back end to use (e.g. @code{nntp},
12214 @code{nnspool}, @code{nnml}) and the second element is the @dfn{server
12215 name}. There may be additional elements in the select method, where the
12216 value may have special meaning for the back end in question.
12218 One could say that a select method defines a @dfn{virtual server}---so
12219 we do just that (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
12221 The @dfn{name} of the group is the name the back end will recognize the
12224 For instance, the group @samp{soc.motss} on the @acronym{NNTP} server
12225 @samp{some.where.edu} will have the name @samp{soc.motss} and select
12226 method @code{(nntp "some.where.edu")}. Gnus will call this group
12227 @samp{nntp+some.where.edu:soc.motss}, even though the @code{nntp}
12228 back end just knows this group as @samp{soc.motss}.
12230 The different methods all have their peculiarities, of course.
12233 * Server Buffer:: Making and editing virtual servers.
12234 * Getting News:: Reading USENET news with Gnus.
12235 * Getting Mail:: Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
12236 * Browsing the Web:: Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
12237 * IMAP:: Using Gnus as a @acronym{IMAP} client.
12238 * Other Sources:: Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
12239 * Combined Groups:: Combining groups into one group.
12240 * Email Based Diary:: Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
12241 * Gnus Unplugged:: Reading news and mail offline.
12245 @node Server Buffer
12246 @section Server Buffer
12248 Traditionally, a @dfn{server} is a machine or a piece of software that
12249 one connects to, and then requests information from. Gnus does not
12250 connect directly to any real servers, but does all transactions through
12251 one back end or other. But that's just putting one layer more between
12252 the actual media and Gnus, so we might just as well say that each
12253 back end represents a virtual server.
12255 For instance, the @code{nntp} back end may be used to connect to several
12256 different actual @acronym{NNTP} servers, or, perhaps, to many different ports
12257 on the same actual @acronym{NNTP} server. You tell Gnus which back end to
12258 use, and what parameters to set by specifying a @dfn{select method}.
12260 These select method specifications can sometimes become quite
12261 complicated---say, for instance, that you want to read from the
12262 @acronym{NNTP} server @samp{news.funet.fi} on port number 13, which
12263 hangs if queried for @acronym{NOV} headers and has a buggy select. Ahem.
12264 Anyway, if you had to specify that for each group that used this
12265 server, that would be too much work, so Gnus offers a way of naming
12266 select methods, which is what you do in the server buffer.
12268 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
12269 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
12272 * Server Buffer Format:: You can customize the look of this buffer.
12273 * Server Commands:: Commands to manipulate servers.
12274 * Example Methods:: Examples server specifications.
12275 * Creating a Virtual Server:: An example session.
12276 * Server Variables:: Which variables to set.
12277 * Servers and Methods:: You can use server names as select methods.
12278 * Unavailable Servers:: Some servers you try to contact may be down.
12281 @vindex gnus-server-mode-hook
12282 @code{gnus-server-mode-hook} is run when creating the server buffer.
12285 @node Server Buffer Format
12286 @subsection Server Buffer Format
12287 @cindex server buffer format
12289 @vindex gnus-server-line-format
12290 You can change the look of the server buffer lines by changing the
12291 @code{gnus-server-line-format} variable. This is a @code{format}-like
12292 variable, with some simple extensions:
12297 How the news is fetched---the back end name.
12300 The name of this server.
12303 Where the news is to be fetched from---the address.
12306 The opened/closed/denied status of the server.
12309 Whether this server is agentized.
12312 @vindex gnus-server-mode-line-format
12313 The mode line can also be customized by using the
12314 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format} variable (@pxref{Mode Line
12315 Formatting}). The following specs are understood:
12325 Also @pxref{Formatting Variables}.
12328 @node Server Commands
12329 @subsection Server Commands
12330 @cindex server commands
12336 @findex gnus-server-add-server
12337 Add a new server (@code{gnus-server-add-server}).
12341 @findex gnus-server-edit-server
12342 Edit a server (@code{gnus-server-edit-server}).
12345 @kindex SPACE (Server)
12346 @findex gnus-server-read-server
12347 Browse the current server (@code{gnus-server-read-server}).
12351 @findex gnus-server-exit
12352 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-server-exit}).
12356 @findex gnus-server-kill-server
12357 Kill the current server (@code{gnus-server-kill-server}).
12361 @findex gnus-server-yank-server
12362 Yank the previously killed server (@code{gnus-server-yank-server}).
12366 @findex gnus-server-copy-server
12367 Copy the current server (@code{gnus-server-copy-server}).
12371 @findex gnus-server-list-servers
12372 List all servers (@code{gnus-server-list-servers}).
12376 @findex gnus-server-scan-server
12377 Request that the server scan its sources for new articles
12378 (@code{gnus-server-scan-server}). This is mainly sensible with mail
12383 @findex gnus-server-regenerate-server
12384 Request that the server regenerate all its data structures
12385 (@code{gnus-server-regenerate-server}). This can be useful if you have
12386 a mail back end that has gotten out of sync.
12391 @node Example Methods
12392 @subsection Example Methods
12394 Most select methods are pretty simple and self-explanatory:
12397 (nntp "news.funet.fi")
12400 Reading directly from the spool is even simpler:
12406 As you can see, the first element in a select method is the name of the
12407 back end, and the second is the @dfn{address}, or @dfn{name}, if you
12410 After these two elements, there may be an arbitrary number of
12411 @code{(@var{variable} @var{form})} pairs.
12413 To go back to the first example---imagine that you want to read from
12414 port 15 on that machine. This is what the select method should
12418 (nntp "news.funet.fi" (nntp-port-number 15))
12421 You should read the documentation to each back end to find out what
12422 variables are relevant, but here's an @code{nnmh} example:
12424 @code{nnmh} is a mail back end that reads a spool-like structure. Say
12425 you have two structures that you wish to access: One is your private
12426 mail spool, and the other is a public one. Here's the possible spec for
12430 (nnmh "private" (nnmh-directory "~/private/mail/"))
12433 (This server is then called @samp{private}, but you may have guessed
12436 Here's the method for a public spool:
12440 (nnmh-directory "/usr/information/spool/")
12441 (nnmh-get-new-mail nil))
12447 If you are behind a firewall and only have access to the @acronym{NNTP}
12448 server from the firewall machine, you can instruct Gnus to @code{rlogin}
12449 on the firewall machine and telnet from there to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
12450 Doing this can be rather fiddly, but your virtual server definition
12451 should probably look something like this:
12455 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet)
12456 (nntp-via-address "the.firewall.machine")
12457 (nntp-address "the.real.nntp.host")
12458 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
12461 If you want to use the wonderful @code{ssh} program to provide a
12462 compressed connection over the modem line, you could add the following
12463 configuration to the example above:
12466 (nntp-via-rlogin-command "ssh")
12469 See also @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches}.
12471 If you're behind a firewall, but have direct access to the outside world
12472 through a wrapper command like "runsocks", you could open a socksified
12473 telnet connection to the news server as follows:
12477 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
12478 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-via-telnet)
12479 (nntp-address "the.news.server")
12480 (nntp-end-of-line "\n"))
12483 This means that you have to have set up @code{ssh-agent} correctly to
12484 provide automatic authorization, of course. And to get a compressed
12485 connection, you have to have the @samp{Compression} option in the
12486 @code{ssh} @file{config} file.
12489 @node Creating a Virtual Server
12490 @subsection Creating a Virtual Server
12492 If you're saving lots of articles in the cache by using persistent
12493 articles, you may want to create a virtual server to read the cache.
12495 First you need to add a new server. The @kbd{a} command does that. It
12496 would probably be best to use @code{nnml} to read the cache. You
12497 could also use @code{nnspool} or @code{nnmh}, though.
12499 Type @kbd{a nnml RET cache RET}.
12501 You should now have a brand new @code{nnml} virtual server called
12502 @samp{cache}. You now need to edit it to have the right definitions.
12503 Type @kbd{e} to edit the server. You'll be entered into a buffer that
12504 will contain the following:
12514 (nnml-directory "~/News/cache/")
12515 (nnml-active-file "~/News/cache/active"))
12518 Type @kbd{C-c C-c} to return to the server buffer. If you now press
12519 @kbd{RET} over this virtual server, you should be entered into a browse
12520 buffer, and you should be able to enter any of the groups displayed.
12523 @node Server Variables
12524 @subsection Server Variables
12525 @cindex server variables
12526 @cindex server parameters
12528 One sticky point when defining variables (both on back ends and in Emacs
12529 in general) is that some variables are typically initialized from other
12530 variables when the definition of the variables is being loaded. If you
12531 change the ``base'' variable after the variables have been loaded, you
12532 won't change the ``derived'' variables.
12534 This typically affects directory and file variables. For instance,
12535 @code{nnml-directory} is @file{~/Mail/} by default, and all @code{nnml}
12536 directory variables are initialized from that variable, so
12537 @code{nnml-active-file} will be @file{~/Mail/active}. If you define a
12538 new virtual @code{nnml} server, it will @emph{not} suffice to set just
12539 @code{nnml-directory}---you have to explicitly set all the file
12540 variables to be what you want them to be. For a complete list of
12541 variables for each back end, see each back end's section later in this
12542 manual, but here's an example @code{nnml} definition:
12546 (nnml-directory "~/my-mail/")
12547 (nnml-active-file "~/my-mail/active")
12548 (nnml-newsgroups-file "~/my-mail/newsgroups"))
12551 Server variables are often called @dfn{server parameters}.
12553 @node Servers and Methods
12554 @subsection Servers and Methods
12556 Wherever you would normally use a select method
12557 (e.g. @code{gnus-secondary-select-method}, in the group select method,
12558 when browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
12559 instead. This could potentially save lots of typing. And it's nice all
12563 @node Unavailable Servers
12564 @subsection Unavailable Servers
12566 If a server seems to be unreachable, Gnus will mark that server as
12567 @code{denied}. That means that any subsequent attempt to make contact
12568 with that server will just be ignored. ``It can't be opened,'' Gnus
12569 will tell you, without making the least effort to see whether that is
12570 actually the case or not.
12572 That might seem quite naughty, but it does make sense most of the time.
12573 Let's say you have 10 groups subscribed to on server
12574 @samp{nephelococcygia.com}. This server is located somewhere quite far
12575 away from you and the machine is quite slow, so it takes 1 minute just
12576 to find out that it refuses connection to you today. If Gnus were to
12577 attempt to do that 10 times, you'd be quite annoyed, so Gnus won't
12578 attempt to do that. Once it has gotten a single ``connection refused'',
12579 it will regard that server as ``down''.
12581 So, what happens if the machine was only feeling unwell temporarily?
12582 How do you test to see whether the machine has come up again?
12584 You jump to the server buffer (@pxref{Server Buffer}) and poke it
12585 with the following commands:
12591 @findex gnus-server-open-server
12592 Try to establish connection to the server on the current line
12593 (@code{gnus-server-open-server}).
12597 @findex gnus-server-close-server
12598 Close the connection (if any) to the server
12599 (@code{gnus-server-close-server}).
12603 @findex gnus-server-deny-server
12604 Mark the current server as unreachable
12605 (@code{gnus-server-deny-server}).
12608 @kindex M-o (Server)
12609 @findex gnus-server-open-all-servers
12610 Open the connections to all servers in the buffer
12611 (@code{gnus-server-open-all-servers}).
12614 @kindex M-c (Server)
12615 @findex gnus-server-close-all-servers
12616 Close the connections to all servers in the buffer
12617 (@code{gnus-server-close-all-servers}).
12621 @findex gnus-server-remove-denials
12622 Remove all marks to whether Gnus was denied connection from any servers
12623 (@code{gnus-server-remove-denials}).
12627 @findex gnus-server-offline-server
12628 Set server status to offline (@code{gnus-server-offline-server}).
12634 @section Getting News
12635 @cindex reading news
12636 @cindex news back ends
12638 A newsreader is normally used for reading news. Gnus currently provides
12639 only two methods of getting news---it can read from an @acronym{NNTP} server,
12640 or it can read from a local spool.
12643 * NNTP:: Reading news from an @acronym{NNTP} server.
12644 * News Spool:: Reading news from the local spool.
12652 Subscribing to a foreign group from an @acronym{NNTP} server is rather easy.
12653 You just specify @code{nntp} as method and the address of the @acronym{NNTP}
12654 server as the, uhm, address.
12656 If the @acronym{NNTP} server is located at a non-standard port, setting the
12657 third element of the select method to this port number should allow you
12658 to connect to the right port. You'll have to edit the group info for
12659 that (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
12661 The name of the foreign group can be the same as a native group. In
12662 fact, you can subscribe to the same group from as many different servers
12663 you feel like. There will be no name collisions.
12665 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nntp}
12670 @item nntp-server-opened-hook
12671 @vindex nntp-server-opened-hook
12672 @cindex @sc{mode reader}
12674 @cindex authentification
12675 @cindex nntp authentification
12676 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
12677 @findex nntp-send-mode-reader
12678 is run after a connection has been made. It can be used to send
12679 commands to the @acronym{NNTP} server after it has been contacted. By
12680 default it sends the command @code{MODE READER} to the server with the
12681 @code{nntp-send-mode-reader} function. This function should always be
12682 present in this hook.
12684 @item nntp-authinfo-function
12685 @vindex nntp-authinfo-function
12686 @findex nntp-send-authinfo
12687 @vindex nntp-authinfo-file
12688 This function will be used to send @samp{AUTHINFO} to the @acronym{NNTP}
12689 server. The default function is @code{nntp-send-authinfo}, which looks
12690 through your @file{~/.authinfo} (or whatever you've set the
12691 @code{nntp-authinfo-file} variable to) for applicable entries. If none
12692 are found, it will prompt you for a login name and a password. The
12693 format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is (almost) the same as the
12694 @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file, which is defined in the @code{ftp}
12695 manual page, but here are the salient facts:
12699 The file contains one or more line, each of which define one server.
12702 Each line may contain an arbitrary number of token/value pairs.
12704 The valid tokens include @samp{machine}, @samp{login}, @samp{password},
12705 @samp{default}. In addition Gnus introduces two new tokens, not present
12706 in the original @file{.netrc}/@code{ftp} syntax, namely @samp{port} and
12707 @samp{force}. (This is the only way the @file{.authinfo} file format
12708 deviates from the @file{.netrc} file format.) @samp{port} is used to
12709 indicate what port on the server the credentials apply to and
12710 @samp{force} is explained below.
12714 Here's an example file:
12717 machine news.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis
12718 machine nntp.ifi.uio.no login larsi force yes
12721 The token/value pairs may appear in any order; @samp{machine} doesn't
12722 have to be first, for instance.
12724 In this example, both login name and password have been supplied for the
12725 former server, while the latter has only the login name listed, and the
12726 user will be prompted for the password. The latter also has the
12727 @samp{force} tag, which means that the authinfo will be sent to the
12728 @var{nntp} server upon connection; the default (i.e., when there is not
12729 @samp{force} tag) is to not send authinfo to the @var{nntp} server
12730 until the @var{nntp} server asks for it.
12732 You can also add @samp{default} lines that will apply to all servers
12733 that don't have matching @samp{machine} lines.
12739 This will force sending @samp{AUTHINFO} commands to all servers not
12740 previously mentioned.
12742 Remember to not leave the @file{~/.authinfo} file world-readable.
12744 @item nntp-server-action-alist
12745 @vindex nntp-server-action-alist
12746 This is a list of regexps to match on server types and actions to be
12747 taken when matches are made. For instance, if you want Gnus to beep
12748 every time you connect to innd, you could say something like:
12751 (setq nntp-server-action-alist
12752 '(("innd" (ding))))
12755 You probably don't want to do that, though.
12757 The default value is
12760 '(("nntpd 1\\.5\\.11t"
12761 (remove-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook
12762 'nntp-send-mode-reader)))
12765 This ensures that Gnus doesn't send the @code{MODE READER} command to
12766 nntpd 1.5.11t, since that command chokes that server, I've been told.
12768 @item nntp-maximum-request
12769 @vindex nntp-maximum-request
12770 If the @acronym{NNTP} server doesn't support @acronym{NOV} headers, this back end
12771 will collect headers by sending a series of @code{head} commands. To
12772 speed things up, the back end sends lots of these commands without
12773 waiting for reply, and then reads all the replies. This is controlled
12774 by the @code{nntp-maximum-request} variable, and is 400 by default. If
12775 your network is buggy, you should set this to 1.
12777 @item nntp-connection-timeout
12778 @vindex nntp-connection-timeout
12779 If you have lots of foreign @code{nntp} groups that you connect to
12780 regularly, you're sure to have problems with @acronym{NNTP} servers not
12781 responding properly, or being too loaded to reply within reasonable
12782 time. This is can lead to awkward problems, which can be helped
12783 somewhat by setting @code{nntp-connection-timeout}. This is an integer
12784 that says how many seconds the @code{nntp} back end should wait for a
12785 connection before giving up. If it is @code{nil}, which is the default,
12786 no timeouts are done.
12788 @item nntp-nov-is-evil
12789 @vindex nntp-nov-is-evil
12790 If the @acronym{NNTP} server does not support @acronym{NOV}, you could set this
12791 variable to @code{t}, but @code{nntp} usually checks automatically whether @acronym{NOV}
12794 @item nntp-xover-commands
12795 @vindex nntp-xover-commands
12796 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
12798 List of strings used as commands to fetch @acronym{NOV} lines from a
12799 server. The default value of this variable is @code{("XOVER"
12803 @vindex nntp-nov-gap
12804 @code{nntp} normally sends just one big request for @acronym{NOV} lines to
12805 the server. The server responds with one huge list of lines. However,
12806 if you have read articles 2-5000 in the group, and only want to read
12807 article 1 and 5001, that means that @code{nntp} will fetch 4999 @acronym{NOV}
12808 lines that you will not need. This variable says how
12809 big a gap between two consecutive articles is allowed to be before the
12810 @code{XOVER} request is split into several request. Note that if your
12811 network is fast, setting this variable to a really small number means
12812 that fetching will probably be slower. If this variable is @code{nil},
12813 @code{nntp} will never split requests. The default is 5.
12815 @item nntp-prepare-server-hook
12816 @vindex nntp-prepare-server-hook
12817 A hook run before attempting to connect to an @acronym{NNTP} server.
12819 @item nntp-record-commands
12820 @vindex nntp-record-commands
12821 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nntp} will log all commands it sends to the
12822 @acronym{NNTP} server (along with a timestamp) in the @samp{*nntp-log*}
12823 buffer. This is useful if you are debugging a Gnus/@acronym{NNTP} connection
12824 that doesn't seem to work.
12826 @item nntp-open-connection-function
12827 @vindex nntp-open-connection-function
12828 It is possible to customize how the connection to the nntp server will
12829 be opened. If you specify an @code{nntp-open-connection-function}
12830 parameter, Gnus will use that function to establish the connection.
12831 Seven pre-made functions are supplied. These functions can be grouped
12832 in two categories: direct connection functions (four pre-made), and
12833 indirect ones (three pre-made).
12835 @item nntp-prepare-post-hook
12836 @vindex nntp-prepare-post-hook
12837 A hook run just before posting an article. If there is no
12838 @code{Message-ID} header in the article and the news server provides the
12839 recommended ID, it will be added to the article before running this
12840 hook. It is useful to make @code{Cancel-Lock} headers even if you
12841 inhibit Gnus to add a @code{Message-ID} header, you could say:
12844 (add-hook 'nntp-prepare-post-hook 'canlock-insert-header)
12847 Note that not all servers support the recommended ID. This works for
12848 INN versions 2.3.0 and later, for instance.
12850 @item nntp-list-options
12851 @vindex nntp-list-options
12852 List of newsgroup name used for a option of the LIST command to restrict
12853 the listing output to only the specified newsgroups. Each newsgroup name
12854 can be a shell-style wildcard, for instance, @dfn{fj.*}, @dfn{japan.*},
12855 etc. Fortunately, if the server can accept such a option, it will
12856 probably make gnus run faster. You may use it as a server variable as
12860 (setq gnus-select-method
12861 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
12862 (nntp-list-options ("fj.*" "japan.*"))))
12865 @item nntp-options-subscribe
12866 @vindex nntp-options-subscribe
12867 Regexp matching the newsgroup names which will be subscribed
12868 unconditionally. Use @dfn{ } instead of @dfn{$} for a regexp string.
12869 It may be effective as well as @code{nntp-list-options} even though the
12870 server could not accept a shell-style wildcard as a option of the LIST
12871 command. You may use it as a server variable as follows:
12874 (setq gnus-select-method
12875 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
12876 (nntp-options-subscribe "^fj\\.\\|^japan\\.")))
12879 @item nntp-options-not-subscribe
12880 @vindex nntp-options-not-subscribe
12881 Regexp matching the newsgroup names which will not be subscribed
12882 unconditionally. Use @dfn{ } instead of @dfn{$} for a regexp string.
12883 It may be effective as well as @code{nntp-list-options} even though the
12884 server could not accept a shell-style wildcard as a option of the LIST
12885 command. You may use it as a server variable as follows:
12888 (setq gnus-select-method
12889 '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"
12890 (nntp-options-not-subscribe "\\.binaries\\.")))
12895 * Direct Functions:: Connecting directly to the server.
12896 * Indirect Functions:: Connecting indirectly to the server.
12897 * Common Variables:: Understood by several connection functions.
12898 * NNTP marks:: Storing marks for @acronym{NNTP} servers.
12902 @node Direct Functions
12903 @subsubsection Direct Functions
12904 @cindex direct connection functions
12906 These functions are called direct because they open a direct connection
12907 between your machine and the @acronym{NNTP} server. The behavior of these
12908 functions is also affected by commonly understood variables
12909 (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12912 @findex nntp-open-network-stream
12913 @item nntp-open-network-stream
12914 This is the default, and simply connects to some port or other on the
12917 @findex nntp-open-tls-stream
12918 @item nntp-open-tls-stream
12919 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
12920 this you must have @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/, GNUTLS}
12921 installed. You then define a server as follows:
12924 ;; @r{"nntps" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
12925 ;; @r{however, @samp{gnutls-cli -p} doesn't like named ports.}
12927 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
12928 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-tls-stream)
12929 (nntp-port-number )
12930 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
12933 @findex nntp-open-ssl-stream
12934 @item nntp-open-ssl-stream
12935 Opens a connection to a server over a @dfn{secure} channel. To use
12936 this you must have @uref{http://www.openssl.org, OpenSSL} or
12937 @uref{ftp://ftp.psy.uq.oz.au/pub/Crypto/SSL, SSLeay} installed. You
12938 then define a server as follows:
12941 ;; @r{"snews" is port 563 and is predefined in our @file{/etc/services}}
12942 ;; @r{however, @samp{openssl s_client -port} doesn't like named ports.}
12944 (nntp "snews.bar.com"
12945 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-ssl-stream)
12946 (nntp-port-number 563)
12947 (nntp-address "snews.bar.com"))
12950 @findex nntp-open-telnet-stream
12951 @item nntp-open-telnet-stream
12952 Opens a connection to an @acronym{NNTP} server by simply @samp{telnet}'ing
12953 it. You might wonder why this function exists, since we have the
12954 default @code{nntp-open-network-stream} which would do the job. (One
12955 of) the reason(s) is that if you are behind a firewall but have direct
12956 connections to the outside world thanks to a command wrapper like
12957 @code{runsocks}, you can use it like this:
12961 (nntp-pre-command "runsocks")
12962 (nntp-open-connection-function nntp-open-telnet-stream)
12963 (nntp-address "the.news.server"))
12966 With the default method, you would need to wrap your whole Emacs
12967 session, which is not a good idea.
12971 @node Indirect Functions
12972 @subsubsection Indirect Functions
12973 @cindex indirect connection functions
12975 These functions are called indirect because they connect to an
12976 intermediate host before actually connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server.
12977 All of these functions and related variables are also said to belong to
12978 the ``via'' family of connection: they're all prefixed with ``via'' to make
12979 things cleaner. The behavior of these functions is also affected by
12980 commonly understood variables (@pxref{Common Variables}).
12983 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
12984 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet
12985 Does an @samp{rlogin} on a remote system, and then does a @samp{telnet}
12986 to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from there. This is useful for instance if
12987 you need to connect to a firewall machine first.
12989 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-telnet}-specific variables:
12992 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
12993 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command
12994 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
12995 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
12997 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12998 @vindex nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
12999 List of strings to be used as the switches to
13000 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}. If you use
13001 @samp{ssh} for @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}, you may set this to
13002 @samp{("-C")} in order to compress all data connections, otherwise set
13003 this to @samp{("-t" "-e" "none")} or @samp{("-C" "-t" "-e" "none")} if
13004 the telnet command requires a pseudo-tty allocation on an intermediate
13008 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
13009 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13011 @item nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
13012 @findex nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat
13013 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{netcat}
13014 (@uref{http://netcat.sourceforge.net/}) instead of @samp{telnet} to
13015 connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the intermediate host.
13017 @code{nntp-open-via-rlogin-and-netcat}-specific variables:
13020 @item nntp-via-netcat-command
13021 @vindex nntp-via-netcat-command
13022 Command used to connect to the real @acronym{NNTP} server from the
13023 intermediate host. The default is @samp{nc}. You can also use other
13024 programs like @samp{connect}
13025 (@uref{http://www.imasy.or.jp/~gotoh/ssh/connect.html}) instead.
13027 @item nntp-via-netcat-switches
13028 @vindex nntp-via-netcat-switches
13029 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
13030 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @code{nil}.
13032 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command
13033 Command used to log in on the intermediate host. The default is
13034 @samp{rsh}, but @samp{ssh} is a popular alternative.
13036 @item nntp-via-rlogin-command-switches
13037 List of strings to be used as the switches to
13038 @code{nntp-via-rlogin-command}. The default is @code{nil}.
13041 @item nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
13042 @findex nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet
13043 Does essentially the same, but uses @samp{telnet} instead of
13044 @samp{rlogin} to connect to the intermediate host.
13046 @code{nntp-open-via-telnet-and-telnet}-specific variables:
13049 @item nntp-via-telnet-command
13050 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-command
13051 Command used to @code{telnet} the intermediate host. The default is
13054 @item nntp-via-telnet-switches
13055 @vindex nntp-via-telnet-switches
13056 List of strings to be used as the switches to the
13057 @code{nntp-via-telnet-command} command. The default is @samp{("-8")}.
13059 @item nntp-via-user-password
13060 @vindex nntp-via-user-password
13061 Password to use when logging in on the intermediate host.
13063 @item nntp-via-envuser
13064 @vindex nntp-via-envuser
13065 If non-@code{nil}, the intermediate @code{telnet} session (client and
13066 server both) will support the @code{ENVIRON} option and not prompt for
13067 login name. This works for Solaris @code{telnet}, for instance.
13069 @item nntp-via-shell-prompt
13070 @vindex nntp-via-shell-prompt
13071 Regexp matching the shell prompt on the intermediate host. The default
13072 is @samp{bash\\|\$ *\r?$\\|> *\r?}.
13076 Note that you may want to change the value for @code{nntp-end-of-line}
13077 to @samp{\n} (@pxref{Common Variables}).
13081 Here are some additional variables that are understood by all the above
13086 @item nntp-via-user-name
13087 @vindex nntp-via-user-name
13088 User name to use when connecting to the intermediate host.
13090 @item nntp-via-address
13091 @vindex nntp-via-address
13092 Address of the intermediate host to connect to.
13097 @node Common Variables
13098 @subsubsection Common Variables
13100 The following variables affect the behavior of all, or several of the
13101 pre-made connection functions. When not specified, all functions are
13102 affected (the values of the following variables will be used as the
13103 default if each virtual @code{nntp} server doesn't specify those server
13104 variables individually).
13108 @item nntp-pre-command
13109 @vindex nntp-pre-command
13110 A command wrapper to use when connecting through a non native
13111 connection function (all except @code{nntp-open-network-stream},
13112 @code{nntp-open-tls-stream}, and @code{nntp-open-ssl-stream}). This is
13113 where you would put a @samp{SOCKS} wrapper for instance.
13116 @vindex nntp-address
13117 The address of the @acronym{NNTP} server.
13119 @item nntp-port-number
13120 @vindex nntp-port-number
13121 Port number to connect to the @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
13122 @samp{nntp}. If you use @acronym{NNTP} over
13123 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you may want to use integer ports rather
13124 than named ports (i.e, use @samp{563} instead of @samp{snews} or
13125 @samp{nntps}), because external @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} tools may
13126 not work with named ports.
13128 @item nntp-end-of-line
13129 @vindex nntp-end-of-line
13130 String to use as end-of-line marker when talking to the @acronym{NNTP}
13131 server. This is @samp{\r\n} by default, but should be @samp{\n} when
13132 using a non native telnet connection function.
13134 @item nntp-telnet-command
13135 @vindex nntp-telnet-command
13136 Command to use when connecting to the @acronym{NNTP} server through
13137 @samp{telnet}. This is @emph{not} for an intermediate host. This is
13138 just for the real @acronym{NNTP} server. The default is
13141 @item nntp-telnet-switches
13142 @vindex nntp-telnet-switches
13143 A list of switches to pass to @code{nntp-telnet-command}. The default
13149 @subsubsection NNTP marks
13150 @cindex storing NNTP marks
13152 Gnus stores marks (@pxref{Marking Articles}) for @acronym{NNTP}
13153 servers in marks files. A marks file records what marks you have set
13154 in a group and each file is specific to the corresponding server.
13155 Marks files are stored in @file{~/News/marks}
13156 (@code{nntp-marks-directory}) under a classic hierarchy resembling
13157 that of a news server, for example marks for the group
13158 @samp{gmane.discuss} on the news.gmane.org server will be stored in
13159 the file @file{~/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/.marks}.
13161 Marks files are useful because you can copy the @file{~/News/marks}
13162 directory (using rsync, scp or whatever) to another Gnus installation,
13163 and it will realize what articles you have read and marked. The data
13164 in @file{~/News/marks} has priority over the same data in
13165 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
13167 Note that marks files are very much server-specific: Gnus remembers
13168 the article numbers so if you don't use the same servers on both
13169 installations things are most likely to break (most @acronym{NNTP}
13170 servers do not use the same article numbers as any other server).
13171 However, if you use servers A, B, C on one installation and servers A,
13172 D, E on the other, you can sync the marks files for A and then you'll
13173 get synchronization for that server between the two installations.
13175 Using @acronym{NNTP} marks can possibly incur a performance penalty so
13176 if Gnus feels sluggish, try setting the @code{nntp-marks-is-evil}
13177 variable to @code{t}. Marks will then be stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
13183 @item nntp-marks-is-evil
13184 @vindex nntp-marks-is-evil
13185 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any marks files. The
13186 default is @code{nil}.
13188 @item nntp-marks-directory
13189 @vindex nntp-marks-directory
13190 The directory where marks for nntp groups will be stored.
13196 @subsection News Spool
13200 Subscribing to a foreign group from the local spool is extremely easy,
13201 and might be useful, for instance, to speed up reading groups that
13202 contain very big articles---@samp{alt.binaries.pictures.furniture}, for
13205 Anyway, you just specify @code{nnspool} as the method and @code{""} (or
13206 anything else) as the address.
13208 If you have access to a local spool, you should probably use that as the
13209 native select method (@pxref{Finding the News}). It is normally faster
13210 than using an @code{nntp} select method, but might not be. It depends.
13211 You just have to try to find out what's best at your site.
13215 @item nnspool-inews-program
13216 @vindex nnspool-inews-program
13217 Program used to post an article.
13219 @item nnspool-inews-switches
13220 @vindex nnspool-inews-switches
13221 Parameters given to the inews program when posting an article.
13223 @item nnspool-spool-directory
13224 @vindex nnspool-spool-directory
13225 Where @code{nnspool} looks for the articles. This is normally
13226 @file{/usr/spool/news/}.
13228 @item nnspool-nov-directory
13229 @vindex nnspool-nov-directory
13230 Where @code{nnspool} will look for @acronym{NOV} files. This is normally@*
13231 @file{/usr/spool/news/over.view/}.
13233 @item nnspool-lib-dir
13234 @vindex nnspool-lib-dir
13235 Where the news lib dir is (@file{/usr/lib/news/} by default).
13237 @item nnspool-active-file
13238 @vindex nnspool-active-file
13239 The name of the active file.
13241 @item nnspool-newsgroups-file
13242 @vindex nnspool-newsgroups-file
13243 The name of the group descriptions file.
13245 @item nnspool-history-file
13246 @vindex nnspool-history-file
13247 The name of the news history file.
13249 @item nnspool-active-times-file
13250 @vindex nnspool-active-times-file
13251 The name of the active date file.
13253 @item nnspool-nov-is-evil
13254 @vindex nnspool-nov-is-evil
13255 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnspool} won't try to use any @acronym{NOV} files
13258 @item nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
13259 @vindex nnspool-sift-nov-with-sed
13261 If non-@code{nil}, which is the default, use @code{sed} to get the
13262 relevant portion from the overview file. If @code{nil},
13263 @code{nnspool} will load the entire file into a buffer and process it
13270 @section Getting Mail
13271 @cindex reading mail
13274 Reading mail with a newsreader---isn't that just plain WeIrD? But of
13278 * Mail in a Newsreader:: Important introductory notes.
13279 * Getting Started Reading Mail:: A simple cookbook example.
13280 * Splitting Mail:: How to create mail groups.
13281 * Mail Sources:: How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
13282 * Mail Back End Variables:: Variables for customizing mail handling.
13283 * Fancy Mail Splitting:: Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
13284 * Group Mail Splitting:: Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
13285 * Incorporating Old Mail:: What about the old mail you have?
13286 * Expiring Mail:: Getting rid of unwanted mail.
13287 * Washing Mail:: Removing cruft from the mail you get.
13288 * Duplicates:: Dealing with duplicated mail.
13289 * Not Reading Mail:: Using mail back ends for reading other files.
13290 * Choosing a Mail Back End:: Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
13294 @node Mail in a Newsreader
13295 @subsection Mail in a Newsreader
13297 If you are used to traditional mail readers, but have decided to switch
13298 to reading mail with Gnus, you may find yourself experiencing something
13299 of a culture shock.
13301 Gnus does not behave like traditional mail readers. If you want to make
13302 it behave that way, you can, but it's an uphill battle.
13304 Gnus, by default, handles all its groups using the same approach. This
13305 approach is very newsreaderly---you enter a group, see the new/unread
13306 messages, and when you read the messages, they get marked as read, and
13307 you don't see them any more. (Unless you explicitly ask for them.)
13309 In particular, you do not do anything explicitly to delete messages.
13311 Does this mean that all the messages that have been marked as read are
13312 deleted? How awful!
13314 But, no, it means that old messages are @dfn{expired} according to some
13315 scheme or other. For news messages, the expire process is controlled by
13316 the news administrator; for mail, the expire process is controlled by
13317 you. The expire process for mail is covered in depth in @ref{Expiring
13320 What many Gnus users find, after using it a while for both news and
13321 mail, is that the transport mechanism has very little to do with how
13322 they want to treat a message.
13324 Many people subscribe to several mailing lists. These are transported
13325 via @acronym{SMTP}, and are therefore mail. But we might go for weeks without
13326 answering, or even reading these messages very carefully. We may not
13327 need to save them because if we should need to read one again, they are
13328 archived somewhere else.
13330 Some people have local news groups which have only a handful of readers.
13331 These are transported via @acronym{NNTP}, and are therefore news. But we may need
13332 to read and answer a large fraction of the messages very carefully in
13333 order to do our work. And there may not be an archive, so we may need
13334 to save the interesting messages the same way we would personal mail.
13336 The important distinction turns out to be not the transport mechanism,
13337 but other factors such as how interested we are in the subject matter,
13338 or how easy it is to retrieve the message if we need to read it again.
13340 Gnus provides many options for sorting mail into ``groups'' which behave
13341 like newsgroups, and for treating each group (whether mail or news)
13344 Some users never get comfortable using the Gnus (ahem) paradigm and wish
13345 that Gnus should grow up and be a male, er, mail reader. It is possible
13346 to whip Gnus into a more mailreaderly being, but, as said before, it's
13347 not easy. People who prefer proper mail readers should try @sc{vm}
13348 instead, which is an excellent, and proper, mail reader.
13350 I don't mean to scare anybody off, but I want to make it clear that you
13351 may be required to learn a new way of thinking about messages. After
13352 you've been subjected to The Gnus Way, you will come to love it. I can
13353 guarantee it. (At least the guy who sold me the Emacs Subliminal
13354 Brain-Washing Functions that I've put into Gnus did guarantee it. You
13355 Will Be Assimilated. You Love Gnus. You Love The Gnus Mail Way.
13359 @node Getting Started Reading Mail
13360 @subsection Getting Started Reading Mail
13362 It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail. You just plonk the
13363 mail back end of your choice into @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods},
13364 and things will happen automatically.
13366 For instance, if you want to use @code{nnml} (which is a ``one file per
13367 mail'' back end), you could put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
13370 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
13373 Now, the next time you start Gnus, this back end will be queried for new
13374 articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to its
13375 directory, which is @file{~/Mail/} by default. The new group that will
13376 be created (@samp{mail.misc}) will be subscribed, and you can read it
13377 like any other group.
13379 You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:
13382 (setq nnmail-split-methods
13383 '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13384 ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
13388 This will result in three new @code{nnml} mail groups being created:
13389 @samp{nnml:junk}, @samp{nnml:crazy}, and @samp{nnml:other}. All the
13390 mail that doesn't fit into the first two groups will be placed in the
13393 This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus. You might want to
13394 give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal, though.
13395 Especially @pxref{Choosing a Mail Back End} and @pxref{Expiring Mail}.
13398 @node Splitting Mail
13399 @subsection Splitting Mail
13400 @cindex splitting mail
13401 @cindex mail splitting
13402 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
13404 @vindex nnmail-split-methods
13405 The @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable says how the incoming mail is
13406 to be split into groups.
13409 (setq nnmail-split-methods
13410 '(("mail.junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
13411 ("mail.crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
13412 ("mail.other" "")))
13415 This variable is a list of lists, where the first element of each of
13416 these lists is the name of the mail group (they do not have to be called
13417 something beginning with @samp{mail}, by the way), and the second
13418 element is a regular expression used on the header of each mail to
13419 determine if it belongs in this mail group. The first string may
13420 contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by @code{replace-match} to
13421 insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For instance:
13424 ("list.\\1" "From:.* \\(.*\\)-list@@majordomo.com")
13428 In that case, @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether
13429 the inserted text should be made lowercase. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
13431 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
13432 called narrowed to the headers with the first element of the rule as the
13433 argument. It should return a non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the
13434 mail belongs in that group.
13436 @cindex @samp{bogus} group
13437 The last of these groups should always be a general one, and the regular
13438 expression should @emph{always} be @samp{""} so that it matches any mails
13439 that haven't been matched by any of the other regexps. (These rules are
13440 processed from the beginning of the alist toward the end. The first rule
13441 to make a match will ``win'', unless you have crossposting enabled. In
13442 that case, all matching rules will ``win''.) If no rule matched, the mail
13443 will end up in the @samp{bogus} group. When new groups are created by
13444 splitting mail, you may want to run @code{gnus-group-find-new-groups} to
13445 see the new groups. This also applies to the @samp{bogus} group.
13447 If you like to tinker with this yourself, you can set this variable to a
13448 function of your choice. This function will be called without any
13449 arguments in a buffer narrowed to the headers of an incoming mail
13450 message. The function should return a list of group names that it
13451 thinks should carry this mail message.
13453 Note that the mail back ends are free to maul the poor, innocent,
13454 incoming headers all they want to. They all add @code{Lines} headers;
13455 some add @code{X-Gnus-Group} headers; most rename the Unix mbox
13456 @code{From<SPACE>} line to something else.
13458 @vindex nnmail-crosspost
13459 The mail back ends all support cross-posting. If several regexps match,
13460 the mail will be ``cross-posted'' to all those groups.
13461 @code{nnmail-crosspost} says whether to use this mechanism or not. Note
13462 that no articles are crossposted to the general (@samp{""}) group.
13464 @vindex nnmail-crosspost-link-function
13467 @code{nnmh} and @code{nnml} makes crossposts by creating hard links to
13468 the crossposted articles. However, not all file systems support hard
13469 links. If that's the case for you, set
13470 @code{nnmail-crosspost-link-function} to @code{copy-file}. (This
13471 variable is @code{add-name-to-file} by default.)
13473 @kindex M-x nnmail-split-history
13474 @findex nnmail-split-history
13475 If you wish to see where the previous mail split put the messages, you
13476 can use the @kbd{M-x nnmail-split-history} command. If you wish to see
13477 where re-spooling messages would put the messages, you can use
13478 @code{gnus-summary-respool-trace} and related commands (@pxref{Mail
13481 @vindex nnmail-split-header-length-limit
13482 Header lines longer than the value of
13483 @code{nnmail-split-header-length-limit} are excluded from the split
13486 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-charset
13487 @vindex nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes
13488 By default the splitting codes @acronym{MIME} decodes headers so you
13489 can match on non-@acronym{ASCII} strings. The
13490 @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-charset} variable specifies the default
13491 charset for decoding. The behavior can be turned off completely by
13492 binding @code{nnmail-mail-splitting-decodes} to @code{nil}, which is
13493 useful if you want to match articles based on the raw header data.
13495 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
13496 By default, splitting is performed on all incoming messages. If you
13497 specify a @code{directory} entry for the variable @code{mail-sources}
13498 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}), however, then splitting does
13499 @emph{not} happen by default. You can set the variable
13500 @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming} to a non-@code{nil} value to make
13501 splitting happen even in this case. (This variable has no effect on
13502 other kinds of entries.)
13504 Gnus gives you all the opportunity you could possibly want for shooting
13505 yourself in the foot. Let's say you create a group that will contain
13506 all the mail you get from your boss. And then you accidentally
13507 unsubscribe from the group. Gnus will still put all the mail from your
13508 boss in the unsubscribed group, and so, when your boss mails you ``Have
13509 that report ready by Monday or you're fired!'', you'll never see it and,
13510 come Tuesday, you'll still believe that you're gainfully employed while
13511 you really should be out collecting empty bottles to save up for next
13512 month's rent money.
13516 @subsection Mail Sources
13518 Mail can be gotten from many different sources---the mail spool, from
13519 a @acronym{POP} mail server, from a procmail directory, or from a
13520 maildir, for instance.
13523 * Mail Source Specifiers:: How to specify what a mail source is.
13524 * Mail Source Customization:: Some variables that influence things.
13525 * Fetching Mail:: Using the mail source specifiers.
13529 @node Mail Source Specifiers
13530 @subsubsection Mail Source Specifiers
13532 @cindex mail server
13535 @cindex mail source
13537 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting @code{mail-sources}
13538 (@pxref{Fetching Mail}) to a @dfn{mail source specifier}.
13543 (pop :server "pop3.mailserver.com" :user "myname")
13546 As can be observed, a mail source specifier is a list where the first
13547 element is a @dfn{mail source type}, followed by an arbitrary number of
13548 @dfn{keywords}. Keywords that are not explicitly specified are given
13551 The following mail source types are available:
13555 Get mail from a single file; typically from the mail spool.
13561 The file name. Defaults to the value of the @env{MAIL}
13562 environment variable or the value of @code{rmail-spool-directory}
13563 (usually something like @file{/usr/mail/spool/user-name}).
13567 Script run before/after fetching mail.
13570 An example file mail source:
13573 (file :path "/usr/spool/mail/user-name")
13576 Or using the default file name:
13582 If the mail spool file is not located on the local machine, it's best
13583 to use @acronym{POP} or @acronym{IMAP} or the like to fetch the mail.
13584 You can not use ange-ftp file names here---it has no way to lock the
13585 mail spool while moving the mail.
13587 If it's impossible to set up a proper server, you can use ssh instead.
13591 '((file :prescript "ssh host bin/getmail >%t")))
13594 The @samp{getmail} script would look something like the following:
13598 # getmail - move mail from spool to stdout
13601 MOVEMAIL=/usr/lib/emacs/20.3/i386-redhat-linux/movemail
13603 rm -f $TMP; $MOVEMAIL $MAIL $TMP >/dev/null && cat $TMP
13606 Alter this script to fit find the @samp{movemail} you want to use.
13610 @vindex nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once
13611 Get mail from several files in a directory. This is typically used
13612 when you have procmail split the incoming mail into several files.
13613 That is, there is a one-to-one correspondence between files in that
13614 directory and groups, so that mail from the file @file{foo.bar.spool}
13615 will be put in the group @code{foo.bar}. (You can change the suffix
13616 to be used instead of @code{.spool}.) Setting
13617 @code{nnmail-scan-directory-mail-source-once} to non-@code{nil} forces
13618 Gnus to scan the mail source only once. This is particularly useful
13619 if you want to scan mail groups at a specified level.
13621 @vindex nnmail-resplit-incoming
13622 There is also the variable @code{nnmail-resplit-incoming}, if you set
13623 that to a non-@code{nil} value, then the normal splitting process is
13624 applied to all the files from the directory, @ref{Splitting Mail}.
13630 The name of the directory where the files are. There is no default
13634 Only files ending with this suffix are used. The default is
13638 Only files that have this predicate return non-@code{nil} are returned.
13639 The default is @code{identity}. This is used as an additional
13640 filter---only files that have the right suffix @emph{and} satisfy this
13641 predicate are considered.
13645 Script run before/after fetching mail.
13649 An example directory mail source:
13652 (directory :path "/home/user-name/procmail-dir/"
13657 Get mail from a @acronym{POP} server.
13663 The name of the @acronym{POP} server. The default is taken from the
13664 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
13667 The port number of the @acronym{POP} server. This can be a number (eg,
13668 @samp{:port 1234}) or a string (eg, @samp{:port "pop3"}). If it is a
13669 string, it should be a service name as listed in @file{/etc/services} on
13670 Unix systems. The default is @samp{"pop3"}. On some systems you might
13671 need to specify it as @samp{"pop-3"} instead.
13674 The user name to give to the @acronym{POP} server. The default is the login
13678 The password to give to the @acronym{POP} server. If not specified,
13679 the user is prompted.
13682 The program to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. This
13683 should be a @code{format}-like string. Here's an example:
13686 fetchmail %u@@%s -P %p %t
13689 The valid format specifier characters are:
13693 The name of the file the mail is to be moved to. This must always be
13694 included in this string.
13697 The name of the server.
13700 The port number of the server.
13703 The user name to use.
13706 The password to use.
13709 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
13710 corresponding keywords.
13713 A script to be run before fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
13714 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
13717 A script to be run after fetching the mail. The syntax is the same as
13718 the @code{:program} keyword. This can also be a function to be run.
13721 The function to use to fetch mail from the @acronym{POP} server. The
13722 function is called with one parameter---the name of the file where the
13723 mail should be moved to.
13725 @item :authentication
13726 This can be either the symbol @code{password} or the symbol @code{apop}
13727 and says what authentication scheme to use. The default is
13731 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this can be the symbol
13732 @code{ssl}, the symbol @code{tls} or others. The default is @code{nil}
13733 and use insecure connections. Note that for SSL/TLS, you need external
13734 programs and libraries:
13738 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through SSL@. Requires OpenSSL (the program
13739 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}) as well as the external
13740 library @samp{ssl.el}.
13742 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to SSL)@.
13743 Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
13748 Non-@code{nil} if mail is to be left on the server and UIDL used for
13749 message retrieval. The default is @code{nil}.
13753 @vindex pop3-movemail
13754 @vindex pop3-leave-mail-on-server
13755 If the @code{:program} and @code{:function} keywords aren't specified,
13756 @code{pop3-movemail} will be used. If the
13757 @code{pop3-leave-mail-on-server} is non-@code{nil} the mail is to be
13758 left on the @acronym{POP} server after fetching when using
13759 @code{pop3-movemail}. Note that POP servers maintain no state
13760 information between sessions, so what the client believes is there and
13761 what is actually there may not match up. If they do not, then the whole
13762 thing can fall apart and leave you with a corrupt mailbox.
13764 Here are some examples. Fetch from the default @acronym{POP} server,
13765 using the default user name, and default fetcher:
13771 Fetch from a named server with a named user and password:
13774 (pop :server "my.pop.server"
13775 :user "user-name" :password "secret")
13778 Use @samp{movemail} to move the mail:
13781 (pop :program "movemail po:%u %t %p")
13785 Get mail from a maildir. This is a type of mailbox that is supported by
13786 at least qmail and postfix, where each file in a special directory
13787 contains exactly one mail.
13793 The name of the directory where the mails are stored. The default is
13794 taken from the @env{MAILDIR} environment variable or
13797 The subdirectories of the Maildir. The default is
13798 @samp{("new" "cur")}.
13800 @c If you sometimes look at your mail through a pop3 daemon before fetching
13801 @c them with Gnus, you may also have to fetch your mails from the
13802 @c @code{cur} directory inside the maildir, like in the first example
13805 You can also get mails from remote hosts (because maildirs don't suffer
13806 from locking problems).
13810 Two example maildir mail sources:
13813 (maildir :path "/home/user-name/Maildir/"
13814 :subdirs ("cur" "new"))
13818 (maildir :path "/user@@remotehost.org:~/Maildir/"
13823 Get mail from a @acronym{IMAP} server. If you don't want to use
13824 @acronym{IMAP} as intended, as a network mail reading protocol (ie
13825 with nnimap), for some reason or other, Gnus let you treat it similar
13826 to a @acronym{POP} server and fetches articles from a given
13827 @acronym{IMAP} mailbox. @xref{IMAP}, for more information.
13829 Note that for the Kerberos, GSSAPI, @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} and STARTTLS support you
13830 may need external programs and libraries, @xref{IMAP}.
13836 The name of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is taken from the
13837 @env{MAILHOST} environment variable.
13840 The port number of the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is @samp{143}, or
13841 @samp{993} for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} connections.
13844 The user name to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. The default is the login
13848 The password to give to the @acronym{IMAP} server. If not specified, the user is
13852 What stream to use for connecting to the server, this is one of the
13853 symbols in @code{imap-stream-alist}. Right now, this means
13854 @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{starttls}, @samp{tls},
13855 @samp{ssl}, @samp{shell} or the default @samp{network}.
13857 @item :authentication
13858 Which authenticator to use for authenticating to the server, this is
13859 one of the symbols in @code{imap-authenticator-alist}. Right now,
13860 this means @samp{gssapi}, @samp{kerberos4}, @samp{digest-md5},
13861 @samp{cram-md5}, @samp{anonymous} or the default @samp{login}.
13864 When using the `shell' :stream, the contents of this variable is
13865 mapped into the @code{imap-shell-program} variable. This should be a
13866 @code{format}-like string (or list of strings). Here's an example:
13872 The valid format specifier characters are:
13876 The name of the server.
13879 User name from @code{imap-default-user}.
13882 The port number of the server.
13885 The values used for these specs are taken from the values you give the
13886 corresponding keywords.
13889 The name of the mailbox to get mail from. The default is @samp{INBOX}
13890 which normally is the mailbox which receive incoming mail.
13893 The predicate used to find articles to fetch. The default, @samp{UNSEEN
13894 UNDELETED}, is probably the best choice for most people, but if you
13895 sometimes peek in your mailbox with a @acronym{IMAP} client and mark some
13896 articles as read (or; SEEN) you might want to set this to @samp{1:*}.
13897 Then all articles in the mailbox is fetched, no matter what. For a
13898 complete list of predicates, see RFC 2060 section 6.4.4.
13901 How to flag fetched articles on the server, the default @samp{\Deleted}
13902 will mark them as deleted, an alternative would be @samp{\Seen} which
13903 would simply mark them as read. These are the two most likely choices,
13904 but more flags are defined in RFC 2060 section 2.3.2.
13907 If non-@code{nil}, don't remove all articles marked as deleted in the
13908 mailbox after finishing the fetch.
13912 An example @acronym{IMAP} mail source:
13915 (imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
13917 :fetchflag "\\Seen")
13921 Get mail from a webmail server, such as @uref{http://www.hotmail.com/},
13922 @uref{http://webmail.netscape.com/}, @uref{http://www.netaddress.com/},
13923 @uref{http://mail.yahoo.com/}.
13925 NOTE: Webmail largely depends on cookies. A "one-line-cookie" patch is
13926 required for url "4.0pre.46".
13928 WARNING: Mails may be lost. NO WARRANTY.
13934 The type of the webmail server. The default is @code{hotmail}. The
13935 alternatives are @code{netscape}, @code{netaddress}, @code{my-deja}.
13938 The user name to give to the webmail server. The default is the login
13942 The password to give to the webmail server. If not specified, the user is
13946 If non-@code{nil}, only fetch unread articles and don't move them to
13947 trash folder after finishing the fetch.
13951 An example webmail source:
13954 (webmail :subtype 'hotmail
13956 :password "secret")
13961 @item Common Keywords
13962 Common keywords can be used in any type of mail source.
13968 If non-@code{nil}, fetch the mail even when Gnus is unplugged. If you
13969 use directory source to get mail, you can specify it as in this
13974 '((directory :path "/home/pavel/.Spool/"
13979 Gnus will then fetch your mail even when you are unplugged. This is
13980 useful when you use local mail and news.
13985 @subsubsection Function Interface
13987 Some of the above keywords specify a Lisp function to be executed.
13988 For each keyword @code{:foo}, the Lisp variable @code{foo} is bound to
13989 the value of the keyword while the function is executing. For example,
13990 consider the following mail-source setting:
13993 (setq mail-sources '((pop :user "jrl"
13994 :server "pophost" :function fetchfunc)))
13997 While the function @code{fetchfunc} is executing, the symbol @code{user}
13998 is bound to @code{"jrl"}, and the symbol @code{server} is bound to
13999 @code{"pophost"}. The symbols @code{port}, @code{password},
14000 @code{program}, @code{prescript}, @code{postscript}, @code{function},
14001 and @code{authentication} are also bound (to their default values).
14003 See above for a list of keywords for each type of mail source.
14006 @node Mail Source Customization
14007 @subsubsection Mail Source Customization
14009 The following is a list of variables that influence how the mail is
14010 fetched. You would normally not need to set or change any of these
14014 @item mail-source-crash-box
14015 @vindex mail-source-crash-box
14016 File where mail will be stored while processing it. The default is@*
14017 @file{~/.emacs-mail-crash-box}.
14019 @item mail-source-delete-incoming
14020 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
14021 If non-@code{nil}, delete incoming files after handling them. If
14022 @code{t}, delete the files immediately, if @code{nil}, never delete any
14023 files. If a positive number, delete files older than number of days
14024 (This will only happen, when receiving new mail). You may also set
14025 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} to @code{nil} and call
14026 @code{mail-source-delete-old-incoming} from a hook or interactively.
14028 @item mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
14029 @vindex mail-source-delete-old-incoming-confirm
14030 If non-@code{nil}, ask for for confirmation before deleting old incoming
14031 files. This variable only applies when
14032 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is a positive number.
14034 @item mail-source-ignore-errors
14035 @vindex mail-source-ignore-errors
14036 If non-@code{nil}, ignore errors when reading mail from a mail source.
14038 @item mail-source-directory
14039 @vindex mail-source-directory
14040 Directory where incoming mail source files (if any) will be stored. The
14041 default is @file{~/Mail/}. At present, the only thing this is used for
14042 is to say where the incoming files will be stored if the variable
14043 @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a number.
14045 @item mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
14046 @vindex mail-source-incoming-file-prefix
14047 Prefix for file name for storing incoming mail. The default is
14048 @file{Incoming}, in which case files will end up with names like
14049 @file{Incoming30630D_} or @file{Incoming298602ZD}. This is really only
14050 relevant if @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} is @code{nil} or a
14053 @item mail-source-default-file-modes
14054 @vindex mail-source-default-file-modes
14055 All new mail files will get this file mode. The default is 384.
14057 @item mail-source-movemail-program
14058 @vindex mail-source-movemail-program
14059 If non-@code{nil}, name of program for fetching new mail. If
14060 @code{nil}, @code{movemail} in @var{exec-directory}.
14065 @node Fetching Mail
14066 @subsubsection Fetching Mail
14068 @vindex mail-sources
14069 @vindex nnmail-spool-file
14070 The way to actually tell Gnus where to get new mail from is to set
14071 @code{mail-sources} to a list of mail source specifiers
14072 (@pxref{Mail Source Specifiers}).
14074 If this variable (and the obsolescent @code{nnmail-spool-file}) is
14075 @code{nil}, the mail back ends will never attempt to fetch mail by
14078 If you want to fetch mail both from your local spool as well as a
14079 @acronym{POP} mail server, you'd say something like:
14084 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
14085 :password "secret")))
14088 Or, if you don't want to use any of the keyword defaults:
14092 '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/user-name")
14093 (pop :server "pop3.mail.server"
14096 :password "secret")))
14100 When you use a mail back end, Gnus will slurp all your mail from your
14101 inbox and plonk it down in your home directory. Gnus doesn't move any
14102 mail if you're not using a mail back end---you have to do a lot of magic
14103 invocations first. At the time when you have finished drawing the
14104 pentagram, lightened the candles, and sacrificed the goat, you really
14105 shouldn't be too surprised when Gnus moves your mail.
14109 @node Mail Back End Variables
14110 @subsection Mail Back End Variables
14112 These variables are (for the most part) pertinent to all the various
14116 @vindex nnmail-read-incoming-hook
14117 @item nnmail-read-incoming-hook
14118 The mail back ends all call this hook after reading new mail. You can
14119 use this hook to notify any mail watch programs, if you want to.
14121 @vindex nnmail-split-hook
14122 @item nnmail-split-hook
14123 @findex gnus-article-decode-encoded-words
14124 @cindex RFC 1522 decoding
14125 @cindex RFC 2047 decoding
14126 Hook run in the buffer where the mail headers of each message is kept
14127 just before the splitting based on these headers is done. The hook is
14128 free to modify the buffer contents in any way it sees fit---the buffer
14129 is discarded after the splitting has been done, and no changes performed
14130 in the buffer will show up in any files.
14131 @code{gnus-article-decode-encoded-words} is one likely function to add
14134 @vindex nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14135 @vindex nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14136 @item nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14137 @itemx nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14138 These are two useful hooks executed when treating new incoming
14139 mail---@code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook} (is called just before
14140 starting to handle the new mail) and
14141 @code{nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook} (is called when the mail handling
14142 is done). Here's and example of using these two hooks to change the
14143 default file modes the new mail files get:
14146 (add-hook 'nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook
14147 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 511)))
14149 (add-hook 'nnmail-post-get-new-mail-hook
14150 (lambda () (set-default-file-modes 551)))
14153 @item nnmail-use-long-file-names
14154 @vindex nnmail-use-long-file-names
14155 If non-@code{nil}, the mail back ends will use long file and directory
14156 names. Groups like @samp{mail.misc} will end up in directories
14157 (assuming use of @code{nnml} back end) or files (assuming use of
14158 @code{nnfolder} back end) like @file{mail.misc}. If it is @code{nil},
14159 the same group will end up in @file{mail/misc}.
14161 @item nnmail-delete-file-function
14162 @vindex nnmail-delete-file-function
14163 @findex delete-file
14164 Function called to delete files. It is @code{delete-file} by default.
14166 @item nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14167 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14168 If non-@code{nil}, put the @code{Message-ID}s of articles imported into
14169 the back end (via @code{Gcc}, for instance) into the mail duplication
14170 discovery cache. The default is @code{nil}.
14172 @item nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
14173 @vindex nnmail-cache-ignore-groups
14174 This can be a regular expression or a list of regular expressions.
14175 Group names that match any of the regular expressions will never be
14176 recorded in the @code{Message-ID} cache.
14178 This can be useful, for example, when using Fancy Splitting
14179 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}) together with the function
14180 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}.
14185 @node Fancy Mail Splitting
14186 @subsection Fancy Mail Splitting
14187 @cindex mail splitting
14188 @cindex fancy mail splitting
14190 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy
14191 @findex nnmail-split-fancy
14192 If the rather simple, standard method for specifying how to split mail
14193 doesn't allow you to do what you want, you can set
14194 @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. Then you can
14195 play with the @code{nnmail-split-fancy} variable.
14197 Let's look at an example value of this variable first:
14200 ;; @r{Messages from the mailer daemon are not crossposted to any of}
14201 ;; @r{the ordinary groups. Warnings are put in a separate group}
14202 ;; @r{from real errors.}
14203 (| ("from" mail (| ("subject" "warn.*" "mail.warning")
14205 ;; @r{Non-error messages are crossposted to all relevant}
14206 ;; @r{groups, but we don't crosspost between the group for the}
14207 ;; @r{(ding) list and the group for other (ding) related mail.}
14208 (& (| (any "ding@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "ding.list")
14209 ("subject" "ding" "ding.misc"))
14210 ;; @r{Other mailing lists@dots{}}
14211 (any "procmail@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "procmail.list")
14212 (any "SmartList@@informatik\\.rwth-aachen\\.de" "SmartList.list")
14213 ;; @r{Both lists below have the same suffix, so prevent}
14214 ;; @r{cross-posting to mkpkg.list of messages posted only to}
14215 ;; @r{the bugs- list, but allow cross-posting when the}
14216 ;; @r{message was really cross-posted.}
14217 (any "bugs-mypackage@@somewhere" "mypkg.bugs")
14218 (any "mypackage@@somewhere" - "bugs-mypackage" "mypkg.list")
14219 ;; @r{People@dots{}}
14220 (any "larsi@@ifi\\.uio\\.no" "people.Lars_Magne_Ingebrigtsen"))
14221 ;; @r{Unmatched mail goes to the catch all group.}
14225 This variable has the format of a @dfn{split}. A split is a
14226 (possibly) recursive structure where each split may contain other
14227 splits. Here are the possible split syntaxes:
14232 If the split is a string, that will be taken as a group name. Normal
14233 regexp match expansion will be done. See below for examples.
14235 @item (@var{field} @var{value} [- @var{restrict} [@dots{}] ] @var{split})
14236 If the split is a list, the first element of which is a string, then
14237 store the message as specified by @var{split}, if header @var{field}
14238 (a regexp) contains @var{value} (also a regexp). If @var{restrict}
14239 (yet another regexp) matches some string after @var{field} and before
14240 the end of the matched @var{value}, the @var{split} is ignored. If
14241 none of the @var{restrict} clauses match, @var{split} is processed.
14243 @item (| @var{split} @dots{})
14244 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{|} (vertical
14245 bar), then process each @var{split} until one of them matches. A
14246 @var{split} is said to match if it will cause the mail message to be
14247 stored in one or more groups.
14249 @item (& @var{split} @dots{})
14250 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{&}, then
14251 process all @var{split}s in the list.
14254 If the split is the symbol @code{junk}, then don't save (i.e., delete)
14255 this message. Use with extreme caution.
14257 @item (: @var{function} @var{arg1} @var{arg2} @dots{})
14258 If the split is a list, and the first element is @samp{:}, then the
14259 second element will be called as a function with @var{args} given as
14260 arguments. The function should return a @var{split}.
14263 For instance, the following function could be used to split based on the
14264 body of the messages:
14267 (defun split-on-body ()
14271 (goto-char (point-min))
14272 (when (re-search-forward "Some.*string" nil t)
14276 The buffer is narrowed to the message in question when @var{function}
14277 is run. That's why @code{(widen)} needs to be called after
14278 @code{save-excursion} and @code{save-restriction} in the example
14279 above. Also note that with the nnimap back end, message bodies will
14280 not be downloaded by default. You need to set
14281 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
14282 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
14284 @item (! @var{func} @var{split})
14285 If the split is a list, and the first element is @code{!}, then
14286 @var{split} will be processed, and @var{func} will be called as a
14287 function with the result of @var{split} as argument. @var{func}
14288 should return a split.
14291 If the split is @code{nil}, it is ignored.
14295 In these splits, @var{field} must match a complete field name.
14296 @var{value} must match a complete word according to the fundamental mode
14297 syntax table. You can use @code{.*} in the regexps to match partial
14298 field names or words. In other words, all @var{value}'s are wrapped in
14299 @samp{\<} and @samp{\>} pairs.
14301 @vindex nnmail-split-abbrev-alist
14302 @var{field} and @var{value} can also be Lisp symbols, in that case
14303 they are expanded as specified by the variable
14304 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist}. This is an alist of cons cells,
14305 where the @sc{car} of a cell contains the key, and the @sc{cdr}
14306 contains the associated value. Predefined entries in
14307 @code{nnmail-split-abbrev-alist} include:
14311 Matches the @samp{From}, @samp{Sender} and @samp{Resent-From} fields.
14313 Matches the @samp{To}, @samp{Cc}, @samp{Apparently-To},
14314 @samp{Resent-To} and @samp{Resent-Cc} fields.
14316 Is the union of the @code{from} and @code{to} entries.
14319 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table
14320 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table} is the syntax table in effect
14321 when all this splitting is performed.
14323 If you want to have Gnus create groups dynamically based on some
14324 information in the headers (i.e., do @code{replace-match}-like
14325 substitutions in the group names), you can say things like:
14328 (any "debian-\\b\\(\\w+\\)@@lists.debian.org" "mail.debian.\\1")
14331 In this example, messages sent to @samp{debian-foo@@lists.debian.org}
14332 will be filed in @samp{mail.debian.foo}.
14334 If the string contains the element @samp{\&}, then the previously
14335 matched string will be substituted. Similarly, the elements @samp{\\1}
14336 up to @samp{\\9} will be substituted with the text matched by the
14337 groupings 1 through 9.
14339 @vindex nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded
14340 Where @code{nnmail-split-lowercase-expanded} controls whether the
14341 lowercase of the matched string should be used for the substitution.
14342 Setting it as non-@code{nil} is useful to avoid the creation of multiple
14343 groups when users send to an address using different case
14344 (i.e. mailing-list@@domain vs Mailing-List@@Domain). The default value
14347 @vindex nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words
14348 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} controls whether partial
14349 words are matched during fancy splitting.
14351 Normally, regular expressions given in @code{nnmail-split-fancy} are
14352 implicitly surrounded by @code{\<...\>} markers, which are word
14353 delimiters. If this variable is true, they are not implicitly
14354 surrounded by anything.
14357 (any "joe" "joemail")
14360 In this example, messages sent from @samp{joedavis@@foo.org} will
14361 normally not be filed in @samp{joemail}. With
14362 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words} set to @code{t},
14363 however, the match will happen. In effect, the requirement of a word
14364 boundary is removed and instead the match becomes more like a grep.
14366 @findex nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent
14367 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} is a function which allows you to
14368 split followups into the same groups their parents are in. Sometimes
14369 you can't make splitting rules for all your mail. For example, your
14370 boss might send you personal mail regarding different projects you are
14371 working on, and as you can't tell your boss to put a distinguishing
14372 string into the subject line, you have to resort to manually moving the
14373 messages into the right group. With this function, you only have to do
14374 it once per thread.
14376 To use this feature, you have to set @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates}
14377 and @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} to a non-@code{nil}
14378 value. And then you can include @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent}
14379 using the colon feature, like so:
14381 (setq nnmail-treat-duplicates 'warn ; @r{or @code{delete}}
14382 nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids t
14384 '(| (: nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent)
14385 ;; @r{other splits go here}
14389 This feature works as follows: when @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} is
14390 non-@code{nil}, Gnus records the message id of every message it sees
14391 in the file specified by the variable
14392 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, together with the group it is in
14393 (the group is omitted for non-mail messages). When mail splitting is
14394 invoked, the function @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent} then looks
14395 at the References (and In-Reply-To) header of each message to split
14396 and searches the file specified by @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}
14397 for the message ids. When it has found a parent, it returns the
14398 corresponding group name unless the group name matches the regexp
14399 @code{nnmail-split-fancy-with-parent-ignore-groups}. It is
14400 recommended that you set @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length} to a
14401 somewhat higher number than the default so that the message ids are
14402 still in the cache. (A value of 5000 appears to create a file some
14403 300 kBytes in size.)
14404 @vindex nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids
14405 When @code{nnmail-cache-accepted-message-ids} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus
14406 also records the message ids of moved articles, so that the followup
14407 messages goes into the new group.
14409 Also see the variable @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} if you don't
14410 want certain groups to be recorded in the cache. For example, if all
14411 outgoing messages are written to an ``outgoing'' group, you could set
14412 @code{nnmail-cache-ignore-groups} to match that group name.
14413 Otherwise, answers to all your messages would end up in the
14414 ``outgoing'' group.
14417 @node Group Mail Splitting
14418 @subsection Group Mail Splitting
14419 @cindex mail splitting
14420 @cindex group mail splitting
14422 @findex gnus-group-split
14423 If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
14424 maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
14425 You just have to set @code{to-list} and/or @code{to-address} in group
14426 parameters or group customization and set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to
14427 @code{gnus-group-split}. This splitting function will scan all groups
14428 for those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted
14429 from or to the addresses specified in the parameters @code{to-list} or
14430 @code{to-address} of a mail group will be stored in that group.
14432 Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want mail
14433 splitting to recognize them all: just set the @code{extra-aliases} group
14434 parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done. If you'd
14435 rather use a regular expression, set @code{split-regexp}.
14437 All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
14438 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split, in which the @var{field} is @samp{any},
14439 the @var{value} is a single regular expression that matches
14440 @code{to-list}, @code{to-address}, all of @code{extra-aliases} and all
14441 matches of @code{split-regexp}, and the @var{split} is the name of the
14442 group. @var{restrict}s are also supported: just set the
14443 @code{split-exclude} parameter to a list of regular expressions.
14445 If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
14446 parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
14447 parameter @code{split-spec} to an @code{nnmail-split-fancy} split. In
14448 this case, all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
14449 @code{gnus-group-split}. In particular, @code{split-spec} may be set to
14450 @code{nil}, in which case the group will be ignored by
14451 @code{gnus-group-split}.
14453 @vindex gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group
14454 @code{gnus-group-split} will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
14455 by defining a single @code{&} fancy split containing one split for each
14456 group. If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
14457 group named in @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}, unless
14458 some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all}, in which case
14459 that group is used as the catch-all group. Even though this variable is
14460 often used just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily
14461 complex fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this
14462 may be useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to
14463 personal mail folders. Note that this fancy split is added as the last
14464 element of a @code{|} split list that also contains a @code{&} split
14465 with the rules extracted from group parameters.
14467 It's time for an example. Assume the following group parameters have
14472 ((to-address . "bar@@femail.com")
14473 (split-regexp . ".*@@femail\\.com"))
14475 ((to-list . "foo@@nowhere.gov")
14476 (extra-aliases "foo@@localhost" "foo-redist@@home")
14477 (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
14478 (admin-address . "foo-request@@nowhere.gov"))
14480 ((split-spec . catch-all))
14483 Setting @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{gnus-group-split} will
14484 behave as if @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been selected and variable
14485 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} had been set as follows:
14488 (| (& (any "\\(bar@@femail\\.com\\|.*@@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
14489 (any "\\(foo@@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@@localhost\\|foo-redist@@home\\)"
14490 - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
14494 @findex gnus-group-split-fancy
14495 If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
14496 may use it for only some of them, by using @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
14500 (: gnus-group-split-fancy @var{groups} @var{no-crosspost} @var{catch-all})
14503 @var{groups} may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
14504 parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.
14505 @var{no-crosspost} can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a
14506 single @code{|} split will be output. @var{catch-all} is the fall back
14507 fancy split, used like @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group}.
14508 If @var{catch-all} is @code{nil}, or if @code{split-regexp} matches the
14509 empty string in any selected group, no catch-all split will be issued.
14510 Otherwise, if some group has @code{split-spec} set to @code{catch-all},
14511 this group will override the value of the @var{catch-all} argument.
14513 @findex gnus-group-split-setup
14514 Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
14515 slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
14516 But don't despair! The function @code{gnus-group-split-setup} can be
14517 used to enable @code{gnus-group-split} in a much more efficient way. It
14518 sets @code{nnmail-split-methods} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy} and sets
14519 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} to the split produced by
14520 @code{gnus-group-split-fancy}. Thus, the group parameters are only
14521 scanned once, no matter how many messages are split.
14523 @findex gnus-group-split-update
14524 However, if you change group parameters, you'd have to update
14525 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} manually. You can do it by running
14526 @code{gnus-group-split-update}. If you'd rather have it updated
14527 automatically, just tell @code{gnus-group-split-setup} to do it for
14528 you. For example, add to your @file{~/.gnus.el}:
14531 (gnus-group-split-setup @var{auto-update} @var{catch-all})
14534 If @var{auto-update} is non-@code{nil}, @code{gnus-group-split-update}
14535 will be added to @code{nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook}, so you won't ever
14536 have to worry about updating @code{nnmail-split-fancy} again. If you
14537 don't omit @var{catch-all} (it's optional, equivalent to @code{nil}),
14538 @code{gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group} will be set to its
14541 @vindex gnus-group-split-updated-hook
14542 Because you may want to change @code{nnmail-split-fancy} after it is set
14543 by @code{gnus-group-split-update}, this function will run
14544 @code{gnus-group-split-updated-hook} just before finishing.
14546 @node Incorporating Old Mail
14547 @subsection Incorporating Old Mail
14548 @cindex incorporating old mail
14549 @cindex import old mail
14551 Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats. If
14552 you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
14553 back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
14556 Doing so can be quite easy.
14558 To take an example: You're reading mail using @code{nnml}
14559 (@pxref{Mail Spool}), and have set @code{nnmail-split-methods} to a
14560 satisfactory value (@pxref{Splitting Mail}). You have an old Unix mbox
14561 file filled with important, but old, mail. You want to move it into
14562 your @code{nnml} groups.
14568 Go to the group buffer.
14571 Type @kbd{G f} and give the file name to the mbox file when prompted to create an
14572 @code{nndoc} group from the mbox file (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
14575 Type @kbd{SPACE} to enter the newly created group.
14578 Type @kbd{M P b} to process-mark all articles in this group's buffer
14579 (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
14582 Type @kbd{B r} to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
14583 @samp{nnml} when prompted (@pxref{Mail Group Commands}).
14586 All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out over
14587 all your @code{nnml} groups. Try entering them and check whether things
14588 have gone without a glitch. If things look ok, you may consider
14589 deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
14590 sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.
14592 Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one mail
14593 back end to another. Just respool all the mail in the old mail groups
14594 using the new mail back end.
14597 @node Expiring Mail
14598 @subsection Expiring Mail
14599 @cindex article expiry
14601 Traditional mail readers have a tendency to remove mail articles when
14602 you mark them as read, in some way. Gnus takes a fundamentally
14603 different approach to mail reading.
14605 Gnus basically considers mail just to be news that has been received in
14606 a rather peculiar manner. It does not think that it has the power to
14607 actually change the mail, or delete any mail messages. If you enter a
14608 mail group, and mark articles as ``read'', or kill them in some other
14609 fashion, the mail articles will still exist on the system. I repeat:
14610 Gnus will not delete your old, read mail. Unless you ask it to, of
14613 To make Gnus get rid of your unwanted mail, you have to mark the
14614 articles as @dfn{expirable}. (With the default key bindings, this means
14615 that you have to type @kbd{E}.) This does not mean that the articles
14616 will disappear right away, however. In general, a mail article will be
14617 deleted from your system if, 1) it is marked as expirable, AND 2) it is
14618 more than one week old. If you do not mark an article as expirable, it
14619 will remain on your system until hell freezes over. This bears
14620 repeating one more time, with some spurious capitalizations: IF you do
14621 NOT mark articles as EXPIRABLE, Gnus will NEVER delete those ARTICLES.
14623 You do not have to mark articles as expirable by hand. Gnus provides
14624 two features, called ``auto-expire'' and ``total-expire'', that can help you
14625 with this. In a nutshell, ``auto-expire'' means that Gnus hits @kbd{E}
14626 for you when you select an article. And ``total-expire'' means that Gnus
14627 considers all articles as expirable that are read. So, in addition to
14628 the articles marked @samp{E}, also the articles marked @samp{r},
14629 @samp{R}, @samp{O}, @samp{K}, @samp{Y} and so on are considered
14632 When should either auto-expire or total-expire be used? Most people
14633 who are subscribed to mailing lists split each list into its own group
14634 and then turn on auto-expire or total-expire for those groups.
14635 (@xref{Splitting Mail}, for more information on splitting each list
14636 into its own group.)
14638 Which one is better, auto-expire or total-expire? It's not easy to
14639 answer. Generally speaking, auto-expire is probably faster. Another
14640 advantage of auto-expire is that you get more marks to work with: for
14641 the articles that are supposed to stick around, you can still choose
14642 between tick and dormant and read marks. But with total-expire, you
14643 only have dormant and ticked to choose from. The advantage of
14644 total-expire is that it works well with adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive
14645 Scoring}). Auto-expire works with normal scoring but not with adaptive
14648 @vindex gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
14649 Groups that match the regular expression
14650 @code{gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups} will have all articles that you
14651 read marked as expirable automatically. All articles marked as
14652 expirable have an @samp{E} in the first column in the summary buffer.
14654 By default, if you have auto expiry switched on, Gnus will mark all the
14655 articles you read as expirable, no matter if they were read or unread
14656 before. To avoid having articles marked as read marked as expirable
14657 automatically, you can put something like the following in your
14658 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
14660 @vindex gnus-mark-article-hook
14662 (remove-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook
14663 'gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read)
14664 (add-hook 'gnus-mark-article-hook 'gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read)
14667 Note that making a group auto-expirable doesn't mean that all read
14668 articles are expired---only the articles marked as expirable
14669 will be expired. Also note that using the @kbd{d} command won't make
14670 articles expirable---only semi-automatic marking of articles as read will
14671 mark the articles as expirable in auto-expirable groups.
14673 Let's say you subscribe to a couple of mailing lists, and you want the
14674 articles you have read to disappear after a while:
14677 (setq gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups
14678 "mail.nonsense-list\\|mail.nice-list")
14681 Another way to have auto-expiry happen is to have the element
14682 @code{auto-expire} in the group parameters of the group.
14684 If you use adaptive scoring (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}) and
14685 auto-expiring, you'll have problems. Auto-expiring and adaptive scoring
14686 don't really mix very well.
14688 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait
14689 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable supplies the default time an
14690 expirable article has to live. Gnus starts counting days from when the
14691 message @emph{arrived}, not from when it was sent. The default is seven
14694 Gnus also supplies a function that lets you fine-tune how long articles
14695 are to live, based on what group they are in. Let's say you want to
14696 have one month expiry period in the @samp{mail.private} group, a one day
14697 expiry period in the @samp{mail.junk} group, and a six day expiry period
14700 @vindex nnmail-expiry-wait-function
14702 (setq nnmail-expiry-wait-function
14704 (cond ((string= group "mail.private")
14706 ((string= group "mail.junk")
14708 ((string= group "important")
14714 The group names this function is fed are ``unadorned'' group
14715 names---no @samp{nnml:} prefixes and the like.
14717 The @code{nnmail-expiry-wait} variable and
14718 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} function can either be a number (not
14719 necessarily an integer) or one of the symbols @code{immediate} or
14722 You can also use the @code{expiry-wait} group parameter to selectively
14723 change the expiry period (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
14725 @vindex nnmail-expiry-target
14726 The normal action taken when expiring articles is to delete them.
14727 However, in some circumstances it might make more sense to move them
14728 to other groups instead of deleting them. The variable
14729 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} (and the @code{expiry-target} group
14730 parameter) controls this. The variable supplies a default value for
14731 all groups, which can be overridden for specific groups by the group
14732 parameter. default value is @code{delete}, but this can also be a
14733 string (which should be the name of the group the message should be
14734 moved to), or a function (which will be called in a buffer narrowed to
14735 the message in question, and with the name of the group being moved
14736 from as its parameter) which should return a target---either a group
14737 name or @code{delete}.
14739 Here's an example for specifying a group name:
14741 (setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
14744 @findex nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
14745 @vindex nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
14746 Gnus provides a function @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-target} which will
14747 expire mail to groups according to the variable
14748 @code{nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets}. Here's an example:
14751 (setq nnmail-expiry-target 'nnmail-fancy-expiry-target
14752 nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets
14753 '((to-from "boss" "nnfolder:Work")
14754 ("subject" "IMPORTANT" "nnfolder:IMPORTANT.%Y.%b")
14755 ("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Archive-%Y")))
14758 With this setup, any mail that has @code{IMPORTANT} in its Subject
14759 header and was sent in the year @code{YYYY} and month @code{MMM}, will
14760 get expired to the group @code{nnfolder:IMPORTANT.YYYY.MMM}. If its
14761 From or To header contains the string @code{boss}, it will get expired
14762 to @code{nnfolder:Work}. All other mail will get expired to
14763 @code{nnfolder:Archive-YYYY}.
14765 @vindex nnmail-keep-last-article
14766 If @code{nnmail-keep-last-article} is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will never
14767 expire the final article in a mail newsgroup. This is to make life
14768 easier for procmail users.
14770 @vindex gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups
14771 By the way: That line up there, about Gnus never expiring non-expirable
14772 articles, is a lie. If you put @code{total-expire} in the group
14773 parameters, articles will not be marked as expirable, but all read
14774 articles will be put through the expiry process. Use with extreme
14775 caution. Even more dangerous is the
14776 @code{gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups} variable. All groups that match
14777 this regexp will have all read articles put through the expiry process,
14778 which means that @emph{all} old mail articles in the groups in question
14779 will be deleted after a while. Use with extreme caution, and don't come
14780 crying to me when you discover that the regexp you used matched the
14781 wrong group and all your important mail has disappeared. Be a
14782 @emph{man}! Or a @emph{woman}! Whatever you feel more comfortable
14785 Most people make most of their mail groups total-expirable, though.
14787 @vindex gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire
14788 If @code{gnus-inhibit-user-auto-expire} is non-@code{nil}, user marking
14789 commands will not mark an article as expirable, even if the group has
14790 auto-expire turned on.
14794 @subsection Washing Mail
14795 @cindex mail washing
14796 @cindex list server brain damage
14797 @cindex incoming mail treatment
14799 Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
14800 really stupid things with mail. ``Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
14801 prohibit us from adding the string @code{wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!} to the
14802 end of all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!''
14803 Yes, but RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons. Things that were
14804 considered to be self-evident were not discussed. So. Here we are.
14806 Case in point: The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds @samp{AW:
14807 } to the subjects of replies instead of @samp{Re: }. I could pretend to
14808 be shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy. It is to
14811 Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
14812 displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
14813 storing the mail to disk. For that purpose, we have three hooks and
14814 various functions that can be put in these hooks.
14817 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
14818 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook
14819 This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is meant for
14820 grand, sweeping gestures. It is called in a buffer that contains all
14821 the new, incoming mail. Functions to be used include:
14824 @item nnheader-ms-strip-cr
14825 @findex nnheader-ms-strip-cr
14826 Remove trailing carriage returns from each line. This is default on
14827 Emacs running on MS machines.
14831 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
14832 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook
14833 This hook is called narrowed to each header. It can be used when
14834 cleaning up the headers. Functions that can be used include:
14837 @item nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
14838 @findex nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace
14839 Clear leading white space that ``helpful'' listservs have added to the
14840 headers to make them look nice. Aaah.
14842 (Note that this function works on both the header on the body of all
14843 messages, so it is a potentially dangerous function to use (if a body
14844 of a message contains something that looks like a header line). So
14845 rather than fix the bug, it is of course the right solution to make it
14846 into a feature by documenting it.)
14848 @item nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
14849 @findex nnmail-remove-list-identifiers
14850 Some list servers add an identifier---for example, @samp{(idm)}---to the
14851 beginning of all @code{Subject} headers. I'm sure that's nice for
14852 people who use stone age mail readers. This function will remove
14853 strings that match the @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} regexp, which can
14854 also be a list of regexp. @code{nnmail-list-identifiers} may not contain
14857 For instance, if you want to remove the @samp{(idm)} and the
14858 @samp{nagnagnag} identifiers:
14861 (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
14862 '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))
14865 This can also be done non-destructively with
14866 @code{gnus-list-identifiers}, @xref{Article Hiding}.
14868 @item nnmail-remove-tabs
14869 @findex nnmail-remove-tabs
14870 Translate all @samp{TAB} characters into @samp{SPACE} characters.
14872 @item nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
14873 @findex nnmail-fix-eudora-headers
14875 Eudora produces broken @code{References} headers, but OK
14876 @code{In-Reply-To} headers. This function will get rid of the
14877 @code{References} headers.
14881 @item nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
14882 @vindex nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook
14883 This hook is called narrowed to each message. Functions to be used
14887 @item article-de-quoted-unreadable
14888 @findex article-de-quoted-unreadable
14889 Decode Quoted Readable encoding.
14896 @subsection Duplicates
14898 @vindex nnmail-treat-duplicates
14899 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-length
14900 @vindex nnmail-message-id-cache-file
14901 @cindex duplicate mails
14902 If you are a member of a couple of mailing lists, you will sometimes
14903 receive two copies of the same mail. This can be quite annoying, so
14904 @code{nnmail} checks for and treats any duplicates it might find. To do
14905 this, it keeps a cache of old @code{Message-ID}s---
14906 @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-file}, which is @file{~/.nnmail-cache} by
14907 default. The approximate maximum number of @code{Message-ID}s stored
14908 there is controlled by the @code{nnmail-message-id-cache-length}
14909 variable, which is 1000 by default. (So 1000 @code{Message-ID}s will be
14910 stored.) If all this sounds scary to you, you can set
14911 @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} to @code{warn} (which is what it is by
14912 default), and @code{nnmail} won't delete duplicate mails. Instead it
14913 will insert a warning into the head of the mail saying that it thinks
14914 that this is a duplicate of a different message.
14916 This variable can also be a function. If that's the case, the function
14917 will be called from a buffer narrowed to the message in question with
14918 the @code{Message-ID} as a parameter. The function must return either
14919 @code{nil}, @code{warn}, or @code{delete}.
14921 You can turn this feature off completely by setting the variable to
14924 If you want all the duplicate mails to be put into a special
14925 @dfn{duplicates} group, you could do that using the normal mail split
14929 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
14930 '(| ;; @r{Messages duplicates go to a separate group.}
14931 ("gnus-warning" "duplicat\\(e\\|ion\\) of message" "duplicate")
14932 ;; @r{Message from daemons, postmaster, and the like to another.}
14933 (any mail "mail.misc")
14934 ;; @r{Other rules.}
14940 (setq nnmail-split-methods
14941 '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
14942 ;; @r{Other rules.}
14946 Here's a neat feature: If you know that the recipient reads her mail
14947 with Gnus, and that she has @code{nnmail-treat-duplicates} set to
14948 @code{delete}, you can send her as many insults as you like, just by
14949 using a @code{Message-ID} of a mail that you know that she's already
14950 received. Think of all the fun! She'll never see any of it! Whee!
14953 @node Not Reading Mail
14954 @subsection Not Reading Mail
14956 If you start using any of the mail back ends, they have the annoying
14957 habit of assuming that you want to read mail with them. This might not
14958 be unreasonable, but it might not be what you want.
14960 If you set @code{mail-sources} and @code{nnmail-spool-file} to
14961 @code{nil}, none of the back ends will ever attempt to read incoming
14962 mail, which should help.
14964 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
14965 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
14966 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
14967 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
14968 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
14969 This might be too much, if, for instance, you are reading mail quite
14970 happily with @code{nnml} and just want to peek at some old Rmail
14971 file you have stashed away with @code{nnbabyl}. All back ends have
14972 variables called back-end-@code{get-new-mail}. If you want to disable
14973 the @code{nnbabyl} mail reading, you edit the virtual server for the
14974 group to have a setting where @code{nnbabyl-get-new-mail} to @code{nil}.
14976 All the mail back ends will call @code{nn}*@code{-prepare-save-mail-hook}
14977 narrowed to the article to be saved before saving it when reading
14981 @node Choosing a Mail Back End
14982 @subsection Choosing a Mail Back End
14984 Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail
14985 file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that
14986 depends on what format you want to store your mail in.
14988 There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more
14989 back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use
14990 (because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
14994 * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
14995 * Rmail Babyl:: Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
14996 * Mail Spool:: Store your mail in a private spool?
14997 * MH Spool:: An mhspool-like back end.
14998 * Maildir:: Another one-file-per-message format.
14999 * Mail Folders:: Having one file for each group.
15000 * Comparing Mail Back Ends:: An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
15004 @node Unix Mail Box
15005 @subsubsection Unix Mail Box
15007 @cindex unix mail box
15009 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
15010 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
15011 The @dfn{nnmbox} back end will use the standard Un*x mbox file to store
15012 mail. @code{nnmbox} will add extra headers to each mail article to say
15013 which group it belongs in.
15015 Virtual server settings:
15018 @item nnmbox-mbox-file
15019 @vindex nnmbox-mbox-file
15020 The name of the mail box in the user's home directory. Default is
15023 @item nnmbox-active-file
15024 @vindex nnmbox-active-file
15025 The name of the active file for the mail box. Default is
15026 @file{~/.mbox-active}.
15028 @item nnmbox-get-new-mail
15029 @vindex nnmbox-get-new-mail
15030 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmbox} will read incoming mail and split it
15031 into groups. Default is @code{t}.
15036 @subsubsection Rmail Babyl
15040 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
15041 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
15042 The @dfn{nnbabyl} back end will use a Babyl mail box (aka. @dfn{Rmail
15043 mbox}) to store mail. @code{nnbabyl} will add extra headers to each
15044 mail article to say which group it belongs in.
15046 Virtual server settings:
15049 @item nnbabyl-mbox-file
15050 @vindex nnbabyl-mbox-file
15051 The name of the Rmail mbox file. The default is @file{~/RMAIL}
15053 @item nnbabyl-active-file
15054 @vindex nnbabyl-active-file
15055 The name of the active file for the rmail box. The default is
15056 @file{~/.rmail-active}
15058 @item nnbabyl-get-new-mail
15059 @vindex nnbabyl-get-new-mail
15060 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnbabyl} will read incoming mail. Default is
15066 @subsubsection Mail Spool
15068 @cindex mail @acronym{NOV} spool
15070 The @dfn{nnml} spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known
15071 format. It should be used with some caution.
15073 @vindex nnml-directory
15074 If you use this back end, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files,
15075 one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding
15076 directories under the directory specified by the @code{nnml-directory}
15077 variable. The default value is @file{~/Mail/}.
15079 You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take
15082 If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store
15083 in your account, you should not use this back end. As each mail gets its
15084 own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few
15085 weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you
15086 having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly,
15087 shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should
15088 know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have
15089 to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.
15091 @code{nnml} is probably the slowest back end when it comes to article
15092 splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates
15093 @acronym{NOV} databases for the incoming mails. This makes it possibly the
15094 fastest back end when it comes to reading mail.
15096 @cindex self contained nnml servers
15098 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnml}
15099 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
15100 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
15101 proper @code{nnml} server) and have all your marks be preserved. Marks
15102 for a group is usually stored in the @code{.marks} file (but see
15103 @code{nnml-marks-file-name}) within each @code{nnml} group's directory.
15104 Individual @code{nnml} groups are also possible to backup, use @kbd{G m}
15105 to restore the group (after restoring the backup into the nnml
15108 If for some reason you believe your @file{.marks} files are screwed
15109 up, you can just delete them all. Gnus will then correctly regenerate
15110 them next time it starts.
15112 Virtual server settings:
15115 @item nnml-directory
15116 @vindex nnml-directory
15117 All @code{nnml} directories will be placed under this directory. The
15118 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default value
15121 @item nnml-active-file
15122 @vindex nnml-active-file
15123 The active file for the @code{nnml} server. The default is
15124 @file{~/Mail/active}.
15126 @item nnml-newsgroups-file
15127 @vindex nnml-newsgroups-file
15128 The @code{nnml} group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
15129 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}.
15131 @item nnml-get-new-mail
15132 @vindex nnml-get-new-mail
15133 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will read incoming mail. The default is
15136 @item nnml-nov-is-evil
15137 @vindex nnml-nov-is-evil
15138 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
15139 default is @code{nil}.
15141 @item nnml-nov-file-name
15142 @vindex nnml-nov-file-name
15143 The name of the @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.overview}.
15145 @item nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
15146 @vindex nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
15147 Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.
15149 @item nnml-marks-is-evil
15150 @vindex nnml-marks-is-evil
15151 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
15152 default is @code{nil}.
15154 @item nnml-marks-file-name
15155 @vindex nnml-marks-file-name
15156 The name of the @dfn{marks} files. The default is @file{.marks}.
15158 @item nnml-use-compressed-files
15159 @vindex nnml-use-compressed-files
15160 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnml} will allow using compressed message
15161 files. This variable requires @code{auto-compression-mode} to be
15162 enabled (@pxref{Compressed Files, ,Compressed Files, emacs, The Emacs
15165 @item nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
15166 @vindex nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold
15167 Default size threshold for compressed message files. Message files with
15168 bodies larger than that many characters will be automatically compressed
15169 if @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-nil.
15173 @findex nnml-generate-nov-databases
15174 If your @code{nnml} groups and @acronym{NOV} files get totally out of
15175 whack, you can do a complete update by typing @kbd{M-x
15176 nnml-generate-nov-databases}. This command will trawl through the
15177 entire @code{nnml} hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it
15178 might take a while to complete. A better interface to this
15179 functionality can be found in the server buffer (@pxref{Server
15184 @subsubsection MH Spool
15186 @cindex mh-e mail spool
15188 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, except that is doesn't generate
15189 @acronym{NOV} databases and it doesn't keep an active file or marks
15190 file. This makes @code{nnmh} a @emph{much} slower back end than
15191 @code{nnml}, but it also makes it easier to write procmail scripts
15194 Virtual server settings:
15197 @item nnmh-directory
15198 @vindex nnmh-directory
15199 All @code{nnmh} directories will be located under this directory. The
15200 default is the value of @code{message-directory} (whose default is
15203 @item nnmh-get-new-mail
15204 @vindex nnmh-get-new-mail
15205 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will read incoming mail. The default is
15209 @vindex nnmh-be-safe
15210 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmh} will go to ridiculous lengths to make
15211 sure that the articles in the folder are actually what Gnus thinks
15212 they are. It will check date stamps and stat everything in sight, so
15213 setting this to @code{t} will mean a serious slow-down. If you never
15214 use anything but Gnus to read the @code{nnmh} articles, you do not
15215 have to set this variable to @code{t}. The default is @code{nil}.
15220 @subsubsection Maildir
15224 @code{nnmaildir} stores mail in the maildir format, with each maildir
15225 corresponding to a group in Gnus. This format is documented here:
15226 @uref{http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html} and here:
15227 @uref{http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html}. @code{nnmaildir}
15228 also stores extra information in the @file{.nnmaildir/} directory
15231 Maildir format was designed to allow concurrent deliveries and
15232 reading, without needing locks. With other back ends, you would have
15233 your mail delivered to a spool of some kind, and then you would
15234 configure Gnus to split mail from that spool into your groups. You
15235 can still do that with @code{nnmaildir}, but the more common
15236 configuration is to have your mail delivered directly to the maildirs
15237 that appear as group in Gnus.
15239 @code{nnmaildir} is designed to be perfectly reliable: @kbd{C-g} will
15240 never corrupt its data in memory, and @code{SIGKILL} will never
15241 corrupt its data in the filesystem.
15243 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks and @acronym{NOV} data in each
15244 maildir. So you can copy a whole maildir from one Gnus setup to
15245 another, and you will keep your marks.
15247 Virtual server settings:
15251 For each of your @code{nnmaildir} servers (it's very unlikely that
15252 you'd need more than one), you need to create a directory and populate
15253 it with maildirs or symlinks to maildirs (and nothing else; do not
15254 choose a directory already used for other purposes). Each maildir
15255 will be represented in Gnus as a newsgroup on that server; the
15256 filename of the symlink will be the name of the group. Any filenames
15257 in the directory starting with @samp{.} are ignored. The directory is
15258 scanned when you first start Gnus, and each time you type @kbd{g} in
15259 the group buffer; if any maildirs have been removed or added,
15260 @code{nnmaildir} notices at these times.
15262 The value of the @code{directory} parameter should be a Lisp form
15263 which is processed by @code{eval} and @code{expand-file-name} to get
15264 the path of the directory for this server. The form is @code{eval}ed
15265 only when the server is opened; the resulting string is used until the
15266 server is closed. (If you don't know about forms and @code{eval},
15267 don't worry---a simple string will work.) This parameter is not
15268 optional; you must specify it. I don't recommend using
15269 @code{"~/Mail"} or a subdirectory of it; several other parts of Gnus
15270 use that directory by default for various things, and may get confused
15271 if @code{nnmaildir} uses it too. @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} is a typical
15274 @item target-prefix
15275 This should be a Lisp form which is processed by @code{eval} and
15276 @code{expand-file-name}. The form is @code{eval}ed only when the
15277 server is opened; the resulting string is used until the server is
15280 When you create a group on an @code{nnmaildir} server, the maildir is
15281 created with @code{target-prefix} prepended to its name, and a symlink
15282 pointing to that maildir is created, named with the plain group name.
15283 So if @code{directory} is @code{"~/.nnmaildir"} and
15284 @code{target-prefix} is @code{"../maildirs/"}, then when you create
15285 the group @code{foo}, @code{nnmaildir} will create
15286 @file{~/.nnmaildir/../maildirs/foo} as a maildir, and will create
15287 @file{~/.nnmaildir/foo} as a symlink pointing to
15288 @file{../maildirs/foo}.
15290 You can set @code{target-prefix} to a string without any slashes to
15291 create both maildirs and symlinks in the same @code{directory}; in
15292 this case, any maildirs found in @code{directory} whose names start
15293 with @code{target-prefix} will not be listed as groups (but the
15294 symlinks pointing to them will be).
15296 As a special case, if @code{target-prefix} is @code{""} (the default),
15297 then when you create a group, the maildir will be created in
15298 @code{directory} without a corresponding symlink. Beware that you
15299 cannot use @code{gnus-group-delete-group} on such groups without the
15300 @code{force} argument.
15302 @item directory-files
15303 This should be a function with the same interface as
15304 @code{directory-files} (such as @code{directory-files} itself). It is
15305 used to scan the server's @code{directory} for maildirs. This
15306 parameter is optional; the default is
15307 @code{nnheader-directory-files-safe} if
15308 @code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is @code{nil}, and
15309 @code{directory-files} otherwise.
15310 (@code{nnheader-directory-files-is-safe} is checked only once when the
15311 server is opened; if you want to check it each time the directory is
15312 scanned, you'll have to provide your own function that does that.)
15315 If non-@code{nil}, then after scanning for new mail in the group
15316 maildirs themselves as usual, this server will also incorporate mail
15317 the conventional Gnus way, from @code{mail-sources} according to
15318 @code{nnmail-split-methods} or @code{nnmail-split-fancy}. The default
15319 value is @code{nil}.
15321 Do @emph{not} use the same maildir both in @code{mail-sources} and as
15322 an @code{nnmaildir} group. The results might happen to be useful, but
15323 that would be by chance, not by design, and the results might be
15324 different in the future. If your split rules create new groups,
15325 remember to supply a @code{create-directory} server parameter.
15328 @subsubsection Group parameters
15330 @code{nnmaildir} uses several group parameters. It's safe to ignore
15331 all this; the default behavior for @code{nnmaildir} is the same as the
15332 default behavior for other mail back ends: articles are deleted after
15333 one week, etc. Except for the expiry parameters, all this
15334 functionality is unique to @code{nnmaildir}, so you can ignore it if
15335 you're just trying to duplicate the behavior you already have with
15338 If the value of any of these parameters is a vector, the first element
15339 is evaluated as a Lisp form and the result is used, rather than the
15340 original value. If the value is not a vector, the value itself is
15341 evaluated as a Lisp form. (This is why these parameters use names
15342 different from those of other, similar parameters supported by other
15343 back ends: they have different, though similar, meanings.) (For
15344 numbers, strings, @code{nil}, and @code{t}, you can ignore the
15345 @code{eval} business again; for other values, remember to use an extra
15346 quote and wrap the value in a vector when appropriate.)
15350 An integer specifying the minimum age, in seconds, of an article
15351 before it will be expired, or the symbol @code{never} to specify that
15352 articles should never be expired. If this parameter is not set,
15353 @code{nnmaildir} falls back to the usual
15354 @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}(@code{-function}) variables (the
15355 @code{expiry-wait} group parameter overrides @code{nnmail-expiry-wait}
15356 and makes @code{nnmail-expiry-wait-function} ineffective). If you
15357 wanted a value of 3 days, you could use something like @code{[(* 3 24
15358 60 60)]}; @code{nnmaildir} will evaluate the form and use the result.
15359 An article's age is measured starting from the article file's
15360 modification time. Normally, this is the same as the article's
15361 delivery time, but editing an article makes it younger. Moving an
15362 article (other than via expiry) may also make an article younger.
15365 If this is set to a string such as a full Gnus group name, like
15367 "backend+server.address.string:group.name"
15369 and if it is not the name of the same group that the parameter belongs
15370 to, then articles will be moved to the specified group during expiry
15371 before being deleted. @emph{If this is set to an @code{nnmaildir}
15372 group, the article will be just as old in the destination group as it
15373 was in the source group.} So be careful with @code{expire-age} in the
15374 destination group. If this is set to the name of the same group that
15375 the parameter belongs to, then the article is not expired at all. If
15376 you use the vector form, the first element is evaluated once for each
15377 article. So that form can refer to
15378 @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name}, etc., to decide where to put the
15379 article. @emph{Even if this parameter is not set, @code{nnmaildir}
15380 does not fall back to the @code{expiry-target} group parameter or the
15381 @code{nnmail-expiry-target} variable.}
15384 If this is set to @code{t}, @code{nnmaildir} will treat the articles
15385 in this maildir as read-only. This means: articles are not renamed
15386 from @file{new/} into @file{cur/}; articles are only found in
15387 @file{new/}, not @file{cur/}; articles are never deleted; articles
15388 cannot be edited. @file{new/} is expected to be a symlink to the
15389 @file{new/} directory of another maildir---e.g., a system-wide mailbox
15390 containing a mailing list of common interest. Everything in the
15391 maildir outside @file{new/} is @emph{not} treated as read-only, so for
15392 a shared mailbox, you do still need to set up your own maildir (or
15393 have write permission to the shared mailbox); your maildir just won't
15394 contain extra copies of the articles.
15396 @item directory-files
15397 A function with the same interface as @code{directory-files}. It is
15398 used to scan the directories in the maildir corresponding to this
15399 group to find articles. The default is the function specified by the
15400 server's @code{directory-files} parameter.
15402 @item distrust-Lines:
15403 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnmaildir} will always count the lines of an
15404 article, rather than use the @code{Lines:} header field. If
15405 @code{nil}, the header field will be used if present.
15408 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(read expire)]}. Whenever
15409 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
15410 say that all articles have these marks, regardless of whether the
15411 marks stored in the filesystem say so. This is a proof-of-concept
15412 feature that will probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done
15413 in Gnus proper, or abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
15416 A list of mark symbols, such as @code{['(tick expire)]}. Whenever
15417 Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for article marks, @code{nnmaildir} will
15418 say that no articles have these marks, regardless of whether the marks
15419 stored in the filesystem say so. @code{never-marks} overrides
15420 @code{always-marks}. This is a proof-of-concept feature that will
15421 probably be removed eventually; it ought to be done in Gnus proper, or
15422 abandoned if it's not worthwhile.
15424 @item nov-cache-size
15425 An integer specifying the size of the @acronym{NOV} memory cache. To
15426 speed things up, @code{nnmaildir} keeps @acronym{NOV} data in memory
15427 for a limited number of articles in each group. (This is probably not
15428 worthwhile, and will probably be removed in the future.) This
15429 parameter's value is noticed only the first time a group is seen after
15430 the server is opened---i.e., when you first start Gnus, typically.
15431 The @acronym{NOV} cache is never resized until the server is closed
15432 and reopened. The default is an estimate of the number of articles
15433 that would be displayed in the summary buffer: a count of articles
15434 that are either marked with @code{tick} or not marked with
15435 @code{read}, plus a little extra.
15438 @subsubsection Article identification
15439 Articles are stored in the @file{cur/} subdirectory of each maildir.
15440 Each article file is named like @code{uniq:info}, where @code{uniq}
15441 contains no colons. @code{nnmaildir} ignores, but preserves, the
15442 @code{:info} part. (Other maildir readers typically use this part of
15443 the filename to store marks.) The @code{uniq} part uniquely
15444 identifies the article, and is used in various places in the
15445 @file{.nnmaildir/} subdirectory of the maildir to store information
15446 about the corresponding article. The full pathname of an article is
15447 available in the variable @code{nnmaildir-article-file-name} after you
15448 request the article in the summary buffer.
15450 @subsubsection NOV data
15451 An article identified by @code{uniq} has its @acronym{NOV} data (used
15452 to generate lines in the summary buffer) stored in
15453 @code{.nnmaildir/nov/uniq}. There is no
15454 @code{nnmaildir-generate-nov-databases} function. (There isn't much
15455 need for it---an article's @acronym{NOV} data is updated automatically
15456 when the article or @code{nnmail-extra-headers} has changed.) You can
15457 force @code{nnmaildir} to regenerate the @acronym{NOV} data for a
15458 single article simply by deleting the corresponding @acronym{NOV}
15459 file, but @emph{beware}: this will also cause @code{nnmaildir} to
15460 assign a new article number for this article, which may cause trouble
15461 with @code{seen} marks, the Agent, and the cache.
15463 @subsubsection Article marks
15464 An article identified by @code{uniq} is considered to have the mark
15465 @code{flag} when the file @file{.nnmaildir/marks/flag/uniq} exists.
15466 When Gnus asks @code{nnmaildir} for a group's marks, @code{nnmaildir}
15467 looks for such files and reports the set of marks it finds. When Gnus
15468 asks @code{nnmaildir} to store a new set of marks, @code{nnmaildir}
15469 creates and deletes the corresponding files as needed. (Actually,
15470 rather than create a new file for each mark, it just creates hard
15471 links to @file{.nnmaildir/markfile}, to save inodes.)
15473 You can invent new marks by creating a new directory in
15474 @file{.nnmaildir/marks/}. You can tar up a maildir and remove it from
15475 your server, untar it later, and keep your marks. You can add and
15476 remove marks yourself by creating and deleting mark files. If you do
15477 this while Gnus is running and your @code{nnmaildir} server is open,
15478 it's best to exit all summary buffers for @code{nnmaildir} groups and
15479 type @kbd{s} in the group buffer first, and to type @kbd{g} or
15480 @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer afterwards. Otherwise, Gnus might not
15481 pick up the changes, and might undo them.
15485 @subsubsection Mail Folders
15487 @cindex mbox folders
15488 @cindex mail folders
15490 @code{nnfolder} is a back end for storing each mail group in a
15491 separate file. Each file is in the standard Un*x mbox format.
15492 @code{nnfolder} will add extra headers to keep track of article
15493 numbers and arrival dates.
15495 @cindex self contained nnfolder servers
15497 When the marks file is used (which it is by default), @code{nnfolder}
15498 servers have the property that you may backup them using @code{tar} or
15499 similar, and later be able to restore them into Gnus (by adding the
15500 proper @code{nnfolder} server) and have all your marks be preserved.
15501 Marks for a group is usually stored in a file named as the mbox file
15502 with @code{.mrk} concatenated to it (but see
15503 @code{nnfolder-marks-file-suffix}) within the @code{nnfolder}
15504 directory. Individual @code{nnfolder} groups are also possible to
15505 backup, use @kbd{G m} to restore the group (after restoring the backup
15506 into the @code{nnfolder} directory).
15508 Virtual server settings:
15511 @item nnfolder-directory
15512 @vindex nnfolder-directory
15513 All the @code{nnfolder} mail boxes will be stored under this
15514 directory. The default is the value of @code{message-directory}
15515 (whose default is @file{~/Mail})
15517 @item nnfolder-active-file
15518 @vindex nnfolder-active-file
15519 The name of the active file. The default is @file{~/Mail/active}.
15521 @item nnfolder-newsgroups-file
15522 @vindex nnfolder-newsgroups-file
15523 The name of the group descriptions file. @xref{Newsgroups File
15524 Format}. The default is @file{~/Mail/newsgroups}
15526 @item nnfolder-get-new-mail
15527 @vindex nnfolder-get-new-mail
15528 If non-@code{nil}, @code{nnfolder} will read incoming mail. The
15529 default is @code{t}
15531 @item nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
15532 @vindex nnfolder-save-buffer-hook
15533 @cindex backup files
15534 Hook run before saving the folders. Note that Emacs does the normal
15535 backup renaming of files even with the @code{nnfolder} buffers. If
15536 you wish to switch this off, you could say something like the
15537 following in your @file{.emacs} file:
15540 (defun turn-off-backup ()
15541 (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t))
15543 (add-hook 'nnfolder-save-buffer-hook 'turn-off-backup)
15546 @item nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
15547 @vindex nnfolder-delete-mail-hook
15548 Hook run in a buffer narrowed to the message that is to be deleted.
15549 This function can be used to copy the message to somewhere else, or to
15550 extract some information from it before removing it.
15552 @item nnfolder-nov-is-evil
15553 @vindex nnfolder-nov-is-evil
15554 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @acronym{NOV} files. The
15555 default is @code{nil}.
15557 @item nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
15558 @vindex nnfolder-nov-file-suffix
15559 The extension for @acronym{NOV} files. The default is @file{.nov}.
15561 @item nnfolder-nov-directory
15562 @vindex nnfolder-nov-directory
15563 The directory where the @acronym{NOV} files should be stored. If
15564 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
15566 @item nnfolder-marks-is-evil
15567 @vindex nnfolder-marks-is-evil
15568 If non-@code{nil}, this back end will ignore any @sc{marks} files. The
15569 default is @code{nil}.
15571 @item nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
15572 @vindex nnfolder-marks-file-suffix
15573 The extension for @sc{marks} files. The default is @file{.mrk}.
15575 @item nnfolder-marks-directory
15576 @vindex nnfolder-marks-directory
15577 The directory where the @sc{marks} files should be stored. If
15578 @code{nil}, @code{nnfolder-directory} is used.
15583 @findex nnfolder-generate-active-file
15584 @kindex M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file
15585 If you have lots of @code{nnfolder}-like files you'd like to read with
15586 @code{nnfolder}, you can use the @kbd{M-x nnfolder-generate-active-file}
15587 command to make @code{nnfolder} aware of all likely files in
15588 @code{nnfolder-directory}. This only works if you use long file names,
15591 @node Comparing Mail Back Ends
15592 @subsubsection Comparing Mail Back Ends
15594 First, just for terminology, the @dfn{back end} is the common word for a
15595 low-level access method---a transport, if you will, by which something
15596 is acquired. The sense is that one's mail has to come from somewhere,
15597 and so selection of a suitable back end is required in order to get that
15598 mail within spitting distance of Gnus.
15600 The same concept exists for Usenet itself: Though access to articles is
15601 typically done by @acronym{NNTP} these days, once upon a midnight dreary, everyone
15602 in the world got at Usenet by running a reader on the machine where the
15603 articles lay (the machine which today we call an @acronym{NNTP} server), and
15604 access was by the reader stepping into the articles' directory spool
15605 area directly. One can still select between either the @code{nntp} or
15606 @code{nnspool} back ends, to select between these methods, if one happens
15607 actually to live on the server (or can see its spool directly, anyway,
15610 The goal in selecting a mail back end is to pick one which
15611 simultaneously represents a suitable way of dealing with the original
15612 format plus leaving mail in a form that is convenient to use in the
15613 future. Here are some high and low points on each:
15618 UNIX systems have historically had a single, very common, and well-
15619 defined format. All messages arrive in a single @dfn{spool file}, and
15620 they are delineated by a line whose regular expression matches
15621 @samp{^From_}. (My notational use of @samp{_} is to indicate a space,
15622 to make it clear in this instance that this is not the RFC-specified
15623 @samp{From:} header.) Because Emacs and therefore Gnus emanate
15624 historically from the Unix environment, it is simplest if one does not
15625 mess a great deal with the original mailbox format, so if one chooses
15626 this back end, Gnus' primary activity in getting mail from the real spool
15627 area to Gnus' preferred directory is simply to copy it, with no
15628 (appreciable) format change in the process. It is the ``dumbest'' way
15629 to move mail into availability in the Gnus environment. This makes it
15630 fast to move into place, but slow to parse, when Gnus has to look at
15635 Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating
15636 systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail
15637 reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format
15638 was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal
15639 format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a
15640 spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific
15641 headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file.
15642 Rmail was Emacs' first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman,
15643 and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote Rmail
15644 to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and
15645 VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's
15646 perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific
15647 headers/status bits stuff. Rmail itself still exists as well, of
15648 course, and is still maintained by Stallman.
15650 Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your
15651 file system, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a
15656 @code{nnml} is the back end which smells the most as though you were
15657 actually operating with an @code{nnspool}-accessed Usenet system. (In
15658 fact, I believe @code{nnml} actually derived from @code{nnspool} code,
15659 lo these years ago.) One's mail is taken from the original spool file,
15660 and is then cut up into individual message files, 1:1. It maintains a
15661 Usenet-style active file (analogous to what one finds in an INN- or
15662 CNews-based news system in (for instance) @file{/var/lib/news/active},
15663 or what is returned via the @samp{NNTP LIST} verb) and also creates
15664 @dfn{overview} files for efficient group entry, as has been defined for
15665 @acronym{NNTP} servers for some years now. It is slower in mail-splitting,
15666 due to the creation of lots of files, updates to the @code{nnml} active
15667 file, and additions to overview files on a per-message basis, but it is
15668 extremely fast on access because of what amounts to the indexing support
15669 provided by the active file and overviews.
15671 @code{nnml} costs @dfn{inodes} in a big way; that is, it soaks up the
15672 resource which defines available places in the file system to put new
15673 files. Sysadmins take a dim view of heavy inode occupation within
15674 tight, shared file systems. But if you live on a personal machine where
15675 the file system is your own and space is not at a premium, @code{nnml}
15678 It is also problematic using this back end if you are living in a
15679 FAT16-based Windows world, since much space will be wasted on all these
15684 The Rand MH mail-reading system has been around UNIX systems for a very
15685 long time; it operates by splitting one's spool file of messages into
15686 individual files, but with little or no indexing support---@code{nnmh}
15687 is considered to be semantically equivalent to ``@code{nnml} without
15688 active file or overviews''. This is arguably the worst choice, because
15689 one gets the slowness of individual file creation married to the
15690 slowness of access parsing when learning what's new in one's groups.
15694 Basically the effect of @code{nnfolder} is @code{nnmbox} (the first
15695 method described above) on a per-group basis. That is, @code{nnmbox}
15696 itself puts @emph{all} one's mail in one file; @code{nnfolder} provides a
15697 little bit of optimization to this so that each of one's mail groups has
15698 a Unix mail box file. It's faster than @code{nnmbox} because each group
15699 can be parsed separately, and still provides the simple Unix mail box
15700 format requiring minimal effort in moving the mail around. In addition,
15701 it maintains an ``active'' file making it much faster for Gnus to figure
15702 out how many messages there are in each separate group.
15704 If you have groups that are expected to have a massive amount of
15705 messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive
15706 only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most
15707 friendly mail back end all over.
15711 For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses
15712 incompatible group parameters, slightly different from those of other
15715 @code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable
15716 differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the
15717 filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir}
15718 also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file
15719 per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}. (Use
15720 @code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this slows
15721 you down or takes up very much space, consider switching to
15722 @uref{http://www.namesys.com/, ReiserFS} or another non-block-structured
15725 Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use
15726 as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to.
15727 This means you can skip Gnus' mail splitting if your mail is already
15728 organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory}
15729 entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would
15730 require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format,
15731 thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in
15732 whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the
15733 @code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from
15734 @code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will not
15735 undergo treatment such as duplicate checking.
15737 @code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the
15738 corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate
15739 them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere
15740 else, and still have your marks. @code{nnml} also stores marks, but
15741 it's not as easy to work with them from outside Gnus as with
15744 @code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up.
15745 (It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files
15746 and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this
15747 is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group
15748 parameter to something small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably
15749 would) to make it use less memory. This caching will probably be
15750 removed in the future.
15752 Startup is likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than with other
15753 back ends. Everything else is likely to be faster, depending in part
15754 on your file system.
15756 @code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo}
15757 to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived back end.
15762 @node Browsing the Web
15763 @section Browsing the Web
15765 @cindex browsing the web
15769 Web-based discussion forums are getting more and more popular. On many
15770 subjects, the web-based forums have become the most important forums,
15771 eclipsing the importance of mailing lists and news groups. The reason
15772 is easy to understand---they are friendly to new users; you just point
15773 and click, and there's the discussion. With mailing lists, you have to
15774 go through a cumbersome subscription procedure, and most people don't
15775 even know what a news group is.
15777 The problem with this scenario is that web browsers are not very good at
15778 being newsreaders. They do not keep track of what articles you've read;
15779 they do not allow you to score on subjects you're interested in; they do
15780 not allow off-line browsing; they require you to click around and drive
15781 you mad in the end.
15783 So---if web browsers suck at reading discussion forums, why not use Gnus
15786 Gnus has been getting a bit of a collection of back ends for providing
15787 interfaces to these sources.
15791 * Web Searches:: Creating groups from articles that match a string.
15792 * Slashdot:: Reading the Slashdot comments.
15793 * Ultimate:: The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
15794 * Web Archive:: Reading mailing list archived on web.
15795 * RSS:: Reading RDF site summary.
15796 * Customizing W3:: Doing stuff to Emacs/W3 from Gnus.
15799 All the web sources require Emacs/W3 and the url library or those
15800 alternatives to work.
15802 The main caveat with all these web sources is that they probably won't
15803 work for a very long time. Gleaning information from the @acronym{HTML} data
15804 is guesswork at best, and when the layout is altered, the Gnus back end
15805 will fail. If you have reasonably new versions of these back ends,
15806 though, you should be ok.
15808 One thing all these Web methods have in common is that the Web sources
15809 are often down, unavailable or just plain too slow to be fun. In those
15810 cases, it makes a lot of sense to let the Gnus Agent (@pxref{Gnus
15811 Unplugged}) handle downloading articles, and then you can read them at
15812 leisure from your local disk. No more World Wide Wait for you.
15814 @node Archiving Mail
15815 @subsection Archiving Mail
15816 @cindex archiving mail
15817 @cindex backup of mail
15819 Some of the back ends, notably @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, and
15820 @code{nnmaildir}, now actually store the article marks with each group.
15821 For these servers, archiving and restoring a group while preserving
15822 marks is fairly simple.
15824 (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
15825 requires ritual dancing and sacrifices to the @file{.newsrc.eld} deity
15828 To archive an entire @code{nnml}, @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir}
15829 server, take a recursive copy of the server directory. There is no need
15830 to shut down Gnus, so archiving may be invoked by @code{cron} or
15831 similar. You restore the data by restoring the directory tree, and
15832 adding a server definition pointing to that directory in Gnus. The
15833 @ref{Article Backlog}, @ref{Asynchronous Fetching} and other things
15834 might interfere with overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus
15835 before you restore the data.
15837 It is also possible to archive individual @code{nnml},
15838 @code{nnfolder}, or @code{nnmaildir} groups, while preserving marks.
15839 For @code{nnml} or @code{nnmaildir}, you copy all files in the group's
15840 directory. For @code{nnfolder} you need to copy both the base folder
15841 file itself (@file{FOO}, say), and the marks file (@file{FOO.mrk} in
15842 this example). Restoring the group is done with @kbd{G m} from the Group
15843 buffer. The last step makes Gnus notice the new directory.
15844 @code{nnmaildir} notices the new directory automatically, so @kbd{G m}
15845 is unnecessary in that case.
15848 @subsection Web Searches
15853 @cindex Usenet searches
15854 @cindex searching the Usenet
15856 It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
15857 string, but it, like, totally @emph{sucks}, like, totally, to use one of
15858 those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
15859 the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do @emph{rad}, rilly,
15860 searches without having to use a browser.
15862 The @code{nnweb} back end allows an easy interface to the mighty search
15863 engine. You create an @code{nnweb} group, enter a search pattern, and
15864 then enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal
15865 group. The @kbd{G w} command in the group buffer (@pxref{Foreign
15866 Groups}) will do this in an easy-to-use fashion.
15868 @code{nnweb} groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
15869 groups---they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers. In fact,
15870 each time you enter an @code{nnweb} group (not even changing the search
15871 pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
15872 manner. Not even using duplicate suppression (@pxref{Duplicate
15873 Suppression}) will help, since @code{nnweb} doesn't even know the
15874 @code{Message-ID} of the articles before reading them using some search
15875 engines (Google, for instance). The only possible way to keep track
15876 of which articles you've read is by scoring on the @code{Date}
15877 header---mark all articles posted before the last date you read the
15880 If the search engine changes its output substantially, @code{nnweb}
15881 won't be able to parse it and will fail. One could hardly fault the Web
15882 providers if they were to do this---their @emph{raison d'@^etre} is to
15883 make money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the
15884 community. Since @code{nnweb} washes the ads off all the articles, one
15885 might think that the providers might be somewhat miffed. We'll see.
15887 You must have the @code{url} and @code{W3} package or those alternatives
15888 (try @code{customize-group} on the @samp{mm-url} variable group)
15889 installed to be able to use @code{nnweb}.
15891 Virtual server variables:
15896 What search engine type is being used. The currently supported types
15897 are @code{google}, @code{dejanews}, and @code{gmane}. Note that
15898 @code{dejanews} is an alias to @code{google}.
15901 @vindex nnweb-search
15902 The search string to feed to the search engine.
15904 @item nnweb-max-hits
15905 @vindex nnweb-max-hits
15906 Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display. The default is
15909 @item nnweb-type-definition
15910 @vindex nnweb-type-definition
15911 Type-to-definition alist. This alist says what @code{nnweb} should do
15912 with the various search engine types. The following elements must be
15917 Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
15921 Function to create an article number to message header and URL alist.
15924 Function to send the search string to the search engine.
15927 The address the aforementioned function should send the search string
15931 Format string URL to fetch an article by @code{Message-ID}.
15938 @subsection Slashdot
15942 @uref{http://slashdot.org/, Slashdot} is a popular news site, with
15943 lively discussion following the news articles. @code{nnslashdot} will
15944 let you read this forum in a convenient manner.
15946 The easiest way to read this source is to put something like the
15947 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
15950 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
15951 '((nnslashdot "")))
15954 This will make Gnus query the @code{nnslashdot} back end for new comments
15955 and groups. The @kbd{F} command will subscribe each new news article as
15956 a new Gnus group, and you can read the comments by entering these
15957 groups. (Note that the default subscription method is to subscribe new
15958 groups as zombies. Other methods are available (@pxref{Subscription
15961 If you want to remove an old @code{nnslashdot} group, the @kbd{G DEL}
15962 command is the most handy tool (@pxref{Foreign Groups}).
15964 When following up to @code{nnslashdot} comments (or posting new
15965 comments), some light @acronym{HTML}izations will be performed. In
15966 particular, text quoted with @samp{> } will be quoted with
15967 @samp{blockquote} instead, and signatures will have @samp{br} added to
15968 the end of each line. Other than that, you can just write @acronym{HTML}
15969 directly into the message buffer. Note that Slashdot filters out some
15970 @acronym{HTML} forms.
15972 The following variables can be altered to change its behavior:
15975 @item nnslashdot-threaded
15976 Whether @code{nnslashdot} should display threaded groups or not. The
15977 default is @code{t}. To be able to display threads, @code{nnslashdot}
15978 has to retrieve absolutely all comments in a group upon entry. If a
15979 threaded display is not required, @code{nnslashdot} will only retrieve
15980 the comments that are actually wanted by the user. Threading is nicer,
15981 but much, much slower than unthreaded.
15983 @item nnslashdot-login-name
15984 @vindex nnslashdot-login-name
15985 The login name to use when posting.
15987 @item nnslashdot-password
15988 @vindex nnslashdot-password
15989 The password to use when posting.
15991 @item nnslashdot-directory
15992 @vindex nnslashdot-directory
15993 Where @code{nnslashdot} will store its files. The default is
15994 @file{~/News/slashdot/}.
15996 @item nnslashdot-active-url
15997 @vindex nnslashdot-active-url
15998 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch the
15999 information on news articles and comments. The default is@*
16000 @samp{http://slashdot.org/search.pl?section=&min=%d}.
16002 @item nnslashdot-comments-url
16003 @vindex nnslashdot-comments-url
16004 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch comments.
16006 @item nnslashdot-article-url
16007 @vindex nnslashdot-article-url
16008 The @acronym{URL} format string that will be used to fetch the news
16009 article. The default is
16010 @samp{http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=%s&mode=nocomment}.
16012 @item nnslashdot-threshold
16013 @vindex nnslashdot-threshold
16014 The score threshold. The default is -1.
16016 @item nnslashdot-group-number
16017 @vindex nnslashdot-group-number
16018 The number of old groups, in addition to the ten latest, to keep
16019 updated. The default is 0.
16026 @subsection Ultimate
16028 @cindex Ultimate Bulletin Board
16030 @uref{http://www.ultimatebb.com/, The Ultimate Bulletin Board} is
16031 probably the most popular Web bulletin board system used. It has a
16032 quite regular and nice interface, and it's possible to get the
16033 information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
16035 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnultimate} is to say
16036 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnultimate RET
16037 http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubbcgi/ RET}. (Substitute the @acronym{URL}
16038 (not including @samp{Ultimate.cgi} or the like at the end) for a forum
16039 you're interested in; there's quite a list of them on the Ultimate web
16040 site.) Then subscribe to the groups you're interested in from the
16041 server buffer, and read them from the group buffer.
16043 The following @code{nnultimate} variables can be altered:
16046 @item nnultimate-directory
16047 @vindex nnultimate-directory
16048 The directory where @code{nnultimate} stores its files. The default is@*
16049 @file{~/News/ultimate/}.
16054 @subsection Web Archive
16056 @cindex Web Archive
16058 Some mailing lists only have archives on Web servers, such as
16059 @uref{http://www.egroups.com/} and
16060 @uref{http://www.mail-archive.com/}. It has a quite regular and nice
16061 interface, and it's possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep
16064 @findex gnus-group-make-warchive-group
16065 The easiest way to get started with @code{nnwarchive} is to say
16066 something like the following in the group buffer: @kbd{M-x
16067 gnus-group-make-warchive-group RET @var{an_egroup} RET egroups RET
16068 www.egroups.com RET @var{your@@email.address} RET}. (Substitute the
16069 @var{an_egroup} with the mailing list you subscribed, the
16070 @var{your@@email.address} with your email address.), or to browse the
16071 back end by @kbd{B nnwarchive RET mail-archive RET}.
16073 The following @code{nnwarchive} variables can be altered:
16076 @item nnwarchive-directory
16077 @vindex nnwarchive-directory
16078 The directory where @code{nnwarchive} stores its files. The default is@*
16079 @file{~/News/warchive/}.
16081 @item nnwarchive-login
16082 @vindex nnwarchive-login
16083 The account name on the web server.
16085 @item nnwarchive-passwd
16086 @vindex nnwarchive-passwd
16087 The password for your account on the web server.
16095 Some web sites have an RDF Site Summary (@acronym{RSS}).
16096 @acronym{RSS} is a format for summarizing headlines from news related
16097 sites (such as BBC or CNN). But basically anything list-like can be
16098 presented as an @acronym{RSS} feed: weblogs, changelogs or recent
16099 changes to a wiki (e.g. @url{http://cliki.net/recent-changes.rdf}).
16101 @acronym{RSS} has a quite regular and nice interface, and it's
16102 possible to get the information Gnus needs to keep groups updated.
16104 Note: you had better use Emacs which supports the @code{utf-8} coding
16105 system because @acronym{RSS} uses UTF-8 for encoding non-@acronym{ASCII}
16106 text by default. It is also used by default for non-@acronym{ASCII}
16109 @kindex G R (Group)
16110 Use @kbd{G R} from the group buffer to subscribe to a feed---you will be
16111 prompted for the location, the title and the description of the feed.
16112 The title, which allows any characters, will be used for the group name
16113 and the name of the group data file. The description can be omitted.
16115 An easy way to get started with @code{nnrss} is to say something like
16116 the following in the group buffer: @kbd{B nnrss RET RET y}, then
16117 subscribe to groups.
16119 The @code{nnrss} back end saves the group data file in
16120 @code{nnrss-directory} (see below) for each @code{nnrss} group. File
16121 names containing non-@acronym{ASCII} characters will be encoded by the
16122 coding system specified with the @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system}
16123 variable. If it is @code{nil}, in Emacs the coding system defaults to
16124 the value of @code{default-file-name-coding-system}. If you are using
16125 XEmacs and want to use non-@acronym{ASCII} group names, you should set
16126 the value for the @code{nnmail-pathname-coding-system} variable properly.
16129 You can also use the following commands to import and export your
16130 subscriptions from a file in @acronym{OPML} format (Outline Processor
16133 @defun nnrss-opml-import file
16134 Prompt for an @acronym{OPML} file, and subscribe to each feed in the
16138 @defun nnrss-opml-export
16139 Write your current @acronym{RSS} subscriptions to a buffer in
16140 @acronym{OPML} format.
16143 The following @code{nnrss} variables can be altered:
16146 @item nnrss-directory
16147 @vindex nnrss-directory
16148 The directory where @code{nnrss} stores its files. The default is
16149 @file{~/News/rss/}.
16151 @item nnrss-file-coding-system
16152 @vindex nnrss-file-coding-system
16153 The coding system used when reading and writing the @code{nnrss} groups
16154 data files. The default is the value of
16155 @code{mm-universal-coding-system} (which defaults to @code{emacs-mule}
16156 in Emacs or @code{escape-quoted} in XEmacs).
16158 @item nnrss-use-local
16159 @vindex nnrss-use-local
16160 @findex nnrss-generate-download-script
16161 If you set @code{nnrss-use-local} to @code{t}, @code{nnrss} will read
16162 the feeds from local files in @code{nnrss-directory}. You can use
16163 the command @code{nnrss-generate-download-script} to generate a
16164 download script using @command{wget}.
16167 The following code may be helpful, if you want to show the description in
16168 the summary buffer.
16171 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-description-field)
16172 (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-15,15f%]%) %s%uX\n")
16174 (defun gnus-user-format-function-X (header)
16176 (assq nnrss-description-field (mail-header-extra header))))
16177 (if descr (concat "\n\t" (cdr descr)) "")))
16180 The following code may be useful to open an nnrss url directly from the
16183 (require 'browse-url)
16185 (defun browse-nnrss-url( arg )
16187 (let ((url (assq nnrss-url-field
16190 (assq (gnus-summary-article-number)
16191 gnus-newsgroup-data))))))
16194 (browse-url (cdr url))
16195 (gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward 1))
16196 (gnus-summary-scroll-up arg))))
16198 (eval-after-load "gnus"
16199 #'(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map
16200 (kbd "<RET>") 'browse-nnrss-url))
16201 (add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers nnrss-url-field)
16204 @node Customizing W3
16205 @subsection Customizing W3
16211 Gnus uses the url library to fetch web pages and Emacs/W3 (or those
16212 alternatives) to display web pages. Emacs/W3 is documented in its own
16213 manual, but there are some things that may be more relevant for Gnus
16216 For instance, a common question is how to make Emacs/W3 follow links
16217 using the @code{browse-url} functions (which will call some external web
16218 browser like Netscape). Here's one way:
16221 (eval-after-load "w3"
16223 (fset 'w3-fetch-orig (symbol-function 'w3-fetch))
16224 (defun w3-fetch (&optional url target)
16225 (interactive (list (w3-read-url-with-default)))
16226 (if (eq major-mode 'gnus-article-mode)
16228 (w3-fetch-orig url target)))))
16231 Put that in your @file{.emacs} file, and hitting links in W3-rendered
16232 @acronym{HTML} in the Gnus article buffers will use @code{browse-url} to
16239 @cindex @acronym{IMAP}
16241 @acronym{IMAP} is a network protocol for reading mail (or news, or @dots{}),
16242 think of it as a modernized @acronym{NNTP}. Connecting to a @acronym{IMAP}
16243 server is much similar to connecting to a news server, you just
16244 specify the network address of the server.
16246 @acronym{IMAP} has two properties. First, @acronym{IMAP} can do
16247 everything that @acronym{POP} can, it can hence be viewed as a
16248 @acronym{POP++}. Secondly, @acronym{IMAP} is a mail storage protocol,
16249 similar to @acronym{NNTP} being a news storage protocol---however,
16250 @acronym{IMAP} offers more features than @acronym{NNTP} because news
16251 is more or less read-only whereas mail is read-write.
16253 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a @acronym{POP++}, use an imap
16254 entry in @code{mail-sources}. With this, Gnus will fetch mails from
16255 the @acronym{IMAP} server and store them on the local disk. This is
16256 not the usage described in this section---@xref{Mail Sources}.
16258 If you want to use @acronym{IMAP} as a mail storage protocol, use an nnimap
16259 entry in @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}. With this, Gnus will
16260 manipulate mails stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server. This is the kind of
16261 usage explained in this section.
16263 A server configuration in @file{~/.gnus.el} with a few @acronym{IMAP}
16264 servers might look something like the following. (Note that for
16265 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}, you need external programs and libraries,
16269 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
16270 '((nnimap "simpleserver") ; @r{no special configuration}
16271 ; @r{perhaps a ssh port forwarded server:}
16273 (nnimap-address "localhost")
16274 (nnimap-server-port 1430))
16275 ; @r{a UW server running on localhost}
16277 (nnimap-server-port 143)
16278 (nnimap-address "localhost")
16279 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "mail/*")))
16280 ; @r{anonymous public cyrus server:}
16281 (nnimap "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu"
16282 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous)
16283 (nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")
16284 (nnimap-stream network))
16285 ; @r{a ssl server on a non-standard port:}
16287 (nnimap-address "vic20.somewhere.com")
16288 (nnimap-server-port 9930)
16289 (nnimap-stream ssl))))
16292 After defining the new server, you can subscribe to groups on the
16293 server using normal Gnus commands such as @kbd{U} in the Group Buffer
16294 (@pxref{Subscription Commands}) or via the Server Buffer
16295 (@pxref{Server Buffer}).
16297 The following variables can be used to create a virtual @code{nnimap}
16302 @item nnimap-address
16303 @vindex nnimap-address
16305 The address of the remote @acronym{IMAP} server. Defaults to the virtual
16306 server name if not specified.
16308 @item nnimap-server-port
16309 @vindex nnimap-server-port
16310 Port on server to contact. Defaults to port 143, or 993 for @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}.
16312 Note that this should be an integer, example server specification:
16315 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16316 (nnimap-server-port 4711))
16319 @item nnimap-list-pattern
16320 @vindex nnimap-list-pattern
16321 String or list of strings of mailboxes to limit available groups to.
16322 This is used when the server has very many mailboxes and you're only
16323 interested in a few---some servers export your home directory via
16324 @acronym{IMAP}, you'll probably want to limit the mailboxes to those in
16325 @file{~/Mail/*} then.
16327 The string can also be a cons of REFERENCE and the string as above, what
16328 REFERENCE is used for is server specific, but on the University of
16329 Washington server it's a directory that will be concatenated with the
16332 Example server specification:
16335 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16336 (nnimap-list-pattern ("INBOX" "Mail/*" "alt.sex.*"
16337 ("~friend/Mail/" . "list/*"))))
16340 @item nnimap-stream
16341 @vindex nnimap-stream
16342 The type of stream used to connect to your server. By default, nnimap
16343 will detect and automatically use all of the below, with the exception
16344 of @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}. (@acronym{IMAP} over
16345 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is being replaced by STARTTLS, which can
16346 be automatically detected, but it's not widely deployed yet.)
16348 Example server specification:
16351 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16352 (nnimap-stream ssl))
16355 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-stream} is a symbol!
16359 @dfn{gssapi:} Connect with GSSAPI (usually Kerberos 5). Requires the
16360 @samp{gsasl} or @samp{imtest} program.
16362 @dfn{kerberos4:} Connect with Kerberos 4. Requires the @samp{imtest} program.
16364 @dfn{starttls:} Connect via the STARTTLS extension (similar to
16365 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL}). Requires the external library @samp{starttls.el} and program
16368 @dfn{tls:} Connect through @acronym{TLS}. Requires GNUTLS (the program
16369 @samp{gnutls-cli}).
16371 @dfn{ssl:} Connect through @acronym{SSL}. Requires OpenSSL (the program
16372 @samp{openssl}) or SSLeay (@samp{s_client}).
16374 @dfn{shell:} Use a shell command to start @acronym{IMAP} connection.
16376 @dfn{network:} Plain, TCP/IP network connection.
16379 @vindex imap-kerberos4-program
16380 The @samp{imtest} program is shipped with Cyrus IMAPD. If you're
16381 using @samp{imtest} from Cyrus IMAPD < 2.0.14 (which includes version
16382 1.5.x and 1.6.x) you need to frob @code{imap-process-connection-type}
16383 to make @code{imap.el} use a pty instead of a pipe when communicating
16384 with @samp{imtest}. You will then suffer from a line length
16385 restrictions on @acronym{IMAP} commands, which might make Gnus seem to hang
16386 indefinitely if you have many articles in a mailbox. The variable
16387 @code{imap-kerberos4-program} contain parameters to pass to the imtest
16390 For @acronym{TLS} connection, the @code{gnutls-cli} program from GNUTLS is
16391 needed. It is available from
16392 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}.
16394 @vindex imap-gssapi-program
16395 This parameter specifies a list of command lines that invoke a GSSAPI
16396 authenticated @acronym{IMAP} stream in a subshell. They are tried
16397 sequentially until a connection is made, or the list has been
16398 exhausted. By default, @samp{gsasl} from GNU SASL, available from
16399 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/}, and the @samp{imtest}
16400 program from Cyrus IMAPD (see @code{imap-kerberos4-program}), are
16403 @vindex imap-ssl-program
16404 For @acronym{SSL} connections, the OpenSSL program is available from
16405 @uref{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL was formerly known as SSLeay,
16406 and nnimap support it too---although the most recent versions of
16407 SSLeay, 0.9.x, are known to have serious bugs making it
16408 useless. Earlier versions, especially 0.8.x, of SSLeay are known to
16409 work. The variable @code{imap-ssl-program} contain parameters to pass
16412 @vindex imap-shell-program
16413 @vindex imap-shell-host
16414 For @acronym{IMAP} connections using the @code{shell} stream, the variable
16415 @code{imap-shell-program} specify what program to call.
16417 @item nnimap-authenticator
16418 @vindex nnimap-authenticator
16420 The authenticator used to connect to the server. By default, nnimap
16421 will use the most secure authenticator your server is capable of.
16423 Example server specification:
16426 (nnimap "mail.server.com"
16427 (nnimap-authenticator anonymous))
16430 Please note that the value of @code{nnimap-authenticator} is a symbol!
16434 @dfn{gssapi:} GSSAPI (usually kerberos 5) authentication. Requires
16435 external program @code{gsasl} or @code{imtest}.
16437 @dfn{kerberos4:} Kerberos 4 authentication. Requires external program
16440 @dfn{digest-md5:} Encrypted username/password via DIGEST-MD5. Requires
16441 external library @code{digest-md5.el}.
16443 @dfn{cram-md5:} Encrypted username/password via CRAM-MD5.
16445 @dfn{login:} Plain-text username/password via LOGIN.
16447 @dfn{anonymous:} Login as ``anonymous'', supplying your email address as password.
16450 @item nnimap-expunge-on-close
16452 @vindex nnimap-expunge-on-close
16453 Unlike Parmenides the @acronym{IMAP} designers have decided things that
16454 don't exist actually do exist. More specifically, @acronym{IMAP} has
16455 this concept of marking articles @code{Deleted} which doesn't actually
16456 delete them, and this (marking them @code{Deleted}, that is) is what
16457 nnimap does when you delete an article in Gnus (with @kbd{B DEL} or
16460 Since the articles aren't really removed when we mark them with the
16461 @code{Deleted} flag we'll need a way to actually delete them. Feel like
16462 running in circles yet?
16464 Traditionally, nnimap has removed all articles marked as @code{Deleted}
16465 when closing a mailbox but this is now configurable by this server
16468 The possible options are:
16473 The default behavior, delete all articles marked as ``Deleted'' when
16476 Never actually delete articles. Currently there is no way of showing
16477 the articles marked for deletion in nnimap, but other @acronym{IMAP} clients
16478 may allow you to do this. If you ever want to run the EXPUNGE command
16479 manually, @xref{Expunging mailboxes}.
16481 When closing mailboxes, nnimap will ask if you wish to expunge deleted
16486 @item nnimap-importantize-dormant
16487 @vindex nnimap-importantize-dormant
16489 If non-@code{nil} (the default), marks dormant articles as ticked (as
16490 well), for other @acronym{IMAP} clients. Within Gnus, dormant articles will
16491 naturally still (only) be marked as dormant. This is to make dormant
16492 articles stand out, just like ticked articles, in other @acronym{IMAP}
16493 clients. (In other words, Gnus has two ``Tick'' marks and @acronym{IMAP}
16496 Probably the only reason for frobing this would be if you're trying
16497 enable per-user persistent dormant flags, using something like:
16500 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-flag-alist)
16501 (format "gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
16502 (setcdr (assq 'dormant nnimap-mark-to-predicate-alist)
16503 (format "KEYWORD gnus-dormant-%s" (user-login-name)))
16506 In this case, you would not want the per-user dormant flag showing up
16507 as ticked for other users.
16509 @item nnimap-expunge-search-string
16511 @vindex nnimap-expunge-search-string
16513 This variable contain the @acronym{IMAP} search command sent to server when
16514 searching for articles eligible for expiring. The default is
16515 @code{"UID %s NOT SINCE %s"}, where the first @code{%s} is replaced by
16516 UID set and the second @code{%s} is replaced by a date.
16518 Probably the only useful value to change this to is
16519 @code{"UID %s NOT SENTSINCE %s"}, which makes nnimap use the Date: in
16520 messages instead of the internal article date. See section 6.4.4 of
16521 RFC 2060 for more information on valid strings.
16523 @item nnimap-authinfo-file
16524 @vindex nnimap-authinfo-file
16526 A file containing credentials used to log in on servers. The format is
16527 (almost) the same as the @code{ftp} @file{~/.netrc} file. See the
16528 variable @code{nntp-authinfo-file} for exact syntax; also see
16529 @ref{NNTP}. An example of an .authinfo line for an IMAP server, is:
16532 machine students.uio.no login larsi password geheimnis port imap
16535 Note that it should be @code{port imap}, or @code{port 143}, if you
16536 use a @code{nnimap-stream} of @code{tls} or @code{ssl}, even if the
16537 actual port number used is port 993 for secured IMAP. For
16538 convenience, Gnus will accept @code{port imaps} as a synonym of
16541 @item nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
16542 @vindex nnimap-need-unselect-to-notice-new-mail
16544 Unselect mailboxes before looking for new mail in them. Some servers
16545 seem to need this under some circumstances; it was reported that
16551 * Splitting in IMAP:: Splitting mail with nnimap.
16552 * Expiring in IMAP:: Expiring mail with nnimap.
16553 * Editing IMAP ACLs:: Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
16554 * Expunging mailboxes:: Equivalent of a ``compress mailbox'' button.
16555 * A note on namespaces:: How to (not) use @acronym{IMAP} namespace in Gnus.
16556 * Debugging IMAP:: What to do when things don't work.
16561 @node Splitting in IMAP
16562 @subsection Splitting in IMAP
16563 @cindex splitting imap mail
16565 Splitting is something Gnus users have loved and used for years, and now
16566 the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, dream on, not many
16567 @acronym{IMAP} servers have server side splitting and those that have
16568 splitting seem to use some non-standard protocol. This means that
16569 @acronym{IMAP} support for Gnus has to do its own splitting.
16573 (Incidentally, people seem to have been dreaming on, and Sieve has
16574 gaining a market share and is supported by several IMAP servers.
16575 Fortunately, Gnus support it too, @xref{Sieve Commands}.)
16577 Here are the variables of interest:
16581 @item nnimap-split-crosspost
16582 @cindex splitting, crosspost
16584 @vindex nnimap-split-crosspost
16586 If non-@code{nil}, do crossposting if several split methods match the
16587 mail. If @code{nil}, the first match in @code{nnimap-split-rule}
16588 found will be used.
16590 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-crosspost}.
16592 @item nnimap-split-inbox
16593 @cindex splitting, inbox
16595 @vindex nnimap-split-inbox
16597 A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of @acronym{IMAP}
16598 mailboxes to split from. Defaults to @code{nil}, which means that
16599 splitting is disabled!
16602 (setq nnimap-split-inbox
16603 '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))
16606 No nnmail equivalent.
16608 @item nnimap-split-rule
16609 @cindex splitting, rules
16610 @vindex nnimap-split-rule
16612 New mail found in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be split according to
16615 This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in the
16616 sublist gives the name of the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox to move articles
16617 matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist. Got that?
16618 Neither did I, we need examples.
16621 (setq nnimap-split-rule
16623 "^Sender: owner-nnimap@@vic20.globalcom.se")
16624 ("INBOX.junk" "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
16625 ("INBOX.private" "")))
16628 This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into mailbox
16629 INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the Subject: line
16630 into INBOX.junk and everything else in INBOX.private.
16632 The first string may contain @samp{\\1} forms, like the ones used by
16633 replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text. For
16637 ("INBOX.lists.\\1" "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@@")
16640 The first element can also be the symbol @code{junk} to indicate that
16641 matching messages should simply be deleted. Use with care.
16643 The second element can also be a function. In that case, it will be
16644 called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a buffer
16645 containing the headers of the article. It should return a
16646 non-@code{nil} value if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.
16648 Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty to
16649 match all articles (like in the example above). This is not required in
16650 nnimap. Articles not matching any of the regexps will not be moved out
16651 of your inbox. (This might affect performance if you keep lots of
16652 unread articles in your inbox, since the splitting code would go over
16653 them every time you fetch new mail.)
16655 These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward the
16656 end. The first rule to make a match will ``win'', unless you have
16657 crossposting enabled. In that case, all matching rules will ``win''.
16659 This variable can also have a function as its value, the function will
16660 be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group where it
16661 thinks the article should be split to. See @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
16663 The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it needs to.
16665 To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers, and
16666 even different split rules in different inboxes on the same server,
16667 the syntax of this variable have been extended along the lines of:
16670 (setq nnimap-split-rule
16671 '(("my1server" (".*" (("ding" "ding@@gnus.org")
16672 ("junk" "From:.*Simon"))))
16673 ("my2server" ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
16674 ("my[34]server" (".*" (("private" "To:.*Simon")
16675 ("junk" my-junk-func))))))
16678 The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
16679 may apply to several servers. In the example, the servers
16680 @code{my3server} and @code{my4server} both use the same rules.
16681 Similarly, the inbox string is also a regexp. The actual splitting
16682 rules are as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
16683 group/function elements.
16685 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
16687 @item nnimap-split-predicate
16689 @vindex nnimap-split-predicate
16691 Mail matching this predicate in @code{nnimap-split-inbox} will be
16692 split, it is a string and the default is @samp{UNSEEN UNDELETED}.
16694 This might be useful if you use another @acronym{IMAP} client to read mail in
16695 your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
16696 regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
16699 @item nnimap-split-fancy
16700 @cindex splitting, fancy
16701 @findex nnimap-split-fancy
16702 @vindex nnimap-split-fancy
16704 It's possible to set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
16705 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} if you want to use fancy
16706 splitting. @xref{Fancy Mail Splitting}.
16708 However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail and
16709 nnimap back ends you can set @code{nnimap-split-rule} to
16710 @code{nnimap-split-fancy} and define the nnimap specific fancy split
16711 rule in @code{nnimap-split-fancy}.
16716 (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
16717 nnimap-split-fancy ...)
16720 Nnmail equivalent: @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
16722 @item nnimap-split-download-body
16723 @findex nnimap-split-download-body
16724 @vindex nnimap-split-download-body
16726 Set to non-@code{nil} to download entire articles during splitting.
16727 This is generally not required, and will slow things down
16728 considerably. You may need it if you want to use an advanced
16729 splitting function that analyzes the body to split the article.
16733 @node Expiring in IMAP
16734 @subsection Expiring in IMAP
16735 @cindex expiring imap mail
16737 Even though @code{nnimap} is not a proper @code{nnmail} derived back
16738 end, it supports most features in regular expiring (@pxref{Expiring
16739 Mail}). Unlike splitting in @acronym{IMAP} (@pxref{Splitting in
16740 IMAP}) it does not clone the @code{nnmail} variables (i.e., creating
16741 @var{nnimap-expiry-wait}) but reuse the @code{nnmail} variables. What
16742 follows below are the variables used by the @code{nnimap} expiry
16745 A note on how the expire mark is stored on the @acronym{IMAP} server is
16746 appropriate here as well. The expire mark is translated into a
16747 @code{imap} client specific mark, @code{gnus-expire}, and stored on the
16748 message. This means that likely only Gnus will understand and treat
16749 the @code{gnus-expire} mark properly, although other clients may allow
16750 you to view client specific flags on the message. It also means that
16751 your server must support permanent storage of client specific flags on
16752 messages. Most do, fortunately.
16756 @item nnmail-expiry-wait
16757 @item nnmail-expiry-wait-function
16759 These variables are fully supported. The expire value can be a
16760 number, the symbol @code{immediate} or @code{never}.
16762 @item nnmail-expiry-target
16764 This variable is supported, and internally implemented by calling the
16765 @code{nnmail} functions that handle this. It contains an optimization
16766 that if the destination is a @acronym{IMAP} group on the same server, the
16767 article is copied instead of appended (that is, uploaded again).
16771 @node Editing IMAP ACLs
16772 @subsection Editing IMAP ACLs
16773 @cindex editing imap acls
16774 @cindex Access Control Lists
16775 @cindex Editing @acronym{IMAP} ACLs
16776 @kindex G l (Group)
16777 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-edit-acl
16779 ACL stands for Access Control List. ACLs are used in @acronym{IMAP} for
16780 limiting (or enabling) other users access to your mail boxes. Not all
16781 @acronym{IMAP} servers support this, this function will give an error if it
16784 To edit an ACL for a mailbox, type @kbd{G l}
16785 (@code{gnus-group-edit-nnimap-acl}) and you'll be presented with an ACL
16786 editing window with detailed instructions.
16788 Some possible uses:
16792 Giving ``anyone'' the ``lrs'' rights (lookup, read, keep seen/unseen flags)
16793 on your mailing list mailboxes enables other users on the same server to
16794 follow the list without subscribing to it.
16796 At least with the Cyrus server, you are required to give the user
16797 ``anyone'' posting ("p") capabilities to have ``plussing'' work (that is,
16798 mail sent to user+mailbox@@domain ending up in the @acronym{IMAP} mailbox
16802 @node Expunging mailboxes
16803 @subsection Expunging mailboxes
16807 @cindex manual expunging
16808 @kindex G x (Group)
16809 @findex gnus-group-nnimap-expunge
16811 If you're using the @code{never} setting of @code{nnimap-expunge-on-close},
16812 you may want the option of expunging all deleted articles in a mailbox
16813 manually. This is exactly what @kbd{G x} does.
16815 Currently there is no way of showing deleted articles, you can just
16818 @node A note on namespaces
16819 @subsection A note on namespaces
16820 @cindex IMAP namespace
16823 The @acronym{IMAP} protocol has a concept called namespaces, described
16824 by the following text in the RFC2060:
16827 5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention
16829 By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name
16830 which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of
16831 the name. This makes it possible to disambiguate between different
16832 types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.
16834 For example, implementations which offer access to USENET
16835 newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET
16836 newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes. Thus, the
16837 comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have an mailbox name of
16838 "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" could refer
16839 to a different object (e.g. a user's private mailbox).
16842 While there is nothing in this text that warrants concern for the
16843 @acronym{IMAP} implementation in Gnus, some servers use namespace
16844 prefixes in a way that does not work with how Gnus uses mailbox names.
16846 Specifically, University of Washington's @acronym{IMAP} server uses
16847 mailbox names like @code{#driver.mbx/read-mail} which are valid only
16848 in the @sc{create} and @sc{append} commands. After the mailbox is
16849 created (or a messages is appended to a mailbox), it must be accessed
16850 without the namespace prefix, i.e. @code{read-mail}. Since Gnus do
16851 not make it possible for the user to guarantee that user entered
16852 mailbox names will only be used with the CREATE and APPEND commands,
16853 you should simply not use the namespace prefixed mailbox names in
16856 See the UoW IMAPD documentation for the @code{#driver.*/} prefix
16857 for more information on how to use the prefixes. They are a power
16858 tool and should be used only if you are sure what the effects are.
16860 @node Debugging IMAP
16861 @subsection Debugging IMAP
16862 @cindex IMAP debugging
16863 @cindex protocol dump (IMAP)
16865 @acronym{IMAP} is a complex protocol, more so than @acronym{NNTP} or
16866 @acronym{POP3}. Implementation bugs are not unlikely, and we do our
16867 best to fix them right away. If you encounter odd behavior, chances
16868 are that either the server or Gnus is buggy.
16870 If you are familiar with network protocols in general, you will
16871 probably be able to extract some clues from the protocol dump of the
16872 exchanges between Gnus and the server. Even if you are not familiar
16873 with network protocols, when you include the protocol dump in
16874 @acronym{IMAP}-related bug reports you are helping us with data
16875 critical to solving the problem. Therefore, we strongly encourage you
16876 to include the protocol dump when reporting IMAP bugs in Gnus.
16880 Because the protocol dump, when enabled, generates lots of data, it is
16881 disabled by default. You can enable it by setting @code{imap-log} as
16888 This instructs the @code{imap.el} package to log any exchanges with
16889 the server. The log is stored in the buffer @samp{*imap-log*}. Look
16890 for error messages, which sometimes are tagged with the keyword
16891 @code{BAD}---but when submitting a bug, make sure to include all the
16894 @node Other Sources
16895 @section Other Sources
16897 Gnus can do more than just read news or mail. The methods described
16898 below allow Gnus to view directories and files as if they were
16902 * Directory Groups:: You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
16903 * Anything Groups:: Dired? Who needs dired?
16904 * Document Groups:: Single files can be the basis of a group.
16905 * SOUP:: Reading @sc{soup} packets ``offline''.
16906 * Mail-To-News Gateways:: Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
16910 @node Directory Groups
16911 @subsection Directory Groups
16913 @cindex directory groups
16915 If you have a directory that has lots of articles in separate files in
16916 it, you might treat it as a newsgroup. The files have to have numerical
16919 This might be an opportune moment to mention @code{ange-ftp} (and its
16920 successor @code{efs}), that most wonderful of all wonderful Emacs
16921 packages. When I wrote @code{nndir}, I didn't think much about it---a
16922 back end to read directories. Big deal.
16924 @code{ange-ftp} changes that picture dramatically. For instance, if you
16925 enter the @code{ange-ftp} file name
16926 @file{/ftp.hpc.uh.edu:/pub/emacs/ding-list/} as the directory name,
16927 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs} will actually allow you to read this
16928 directory over at @samp{sina} as a newsgroup. Distributed news ahoy!
16930 @code{nndir} will use @acronym{NOV} files if they are present.
16932 @code{nndir} is a ``read-only'' back end---you can't delete or expire
16933 articles with this method. You can use @code{nnmh} or @code{nnml} for
16934 whatever you use @code{nndir} for, so you could switch to any of those
16935 methods if you feel the need to have a non-read-only @code{nndir}.
16938 @node Anything Groups
16939 @subsection Anything Groups
16942 From the @code{nndir} back end (which reads a single spool-like
16943 directory), it's just a hop and a skip to @code{nneething}, which
16944 pretends that any arbitrary directory is a newsgroup. Strange, but
16947 When @code{nneething} is presented with a directory, it will scan this
16948 directory and assign article numbers to each file. When you enter such
16949 a group, @code{nneething} must create ``headers'' that Gnus can use.
16950 After all, Gnus is a newsreader, in case you're forgetting.
16951 @code{nneething} does this in a two-step process. First, it snoops each
16952 file in question. If the file looks like an article (i.e., the first
16953 few lines look like headers), it will use this as the head. If this is
16954 just some arbitrary file without a head (e.g. a C source file),
16955 @code{nneething} will cobble up a header out of thin air. It will use
16956 file ownership, name and date and do whatever it can with these
16959 All this should happen automatically for you, and you will be presented
16960 with something that looks very much like a newsgroup. Totally like a
16961 newsgroup, to be precise. If you select an article, it will be displayed
16962 in the article buffer, just as usual.
16964 If you select a line that represents a directory, Gnus will pop you into
16965 a new summary buffer for this @code{nneething} group. And so on. You can
16966 traverse the entire disk this way, if you feel like, but remember that
16967 Gnus is not dired, really, and does not intend to be, either.
16969 There are two overall modes to this action---ephemeral or solid. When
16970 doing the ephemeral thing (i.e., @kbd{G D} from the group buffer), Gnus
16971 will not store information on what files you have read, and what files
16972 are new, and so on. If you create a solid @code{nneething} group the
16973 normal way with @kbd{G m}, Gnus will store a mapping table between
16974 article numbers and file names, and you can treat this group like any
16975 other groups. When you activate a solid @code{nneething} group, you will
16976 be told how many unread articles it contains, etc., etc.
16981 @item nneething-map-file-directory
16982 @vindex nneething-map-file-directory
16983 All the mapping files for solid @code{nneething} groups will be stored
16984 in this directory, which defaults to @file{~/.nneething/}.
16986 @item nneething-exclude-files
16987 @vindex nneething-exclude-files
16988 All files that match this regexp will be ignored. Nice to use to exclude
16989 auto-save files and the like, which is what it does by default.
16991 @item nneething-include-files
16992 @vindex nneething-include-files
16993 Regexp saying what files to include in the group. If this variable is
16994 non-@code{nil}, only files matching this regexp will be included.
16996 @item nneething-map-file
16997 @vindex nneething-map-file
16998 Name of the map files.
17002 @node Document Groups
17003 @subsection Document Groups
17005 @cindex documentation group
17008 @code{nndoc} is a cute little thing that will let you read a single file
17009 as a newsgroup. Several files types are supported:
17015 The Babyl (Rmail) mail box.
17020 The standard Unix mbox file.
17022 @cindex MMDF mail box
17024 The MMDF mail box format.
17027 Several news articles appended into a file.
17029 @cindex rnews batch files
17031 The rnews batch transport format.
17034 Netscape mail boxes.
17037 @acronym{MIME} multipart messages.
17039 @item standard-digest
17040 The standard (RFC 1153) digest format.
17043 A @acronym{MIME} digest of messages.
17045 @item lanl-gov-announce
17046 Announcement messages from LANL Gov Announce.
17048 @cindex forwarded messages
17049 @item rfc822-forward
17050 A message forwarded according to RFC822.
17053 The Outlook mail box.
17056 The Outlook Express dbx mail box.
17059 A bounce message from the Exim MTA.
17062 A message forwarded according to informal rules.
17065 An RFC934-forwarded message.
17071 A digest of Clarinet brief news items.
17074 Non-standard digest format---matches most things, but does it badly.
17080 You can also use the special ``file type'' @code{guess}, which means
17081 that @code{nndoc} will try to guess what file type it is looking at.
17082 @code{digest} means that @code{nndoc} should guess what digest type the
17085 @code{nndoc} will not try to change the file or insert any extra headers into
17086 it---it will simply, like, let you use the file as the basis for a
17087 group. And that's it.
17089 If you have some old archived articles that you want to insert into your
17090 new & spiffy Gnus mail back end, @code{nndoc} can probably help you with
17091 that. Say you have an old @file{RMAIL} file with mail that you now want
17092 to split into your new @code{nnml} groups. You look at that file using
17093 @code{nndoc} (using the @kbd{G f} command in the group buffer
17094 (@pxref{Foreign Groups})), set the process mark on all the articles in
17095 the buffer (@kbd{M P b}, for instance), and then re-spool (@kbd{B r})
17096 using @code{nnml}. If all goes well, all the mail in the @file{RMAIL}
17097 file is now also stored in lots of @code{nnml} directories, and you can
17098 delete that pesky @file{RMAIL} file. If you have the guts!
17100 Virtual server variables:
17103 @item nndoc-article-type
17104 @vindex nndoc-article-type
17105 This should be one of @code{mbox}, @code{babyl}, @code{digest},
17106 @code{news}, @code{rnews}, @code{mmdf}, @code{forward}, @code{rfc934},
17107 @code{rfc822-forward}, @code{mime-parts}, @code{standard-digest},
17108 @code{slack-digest}, @code{clari-briefs}, @code{nsmail}, @code{outlook},
17109 @code{oe-dbx}, @code{mailman}, and @code{mail-in-mail} or @code{guess}.
17111 @item nndoc-post-type
17112 @vindex nndoc-post-type
17113 This variable says whether Gnus is to consider the group a news group or
17114 a mail group. There are two valid values: @code{mail} (the default)
17119 * Document Server Internals:: How to add your own document types.
17123 @node Document Server Internals
17124 @subsubsection Document Server Internals
17126 Adding new document types to be recognized by @code{nndoc} isn't
17127 difficult. You just have to whip up a definition of what the document
17128 looks like, write a predicate function to recognize that document type,
17129 and then hook into @code{nndoc}.
17131 First, here's an example document type definition:
17135 (article-begin . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n")
17136 (body-end . "^\^A\^A\^A\^A\n"))
17139 The definition is simply a unique @dfn{name} followed by a series of
17140 regexp pseudo-variable settings. Below are the possible
17141 variables---don't be daunted by the number of variables; most document
17142 types can be defined with very few settings:
17145 @item first-article
17146 If present, @code{nndoc} will skip past all text until it finds
17147 something that match this regexp. All text before this will be
17150 @item article-begin
17151 This setting has to be present in all document type definitions. It
17152 says what the beginning of each article looks like. To do more
17153 complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you can
17154 use @code{article-begin-function} instead of this.
17156 @item article-begin-function
17157 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the beginning
17158 of each article. This setting overrides @code{article-begin}.
17161 If present, this should be a regexp that matches the head of the
17162 article. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a
17163 simple regexp, you can use @code{head-begin-function} instead of this.
17165 @item head-begin-function
17166 If present, this should be a function that moves point to the head of
17167 the article. This setting overrides @code{head-begin}.
17170 This should match the end of the head of the article. It defaults to
17171 @samp{^$}---the empty line.
17174 This should match the beginning of the body of the article. It defaults
17175 to @samp{^\n}. To do more complicated things that cannot be dealt with
17176 a simple regexp, you can use @code{body-begin-function} instead of this.
17178 @item body-begin-function
17179 If present, this function should move point to the beginning of the body
17180 of the article. This setting overrides @code{body-begin}.
17183 If present, this should match the end of the body of the article. To do
17184 more complicated things that cannot be dealt with a simple regexp, you
17185 can use @code{body-end-function} instead of this.
17187 @item body-end-function
17188 If present, this function should move point to the end of the body of
17189 the article. This setting overrides @code{body-end}.
17192 If present, this should match the beginning of the file. All text
17193 before this regexp will be totally ignored.
17196 If present, this should match the end of the file. All text after this
17197 regexp will be totally ignored.
17201 So, using these variables @code{nndoc} is able to dissect a document
17202 file into a series of articles, each with a head and a body. However, a
17203 few more variables are needed since not all document types are all that
17204 news-like---variables needed to transform the head or the body into
17205 something that's palatable for Gnus:
17208 @item prepare-body-function
17209 If present, this function will be called when requesting an article. It
17210 will be called with point at the start of the body, and is useful if the
17211 document has encoded some parts of its contents.
17213 @item article-transform-function
17214 If present, this function is called when requesting an article. It's
17215 meant to be used for more wide-ranging transformation of both head and
17216 body of the article.
17218 @item generate-head-function
17219 If present, this function is called to generate a head that Gnus can
17220 understand. It is called with the article number as a parameter, and is
17221 expected to generate a nice head for the article in question. It is
17222 called when requesting the headers of all articles.
17224 @item generate-article-function
17225 If present, this function is called to generate an entire article that
17226 Gnus can understand. It is called with the article number as a
17227 parameter when requesting all articles.
17229 @item dissection-function
17230 If present, this function is called to dissect a document by itself,
17231 overriding @code{first-article}, @code{article-begin},
17232 @code{article-begin-function}, @code{head-begin},
17233 @code{head-begin-function}, @code{head-end}, @code{body-begin},
17234 @code{body-begin-function}, @code{body-end}, @code{body-end-function},
17235 @code{file-begin}, and @code{file-end}.
17239 Let's look at the most complicated example I can come up with---standard
17244 (first-article . ,(concat "^" (make-string 70 ?-) "\n\n+"))
17245 (article-begin . ,(concat "\n\n" (make-string 30 ?-) "\n\n+"))
17246 (prepare-body-function . nndoc-unquote-dashes)
17247 (body-end-function . nndoc-digest-body-end)
17248 (head-end . "^ ?$")
17249 (body-begin . "^ ?\n")
17250 (file-end . "^End of .*digest.*[0-9].*\n\\*\\*\\|^End of.*Digest *$")
17251 (subtype digest guess))
17254 We see that all text before a 70-width line of dashes is ignored; all
17255 text after a line that starts with that @samp{^End of} is also ignored;
17256 each article begins with a 30-width line of dashes; the line separating
17257 the head from the body may contain a single space; and that the body is
17258 run through @code{nndoc-unquote-dashes} before being delivered.
17260 To hook your own document definition into @code{nndoc}, use the
17261 @code{nndoc-add-type} function. It takes two parameters---the first
17262 is the definition itself and the second (optional) parameter says
17263 where in the document type definition alist to put this definition.
17264 The alist is traversed sequentially, and
17265 @code{nndoc-@var{type}-type-p} is called for a given type @var{type}.
17266 So @code{nndoc-mmdf-type-p} is called to see whether a document is of
17267 @code{mmdf} type, and so on. These type predicates should return
17268 @code{nil} if the document is not of the correct type; @code{t} if it
17269 is of the correct type; and a number if the document might be of the
17270 correct type. A high number means high probability; a low number
17271 means low probability with @samp{0} being the lowest valid number.
17279 In the PC world people often talk about ``offline'' newsreaders. These
17280 are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
17281 With built-in modem programs. Yecchh!
17283 Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
17284 @code{uucp} and, like, @code{nntpd} and set up proper news and mail
17285 transport things like Ghod intended. And then we just use normal
17288 However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something that's a bit
17289 easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not really
17290 that interested in doing things properly.
17292 A file format called @sc{soup} has been developed for transporting news
17293 and mail from servers to home machines and back again. It can be a bit
17296 First some terminology:
17301 This is the machine that is connected to the outside world and where you
17302 get news and/or mail from.
17305 This is the machine that you want to do the actual reading and responding
17306 on. It is typically not connected to the rest of the world in any way.
17309 Something that contains messages and/or commands. There are two kinds
17313 @item message packets
17314 These are packets made at the server, and typically contain lots of
17315 messages for you to read. These are called @file{SoupoutX.tgz} by
17316 default, where @var{x} is a number.
17318 @item response packets
17319 These are packets made at the home machine, and typically contains
17320 replies that you've written. These are called @file{SoupinX.tgz} by
17321 default, where @var{x} is a number.
17331 You log in on the server and create a @sc{soup} packet. You can either
17332 use a dedicated @sc{soup} thingie (like the @code{awk} program), or you
17333 can use Gnus to create the packet with its @sc{soup} commands (@kbd{O
17334 s} and/or @kbd{G s b}; and then @kbd{G s p}) (@pxref{SOUP Commands}).
17337 You transfer the packet home. Rail, boat, car or modem will do fine.
17340 You put the packet in your home directory.
17343 You fire up Gnus on your home machine using the @code{nnsoup} back end as
17344 the native or secondary server.
17347 You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things you
17348 want (@pxref{SOUP Replies}).
17351 You do the @kbd{G s r} command to pack these replies into a @sc{soup}
17355 You transfer this packet to the server.
17358 You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the @kbd{G s s} command.
17361 You then repeat until you die.
17365 So you basically have a bipartite system---you use @code{nnsoup} for
17366 reading and Gnus for packing/sending these @sc{soup} packets.
17369 * SOUP Commands:: Commands for creating and sending @sc{soup} packets
17370 * SOUP Groups:: A back end for reading @sc{soup} packets.
17371 * SOUP Replies:: How to enable @code{nnsoup} to take over mail and news.
17375 @node SOUP Commands
17376 @subsubsection SOUP Commands
17378 These are commands for creating and manipulating @sc{soup} packets.
17382 @kindex G s b (Group)
17383 @findex gnus-group-brew-soup
17384 Pack all unread articles in the current group
17385 (@code{gnus-group-brew-soup}). This command understands the
17386 process/prefix convention.
17389 @kindex G s w (Group)
17390 @findex gnus-soup-save-areas
17391 Save all @sc{soup} data files (@code{gnus-soup-save-areas}).
17394 @kindex G s s (Group)
17395 @findex gnus-soup-send-replies
17396 Send all replies from the replies packet
17397 (@code{gnus-soup-send-replies}).
17400 @kindex G s p (Group)
17401 @findex gnus-soup-pack-packet
17402 Pack all files into a @sc{soup} packet (@code{gnus-soup-pack-packet}).
17405 @kindex G s r (Group)
17406 @findex nnsoup-pack-replies
17407 Pack all replies into a replies packet (@code{nnsoup-pack-replies}).
17410 @kindex O s (Summary)
17411 @findex gnus-soup-add-article
17412 This summary-mode command adds the current article to a @sc{soup} packet
17413 (@code{gnus-soup-add-article}). It understands the process/prefix
17414 convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
17419 There are a few variables to customize where Gnus will put all these
17424 @item gnus-soup-directory
17425 @vindex gnus-soup-directory
17426 Directory where Gnus will save intermediate files while composing
17427 @sc{soup} packets. The default is @file{~/SoupBrew/}.
17429 @item gnus-soup-replies-directory
17430 @vindex gnus-soup-replies-directory
17431 This is what Gnus will use as a temporary directory while sending our
17432 reply packets. @file{~/SoupBrew/SoupReplies/} is the default.
17434 @item gnus-soup-prefix-file
17435 @vindex gnus-soup-prefix-file
17436 Name of the file where Gnus stores the last used prefix. The default is
17437 @samp{gnus-prefix}.
17439 @item gnus-soup-packer
17440 @vindex gnus-soup-packer
17441 A format string command for packing a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
17442 @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupout%d.tgz}.
17444 @item gnus-soup-unpacker
17445 @vindex gnus-soup-unpacker
17446 Format string command for unpacking a @sc{soup} packet. The default is
17447 @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
17449 @item gnus-soup-packet-directory
17450 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-directory
17451 Where Gnus will look for reply packets. The default is @file{~/}.
17453 @item gnus-soup-packet-regexp
17454 @vindex gnus-soup-packet-regexp
17455 Regular expression matching @sc{soup} reply packets in
17456 @code{gnus-soup-packet-directory}.
17462 @subsubsection SOUP Groups
17465 @code{nnsoup} is the back end for reading @sc{soup} packets. It will
17466 read incoming packets, unpack them, and put them in a directory where
17467 you can read them at leisure.
17469 These are the variables you can use to customize its behavior:
17473 @item nnsoup-tmp-directory
17474 @vindex nnsoup-tmp-directory
17475 When @code{nnsoup} unpacks a @sc{soup} packet, it does it in this
17476 directory. (@file{/tmp/} by default.)
17478 @item nnsoup-directory
17479 @vindex nnsoup-directory
17480 @code{nnsoup} then moves each message and index file to this directory.
17481 The default is @file{~/SOUP/}.
17483 @item nnsoup-replies-directory
17484 @vindex nnsoup-replies-directory
17485 All replies will be stored in this directory before being packed into a
17486 reply packet. The default is @file{~/SOUP/replies/}.
17488 @item nnsoup-replies-format-type
17489 @vindex nnsoup-replies-format-type
17490 The @sc{soup} format of the replies packets. The default is @samp{?n}
17491 (rnews), and I don't think you should touch that variable. I probably
17492 shouldn't even have documented it. Drats! Too late!
17494 @item nnsoup-replies-index-type
17495 @vindex nnsoup-replies-index-type
17496 The index type of the replies packet. The default is @samp{?n}, which
17497 means ``none''. Don't fiddle with this one either!
17499 @item nnsoup-active-file
17500 @vindex nnsoup-active-file
17501 Where @code{nnsoup} stores lots of information. This is not an ``active
17502 file'' in the @code{nntp} sense; it's an Emacs Lisp file. If you lose
17503 this file or mess it up in any way, you're dead. The default is
17504 @file{~/SOUP/active}.
17506 @item nnsoup-packer
17507 @vindex nnsoup-packer
17508 Format string command for packing a reply @sc{soup} packet. The default
17509 is @samp{tar cf - %s | gzip > $HOME/Soupin%d.tgz}.
17511 @item nnsoup-unpacker
17512 @vindex nnsoup-unpacker
17513 Format string command for unpacking incoming @sc{soup} packets. The
17514 default is @samp{gunzip -c %s | tar xvf -}.
17516 @item nnsoup-packet-directory
17517 @vindex nnsoup-packet-directory
17518 Where @code{nnsoup} will look for incoming packets. The default is
17521 @item nnsoup-packet-regexp
17522 @vindex nnsoup-packet-regexp
17523 Regular expression matching incoming @sc{soup} packets. The default is
17526 @item nnsoup-always-save
17527 @vindex nnsoup-always-save
17528 If non-@code{nil}, save the replies buffer after each posted message.
17534 @subsubsection SOUP Replies
17536 Just using @code{nnsoup} won't mean that your postings and mailings end
17537 up in @sc{soup} reply packets automagically. You have to work a bit
17538 more for that to happen.
17540 @findex nnsoup-set-variables
17541 The @code{nnsoup-set-variables} command will set the appropriate
17542 variables to ensure that all your followups and replies end up in the
17545 In specific, this is what it does:
17548 (setq message-send-news-function 'nnsoup-request-post)
17549 (setq message-send-mail-function 'nnsoup-request-mail)
17552 And that's it, really. If you only want news to go into the @sc{soup}
17553 system you just use the first line. If you only want mail to be
17554 @sc{soup}ed you use the second.
17557 @node Mail-To-News Gateways
17558 @subsection Mail-To-News Gateways
17559 @cindex mail-to-news gateways
17562 If your local @code{nntp} server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
17563 or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
17564 The @code{nngateway} back end provides the interface.
17566 Note that you can't read anything from this back end---it can only be
17572 @item nngateway-address
17573 @vindex nngateway-address
17574 This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.
17576 @item nngateway-header-transformation
17577 @vindex nngateway-header-transformation
17578 News headers often have to be transformed in some odd way or other
17579 for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it. This variable says what
17580 transformation should be called, and defaults to
17581 @code{nngateway-simple-header-transformation}. The function is called
17582 narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one parameter---the
17585 This default function just inserts a new @code{To} header based on the
17586 @code{Newsgroups} header and the gateway address.
17587 For instance, an article with this @code{Newsgroups} header:
17590 Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs
17593 will get this @code{To} header inserted:
17596 To: alt-religion-emacs@@GATEWAY
17599 The following pre-defined functions exist:
17601 @findex nngateway-simple-header-transformation
17604 @item nngateway-simple-header-transformation
17605 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
17606 @var{newsgroup}@@@code{nngateway-address}.
17608 @findex nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
17610 @item nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation
17611 Creates a @code{To} header that looks like
17612 @code{nngateway-address}.
17620 (setq gnus-post-method
17622 "mail2news@@replay.com"
17623 (nngateway-header-transformation
17624 nngateway-mail2news-header-transformation)))
17627 So, to use this, simply say something like:
17630 (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))
17635 @node Combined Groups
17636 @section Combined Groups
17638 Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into bigger
17642 * Virtual Groups:: Combining articles from many groups.
17643 * Kibozed Groups:: Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.
17647 @node Virtual Groups
17648 @subsection Virtual Groups
17650 @cindex virtual groups
17651 @cindex merging groups
17653 An @dfn{nnvirtual group} is really nothing more than a collection of
17656 For instance, if you are tired of reading many small groups, you can
17657 put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one
17658 big, unwieldy group. The joys of computing!
17660 You specify @code{nnvirtual} as the method. The address should be a
17661 regexp to match component groups.
17663 All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
17664 component groups. So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
17665 article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it
17666 came. (And vice versa---marks from the component groups will also be
17667 shown in the virtual group.). To create an empty virtual group, run
17668 @kbd{G V} (@code{gnus-group-make-empty-virtual}) in the group buffer
17669 and edit the method regexp with @kbd{M-e}
17670 (@code{gnus-group-edit-group-method})
17672 Here's an example @code{nnvirtual} method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
17673 newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:
17676 (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")
17679 The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
17680 smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.
17682 Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a good
17683 idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit distribution.
17684 If you would like to read @samp{soc.motss} both from a server in Japan
17685 and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the group regexp:
17688 "^nntp\\+server\\.jp:soc\\.motss$\\|^nntp\\+server\\.no:soc\\.motss$"
17691 (Remember, though, that if you're creating the group with @kbd{G m}, you
17692 shouldn't double the backslashes, and you should leave off the quote
17693 characters at the beginning and the end of the string.)
17695 This should work kinda smoothly---all articles from both groups should
17696 end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates. Threading (and
17697 the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
17698 sequence of articles. Sorting on date might be an option here
17699 (@pxref{Selecting a Group}).
17701 One limitation, however---all groups included in a virtual
17702 group have to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed). Killed or
17703 zombie groups can't be component groups for @code{nnvirtual} groups.
17705 @vindex nnvirtual-always-rescan
17706 If the @code{nnvirtual-always-rescan} is non-@code{nil},
17707 @code{nnvirtual} will always scan groups for unread articles when
17708 entering a virtual group. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
17709 default) and you read articles in a component group after the virtual
17710 group has been activated, the read articles from the component group
17711 will show up when you enter the virtual group. You'll also see this
17712 effect if you have two virtual groups that have a component group in
17713 common. If that's the case, you should set this variable to @code{t}.
17714 Or you can just tap @code{M-g} on the virtual group every time before
17715 you enter it---it'll have much the same effect.
17717 @code{nnvirtual} can have both mail and news groups as component groups.
17718 When responding to articles in @code{nnvirtual} groups, @code{nnvirtual}
17719 has to ask the back end of the component group the article comes from
17720 whether it is a news or mail back end. However, when you do a @kbd{^},
17721 there is typically no sure way for the component back end to know this,
17722 and in that case @code{nnvirtual} tells Gnus that the article came from a
17723 not-news back end. (Just to be on the safe side.)
17725 @kbd{C-c C-n} in the message buffer will insert the @code{Newsgroups}
17726 line from the article you respond to in these cases.
17728 @code{nnvirtual} groups do not inherit anything but articles and marks
17729 from component groups---group parameters, for instance, are not
17733 @node Kibozed Groups
17734 @subsection Kibozed Groups
17738 @dfn{Kibozing} is defined by the @acronym{OED} as ``grepping through
17739 (parts of) the news feed''. @code{nnkiboze} is a back end that will
17740 do this for you. Oh joy! Now you can grind any @acronym{NNTP} server
17741 down to a halt with useless requests! Oh happiness!
17743 @kindex G k (Group)
17744 To create a kibozed group, use the @kbd{G k} command in the group
17747 The address field of the @code{nnkiboze} method is, as with
17748 @code{nnvirtual}, a regexp to match groups to be ``included'' in the
17749 @code{nnkiboze} group. That's where most similarities between
17750 @code{nnkiboze} and @code{nnvirtual} end.
17752 In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an
17753 @code{nnkiboze} group must have a score file to say what articles are
17754 to be included in the group (@pxref{Scoring}).
17756 @kindex M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups
17757 @findex nnkiboze-generate-groups
17758 You must run @kbd{M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups} after creating the
17759 @code{nnkiboze} groups you want to have. This command will take time.
17760 Lots of time. Oodles and oodles of time. Gnus has to fetch the
17761 headers from all the articles in all the component groups and run them
17762 through the scoring process to determine if there are any articles in
17763 the groups that are to be part of the @code{nnkiboze} groups.
17765 Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
17766 regexps. Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
17767 @acronym{NNTP} site may throw you off and never let you back in again.
17768 Stranger things have happened.
17770 @code{nnkiboze} component groups do not have to be alive---they can be dead,
17771 and they can be foreign. No restrictions.
17773 @vindex nnkiboze-directory
17774 The generation of an @code{nnkiboze} group means writing two files in
17775 @code{nnkiboze-directory}, which is @file{~/News/kiboze/} by default.
17776 One contains the @acronym{NOV} header lines for all the articles in
17777 the group, and the other is an additional @file{.newsrc} file to store
17778 information on what groups have been searched through to find
17779 component articles.
17781 Articles marked as read in the @code{nnkiboze} group will have
17782 their @acronym{NOV} lines removed from the @acronym{NOV} file.
17785 @node Email Based Diary
17786 @section Email Based Diary
17788 @cindex email based diary
17791 This section describes a special mail back end called @code{nndiary},
17792 and its companion library @code{gnus-diary}. It is ``special'' in the
17793 sense that it is not meant to be one of the standard alternatives for
17794 reading mail with Gnus. See @ref{Choosing a Mail Back End} for that.
17795 Instead, it is used to treat @emph{some} of your mails in a special way,
17796 namely, as event reminders.
17798 Here is a typical scenario:
17802 You've got a date with Andy Mc Dowell or Bruce Willis (select according
17803 to your sexual preference) in one month. You don't want to forget it.
17805 So you send a ``reminder'' message (actually, a diary one) to yourself.
17807 You forget all about it and keep on getting and reading new mail, as usual.
17809 From time to time, as you type `g' in the group buffer and as the date
17810 is getting closer, the message will pop up again to remind you of your
17811 appointment, just as if it were new and unread.
17813 Read your ``new'' messages, this one included, and start dreaming again
17814 of the night you're gonna have.
17816 Once the date is over (you actually fell asleep just after dinner), the
17817 message will be automatically deleted if it is marked as expirable.
17820 The Gnus Diary back end has the ability to handle regular appointments
17821 (that wouldn't ever be deleted) as well as punctual ones, operates as a
17822 real mail back end and is configurable in many ways. All of this is
17823 explained in the sections below.
17826 * The NNDiary Back End:: Basic setup and usage.
17827 * The Gnus Diary Library:: Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
17828 * Sending or Not Sending:: A final note on sending diary messages.
17832 @node The NNDiary Back End
17833 @subsection The NNDiary Back End
17835 @cindex the nndiary back end
17837 @code{nndiary} is a back end very similar to @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail
17838 Spool}). Actually, it could appear as a mix of @code{nnml} and
17839 @code{nndraft}. If you know @code{nnml}, you're already familiar with
17840 the message storing scheme of @code{nndiary}: one file per message, one
17841 directory per group.
17843 Before anything, there is one requirement to be able to run
17844 @code{nndiary} properly: you @emph{must} use the group timestamp feature
17845 of Gnus. This adds a timestamp to each group's parameters. @ref{Group
17846 Timestamp} to see how it's done.
17849 * Diary Messages:: What makes a message valid for nndiary.
17850 * Running NNDiary:: NNDiary has two modes of operation.
17851 * Customizing NNDiary:: Bells and whistles.
17854 @node Diary Messages
17855 @subsubsection Diary Messages
17856 @cindex nndiary messages
17857 @cindex nndiary mails
17859 @code{nndiary} messages are just normal ones, except for the mandatory
17860 presence of 7 special headers. These headers are of the form
17861 @code{X-Diary-<something>}, @code{<something>} being one of
17862 @code{Minute}, @code{Hour}, @code{Dom}, @code{Month}, @code{Year},
17863 @code{Time-Zone} and @code{Dow}. @code{Dom} means ``Day of Month'', and
17864 @code{dow} means ``Day of Week''. These headers actually behave like
17865 crontab specifications and define the event date(s):
17869 For all headers except the @code{Time-Zone} one, a header value is
17870 either a star (meaning all possible values), or a list of fields
17871 (separated by a comma).
17873 A field is either an integer, or a range.
17875 A range is two integers separated by a dash.
17877 Possible integer values are 0--59 for @code{Minute}, 0--23 for
17878 @code{Hour}, 1--31 for @code{Dom}, 1--12 for @code{Month}, above 1971
17879 for @code{Year} and 0--6 for @code{Dow} (0 meaning Sunday).
17881 As a special case, a star in either @code{Dom} or @code{Dow} doesn't
17882 mean ``all possible values'', but ``use only the other field''. Note
17883 that if both are star'ed, the use of either one gives the same result.
17885 The @code{Time-Zone} header is special in that it can only have one
17886 value (@code{GMT}, for instance). A star doesn't mean ``all possible
17887 values'' (because it makes no sense), but ``the current local time
17888 zone''. Most of the time, you'll be using a star here. However, for a
17889 list of available time zone values, see the variable
17890 @code{nndiary-headers}.
17893 As a concrete example, here are the diary headers to add to your message
17894 for specifying ``Each Monday and each 1st of month, at 12:00, 20:00,
17895 21:00, 22:00, 23:00 and 24:00, from 1999 to 2010'' (I'll let you find
17900 X-Diary-Hour: 12, 20-24
17903 X-Diary-Year: 1999-2010
17905 X-Diary-Time-Zone: *
17908 @node Running NNDiary
17909 @subsubsection Running NNDiary
17910 @cindex running nndiary
17911 @cindex nndiary operation modes
17913 @code{nndiary} has two modes of operation: ``traditional'' (the default)
17914 and ``autonomous''. In traditional mode, @code{nndiary} does not get new
17915 mail by itself. You have to move (@kbd{B m}) or copy (@kbd{B c}) mails
17916 from your primary mail back end to nndiary groups in order to handle them
17917 as diary messages. In autonomous mode, @code{nndiary} retrieves its own
17918 mail and handles it independently from your primary mail back end.
17920 One should note that Gnus is not inherently designed to allow several
17921 ``master'' mail back ends at the same time. However, this does make
17922 sense with @code{nndiary}: you really want to send and receive diary
17923 messages to your diary groups directly. So, @code{nndiary} supports
17924 being sort of a ``second primary mail back end'' (to my knowledge, it is
17925 the only back end offering this feature). However, there is a limitation
17926 (which I hope to fix some day): respooling doesn't work in autonomous
17929 In order to use @code{nndiary} in autonomous mode, you have several
17934 Allow @code{nndiary} to retrieve new mail by itself. Put the following
17935 line in your @file{gnusrc} file:
17938 (setq nndiary-get-new-mail t)
17941 You must arrange for diary messages (those containing @code{X-Diary-*}
17942 headers) to be split in a private folder @emph{before} Gnus treat them.
17943 Again, this is needed because Gnus cannot (yet ?) properly handle
17944 multiple primary mail back ends. Getting those messages from a separate
17945 source will compensate this misfeature to some extent.
17947 As an example, here's my procmailrc entry to store diary files in
17948 @file{~/.nndiary} (the default @code{nndiary} mail source file):
17957 Once this is done, you might want to customize the following two options
17958 that affect the diary mail retrieval and splitting processes:
17960 @defvar nndiary-mail-sources
17961 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
17962 @code{mail-sources} variable. It obeys the same syntax, and defaults to
17963 @code{(file :path "~/.nndiary")}.
17966 @defvar nndiary-split-methods
17967 This is the diary-specific replacement for the standard
17968 @code{nnmail-split-methods} variable. It obeys the same syntax.
17971 Finally, you may add a permanent @code{nndiary} virtual server
17972 (something like @code{(nndiary "diary")} should do) to your
17973 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods}.
17975 Hopefully, almost everything (see the TODO section in
17976 @file{nndiary.el}) will work as expected when you restart Gnus: in
17977 autonomous mode, typing @kbd{g} and @kbd{M-g} in the group buffer, will
17978 also get your new diary mails and split them according to your
17979 diary-specific rules, @kbd{F} will find your new diary groups etc.
17981 @node Customizing NNDiary
17982 @subsubsection Customizing NNDiary
17983 @cindex customizing nndiary
17984 @cindex nndiary customization
17986 Now that @code{nndiary} is up and running, it's time to customize it.
17987 The custom group is called @code{nndiary} (no, really ?!). You should
17988 browse it to figure out which options you'd like to tweak. The following
17989 two variables are probably the only ones you will want to change:
17991 @defvar nndiary-reminders
17992 This is the list of times when you want to be reminded of your
17993 appointements (e.g. 3 weeks before, then 2 days before, then 1 hour
17994 before and that's it). Remember that ``being reminded'' means that the
17995 diary message will pop up as brand new and unread again when you get new
17999 @defvar nndiary-week-starts-on-monday
18000 Rather self-explanatory. Otherwise, Sunday is assumed (this is the
18005 @node The Gnus Diary Library
18006 @subsection The Gnus Diary Library
18008 @cindex the gnus diary library
18010 Using @code{nndiary} manually (I mean, writing the headers by hand and
18011 so on) would be rather boring. Fortunately, there is a library called
18012 @code{gnus-diary} written on top of @code{nndiary}, that does many
18013 useful things for you.
18015 In order to use it, add the following line to your @file{gnusrc} file:
18018 (require 'gnus-diary)
18021 Also, you shouldn't use any @code{gnus-user-format-function-[d|D]}
18022 (@pxref{Summary Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} provides both of these
18023 (sorry if you used them before).
18027 * Diary Summary Line Format:: A nicer summary buffer line format.
18028 * Diary Articles Sorting:: A nicer way to sort messages.
18029 * Diary Headers Generation:: Not doing it manually.
18030 * Diary Group Parameters:: Not handling them manually.
18033 @node Diary Summary Line Format
18034 @subsubsection Diary Summary Line Format
18035 @cindex diary summary buffer line
18036 @cindex diary summary line format
18038 Displaying diary messages in standard summary line format (usually
18039 something like @samp{From Joe: Subject}) is pretty useless. Most of
18040 the time, you're the one who wrote the message, and you mostly want to
18041 see the event's date.
18043 @code{gnus-diary} provides two supplemental user formats to be used in
18044 summary line formats. @code{D} corresponds to a formatted time string
18045 for the next occurrence of the event (e.g. ``Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00''),
18046 while @code{d} corresponds to an approximative remaining time until the
18047 next occurrence of the event (e.g. ``in 6 months, 1 week'').
18049 For example, here's how Joe's birthday is displayed in my
18050 @code{nndiary+diary:birthdays} summary buffer (note that the message is
18051 expirable, but will never be deleted, as it specifies a periodic event):
18054 E Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00: Joe's birthday (in 6 months, 1 week)
18057 In order to get something like the above, you would normally add the
18058 following line to your diary groups'parameters:
18061 (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z %uD: %(%s%) (%ud)\n")
18064 However, @code{gnus-diary} does it automatically (@pxref{Diary Group
18065 Parameters}). You can however customize the provided summary line format
18066 with the following user options:
18068 @defvar gnus-diary-summary-line-format
18069 Defines the summary line format used for diary groups (@pxref{Summary
18070 Buffer Lines}). @code{gnus-diary} uses it to automatically update the
18071 diary groups'parameters.
18074 @defvar gnus-diary-time-format
18075 Defines the format to display dates in diary summary buffers. This is
18076 used by the @code{D} user format. See the docstring for details.
18079 @defvar gnus-diary-delay-format-function
18080 Defines the format function to use for displaying delays (remaining
18081 times) in diary summary buffers. This is used by the @code{d} user
18082 format. There are currently built-in functions for English and French;
18083 you can also define your own. See the docstring for details.
18086 @node Diary Articles Sorting
18087 @subsubsection Diary Articles Sorting
18088 @cindex diary articles sorting
18089 @cindex diary summary lines sorting
18090 @findex gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule
18091 @findex gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule
18092 @findex gnus-article-sort-by-schedule
18094 @code{gnus-diary} provides new sorting functions (@pxref{Sorting the
18095 Summary Buffer} ) called @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule},
18096 @code{gnus-thread-sort-by-schedule} and
18097 @code{gnus-article-sort-by-schedule}. These functions let you organize
18098 your diary summary buffers from the closest event to the farthest one.
18100 @code{gnus-diary} automatically installs
18101 @code{gnus-summary-sort-by-schedule} as a menu item in the summary
18102 buffer's ``sort'' menu, and the two others as the primary (hence
18103 default) sorting functions in the group parameters (@pxref{Diary Group
18106 @node Diary Headers Generation
18107 @subsubsection Diary Headers Generation
18108 @cindex diary headers generation
18109 @findex gnus-diary-check-message
18111 @code{gnus-diary} provides a function called
18112 @code{gnus-diary-check-message} to help you handle the @code{X-Diary-*}
18113 headers. This function ensures that the current message contains all the
18114 required diary headers, and prompts you for values or corrections if
18117 This function is hooked into the @code{nndiary} back end, so that
18118 moving or copying an article to a diary group will trigger it
18119 automatically. It is also bound to @kbd{C-c D c} in @code{message-mode}
18120 and @code{article-edit-mode} in order to ease the process of converting
18121 a usual mail to a diary one.
18123 This function takes a prefix argument which will force prompting of
18124 all diary headers, regardless of their presence or validity. That way,
18125 you can very easily reschedule an already valid diary message, for
18128 @node Diary Group Parameters
18129 @subsubsection Diary Group Parameters
18130 @cindex diary group parameters
18132 When you create a new diary group, or visit one, @code{gnus-diary}
18133 automatically checks your group parameters and if needed, sets the
18134 summary line format to the diary-specific value, installs the
18135 diary-specific sorting functions, and also adds the different
18136 @code{X-Diary-*} headers to the group's posting-style. It is then easier
18137 to send a diary message, because if you use @kbd{C-u a} or @kbd{C-u m}
18138 on a diary group to prepare a message, these headers will be inserted
18139 automatically (although not filled with proper values yet).
18141 @node Sending or Not Sending
18142 @subsection Sending or Not Sending
18144 Well, assuming you've read of of the above, here are two final notes on
18145 mail sending with @code{nndiary}:
18149 @code{nndiary} is a @emph{real} mail back end. You really send real diary
18150 messsages for real. This means for instance that you can give
18151 appointements to anybody (provided they use Gnus and @code{nndiary}) by
18152 sending the diary message to them as well.
18154 However, since @code{nndiary} also has a @code{request-post} method, you
18155 can also use @kbd{C-u a} instead of @kbd{C-u m} on a diary group and the
18156 message won't actually be sent; just stored locally in the group. This
18157 comes in very handy for private appointments.
18160 @node Gnus Unplugged
18161 @section Gnus Unplugged
18166 @cindex Gnus unplugged
18168 In olden times (ca. February '88), people used to run their newsreaders
18169 on big machines with permanent connections to the net. News transport
18170 was dealt with by news servers, and all the newsreaders had to do was to
18171 read news. Believe it or not.
18173 Nowadays most people read news and mail at home, and use some sort of
18174 modem to connect to the net. To avoid running up huge phone bills, it
18175 would be nice to have a way to slurp down all the news and mail, hang up
18176 the phone, read for several hours, and then upload any responses you
18177 have to make. And then you repeat the procedure.
18179 Of course, you can use news servers for doing this as well. I've used
18180 @code{inn} together with @code{slurp}, @code{pop} and @code{sendmail}
18181 for some years, but doing that's a bore. Moving the news server
18182 functionality up to the newsreader makes sense if you're the only person
18183 reading news on a machine.
18185 Setting up Gnus as an ``offline'' newsreader is quite simple. In
18186 fact, you don't have to configure anything as the agent is now enabled
18187 by default (@pxref{Agent Variables, gnus-agent}).
18189 Of course, to use it as such, you have to learn a few new commands.
18192 * Agent Basics:: How it all is supposed to work.
18193 * Agent Categories:: How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
18194 * Agent Commands:: New commands for all the buffers.
18195 * Agent Visuals:: Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
18196 * Agent as Cache:: The Agent is a big cache too.
18197 * Agent Expiry:: How to make old articles go away.
18198 * Agent Regeneration:: How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
18199 * Agent and flags:: How the Agent maintains flags.
18200 * Agent and IMAP:: How to use the Agent with @acronym{IMAP}.
18201 * Outgoing Messages:: What happens when you post/mail something?
18202 * Agent Variables:: Customizing is fun.
18203 * Example Setup:: An example @file{~/.gnus.el} file for offline people.
18204 * Batching Agents:: How to fetch news from a @code{cron} job.
18205 * Agent Caveats:: What you think it'll do and what it does.
18210 @subsection Agent Basics
18212 First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
18214 The Gnus Agent is said to be @dfn{unplugged} when you have severed the
18215 connection to the net (and notified the Agent that this is the case).
18216 When the connection to the net is up again (and Gnus knows this), the
18217 Agent is @dfn{plugged}.
18219 The @dfn{local} machine is the one you're running on, and which isn't
18220 connected to the net continuously.
18222 @dfn{Downloading} means fetching things from the net to your local
18223 machine. @dfn{Uploading} is doing the opposite.
18225 You know that Gnus gives you all the opportunity you'd ever want for
18226 shooting yourself in the foot. Some people call it flexibility. Gnus
18227 is also customizable to a great extent, which means that the user has a
18228 say on how Gnus behaves. Other newsreaders might unconditionally shoot
18229 you in your foot, but with Gnus, you have a choice!
18231 Gnus is never really in plugged or unplugged state. Rather, it applies
18232 that state to each server individually. This means that some servers
18233 can be plugged while others can be unplugged. Additionally, some
18234 servers can be ignored by the Agent altogether (which means that
18235 they're kinda like plugged always).
18237 So when you unplug the Agent and then wonder why is Gnus opening a
18238 connection to the Net, the next step to do is to look whether all
18239 servers are agentized. If there is an unagentized server, you found
18242 Another thing is the @dfn{offline} state. Sometimes, servers aren't
18243 reachable. When Gnus notices this, it asks you whether you want the
18244 server to be switched to offline state. If you say yes, then the
18245 server will behave somewhat as if it was unplugged, except that Gnus
18246 will ask you whether you want to switch it back online again.
18248 Let's take a typical Gnus session using the Agent.
18253 @findex gnus-unplugged
18254 You start Gnus with @code{gnus-unplugged}. This brings up the Gnus
18255 Agent in a disconnected state. You can read all the news that you have
18256 already fetched while in this mode.
18259 You then decide to see whether any new news has arrived. You connect
18260 your machine to the net (using PPP or whatever), and then hit @kbd{J j}
18261 to make Gnus become @dfn{plugged} and use @kbd{g} to check for new mail
18262 as usual. To check for new mail in unplugged mode (@pxref{Mail
18263 Source Specifiers}).
18266 You can then read the new news immediately, or you can download the
18267 news onto your local machine. If you want to do the latter, you press
18268 @kbd{g} to check if there are any new news and then @kbd{J s} to fetch
18269 all the eligible articles in all the groups. (To let Gnus know which
18270 articles you want to download, @pxref{Agent Categories}).
18273 After fetching the articles, you press @kbd{J j} to make Gnus become
18274 unplugged again, and you shut down the PPP thing (or whatever). And
18275 then you read the news offline.
18278 And then you go to step 2.
18281 Here are some things you should do the first time (or so) that you use
18287 Decide which servers should be covered by the Agent. If you have a mail
18288 back end, it would probably be nonsensical to have it covered by the
18289 Agent. Go to the server buffer (@kbd{^} in the group buffer) and press
18290 @kbd{J a} on the server (or servers) that you wish to have covered by the
18291 Agent (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}), or @kbd{J r} on automatically
18292 added servers you do not wish to have covered by the Agent. By default,
18293 all @code{nntp} and @code{nnimap} servers in @code{gnus-select-method} and
18294 @code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} are agentized.
18297 Decide on download policy. It's fairly simple once you decide whether
18298 you are going to use agent categories, topic parameters, and/or group
18299 parameters to implement your policy. If you're new to gnus, it
18300 is probably best to start with a category, @xref{Agent Categories}.
18302 Both topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) and agent categories
18303 (@pxref{Agent Categories}) provide for setting a policy that applies
18304 to multiple groups. Which you use is entirely up to you. Topic
18305 parameters do override categories so, if you mix the two, you'll have
18306 to take that into account. If you have a few groups that deviate from
18307 your policy, you can use group parameters (@pxref{Group Parameters}) to
18311 Uhm@dots{} that's it.
18315 @node Agent Categories
18316 @subsection Agent Categories
18318 One of the main reasons to integrate the news transport layer into the
18319 newsreader is to allow greater control over what articles to download.
18320 There's not much point in downloading huge amounts of articles, just to
18321 find out that you're not interested in reading any of them. It's better
18322 to be somewhat more conservative in choosing what to download, and then
18323 mark the articles for downloading manually if it should turn out that
18324 you're interested in the articles anyway.
18326 One of the more effective methods for controlling what is to be
18327 downloaded is to create a @dfn{category} and then assign some (or all)
18328 groups to this category. Groups that do not belong in any other
18329 category belong to the @code{default} category. Gnus has its own
18330 buffer for creating and managing categories.
18332 If you prefer, you can also use group parameters (@pxref{Group
18333 Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic Parameters}) for an
18334 alternative approach to controlling the agent. The only real
18335 difference is that categories are specific to the agent (so there is
18336 less to learn) while group and topic parameters include the kitchen
18339 Since you can set agent parameters in several different places we have
18340 a rule to decide which source to believe. This rule specifies that
18341 the parameter sources are checked in the following order: group
18342 parameters, topic parameters, agent category, and finally customizable
18343 variables. So you can mix all of these sources to produce a wide range
18344 of behavior, just don't blame me if you don't remember where you put
18348 * Category Syntax:: What a category looks like.
18349 * Category Buffer:: A buffer for maintaining categories.
18350 * Category Variables:: Customize'r'Us.
18354 @node Category Syntax
18355 @subsubsection Category Syntax
18357 A category consists of a name, the list of groups belonging to the
18358 category, and a number of optional parameters that override the
18359 customizable variables. The complete list of agent parameters are
18362 @cindex Agent Parameters
18365 The list of groups that are in this category.
18367 @item agent-predicate
18368 A predicate which (generally) gives a rough outline of which articles
18369 are eligible for downloading; and
18372 a score rule which (generally) gives you a finer granularity when
18373 deciding what articles to download. (Note that this @dfn{download
18374 score} is not necessarily related to normal scores.)
18376 @item agent-enable-expiration
18377 a boolean indicating whether the agent should expire old articles in
18378 this group. Most groups should be expired to conserve disk space. In
18379 fact, its probably safe to say that the gnus.* hierarchy contains the
18380 only groups that should not be expired.
18382 @item agent-days-until-old
18383 an integer indicating the number of days that the agent should wait
18384 before deciding that a read article is safe to expire.
18386 @item agent-low-score
18387 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-low-score}.
18389 @item agent-high-score
18390 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-high-score}.
18392 @item agent-short-article
18393 an integer that overrides the value of
18394 @code{gnus-agent-short-article}.
18396 @item agent-long-article
18397 an integer that overrides the value of @code{gnus-agent-long-article}.
18399 @item agent-enable-undownloaded-faces
18400 a symbol indicating whether the summary buffer should display
18401 undownloaded articles using the @code{gnus-summary-*-undownloaded-face}
18402 faces. Any symbol other than @code{nil} will enable the use of
18403 undownloaded faces.
18406 The name of a category can not be changed once the category has been
18409 Each category maintains a list of groups that are exclusive members of
18410 that category. The exclusivity rule is automatically enforced, add a
18411 group to a new category and it is automatically removed from its old
18414 A predicate in its simplest form can be a single predicate such as
18415 @code{true} or @code{false}. These two will download every available
18416 article or nothing respectively. In the case of these two special
18417 predicates an additional score rule is superfluous.
18419 Predicates of @code{high} or @code{low} download articles in respect of
18420 their scores in relationship to @code{gnus-agent-high-score} and
18421 @code{gnus-agent-low-score} as described below.
18423 To gain even finer control of what is to be regarded eligible for
18424 download a predicate can consist of a number of predicates with logical
18425 operators sprinkled in between.
18427 Perhaps some examples are in order.
18429 Here's a simple predicate. (It's the default predicate, in fact, used
18430 for all groups that don't belong to any other category.)
18436 Quite simple, eh? This predicate is true if and only if the article is
18437 short (for some value of ``short'').
18439 Here's a more complex predicate:
18448 This means that an article should be downloaded if it has a high score,
18449 or if the score is not low and the article is not long. You get the
18452 The available logical operators are @code{or}, @code{and} and
18453 @code{not}. (If you prefer, you can use the more ``C''-ish operators
18454 @samp{|}, @code{&} and @code{!} instead.)
18456 The following predicates are pre-defined, but if none of these fit what
18457 you want to do, you can write your own.
18459 When evaluating each of these predicates, the named constant will be
18460 bound to the value determined by calling
18461 @code{gnus-agent-find-parameter} on the appropriate parameter. For
18462 example, gnus-agent-short-article will be bound to
18463 @code{(gnus-agent-find-parameter group 'agent-short-article)}. This
18464 means that you can specify a predicate in your category then tune that
18465 predicate to individual groups.
18469 True iff the article is shorter than @code{gnus-agent-short-article}
18470 lines; default 100.
18473 True iff the article is longer than @code{gnus-agent-long-article}
18474 lines; default 200.
18477 True iff the article has a download score less than
18478 @code{gnus-agent-low-score}; default 0.
18481 True iff the article has a download score greater than
18482 @code{gnus-agent-high-score}; default 0.
18485 True iff the Gnus Agent guesses that the article is spam. The
18486 heuristics may change over time, but at present it just computes a
18487 checksum and sees whether articles match.
18496 If you want to create your own predicate function, here's what you have
18497 to know: The functions are called with no parameters, but the
18498 @code{gnus-headers} and @code{gnus-score} dynamic variables are bound to
18501 For example, you could decide that you don't want to download articles
18502 that were posted more than a certain number of days ago (e.g. posted
18503 more than @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} ago) you might write a function
18504 something along the lines of the following:
18507 (defun my-article-old-p ()
18508 "Say whether an article is old."
18509 (< (time-to-days (date-to-time (mail-header-date gnus-headers)))
18510 (- (time-to-days (current-time)) gnus-agent-expire-days)))
18513 with the predicate then defined as:
18516 (not my-article-old-p)
18519 or you could append your predicate to the predefined
18520 @code{gnus-category-predicate-alist} in your @file{~/.gnus.el} or
18524 (require 'gnus-agent)
18525 (setq gnus-category-predicate-alist
18526 (append gnus-category-predicate-alist
18527 '((old . my-article-old-p))))
18530 and simply specify your predicate as:
18536 If/when using something like the above, be aware that there are many
18537 misconfigured systems/mailers out there and so an article's date is not
18538 always a reliable indication of when it was posted. Hell, some people
18539 just don't give a damn.
18541 The above predicates apply to @emph{all} the groups which belong to the
18542 category. However, if you wish to have a specific predicate for an
18543 individual group within a category, or you're just too lazy to set up a
18544 new category, you can enter a group's individual predicate in its group
18545 parameters like so:
18548 (agent-predicate . short)
18551 This is the group/topic parameter equivalent of the agent category default.
18552 Note that when specifying a single word predicate like this, the
18553 @code{agent-predicate} specification must be in dotted pair notation.
18555 The equivalent of the longer example from above would be:
18558 (agent-predicate or high (and (not low) (not long)))
18561 The outer parenthesis required in the category specification are not
18562 entered here as, not being in dotted pair notation, the value of the
18563 predicate is assumed to be a list.
18566 Now, the syntax of the download score is the same as the syntax of
18567 normal score files, except that all elements that require actually
18568 seeing the article itself are verboten. This means that only the
18569 following headers can be scored on: @code{Subject}, @code{From},
18570 @code{Date}, @code{Message-ID}, @code{References}, @code{Chars},
18571 @code{Lines}, and @code{Xref}.
18573 As with predicates, the specification of the @code{download score rule}
18574 to use in respect of a group can be in either the category definition if
18575 it's to be applicable to all groups in therein, or a group's parameters
18576 if it's to be specific to that group.
18578 In both of these places the @code{download score rule} can take one of
18585 This has the same syntax as a normal Gnus score file except only a
18586 subset of scoring keywords are available as mentioned above.
18592 Category specification
18596 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
18602 Group/Topic Parameter specification
18605 (agent-score ("from"
18606 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" 1000000 nil s))
18611 Again, note the omission of the outermost parenthesis here.
18617 These score files must @emph{only} contain the permitted scoring
18618 keywords stated above.
18624 Category specification
18627 ("~/News/agent.SCORE")
18633 ("~/News/agent.SCORE" "~/News/agent.group.SCORE")
18637 Group Parameter specification
18640 (agent-score "~/News/agent.SCORE")
18643 Additional score files can be specified as above. Need I say anything
18648 Use @code{normal} score files
18650 If you don't want to maintain two sets of scoring rules for a group, and
18651 your desired @code{downloading} criteria for a group are the same as your
18652 @code{reading} criteria then you can tell the agent to refer to your
18653 @code{normal} score files when deciding what to download.
18655 These directives in either the category definition or a group's
18656 parameters will cause the agent to read in all the applicable score
18657 files for a group, @emph{filtering out} those sections that do not
18658 relate to one of the permitted subset of scoring keywords.
18662 Category Specification
18669 Group Parameter specification
18672 (agent-score . file)
18677 @node Category Buffer
18678 @subsubsection Category Buffer
18680 You'd normally do all category maintenance from the category buffer.
18681 When you enter it for the first time (with the @kbd{J c} command from
18682 the group buffer), you'll only see the @code{default} category.
18684 The following commands are available in this buffer:
18688 @kindex q (Category)
18689 @findex gnus-category-exit
18690 Return to the group buffer (@code{gnus-category-exit}).
18693 @kindex e (Category)
18694 @findex gnus-category-customize-category
18695 Use a customization buffer to set all of the selected category's
18696 parameters at one time (@code{gnus-category-customize-category}).
18699 @kindex k (Category)
18700 @findex gnus-category-kill
18701 Kill the current category (@code{gnus-category-kill}).
18704 @kindex c (Category)
18705 @findex gnus-category-copy
18706 Copy the current category (@code{gnus-category-copy}).
18709 @kindex a (Category)
18710 @findex gnus-category-add
18711 Add a new category (@code{gnus-category-add}).
18714 @kindex p (Category)
18715 @findex gnus-category-edit-predicate
18716 Edit the predicate of the current category
18717 (@code{gnus-category-edit-predicate}).
18720 @kindex g (Category)
18721 @findex gnus-category-edit-groups
18722 Edit the list of groups belonging to the current category
18723 (@code{gnus-category-edit-groups}).
18726 @kindex s (Category)
18727 @findex gnus-category-edit-score
18728 Edit the download score rule of the current category
18729 (@code{gnus-category-edit-score}).
18732 @kindex l (Category)
18733 @findex gnus-category-list
18734 List all the categories (@code{gnus-category-list}).
18738 @node Category Variables
18739 @subsubsection Category Variables
18742 @item gnus-category-mode-hook
18743 @vindex gnus-category-mode-hook
18744 Hook run in category buffers.
18746 @item gnus-category-line-format
18747 @vindex gnus-category-line-format
18748 Format of the lines in the category buffer (@pxref{Formatting
18749 Variables}). Valid elements are:
18753 The name of the category.
18756 The number of groups in the category.
18759 @item gnus-category-mode-line-format
18760 @vindex gnus-category-mode-line-format
18761 Format of the category mode line (@pxref{Mode Line Formatting}).
18763 @item gnus-agent-short-article
18764 @vindex gnus-agent-short-article
18765 Articles that have fewer lines than this are short. Default 100.
18767 @item gnus-agent-long-article
18768 @vindex gnus-agent-long-article
18769 Articles that have more lines than this are long. Default 200.
18771 @item gnus-agent-low-score
18772 @vindex gnus-agent-low-score
18773 Articles that have a score lower than this have a low score. Default
18776 @item gnus-agent-high-score
18777 @vindex gnus-agent-high-score
18778 Articles that have a score higher than this have a high score. Default
18781 @item gnus-agent-expire-days
18782 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
18783 The number of days that a @samp{read} article must stay in the agent's
18784 local disk before becoming eligible for expiration (While the name is
18785 the same, this doesn't mean expiring the article on the server. It
18786 just means deleting the local copy of the article). What is also
18787 important to understand is that the counter starts with the time the
18788 article was written to the local disk and not the time the article was
18792 @item gnus-agent-enable-expiration
18793 @vindex gnus-agent-enable-expiration
18794 Determines whether articles in a group are, by default, expired or
18795 retained indefinitely. The default is @code{ENABLE} which means that
18796 you'll have to disable expiration when desired. On the other hand,
18797 you could set this to @code{DISABLE}. In that case, you would then
18798 have to enable expiration in selected groups.
18803 @node Agent Commands
18804 @subsection Agent Commands
18805 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-plugged
18806 @kindex J j (Agent)
18808 All the Gnus Agent commands are on the @kbd{J} submap. The @kbd{J j}
18809 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-plugged}) command works in all modes, and
18810 toggles the plugged/unplugged state of the Gnus Agent.
18814 * Group Agent Commands:: Configure groups and fetch their contents.
18815 * Summary Agent Commands:: Manually select then fetch specific articles.
18816 * Server Agent Commands:: Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
18822 @node Group Agent Commands
18823 @subsubsection Group Agent Commands
18827 @kindex J u (Agent Group)
18828 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-groups
18829 Fetch all eligible articles in the current group
18830 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-groups}).
18833 @kindex J c (Agent Group)
18834 @findex gnus-enter-category-buffer
18835 Enter the Agent category buffer (@code{gnus-enter-category-buffer}).
18838 @kindex J s (Agent Group)
18839 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-session
18840 Fetch all eligible articles in all groups
18841 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-session}).
18844 @kindex J S (Agent Group)
18845 @findex gnus-group-send-queue
18846 Send all sendable messages in the queue group
18847 (@code{gnus-group-send-queue}). @xref{Drafts}.
18850 @kindex J a (Agent Group)
18851 @findex gnus-agent-add-group
18852 Add the current group to an Agent category
18853 (@code{gnus-agent-add-group}). This command understands the
18854 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
18857 @kindex J r (Agent Group)
18858 @findex gnus-agent-remove-group
18859 Remove the current group from its category, if any
18860 (@code{gnus-agent-remove-group}). This command understands the
18861 process/prefix convention (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
18864 @kindex J Y (Agent Group)
18865 @findex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
18866 Synchronize flags changed while unplugged with remote server, if any.
18872 @node Summary Agent Commands
18873 @subsubsection Summary Agent Commands
18877 @kindex J # (Agent Summary)
18878 @findex gnus-agent-mark-article
18879 Mark the article for downloading (@code{gnus-agent-mark-article}).
18882 @kindex J M-# (Agent Summary)
18883 @findex gnus-agent-unmark-article
18884 Remove the downloading mark from the article
18885 (@code{gnus-agent-unmark-article}).
18889 @kindex @@ (Agent Summary)
18890 @findex gnus-agent-toggle-mark
18891 Toggle whether to download the article
18892 (@code{gnus-agent-toggle-mark}). The download mark is @samp{%} by
18896 @kindex J c (Agent Summary)
18897 @findex gnus-agent-catchup
18898 Mark all articles as read (@code{gnus-agent-catchup}) that are neither cached, downloaded, nor downloadable.
18901 @kindex J S (Agent Summary)
18902 @findex gnus-agent-fetch-group
18903 Download all eligible (@pxref{Agent Categories}) articles in this group.
18904 (@code{gnus-agent-fetch-group}).
18907 @kindex J s (Agent Summary)
18908 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series
18909 Download all processable articles in this group.
18910 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-series}).
18913 @kindex J u (Agent Summary)
18914 @findex gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group
18915 Download all downloadable articles in the current group
18916 (@code{gnus-agent-summary-fetch-group}).
18921 @node Server Agent Commands
18922 @subsubsection Server Agent Commands
18926 @kindex J a (Agent Server)
18927 @findex gnus-agent-add-server
18928 Add the current server to the list of servers covered by the Gnus Agent
18929 (@code{gnus-agent-add-server}).
18932 @kindex J r (Agent Server)
18933 @findex gnus-agent-remove-server
18934 Remove the current server from the list of servers covered by the Gnus
18935 Agent (@code{gnus-agent-remove-server}).
18940 @node Agent Visuals
18941 @subsection Agent Visuals
18943 If you open a summary while unplugged and, Gnus knows from the group's
18944 active range that there are more articles than the headers currently
18945 stored in the Agent, you may see some articles whose subject looks
18946 something like @samp{[Undownloaded article #####]}. These are
18947 placeholders for the missing headers. Aside from setting a mark,
18948 there is not much that can be done with one of these placeholders.
18949 When Gnus finally gets a chance to fetch the group's headers, the
18950 placeholders will automatically be replaced by the actual headers.
18951 You can configure the summary buffer's maneuvering to skip over the
18952 placeholders if you care (See @code{gnus-auto-goto-ignores}).
18954 While it may be obvious to all, the only headers and articles
18955 available while unplugged are those headers and articles that were
18956 fetched into the Agent while previously plugged. To put it another
18957 way, ``If you forget to fetch something while plugged, you might have a
18958 less than satisfying unplugged session''. For this reason, the Agent
18959 adds two visual effects to your summary buffer. These effects display
18960 the download status of each article so that you always know which
18961 articles will be available when unplugged.
18963 The first visual effect is the @samp{%O} spec. If you customize
18964 @code{gnus-summary-line-format} to include this specifier, you will add
18965 a single character field that indicates an article's download status.
18966 Articles that have been fetched into either the Agent or the Cache,
18967 will display @code{gnus-downloaded-mark} (defaults to @samp{+}). All
18968 other articles will display @code{gnus-undownloaded-mark} (defaults to
18969 @samp{-}). If you open a group that has not been agentized, a space
18970 (@samp{ }) will be displayed.
18972 The second visual effect are the undownloaded faces. The faces, there
18973 are three indicating the article's score (low, normal, high), seem to
18974 result in a love/hate response from many Gnus users. The problem is
18975 that the face selection is controlled by a list of condition tests and
18976 face names (See @code{gnus-summary-highlight}). Each condition is
18977 tested in the order in which it appears in the list so early
18978 conditions have precedence over later conditions. All of this means
18979 that, if you tick an undownloaded article, the article will continue
18980 to be displayed in the undownloaded face rather than the ticked face.
18982 If you use the Agent as a cache (to avoid downloading the same article
18983 each time you visit it or to minimize your connection time), the
18984 undownloaded face will probably seem like a good idea. The reason
18985 being that you do all of our work (marking, reading, deleting) with
18986 downloaded articles so the normal faces always appear. For those
18987 users using the agent to improve online performance by caching the NOV
18988 database (most users since 5.10.2), the undownloaded faces may appear
18989 to be an absolutely horrible idea. The issue being that, since none
18990 of their articles have been fetched into the Agent, all of the
18991 normal faces will be obscured by the undownloaded faces.
18993 If you would like to use the undownloaded faces, you must enable the
18994 undownloaded faces by setting the @code{agent-enable-undownloaded-faces}
18995 group parameter to @code{t}. This parameter, like all other agent
18996 parameters, may be set on an Agent Category (@pxref{Agent Categories}),
18997 a Group Topic (@pxref{Topic Parameters}), or an individual group
18998 (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
19000 The one problem common to all users using the agent is how quickly it
19001 can consume disk space. If you using the agent on many groups, it is
19002 even more difficult to effectively recover disk space. One solution
19003 is the @samp{%F} format available in @code{gnus-group-line-format}.
19004 This format will display the actual disk space used by articles
19005 fetched into both the agent and cache. By knowing which groups use
19006 the most space, users know where to focus their efforts when ``agent
19007 expiring'' articles.
19009 @node Agent as Cache
19010 @subsection Agent as Cache
19012 When Gnus is plugged, it is not efficient to download headers or
19013 articles from the server again, if they are already stored in the
19014 Agent. So, Gnus normally only downloads headers once, and stores them
19015 in the Agent. These headers are later used when generating the summary
19016 buffer, regardless of whether you are plugged or unplugged. Articles
19017 are not cached in the Agent by default though (that would potentially
19018 consume lots of disk space), but if you have already downloaded an
19019 article into the Agent, Gnus will not download the article from the
19020 server again but use the locally stored copy instead.
19022 If you so desire, you can configure the agent (see @code{gnus-agent-cache}
19023 @pxref{Agent Variables}) to always download headers and articles while
19024 plugged. Gnus will almost certainly be slower, but it will be kept
19025 synchronized with the server. That last point probably won't make any
19026 sense if you are using a nntp or nnimap back end.
19029 @subsection Agent Expiry
19031 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-days
19032 @findex gnus-agent-expire
19033 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire
19034 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-expire-group
19035 @findex gnus-agent-expire-group
19036 @cindex agent expiry
19037 @cindex Gnus agent expiry
19040 The Agent back end, @code{nnagent}, doesn't handle expiry. Well, at
19041 least it doesn't handle it like other back ends. Instead, there are
19042 special @code{gnus-agent-expire} and @code{gnus-agent-expire-group}
19043 commands that will expire all read articles that are older than
19044 @code{gnus-agent-expire-days} days. They can be run whenever you feel
19045 that you're running out of space. Neither are particularly fast or
19046 efficient, and it's not a particularly good idea to interrupt them (with
19047 @kbd{C-g} or anything else) once you've started one of them.
19049 Note that other functions, e.g. @code{gnus-request-expire-articles},
19050 might run @code{gnus-agent-expire} for you to keep the agent
19051 synchronized with the group.
19053 The agent parameter @code{agent-enable-expiration} may be used to
19054 prevent expiration in selected groups.
19056 @vindex gnus-agent-expire-all
19057 If @code{gnus-agent-expire-all} is non-@code{nil}, the agent
19058 expiration commands will expire all articles---unread, read, ticked
19059 and dormant. If @code{nil} (which is the default), only read articles
19060 are eligible for expiry, and unread, ticked and dormant articles will
19061 be kept indefinitely.
19063 If you find that some articles eligible for expiry are never expired,
19064 perhaps some Gnus Agent files are corrupted. There's are special
19065 commands, @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} and
19066 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group}, to fix possible problems.
19068 @node Agent Regeneration
19069 @subsection Agent Regeneration
19071 @cindex agent regeneration
19072 @cindex Gnus agent regeneration
19073 @cindex regeneration
19075 The local data structures used by @code{nnagent} may become corrupted
19076 due to certain exceptional conditions. When this happens,
19077 @code{nnagent} functionality may degrade or even fail. The solution
19078 to this problem is to repair the local data structures by removing all
19079 internal inconsistencies.
19081 For example, if your connection to your server is lost while
19082 downloaded articles into the agent, the local data structures will not
19083 know about articles successfully downloaded prior to the connection
19084 failure. Running @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} or
19085 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} will update the data structures
19086 such that you don't need to download these articles a second time.
19088 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate
19089 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate
19090 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} will perform
19091 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} on every agentized group. While
19092 you can run @code{gnus-agent-regenerate} in any buffer, it is strongly
19093 recommended that you first close all summary buffers.
19095 @findex gnus-agent-regenerate-group
19096 @kindex M-x gnus-agent-regenerate-group
19097 The command @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} uses the local copies
19098 of individual articles to repair the local @acronym{NOV}(header) database. It
19099 then updates the internal data structures that document which articles
19100 are stored locally. An optional argument will mark articles in the
19103 @node Agent and flags
19104 @subsection Agent and flags
19106 The Agent works with any Gnus back end including those, such as
19107 nnimap, that store flags (read, ticked, etc) on the server. Sadly,
19108 the Agent does not actually know which backends keep their flags in
19109 the backend server rather than in @file{.newsrc}. This means that the
19110 Agent, while unplugged or disconnected, will always record all changes
19111 to the flags in its own files.
19113 When you plug back in, Gnus will then check to see if you have any
19114 changed any flags and ask if you wish to synchronize these with the
19115 server. This behavior is customizable by @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags}.
19117 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19118 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
19119 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
19120 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
19121 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
19122 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
19124 If you do not wish to synchronize flags automatically when you
19125 re-connect, you can do it manually with the
19126 @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} command that is bound to @kbd{J Y}
19127 in the group buffer.
19129 Technical note: the synchronization algorithm does not work by ``pushing''
19130 all local flags to the server, but rather by incrementally updated the
19131 server view of flags by changing only those flags that were changed by
19132 the user. Thus, if you set one flag on an article, quit the group then
19133 re-select the group and remove the flag; the flag will be set and
19134 removed from the server when you ``synchronize''. The queued flag
19135 operations can be found in the per-server @code{flags} file in the Agent
19136 directory. It's emptied when you synchronize flags.
19138 @node Agent and IMAP
19139 @subsection Agent and IMAP
19141 The Agent works with any Gnus back end, including nnimap. However,
19142 since there are some conceptual differences between @acronym{NNTP} and
19143 @acronym{IMAP}, this section (should) provide you with some information to
19144 make Gnus Agent work smoother as a @acronym{IMAP} Disconnected Mode client.
19146 Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd might
19147 expect from a disconnected @acronym{IMAP} client, including:
19152 Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
19155 Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
19159 @node Outgoing Messages
19160 @subsection Outgoing Messages
19162 By default, when Gnus is unplugged, all outgoing messages (both mail
19163 and news) are stored in the draft group ``queue'' (@pxref{Drafts}).
19164 You can view them there after posting, and edit them at will.
19166 You can control the circumstances under which outgoing mail is queued
19167 (see @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail}, @pxref{Agent Variables}). Outgoing
19168 news is always queued when Gnus is unplugged, and never otherwise.
19170 You can send the messages either from the draft group with the special
19171 commands available there, or you can use the @kbd{J S} command in the
19172 group buffer to send all the sendable messages in the draft group.
19173 Posting news will only work when Gnus is plugged, but you can send
19176 If sending mail while unplugged does not work for you and you worry
19177 about hitting @kbd{J S} by accident when unplugged, you can have Gnus
19178 ask you to confirm your action (see
19179 @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue}, @pxref{Agent Variables}).
19181 @node Agent Variables
19182 @subsection Agent Variables
19187 Is the agent enabled? The default is @code{t}. When first enabled,
19188 the agent will use @code{gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods} to
19189 automatically mark some back ends as agentized. You may change which
19190 back ends are agentized using the agent commands in the server buffer.
19192 To enter the server buffer, use the @kbd{^}
19193 (@code{gnus-group-enter-server-mode}) command in the group buffer.
19196 @item gnus-agent-directory
19197 @vindex gnus-agent-directory
19198 Where the Gnus Agent will store its files. The default is
19199 @file{~/News/agent/}.
19201 @item gnus-agent-handle-level
19202 @vindex gnus-agent-handle-level
19203 Groups on levels (@pxref{Group Levels}) higher than this variable will
19204 be ignored by the Agent. The default is @code{gnus-level-subscribed},
19205 which means that only subscribed group will be considered by the Agent
19208 @item gnus-agent-plugged-hook
19209 @vindex gnus-agent-plugged-hook
19210 Hook run when connecting to the network.
19212 @item gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
19213 @vindex gnus-agent-unplugged-hook
19214 Hook run when disconnecting from the network.
19216 @item gnus-agent-fetched-hook
19217 @vindex gnus-agent-fetched-hook
19218 Hook run when finished fetching articles.
19220 @item gnus-agent-cache
19221 @vindex gnus-agent-cache
19222 Variable to control whether use the locally stored @acronym{NOV} and
19223 articles when plugged, e.g. essentially using the Agent as a cache.
19224 The default is non-@code{nil}, which means to use the Agent as a cache.
19226 @item gnus-agent-go-online
19227 @vindex gnus-agent-go-online
19228 If @code{gnus-agent-go-online} is @code{nil}, the Agent will never
19229 automatically switch offline servers into online status. If it is
19230 @code{ask}, the default, the Agent will ask if you wish to switch
19231 offline servers into online status when you re-connect. If it has any
19232 other value, all offline servers will be automatically switched into
19235 @item gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
19236 @vindex gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded
19237 If @code{gnus-agent-mark-unread-after-downloaded} is non-@code{nil},
19238 mark articles as unread after downloading. This is usually a safe
19239 thing to do as the newly downloaded article has obviously not been
19240 read. The default is @code{t}.
19242 @item gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19243 @vindex gnus-agent-synchronize-flags
19244 If @code{gnus-agent-synchronize-flags} is @code{nil}, the Agent will
19245 never automatically synchronize flags. If it is @code{ask}, which is
19246 the default, the Agent will check if you made any changes and if so
19247 ask if you wish to synchronize these when you re-connect. If it has
19248 any other value, all flags will be synchronized automatically.
19250 @item gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
19251 @vindex gnus-agent-consider-all-articles
19252 If @code{gnus-agent-consider-all-articles} is non-@code{nil}, the
19253 agent will let the agent predicate decide whether articles need to be
19254 downloaded or not, for all articles. When @code{nil}, the default,
19255 the agent will only let the predicate decide whether unread articles
19256 are downloaded or not. If you enable this, you may also want to look
19257 into the agent expiry settings (@pxref{Category Variables}), so that
19258 the agent doesn't download articles which the agent will later expire,
19259 over and over again.
19261 @item gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
19262 @vindex gnus-agent-max-fetch-size
19263 The agent fetches articles into a temporary buffer prior to parsing
19264 them into individual files. To avoid exceeding the max. buffer size,
19265 the agent alternates between fetching and parsing until all articles
19266 have been fetched. @code{gnus-agent-max-fetch-size} provides a size
19267 limit to control how often the cycling occurs. A large value improves
19268 performance. A small value minimizes the time lost should the
19269 connection be lost while fetching (You may need to run
19270 @code{gnus-agent-regenerate-group} to update the group's state.
19271 However, all articles parsed prior to loosing the connection will be
19272 available while unplugged). The default is 10M so it is unusual to
19275 @item gnus-server-unopen-status
19276 @vindex gnus-server-unopen-status
19277 Perhaps not an Agent variable, but closely related to the Agent, this
19278 variable says what will happen if Gnus cannot open a server. If the
19279 Agent is enabled, the default, @code{nil}, makes Gnus ask the user
19280 whether to deny the server or whether to unplug the agent. If the
19281 Agent is disabled, Gnus always simply deny the server. Other choices
19282 for this variable include @code{denied} and @code{offline} the latter
19283 is only valid if the Agent is used.
19285 @item gnus-auto-goto-ignores
19286 @vindex gnus-auto-goto-ignores
19287 Another variable that isn't an Agent variable, yet so closely related
19288 that most will look for it here, this variable tells the summary
19289 buffer how to maneuver around undownloaded (only headers stored in the
19290 agent) and unfetched (neither article nor headers stored) articles.
19292 The valid values are @code{nil} (maneuver to any article),
19293 @code{undownloaded} (maneuvering while unplugged ignores articles that
19294 have not been fetched), @code{always-undownloaded} (maneuvering always
19295 ignores articles that have not been fetched), @code{unfetched}
19296 (maneuvering ignores articles whose headers have not been fetched).
19298 @item gnus-agent-queue-mail
19299 @vindex gnus-agent-queue-mail
19300 When @code{gnus-agent-queue-mail} is @code{always}, Gnus will always
19301 queue mail rather than sending it straight away. When @code{t}, Gnus
19302 will queue mail when unplugged only. When @code{nil}, never queue
19303 mail. The default is @code{t}.
19305 @item gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
19306 @vindex gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue
19307 When @code{gnus-agent-prompt-send-queue} is non-@code{nil} Gnus will
19308 prompt you to confirm that you really wish to proceed if you hit
19309 @kbd{J S} while unplugged. The default is @code{nil}.
19311 @item gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
19312 @vindex gnus-agent-auto-agentize-methods
19313 If you have never used the Agent before (or more technically, if
19314 @file{~/News/agent/lib/servers} does not exist), Gnus will
19315 automatically agentize a few servers for you. This variable control
19316 which back ends should be auto-agentized. It is typically only useful
19317 to agentize remote back ends. The auto-agentizing has the same effect
19318 as running @kbd{J a} on the servers (@pxref{Server Agent Commands}).
19319 If the file exist, you must manage the servers manually by adding or
19320 removing them, this variable is only applicable the first time you
19321 start Gnus. The default is @samp{(nntp nnimap)}.
19326 @node Example Setup
19327 @subsection Example Setup
19329 If you don't want to read this manual, and you have a fairly standard
19330 setup, you may be able to use something like the following as your
19331 @file{~/.gnus.el} file to get started.
19334 ;;; @r{Define how Gnus is to fetch news. We do this over @acronym{NNTP}}
19335 ;;; @r{from your ISP's server.}
19336 (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.your-isp.com"))
19338 ;;; @r{Define how Gnus is to read your mail. We read mail from}
19339 ;;; @r{your ISP's @acronym{POP} server.}
19340 (setq mail-sources '((pop :server "pop.your-isp.com")))
19342 ;;; @r{Say how Gnus is to store the mail. We use nnml groups.}
19343 (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
19345 ;;; @r{Make Gnus into an offline newsreader.}
19346 ;;; (gnus-agentize) ; @r{The obsolete setting.}
19347 ;;; (setq gnus-agent t) ; @r{Now the default.}
19350 That should be it, basically. Put that in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file,
19351 edit to suit your needs, start up PPP (or whatever), and type @kbd{M-x
19354 If this is the first time you've run Gnus, you will be subscribed
19355 automatically to a few default newsgroups. You'll probably want to
19356 subscribe to more groups, and to do that, you have to query the
19357 @acronym{NNTP} server for a complete list of groups with the @kbd{A A}
19358 command. This usually takes quite a while, but you only have to do it
19361 After reading and parsing a while, you'll be presented with a list of
19362 groups. Subscribe to the ones you want to read with the @kbd{u}
19363 command. @kbd{l} to make all the killed groups disappear after you've
19364 subscribe to all the groups you want to read. (@kbd{A k} will bring
19365 back all the killed groups.)
19367 You can now read the groups at once, or you can download the articles
19368 with the @kbd{J s} command. And then read the rest of this manual to
19369 find out which of the other gazillion things you want to customize.
19372 @node Batching Agents
19373 @subsection Batching Agents
19374 @findex gnus-agent-batch
19376 Having the Gnus Agent fetch articles (and post whatever messages you've
19377 written) is quite easy once you've gotten things set up properly. The
19378 following shell script will do everything that is necessary:
19380 You can run a complete batch command from the command line with the
19381 following incantation:
19385 emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el gnus-agent-batch >/dev/null 2>&1
19389 @node Agent Caveats
19390 @subsection Agent Caveats
19392 The Gnus Agent doesn't seem to work like most other offline
19393 newsreaders. Here are some common questions that some imaginary people
19397 @item If I read an article while plugged, do they get entered into the Agent?
19399 @strong{No}. If you want this behavior, add
19400 @code{gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article} to
19401 @code{gnus-select-article-hook}.
19403 @item If I read an article while plugged, and the article already exists in
19404 the Agent, will it get downloaded once more?
19406 @strong{No}, unless @code{gnus-agent-cache} is @code{nil}.
19410 In short, when Gnus is unplugged, it only looks into the locally stored
19411 articles; when it's plugged, it talks to your ISP and may also use the
19412 locally stored articles.
19419 Other people use @dfn{kill files}, but we here at Gnus Towers like
19420 scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight. They do
19421 something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
19424 @vindex gnus-summary-mark-below
19425 All articles have a default score (@code{gnus-summary-default-score}),
19426 which is 0 by default. This score may be raised or lowered either
19427 interactively or by score files. Articles that have a score lower than
19428 @code{gnus-summary-mark-below} are marked as read.
19430 Gnus will read any @dfn{score files} that apply to the current group
19431 before generating the summary buffer.
19433 There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
19434 entries based on the current article. You can, for instance, ask Gnus to
19435 lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.
19437 There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
19438 Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries. Any entries that are
19439 temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
19440 silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.
19443 * Summary Score Commands:: Adding score entries for the current group.
19444 * Group Score Commands:: General score commands.
19445 * Score Variables:: Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
19446 * Score File Format:: What a score file may contain.
19447 * Score File Editing:: You can edit score files by hand as well.
19448 * Adaptive Scoring:: Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
19449 * Home Score File:: How to say where new score entries are to go.
19450 * Followups To Yourself:: Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
19451 * Scoring On Other Headers:: Scoring on non-standard headers.
19452 * Scoring Tips:: How to score effectively.
19453 * Reverse Scoring:: That problem child of old is not problem.
19454 * Global Score Files:: Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
19455 * Kill Files:: They are still here, but they can be ignored.
19456 * Converting Kill Files:: Translating kill files to score files.
19457 * Advanced Scoring:: Using logical expressions to build score rules.
19458 * Score Decays:: It can be useful to let scores wither away.
19462 @node Summary Score Commands
19463 @section Summary Score Commands
19464 @cindex score commands
19466 The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real
19467 score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of
19468 previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
19469 @dfn{current score file alist}. The score commands simply insert
19470 entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
19472 The current score file is by default the group's local score file, even
19473 if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into
19474 some other score file (e.g. @file{all.SCORE}), you must first make this
19475 score file the current one.
19477 General score commands that don't actually change the score file:
19482 @kindex V s (Summary)
19483 @findex gnus-summary-set-score
19484 Set the score of the current article (@code{gnus-summary-set-score}).
19487 @kindex V S (Summary)
19488 @findex gnus-summary-current-score
19489 Display the score of the current article
19490 (@code{gnus-summary-current-score}).
19493 @kindex V t (Summary)
19494 @findex gnus-score-find-trace
19495 Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
19496 (@code{gnus-score-find-trace}). In the @code{*Score Trace*} buffer, you
19497 may type @kbd{e} to edit score file corresponding to the score rule on
19498 current line and @kbd{f} to format (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) the
19499 score file and edit it.
19502 @kindex V w (Summary)
19503 @findex gnus-score-find-favourite-words
19504 List words used in scoring (@code{gnus-score-find-favourite-words}).
19507 @kindex V R (Summary)
19508 @findex gnus-summary-rescore
19509 Run the current summary through the scoring process
19510 (@code{gnus-summary-rescore}). This might be useful if you're playing
19511 around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
19512 effect you're having.
19515 @kindex V c (Summary)
19516 @findex gnus-score-change-score-file
19517 Make a different score file the current
19518 (@code{gnus-score-change-score-file}).
19521 @kindex V e (Summary)
19522 @findex gnus-score-edit-current-scores
19523 Edit the current score file (@code{gnus-score-edit-current-scores}).
19524 You will be popped into a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score
19528 @kindex V f (Summary)
19529 @findex gnus-score-edit-file
19530 Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
19531 (@code{gnus-score-edit-file}).
19534 @kindex V F (Summary)
19535 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
19536 Flush the score cache (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}). This is useful
19537 after editing score files.
19540 @kindex V C (Summary)
19541 @findex gnus-score-customize
19542 Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
19543 (@code{gnus-score-customize}).
19547 The rest of these commands modify the local score file.
19552 @kindex V m (Summary)
19553 @findex gnus-score-set-mark-below
19554 Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as
19555 read (@code{gnus-score-set-mark-below}).
19558 @kindex V x (Summary)
19559 @findex gnus-score-set-expunge-below
19560 Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to
19561 expunge all articles below this score
19562 (@code{gnus-score-set-expunge-below}).
19565 The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular
19566 pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of
19569 @findex gnus-summary-increase-score
19570 @findex gnus-summary-lower-score
19574 The first key is either @kbd{I} (upper case i) for increasing the score
19575 or @kbd{L} for lowering the score.
19577 The second key says what header you want to score on. The following
19578 keys are available:
19582 Score on the author name.
19585 Score on the subject line.
19588 Score on the @code{Xref} line---i.e., the cross-posting line.
19591 Score on the @code{References} line.
19597 Score on the number of lines.
19600 Score on the @code{Message-ID} header.
19603 Score on an ``extra'' header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers,
19604 if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks additional header data in overviews.
19607 Score on followups---this matches the author name, and adds scores to
19608 the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of
19609 @file{ADAPT} files.)
19618 Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of @file{ADAPT}
19624 The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on
19625 what headers you are scoring on.
19637 Substring matching.
19640 Fuzzy matching (@pxref{Fuzzy Matching}).
19669 Greater than number.
19674 The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
19675 expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry,
19676 or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score
19681 Temporary score entry.
19684 Permanent score entry.
19687 Immediately scoring.
19691 If you are scoring on `e' (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for
19692 the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named
19693 in gnus-extra-headers, and @samp{TAB} completion is available.
19697 So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author with
19698 exact matching permanently: @kbd{I a e p}. If you want to lower the
19699 score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
19700 temporary score entry: @kbd{L s s t}. Pretty easy.
19702 To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use
19703 a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
19704 defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are
19705 ``substring'' and ``temporary''. So @kbd{I A} is the same as @kbd{I a s
19706 t}, and @kbd{I a R} is the same as @kbd{I a r t}.
19708 These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix
19709 (@pxref{Symbolic Prefixes}). A numerical prefix says how much to lower
19710 (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of @code{a}
19711 says to use the @file{all.SCORE} file for the command instead of the
19712 current score file.
19714 @vindex gnus-score-mimic-keymap
19715 The @code{gnus-score-mimic-keymap} says whether these commands will
19716 pretend they are keymaps or not.
19719 @node Group Score Commands
19720 @section Group Score Commands
19721 @cindex group score commands
19723 There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.
19728 @kindex W e (Group)
19729 @findex gnus-score-edit-all-score
19730 Edit the apply-to-all-groups all.SCORE file. You will be popped into
19731 a @code{gnus-score-mode} buffer (@pxref{Score File Editing}).
19734 @kindex W f (Group)
19735 @findex gnus-score-flush-cache
19736 Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload them
19737 all the time. This command will flush the cache
19738 (@code{gnus-score-flush-cache}).
19742 You can do scoring from the command line by saying something like:
19744 @findex gnus-batch-score
19745 @cindex batch scoring
19747 $ emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -l ~/.gnus.el -f gnus-batch-score
19751 @node Score Variables
19752 @section Score Variables
19753 @cindex score variables
19757 @item gnus-use-scoring
19758 @vindex gnus-use-scoring
19759 If @code{nil}, Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
19760 general, do any score-related work. This is @code{t} by default.
19762 @item gnus-kill-killed
19763 @vindex gnus-kill-killed
19764 If this variable is @code{nil}, Gnus will never apply score files to
19765 articles that have already been through the kill process. While this
19766 may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a kill file
19767 to a group, and then change the kill file and want to run it over you
19768 group again to kill more articles, it won't work. You have to set this
19769 variable to @code{t} to do that. (It is @code{t} by default.)
19771 @item gnus-kill-files-directory
19772 @vindex gnus-kill-files-directory
19773 All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
19774 initialized from the @env{SAVEDIR} environment variable by default.
19775 This is @file{~/News/} by default.
19777 @item gnus-score-file-suffix
19778 @vindex gnus-score-file-suffix
19779 Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
19780 (@file{SCORE} by default.)
19782 @item gnus-score-uncacheable-files
19783 @vindex gnus-score-uncacheable-files
19784 @cindex score cache
19785 All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading of
19786 score files. However, if this might make your Emacs grow big and
19787 bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files unlikely
19788 to be needed again. It would be a bad idea to deny caching of
19789 @file{all.SCORE}, while it might be a good idea to not cache
19790 @file{comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT}. In fact, this
19791 variable is @samp{ADAPT$} by default, so no adaptive score files will
19794 @item gnus-save-score
19795 @vindex gnus-save-score
19796 If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
19797 scoring, then you might set this variable to @code{t}. This will make
19798 Gnus save the scores into the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
19800 If you do not set this to @code{t}, then manual scores (like those set
19801 with @kbd{V s} (@code{gnus-summary-set-score})) will not be preserved
19802 across group visits.
19804 @item gnus-score-interactive-default-score
19805 @vindex gnus-score-interactive-default-score
19806 Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to raise/lower
19807 score with. Default is 1000, which may seem excessive, but this is to
19808 ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme gets enough room to play with.
19809 We don't want the small changes from the adaptive scoring to overwrite
19810 manually entered data.
19812 @item gnus-summary-default-score
19813 @vindex gnus-summary-default-score
19814 Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.
19816 @item gnus-summary-expunge-below
19817 @vindex gnus-summary-expunge-below
19818 Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower than
19819 this variable. This is @code{nil} by default, which means that no
19820 articles will be hidden. This variable is local to the summary buffers,
19821 and has to be set from @code{gnus-summary-mode-hook}.
19823 @item gnus-score-over-mark
19824 @vindex gnus-score-over-mark
19825 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
19826 default. Default is @samp{+}.
19828 @item gnus-score-below-mark
19829 @vindex gnus-score-below-mark
19830 Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
19831 default. Default is @samp{-}.
19833 @item gnus-score-find-score-files-function
19834 @vindex gnus-score-find-score-files-function
19835 Function used to find score files for the current group. This function
19836 is called with the name of the group as the argument.
19838 Predefined functions available are:
19841 @item gnus-score-find-single
19842 @findex gnus-score-find-single
19843 Only apply the group's own score file.
19845 @item gnus-score-find-bnews
19846 @findex gnus-score-find-bnews
19847 Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax. This is the
19848 default. If the current group is @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}, for instance,
19849 @file{all.emacs.all.SCORE}, @file{not.alt.all.SCORE} and
19850 @file{gnu.all.SCORE} would all apply. In short, the instances of
19851 @samp{all} in the score file names are translated into @samp{.*}, and
19852 then a regexp match is done.
19854 This means that if you have some score entries that you want to apply to
19855 all groups, then you put those entries in the @file{all.SCORE} file.
19857 The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although Gnus will
19858 try to apply the more general score files before the more specific score
19859 files. It does this by looking at the number of elements in the score
19860 file names---discarding the @samp{all} elements.
19862 @item gnus-score-find-hierarchical
19863 @findex gnus-score-find-hierarchical
19864 Apply all score files from all the parent groups. This means that you
19865 can't have score files like @file{all.SCORE}, but you can have
19866 @file{SCORE}, @file{comp.SCORE} and @file{comp.emacs.SCORE} for each
19870 This variable can also be a list of functions. In that case, all
19871 these functions will be called with the group name as argument, and
19872 all the returned lists of score files will be applied. These
19873 functions can also return lists of lists of score alists directly. In
19874 that case, the functions that return these non-file score alists
19875 should probably be placed before the ``real'' score file functions, to
19876 ensure that the last score file returned is the local score file.
19879 For example, to do hierarchical scoring but use a non-server-specific
19880 overall score file, you could use the value
19882 (list (lambda (group) ("all.SCORE"))
19883 'gnus-score-find-hierarchical)
19886 @item gnus-score-expiry-days
19887 @vindex gnus-score-expiry-days
19888 This variable says how many days should pass before an unused score file
19889 entry is expired. If this variable is @code{nil}, no score file entries
19890 are expired. It's 7 by default.
19892 @item gnus-update-score-entry-dates
19893 @vindex gnus-update-score-entry-dates
19894 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, temporary score entries that have
19895 been triggered (matched) will have their dates updated. (This is how Gnus
19896 controls expiry---all non-matched-entries will become too old while
19897 matched entries will stay fresh and young.) However, if you set this
19898 variable to @code{nil}, even matched entries will grow old and will
19899 have to face that oh-so grim reaper.
19901 @item gnus-score-after-write-file-function
19902 @vindex gnus-score-after-write-file-function
19903 Function called with the name of the score file just written.
19905 @item gnus-score-thread-simplify
19906 @vindex gnus-score-thread-simplify
19907 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, article subjects will be
19908 simplified for subject scoring purposes in the same manner as with
19909 threading---according to the current value of
19910 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions}. If the scoring entry uses
19911 @code{substring} or @code{exact} matching, the match will also be
19912 simplified in this manner.
19917 @node Score File Format
19918 @section Score File Format
19919 @cindex score file format
19921 A score file is an @code{emacs-lisp} file that normally contains just a
19922 single form. Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
19923 everything can be changed from the summary buffer.
19925 Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:
19929 ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
19931 ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
19933 ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
19935 ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
19940 (mark-and-expunge -10)
19944 (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
19945 (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
19946 (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
19947 (gnus-summary-make-false-root empty))
19951 This example demonstrates most score file elements. @xref{Advanced
19952 Scoring}, for a different approach.
19954 Even though this looks much like Lisp code, nothing here is actually
19955 @code{eval}ed. The Lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it
19956 has to be valid syntactically, if not semantically.
19958 Six keys are supported by this alist:
19963 If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
19964 match on. Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
19965 @code{From}, @code{Subject}, @code{References}, @code{Message-ID},
19966 @code{Xref}, @code{Lines}, @code{Chars} and @code{Date}. In addition to
19967 these headers, there are three strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire
19968 article and do the match on larger parts of the article: @code{Body}
19969 will perform the match on the body of the article, @code{Head} will
19970 perform the match on the head of the article, and @code{All} will
19971 perform the match on the entire article. Note that using any of these
19972 last three keys will slow down group entry @emph{considerably}. The
19973 final ``header'' you can score on is @code{Followup}. These score
19974 entries will result in new score entries being added for all follow-ups
19975 to articles that matches these score entries.
19977 Following this key is an arbitrary number of score entries, where each
19978 score entry has one to four elements.
19982 The first element is the @dfn{match element}. On most headers this will
19983 be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers, this must be an
19987 If the second element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{score
19988 element}. This number should be an integer in the neginf to posinf
19989 interval. This number is added to the score of the article if the match
19990 is successful. If this element is not present, the
19991 @code{gnus-score-interactive-default-score} number will be used
19992 instead. This is 1000 by default.
19995 If the third element is present, it should be a number---the @dfn{date
19996 element}. This date says when the last time this score entry matched,
19997 which provides a mechanism for expiring the score entries. It this
19998 element is not present, the score entry is permanent. The date is
19999 represented by the number of days since December 31, 1 BCE.
20002 If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol---the @dfn{type
20003 element}. This element specifies what function should be used to see
20004 whether this score entry matches the article. What match types that can
20005 be used depends on what header you wish to perform the match on.
20008 @item From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID
20009 For most header types, there are the @code{r} and @code{R} (regexp), as
20010 well as @code{s} and @code{S} (substring) types, and @code{e} and
20011 @code{E} (exact match), and @code{w} (word match) types. If this
20012 element is not present, Gnus will assume that substring matching should
20013 be used. @code{R}, @code{S}, and @code{E} differ from the others in
20014 that the matches will be done in a case-sensitive manner. All these
20015 one-letter types are really just abbreviations for the @code{regexp},
20016 @code{string}, @code{exact}, and @code{word} types, which you can use
20017 instead, if you feel like.
20020 Just as for the standard string overview headers, if you are using
20021 gnus-extra-headers, you can score on these headers' values. In this
20022 case, there is a 5th element in the score entry, being the name of the
20023 header to be scored. The following entry is useful in your
20024 @file{all.SCORE} file in case of spam attacks from a single origin
20025 host, if your @acronym{NNTP} server tracks @samp{NNTP-Posting-Host} in
20029 ("111.222.333.444" -1000 nil s
20030 "NNTP-Posting-Host")
20034 These two headers use different match types: @code{<}, @code{>},
20035 @code{=}, @code{>=} and @code{<=}.
20037 These predicates are true if
20040 (PREDICATE HEADER MATCH)
20043 evaluates to non-@code{nil}. For instance, the advanced match
20044 @code{("lines" 4 <)} (@pxref{Advanced Scoring}) will result in the
20051 Or to put it another way: When using @code{<} on @code{Lines} with 4 as
20052 the match, we get the score added if the article has less than 4 lines.
20053 (It's easy to get confused and think it's the other way around. But
20054 it's not. I think.)
20056 When matching on @code{Lines}, be careful because some back ends (like
20057 @code{nndir}) do not generate @code{Lines} header, so every article ends
20058 up being marked as having 0 lines. This can lead to strange results if
20059 you happen to lower score of the articles with few lines.
20062 For the Date header we have three kinda silly match types:
20063 @code{before}, @code{at} and @code{after}. I can't really imagine this
20064 ever being useful, but, like, it would feel kinda silly not to provide
20065 this function. Just in case. You never know. Better safe than sorry.
20066 Once burnt, twice shy. Don't judge a book by its cover. Never not have
20067 sex on a first date. (I have been told that at least one person, and I
20068 quote, ``found this function indispensable'', however.)
20072 A more useful match type is @code{regexp}. With it, you can match the
20073 date string using a regular expression. The date is normalized to
20074 ISO8601 compact format first---@var{YYYYMMDD}@code{T}@var{HHMMSS}. If
20075 you want to match all articles that have been posted on April 1st in
20076 every year, you could use @samp{....0401.........} as a match string,
20077 for instance. (Note that the date is kept in its original time zone, so
20078 this will match articles that were posted when it was April 1st where
20079 the article was posted from. Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
20082 @item Head, Body, All
20083 These three match keys use the same match types as the @code{From} (etc)
20087 This match key is somewhat special, in that it will match the
20088 @code{From} header, and affect the score of not only the matching
20089 articles, but also all followups to the matching articles. This allows
20090 you e.g. increase the score of followups to your own articles, or
20091 decrease the score of followups to the articles of some known
20092 trouble-maker. Uses the same match types as the @code{From} header
20093 uses. (Using this match key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT}
20097 This match key works along the same lines as the @code{Followup} match
20098 key. If you say that you want to score on a (sub-)thread started by an
20099 article with a @code{Message-ID} @var{x}, then you add a @samp{thread}
20100 match. This will add a new @samp{thread} match for each article that
20101 has @var{x} in its @code{References} header. (These new @samp{thread}
20102 matches will use the @code{Message-ID}s of these matching articles.)
20103 This will ensure that you can raise/lower the score of an entire thread,
20104 even though some articles in the thread may not have complete
20105 @code{References} headers. Note that using this may lead to
20106 undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread. (Using this match
20107 key will lead to creation of @file{ADAPT} files.)
20111 @cindex score file atoms
20113 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20114 lower than this number will be marked as read.
20117 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20118 lower than this number will be removed from the summary buffer.
20120 @item mark-and-expunge
20121 The value of this entry should be a number. Any articles with a score
20122 lower than this number will be marked as read and removed from the
20125 @item thread-mark-and-expunge
20126 The value of this entry should be a number. All articles that belong to
20127 a thread that has a total score below this number will be marked as read
20128 and removed from the summary buffer. @code{gnus-thread-score-function}
20129 says how to compute the total score for a thread.
20132 The value of this entry should be any number of file names. These files
20133 are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded the same way
20136 @item exclude-files
20137 The clue of this entry should be any number of files. These files will
20138 not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for some reason or
20142 The value of this entry will be @code{eval}el. This element will be
20143 ignored when handling global score files.
20146 Read-only score files will not be updated or saved. Global score files
20147 should feature this atom (@pxref{Global Score Files}). (Note:
20148 @dfn{Global} here really means @dfn{global}; not your personal
20149 apply-to-all-groups score files.)
20152 The value of this entry should be a number. Articles that do not have
20153 parents will get this number added to their scores. Imagine you follow
20154 some high-volume newsgroup, like @samp{comp.lang.c}. Most likely you
20155 will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see any new threads.
20157 You can do this with the following two score file entries:
20161 (mark-and-expunge -100)
20164 When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
20165 threads. You then raise the score of the threads that you find
20166 interesting (with @kbd{I T} or @kbd{I S}), and ignore (@kbd{C y}) the
20167 rest. Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
20168 interesting threads, plus any new threads.
20170 I.e.---the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where a few
20171 interesting threads which can't be found automatically by ordinary
20172 scoring rules exist.
20175 This entry controls the adaptive scoring. If it is @code{t}, the
20176 default adaptive scoring rules will be used. If it is @code{ignore}, no
20177 adaptive scoring will be performed on this group. If it is a list, this
20178 list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules. If it isn't present,
20179 or is something other than @code{t} or @code{ignore}, the default
20180 adaptive scoring rules will be used. If you want to use adaptive
20181 scoring on most groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
20182 @code{t}, and insert an @code{(adapt ignore)} in the groups where you do
20183 not want adaptive scoring. If you only want adaptive scoring in a few
20184 groups, you'd set @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to @code{nil}, and
20185 insert @code{(adapt t)} in the score files of the groups where you want
20189 All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this entry. It
20190 will also be applied when entering the group. This atom might be handy
20191 if you want to adapt on several groups at once, using the same adaptive
20192 file for a number of groups.
20195 @cindex local variables
20196 The value of this entry should be a list of @code{(@var{var}
20197 @var{value})} pairs. Each @var{var} will be made buffer-local to the
20198 current summary buffer, and set to the value specified. This is a
20199 convenient, if somewhat strange, way of setting variables in some
20200 groups if you don't like hooks much. Note that the @var{value} won't
20205 @node Score File Editing
20206 @section Score File Editing
20208 You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but you
20209 might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied you
20210 with a mode for that.
20212 It's simply a slightly customized @code{emacs-lisp} mode, with these
20213 additional commands:
20218 @kindex C-c C-c (Score)
20219 @findex gnus-score-edit-done
20220 Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
20221 (@code{gnus-score-edit-done}).
20224 @kindex C-c C-d (Score)
20225 @findex gnus-score-edit-insert-date
20226 Insert the current date in numerical format
20227 (@code{gnus-score-edit-insert-date}). This is really the day number, if
20228 you were wondering.
20231 @kindex C-c C-p (Score)
20232 @findex gnus-score-pretty-print
20233 The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion. If you
20234 intend to read one of these files, you want to @dfn{pretty print} it
20235 first. This command (@code{gnus-score-pretty-print}) does that for
20240 Type @kbd{M-x gnus-score-mode} to use this mode.
20242 @vindex gnus-score-mode-hook
20243 @code{gnus-score-menu-hook} is run in score mode buffers.
20245 In the summary buffer you can use commands like @kbd{V f}, @kbd{V e} and
20246 @kbd{V t} to begin editing score files.
20249 @node Adaptive Scoring
20250 @section Adaptive Scoring
20251 @cindex adaptive scoring
20253 If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it all
20254 happen automatically---as if by magic. Or rather, as if by artificial
20255 stupidity, to be precise.
20257 @vindex gnus-use-adaptive-scoring
20258 When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
20259 article, you leave marks behind. On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
20260 these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
20261 You turn on this ability by setting @code{gnus-use-adaptive-scoring} to
20262 @code{t} or @code{(line)}. If you want score adaptively on separate
20263 words appearing in the subjects, you should set this variable to
20264 @code{(word)}. If you want to use both adaptive methods, set this
20265 variable to @code{(word line)}.
20267 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
20268 To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can customize
20269 the @code{gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist} variable. For instance, it
20270 might look something like this:
20273 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
20274 '((gnus-unread-mark)
20275 (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
20276 (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
20277 (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
20278 (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
20279 (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
20280 (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
20281 (gnus-kill-file-mark)
20282 (gnus-ancient-mark)
20283 (gnus-low-score-mark)
20284 (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))
20287 As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
20288 variable name or a ``real'' mark---a character). Following this key is
20289 a arbitrary number of header/score pairs. If there are no header/score
20290 pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
20291 that have that key as the article mark. For instance, articles with
20292 @code{gnus-unread-mark} in the example above will not get adaptive score
20295 Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
20296 will be applied to each article.
20298 To take @code{gnus-del-mark} as an example---this alist says that all
20299 articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with @samp{e}) will have a
20300 score entry added to lower based on the @code{From} header by -4, and
20301 lowered by @code{Subject} by -1. Change this to fit your prejudices.
20303 If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
20304 @code{gnus-del-mark}, the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
20305 That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
20306 should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.
20308 If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (@pxref{Expiring Mail}), all
20309 the read articles will be marked with the @samp{E} mark. This'll
20310 probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
20311 adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.
20313 The headers you can score on are @code{from}, @code{subject},
20314 @code{message-id}, @code{references}, @code{xref}, @code{lines},
20315 @code{chars} and @code{date}. In addition, you can score on
20316 @code{followup}, which will create an adaptive score entry that matches
20317 on the @code{References} header using the @code{Message-ID} of the
20318 current article, thereby matching the following thread.
20320 If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom @code{mark}
20321 to something small---like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
20322 changes result in articles getting marked as read.
20324 After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
20325 become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
20326 the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.
20328 You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed on
20329 by using the score files (@pxref{Score File Format}). This will also
20330 let you use different rules in different groups.
20332 @vindex gnus-adaptive-file-suffix
20333 The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is the
20334 group name with @code{gnus-adaptive-file-suffix} appended. The default
20337 @vindex gnus-adaptive-pretty-print
20338 Adaptive score files can get huge and are not meant to be edited by
20339 human hands. If @code{gnus-adaptive-pretty-print} is @code{nil} (the
20340 deafult) those files will not be written in a human readable way.
20342 @vindex gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit
20343 When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would probably
20344 give you the best results in most cases. However, if the header one
20345 matches is short, the possibility for false positives is great, so if
20346 the length of the match is less than
20347 @code{gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit}, exact matching will be used. If
20348 this variable is @code{nil}, exact matching will always be used to avoid
20351 @vindex gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
20352 As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or entire
20353 headers. If you adapt on words, the
20354 @code{gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist} variable says what score
20355 each instance of a word should add given a mark.
20358 (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
20359 `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
20360 (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
20361 (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
20362 (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))
20365 This is the default value. If you have adaption on words enabled, every
20366 word that appears in subjects of articles marked with
20367 @code{gnus-read-mark} will result in a score rule that increase the
20368 score with 30 points.
20370 @vindex gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words
20371 @vindex gnus-ignored-adaptive-words
20372 Words that appear in the @code{gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words} list
20373 will be ignored. If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
20374 @code{gnus-ignored-adaptive-words} list instead.
20376 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit
20377 Some may feel that short words shouldn't count when doing adaptive
20378 scoring. If so, you may set @code{gnus-adaptive-word-length-limit} to
20379 an integer. Words shorter than this number will be ignored. This
20380 variable defaults to @code{nil}.
20382 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table
20383 When the scoring is done, @code{gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table} is the
20384 syntax table in effect. It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
20385 it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.
20387 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-minimum
20388 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} is set to a number, the adaptive
20389 word scoring process will never bring down the score of an article to
20390 below this number. The default is @code{nil}.
20392 @vindex gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words
20393 If @code{gnus-adaptive-word-no-group-words} is set to @code{t}, gnus
20394 won't adaptively word score any of the words in the group name. Useful
20395 for groups like @samp{comp.editors.emacs}, where most of the subject
20396 lines contain the word @samp{emacs}.
20398 After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
20399 @code{gnus-psychoanalyze-user} command to go through the rules and see
20400 what words you like and what words you don't like. Or perhaps not.
20402 Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and is
20403 likely to change in the future. Initial impressions seem to indicate
20404 that it's totally useless as it stands. Some more work (involving more
20405 rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.
20408 @node Home Score File
20409 @section Home Score File
20411 The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
20412 @dfn{home score file}. This is normally (and by default) the score file
20413 for the group itself. For instance, the home score file for
20414 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} is @file{gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE}.
20416 However, this may not be what you want. It is often convenient to share
20417 a common home score file among many groups---all @samp{emacs} groups
20418 could perhaps use the same home score file.
20420 @vindex gnus-home-score-file
20421 The variable that controls this is @code{gnus-home-score-file}. It can
20426 A string. Then this file will be used as the home score file for all
20430 A function. The result of this function will be used as the home score
20431 file. The function will be called with the name of the group as the
20435 A list. The elements in this list can be:
20439 @code{(@var{regexp} @var{file-name})}. If the @var{regexp} matches the
20440 group name, the @var{file-name} will be used as the home score file.
20443 A function. If the function returns non-@code{nil}, the result will
20444 be used as the home score file. The function will be called with the
20445 name of the group as the parameter.
20448 A string. Use the string as the home score file.
20451 The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end looking
20456 So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:
20459 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20460 "my-total-score-file.SCORE")
20463 If you want to use @file{gnu.SCORE} for all @samp{gnu} groups and
20464 @file{rec.SCORE} for all @samp{rec} groups (and so on), you can say:
20466 @findex gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file
20468 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20469 'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)
20472 This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.
20473 Other functions include
20476 @item gnus-current-home-score-file
20477 @findex gnus-current-home-score-file
20478 Return the ``current'' regular score file. This will make scoring
20479 commands add entry to the ``innermost'' matching score file.
20483 If you want to have one score file for the @samp{emacs} groups and
20484 another for the @samp{comp} groups, while letting all other groups use
20485 their own home score files:
20488 (setq gnus-home-score-file
20489 ;; @r{All groups that match the regexp @code{"\\.emacs"}}
20490 '(("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
20491 ;; @r{All the comp groups in one score file}
20492 ("^comp" "comp.SCORE")))
20495 @vindex gnus-home-adapt-file
20496 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file} works exactly the same way as
20497 @code{gnus-home-score-file}, but says what the home adaptive score file
20498 is instead. All new adaptive file entries will go into the file
20499 specified by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.
20501 In addition to using @code{gnus-home-score-file} and
20502 @code{gnus-home-adapt-file}, you can also use group parameters
20503 (@pxref{Group Parameters}) and topic parameters (@pxref{Topic
20504 Parameters}) to achieve much the same. Group and topic parameters take
20505 precedence over this variable.
20508 @node Followups To Yourself
20509 @section Followups To Yourself
20511 Gnus offers two commands for picking out the @code{Message-ID} header in
20512 the current buffer. Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
20513 this @code{Message-ID} on the @code{References} header of other
20514 articles. This will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that
20515 respond to the article in the current buffer. Quite useful if you want
20516 to easily note when people answer what you've said.
20520 @item gnus-score-followup-article
20521 @findex gnus-score-followup-article
20522 This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
20525 @item gnus-score-followup-thread
20526 @findex gnus-score-followup-thread
20527 This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread ``below''
20531 @vindex message-sent-hook
20532 These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
20533 @code{message-sent-hook}, like this:
20535 (add-hook 'message-sent-hook 'gnus-score-followup-thread)
20539 If you look closely at your own @code{Message-ID}, you'll notice that
20540 the first two or three characters are always the same. Here's two of
20544 <x6u3u47icf.fsf@@eyesore.no>
20545 <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@@eyesore.no>
20548 So ``my'' ident on this machine is @samp{x6}. This can be
20549 exploited---the following rule will raise the score on all followups to
20554 ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf\\(_-_\\)?@@.*eyesore\\.no>"
20558 Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are ``yours''
20559 is system-dependent.
20562 @node Scoring On Other Headers
20563 @section Scoring On Other Headers
20564 @cindex scoring on other headers
20566 Gnus is quite fast when scoring the ``traditional''
20567 headers---@samp{From}, @samp{Subject} and so on. However, scoring
20568 other headers requires writing a @code{head} scoring rule, which means
20569 that Gnus has to request every single article from the back end to find
20570 matches. This takes a long time in big groups.
20572 Now, there's not much you can do about this for news groups, but for
20573 mail groups, you have greater control. In @ref{To From Newsgroups},
20574 it's explained in greater detail what this mechanism does, but here's
20575 a cookbook example for @code{nnml} on how to allow scoring on the
20576 @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} headers.
20578 Put the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
20581 (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Cc Newsgroups Keywords)
20582 nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers)
20585 Restart Gnus and rebuild your @code{nnml} overview files with the
20586 @kbd{M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases} command. This will take a long
20587 time if you have much mail.
20589 Now you can score on @samp{To} and @samp{Cc} as ``extra headers'' like
20590 so: @kbd{I e s p To RET <your name> RET}.
20596 @section Scoring Tips
20597 @cindex scoring tips
20603 @cindex scoring crossposts
20604 If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on is
20605 the @code{Xref} header.
20607 ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))
20610 @item Multiple crossposts
20611 If you want to lower the score of articles that have been crossposted to
20612 more than, say, 3 groups:
20615 ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+"
20619 @item Matching on the body
20620 This is generally not a very good idea---it takes a very long time.
20621 Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the server. But
20622 you might want to anyway, I guess. Even though there are three match
20623 keys (@code{Head}, @code{Body} and @code{All}), you should choose one
20624 and stick with it in each score file. If you use any two, each article
20625 will be fetched @emph{twice}. If you want to match a bit on the
20626 @code{Head} and a bit on the @code{Body}, just use @code{All} for all
20629 @item Marking as read
20630 You will probably want to mark articles that have scores below a certain
20631 number as read. This is most easily achieved by putting the following
20632 in your @file{all.SCORE} file:
20636 You may also consider doing something similar with @code{expunge}.
20638 @item Negated character classes
20639 If you say stuff like @code{[^abcd]*}, you may get unexpected results.
20640 That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown. Say
20641 @code{[^abcd\n]*} instead.
20645 @node Reverse Scoring
20646 @section Reverse Scoring
20647 @cindex reverse scoring
20649 If you want to keep just articles that have @samp{Sex with Emacs} in the
20650 subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
20651 like this in your score file:
20655 ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
20660 So, you raise all articles that match @samp{Sex with Emacs} and mark the
20661 rest as read, and expunge them to boot.
20664 @node Global Score Files
20665 @section Global Score Files
20666 @cindex global score files
20668 Sure, other newsreaders have ``global kill files''. These are usually
20669 nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
20670 in the user's home directory. Bah! Puny, weak newsreaders!
20672 What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files. Score files from
20673 all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
20674 big, happy score file union! Ange-score! New and untested!
20676 @vindex gnus-global-score-files
20677 All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
20678 @code{gnus-global-score-files} variable. One entry for each score file,
20679 or each score file directory. Gnus will decide by itself what score
20680 files are applicable to which group.
20682 To use the score file
20683 @file{/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE} and
20684 all score files in the @file{/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score} directory,
20688 (setq gnus-global-score-files
20689 '("/ftp@@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
20690 "/ftp@@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))
20693 @findex gnus-score-search-global-directories
20695 Simple, eh? Directory names must end with a @samp{/}. These
20696 directories are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.
20697 If you feel the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can
20698 use the @code{gnus-score-search-global-directories} command.
20700 Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
20701 somewhat. (That is---a lot.)
20703 If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
20704 just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
20705 world. Become a retro-moderator! Participate in the retro-moderator
20706 wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
20707 sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
20708 premises! Yay! The net is saved!
20710 Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of my
20716 Articles heavily crossposted are probably junk.
20718 To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by @code{Message-ID}.
20720 Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.
20722 Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely be
20723 lowered out of existence.
20725 Set the @code{mark} and @code{expunge} atoms to obliterate the nastiest
20726 articles completely.
20729 Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down. You
20730 should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites keep
20731 old articles for a long time.
20734 @dots{} I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score files
20735 in the future. @emph{Snicker}. Yup, any day now, newsreaders like Blue
20736 Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring. Should we start
20737 holding our breath yet?
20741 @section Kill Files
20744 Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file
20745 entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel
20746 Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there.
20748 In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean @emph{a lot})
20749 than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill
20750 files into score files.
20752 Anyway, a kill file is a normal @code{emacs-lisp} file. You can put any
20753 forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some
20754 sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though
20755 that isn't a very good idea.
20757 Normal kill files look like this:
20760 (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20761 (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding")
20765 This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the
20766 marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree.
20768 Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus
20769 encounters what looks like a @code{rn} kill file, it will take a stab at
20772 Two summary functions for editing a @sc{gnus} kill file:
20777 @kindex M-k (Summary)
20778 @findex gnus-summary-edit-local-kill
20779 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-local-kill}).
20782 @kindex M-K (Summary)
20783 @findex gnus-summary-edit-global-kill
20784 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-summary-edit-global-kill}).
20787 Two group mode functions for editing the kill files:
20792 @kindex M-k (Group)
20793 @findex gnus-group-edit-local-kill
20794 Edit this group's kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-local-kill}).
20797 @kindex M-K (Group)
20798 @findex gnus-group-edit-global-kill
20799 Edit the general kill file (@code{gnus-group-edit-global-kill}).
20802 Kill file variables:
20805 @item gnus-kill-file-name
20806 @vindex gnus-kill-file-name
20807 A kill file for the group @samp{soc.motss} is normally called
20808 @file{soc.motss.KILL}. The suffix appended to the group name to get
20809 this file name is detailed by the @code{gnus-kill-file-name} variable.
20810 The ``global'' kill file (not in the score file sense of ``global'', of
20811 course) is just called @file{KILL}.
20813 @vindex gnus-kill-save-kill-file
20814 @item gnus-kill-save-kill-file
20815 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, Gnus will save the
20816 kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring
20819 @item gnus-apply-kill-hook
20820 @vindex gnus-apply-kill-hook
20821 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored
20822 @findex gnus-apply-kill-file
20823 A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is
20824 @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file)} by default. If you want to ignore the
20825 kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this
20826 hook to @code{(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)}. If you don't want
20827 kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to @code{nil}.
20829 @item gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
20830 @vindex gnus-kill-file-mode-hook
20831 A hook called in kill-file mode buffers.
20836 @node Converting Kill Files
20837 @section Converting Kill Files
20839 @cindex converting kill files
20841 If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into
20842 score files. If they are ``regular'', you can use
20843 the @file{gnus-kill-to-score.el} package; if not, you'll have to do it
20846 The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default.
20847 You can fetch it from
20848 @uref{http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el}.
20850 If your old kill files are very complex---if they contain more
20851 non-@code{gnus-kill} forms than not, you'll have to convert them by
20852 hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as
20856 @node Advanced Scoring
20857 @section Advanced Scoring
20859 Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're
20860 really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking
20861 about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to
20862 read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but
20863 want to read what she says when she's following up to person C?
20865 By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex
20869 * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition.
20870 * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like.
20871 * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it.
20875 @node Advanced Scoring Syntax
20876 @subsection Advanced Scoring Syntax
20878 Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule.
20879 Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second
20880 element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a
20881 non-@code{nil} value.
20883 These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection
20884 operator, and various match operators.
20891 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
20892 one that evaluates to @code{false}, and then it'll stop. If all arguments
20893 evaluate to @code{true} values, then this operator will return
20898 This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds
20899 one that evaluates to @code{true}. If no arguments are @code{true},
20900 then this operator will return @code{false}.
20905 This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the
20906 logical negation of the value of its argument.
20910 There is an @dfn{indirection operator} that will make its arguments
20911 apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For
20912 instance, @code{1-} will make score rules apply to the parent of the
20913 current article. @code{2-} will make score rules apply to the
20914 grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write
20915 @code{^^}, where the number of @code{^}s (carets) says how far back into
20916 the ancestry you want to go.
20918 Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the
20919 real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match
20920 and a match type. A typical match operator looks like @samp{("from"
20921 "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)}. The header names are the same as when using
20922 simple scoring, and the match types are also the same.
20925 @node Advanced Scoring Examples
20926 @subsection Advanced Scoring Examples
20928 Please note that the following examples are score file rules. To
20929 make a complete score file from them, surround them with another pair
20932 Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars
20933 when he's talking about Gnus:
20938 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20939 ("subject" "Gnus"))
20946 When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say:
20950 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20957 However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you
20958 really don't want to read what he's written:
20962 ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")
20963 (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge")))
20967 Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing
20968 socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about
20969 white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not
20976 ("from" "redmondo@@.*no" r)
20977 ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t)))
20978 (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen"))
20979 ("body" "white.*socks"))
20983 Suppose you're reading a high volume group and you're only interested
20984 in replies. The plan is to score down all articles that don't have
20985 subject that begin with "Re:", "Fw:" or "Fwd:" and then score up all
20986 parents of articles that have subjects that begin with reply marks.
20989 ((! ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
20991 ((1- ("subject" "re:\\|fwd?:" r))
20995 The possibilities are endless.
20997 @node Advanced Scoring Tips
20998 @subsection Advanced Scoring Tips
21000 The @code{&} and @code{|} logical operators do short-circuit logic.
21001 That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the
21002 result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments
21003 of an @code{&} evaluates to @code{false}, there's no point in evaluating
21004 the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches
21005 (@samp{body}, @samp{header}) last and quick matches (@samp{from},
21006 @samp{subject}) first.
21008 The indirection arguments (@code{1-} and so on) will make their
21009 arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say
21020 Then that means ``score on the from header of the grandparent of the
21021 current article''. An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say:
21027 ("subject" "Gnus")))
21034 (1- ("from" "Lars"))
21035 (1- ("subject" "Gnus")))
21040 @section Score Decays
21041 @cindex score decays
21044 You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without
21045 bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too
21046 big, they lose all meaning---they simply max out and it's difficult to
21047 use them in any sensible way.
21049 @vindex gnus-decay-scores
21050 @findex gnus-decay-score
21051 @vindex gnus-decay-score-function
21052 Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem.
21053 When score files are loaded and @code{gnus-decay-scores} is
21054 non-@code{nil}, Gnus will run the score files through the decaying
21055 mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules.
21056 If @code{gnus-decay-scores} is a regexp, only score files matching this
21057 regexp are treated. E.g. you may set it to @samp{\\.ADAPT\\'} if only
21058 @emph{adaptive} score files should be decayed. The decay itself if
21059 performed by the @code{gnus-decay-score-function} function, which is
21060 @code{gnus-decay-score} by default. Here's the definition of that
21064 (defun gnus-decay-score (score)
21065 "Decay SCORE according to `gnus-score-decay-constant'
21066 and `gnus-score-decay-scale'."
21068 (* (if (< score 0) -1 1)
21070 (max gnus-score-decay-constant
21072 gnus-score-decay-scale)))))))
21073 (if (and (featurep 'xemacs)
21074 ;; XEmacs' floor can handle only the floating point
21075 ;; number below the half of the maximum integer.
21076 (> (abs n) (lsh -1 -2)))
21078 (car (split-string (number-to-string n) "\\.")))
21082 @vindex gnus-score-decay-scale
21083 @vindex gnus-score-decay-constant
21084 @code{gnus-score-decay-constant} is 3 by default and
21085 @code{gnus-score-decay-scale} is 0.05. This should cause the following:
21089 Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called.
21092 Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3.
21095 Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the
21099 If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called
21100 with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return
21101 the new score, which should be an integer.
21103 Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for
21104 four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance.
21109 @include message.texi
21110 @chapter Emacs MIME
21111 @include emacs-mime.texi
21113 @include sieve.texi
21115 @c @include pgg.texi
21117 @c @include sasl.texi
21125 * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands.
21126 * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions.
21127 * Symbolic Prefixes:: How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
21128 * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like.
21129 * Window Layout:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
21130 * Faces and Fonts:: How to change how faces look.
21131 * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up.
21132 * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines.
21133 * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
21134 * Buttons:: Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
21135 * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back.
21136 * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
21137 * Undo:: Some actions can be undone.
21138 * Predicate Specifiers:: Specifying predicates.
21139 * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator.
21140 * Fetching a Group:: Starting Gnus just to read a group.
21141 * Image Enhancements:: Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
21142 * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz?
21143 * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
21144 * Other modes:: Interaction with other modes.
21145 * Various Various:: Things that are really various.
21149 @node Process/Prefix
21150 @section Process/Prefix
21151 @cindex process/prefix convention
21153 Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving
21154 articles, use what is known as the @dfn{Process/Prefix convention}.
21156 This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the
21157 command to be performed on.
21161 If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N
21162 articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is
21163 negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting
21164 with the current one.
21166 @vindex transient-mark-mode
21167 If @code{transient-mark-mode} in non-@code{nil} and the region is
21168 active, all articles in the region will be worked upon.
21170 If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the
21171 process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with
21174 If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the
21175 process mark, just perform the operation on the current article.
21177 Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises
21180 Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of
21181 process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process
21182 marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the
21183 @kbd{M P y} command (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
21185 @vindex gnus-summary-goto-unread
21186 One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for
21187 instance, @kbd{3 d} does exactly the same as @kbd{d} @kbd{d} @kbd{d}.
21188 Since each @kbd{d} (which marks the current article as read) by default
21189 goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that @kbd{3 d}
21190 will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the
21191 summary buffer looks like. Set @code{gnus-summary-goto-unread} to
21192 @code{nil} for a more straightforward action.
21194 Many commands do not use the process/prefix convention. All commands
21195 that do explicitly say so in this manual. To apply the process/prefix
21196 convention to commands that do not use it, you can use the @kbd{M-&}
21197 command. For instance, to mark all the articles in the group as
21198 expirable, you could say @kbd{M P b M-& E}.
21202 @section Interactive
21203 @cindex interaction
21207 @item gnus-novice-user
21208 @vindex gnus-novice-user
21209 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you are either a newcomer to the
21210 World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be,
21211 really. You will be given questions of the type ``Are you sure you want
21212 to do this?'' before doing anything dangerous. This is @code{t} by
21215 @item gnus-expert-user
21216 @vindex gnus-expert-user
21217 If this variable is non-@code{nil}, you will seldom be asked any
21218 questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no
21219 matter how strange.
21221 @item gnus-interactive-catchup
21222 @vindex gnus-interactive-catchup
21223 Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-@code{nil}. It
21224 is @code{t} by default.
21226 @item gnus-interactive-exit
21227 @vindex gnus-interactive-exit
21228 Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
21233 @node Symbolic Prefixes
21234 @section Symbolic Prefixes
21235 @cindex symbolic prefixes
21237 Quite a lot of Emacs commands react to the (numeric) prefix. For
21238 instance, @kbd{C-u 4 C-f} moves point four characters forward, and
21239 @kbd{C-u 9 0 0 I s s p} adds a permanent @code{Subject} substring score
21240 rule of 900 to the current article.
21242 This is all nice and well, but what if you want to give a command some
21243 additional information? Well, what most commands do is interpret the
21244 ``raw'' prefix in some special way. @kbd{C-u 0 C-x C-s} means that one
21245 doesn't want a backup file to be created when saving the current buffer,
21246 for instance. But what if you want to save without making a backup
21247 file, and you want Emacs to flash lights and play a nice tune at the
21248 same time? You can't, and you're probably perfectly happy that way.
21250 @kindex M-i (Summary)
21251 @findex gnus-symbolic-argument
21252 I'm not, so I've added a second prefix---the @dfn{symbolic prefix}. The
21253 prefix key is @kbd{M-i} (@code{gnus-symbolic-argument}), and the next
21254 character typed in is the value. You can stack as many @kbd{M-i}
21255 prefixes as you want. @kbd{M-i a C-M-u} means ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u}
21256 command the symbolic prefix @code{a}''. @kbd{M-i a M-i b C-M-u} means
21257 ``feed the @kbd{C-M-u} command the symbolic prefixes @code{a} and
21258 @code{b}''. You get the drift.
21260 Typing in symbolic prefixes to commands that don't accept them doesn't
21261 hurt, but it doesn't do any good either. Currently not many Gnus
21262 functions make use of the symbolic prefix.
21264 If you're interested in how Gnus implements this, @pxref{Extended
21268 @node Formatting Variables
21269 @section Formatting Variables
21270 @cindex formatting variables
21272 Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called
21273 things like @code{gnus-group-line-format} and
21274 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}. These control how Gnus is to
21275 output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them.
21276 Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to
21279 Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): @samp{%M%S%5y:
21280 %(%g%)\n}. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are
21281 lots of percentages everywhere.
21284 * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string.
21285 * Mode Line Formatting:: Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
21286 * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways.
21287 * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions.
21288 * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
21289 * Positioning Point:: Moving point to a position after an operation.
21290 * Tabulation:: Tabulating your output.
21291 * Wide Characters:: Dealing with wide characters.
21294 Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables:
21295 @code{gnus-group-line-format}, @code{gnus-summary-line-format},
21296 @code{gnus-server-line-format}, @code{gnus-topic-line-format},
21297 @code{gnus-group-mode-line-format},
21298 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format},
21299 @code{gnus-article-mode-line-format},
21300 @code{gnus-server-mode-line-format}, and
21301 @code{gnus-summary-pick-line-format}.
21303 All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that
21304 case, they will be @code{eval}ed to insert the required lines.
21306 @kindex M-x gnus-update-format
21307 @findex gnus-update-format
21308 Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format
21309 specs. @kbd{M-x gnus-update-format} will @code{eval} the current form,
21310 update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can
21311 examine the resulting Lisp code to be run to generate the line.
21315 @node Formatting Basics
21316 @subsection Formatting Basics
21318 Each @samp{%} element will be replaced by some string or other when the
21319 buffer in question is generated. @samp{%5y} means ``insert the @samp{y}
21320 spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field''.
21322 As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical
21323 modifier between the @samp{%} and the formatting type character will
21324 @dfn{pad} the output so that it is always at least that long.
21325 @samp{%5y} will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by
21326 padding with spaces to the left. If you say @samp{%-5y}, it will pad to
21329 You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against
21330 particularly wide values. For that you can say @samp{%4,6y}, which
21331 means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never
21332 less than 4 characters wide.
21334 Also Gnus supports some extended format specifications, such as
21335 @samp{%&user-date;}.
21338 @node Mode Line Formatting
21339 @subsection Mode Line Formatting
21341 Mode line formatting variables (e.g.,
21342 @code{gnus-summary-mode-line-format}) follow the same rules as other,
21343 buffer line oriented formatting variables (@pxref{Formatting Basics})
21344 with the following two differences:
21349 There must be no newline (@samp{\n}) at the end.
21352 The special @samp{%%b} spec can be used to display the buffer name.
21353 Well, it's no spec at all, really---@samp{%%} is just a way to quote
21354 @samp{%} to allow it to pass through the formatting machinery unmangled,
21355 so that Emacs receives @samp{%b}, which is something the Emacs mode line
21356 display interprets to mean ``show the buffer name''. For a full list of
21357 mode line specs Emacs understands, see the documentation of the
21358 @code{mode-line-format} variable.
21363 @node Advanced Formatting
21364 @subsection Advanced Formatting
21366 It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way.
21367 Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can
21368 be achieved by using @dfn{tilde modifiers}. A typical tilde spec might
21369 look like @samp{%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y}.
21371 These are the valid modifiers:
21376 Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required
21380 Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required
21385 Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length.
21388 Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified
21393 Cut off the specified number of characters from the left.
21396 Cut off the specified number of characters from the right.
21399 Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value.
21402 Use the specified form as the field value when the @samp{@@} spec is
21408 "~(form (current-time-string))@@"
21413 Let's take an example. The @samp{%o} spec in the summary mode lines
21414 will return a date in compact ISO8601 format---@samp{19960809T230410}.
21415 This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and
21416 the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be
21417 @samp{%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o}. (Cutting is done before
21418 maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less
21419 than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.)
21421 Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very
21422 last operation, padding.
21424 @vindex gnus-compile-user-specs
21425 If @code{gnus-compile-user-specs} is set to @code{nil} (@code{t} by
21426 default) with your strong personality, and use a lots of these advanced
21427 thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets quite slow. This can be helped
21428 enormously by running @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} when you are satisfied with
21429 the look of your lines.
21430 @xref{Compilation}.
21433 @node User-Defined Specs
21434 @subsection User-Defined Specs
21436 All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers---@samp{u}.
21437 The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus
21438 will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{X}, where
21439 @samp{X} is the letter following @samp{%u}. The function will be passed
21440 a single parameter---what the parameter means depends on what buffer
21441 it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will
21442 be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other
21443 specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it
21444 should protect against that.
21446 Also Gnus supports extended user-defined specs, such as @samp{%u&foo;}.
21447 Gnus will call the function @code{gnus-user-format-function-}@samp{foo}.
21449 You can also use tilde modifiers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting} to achieve
21450 much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example:
21451 @samp{%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@@}. The form
21452 given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then
21456 @node Formatting Fonts
21457 @subsection Formatting Fonts
21459 There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format
21460 variables. Text inside the @samp{%(} and @samp{%)} specifiers will get
21461 the special @code{mouse-face} property set, which means that it will be
21462 highlighted (with @code{gnus-mouse-face}) when you put the mouse pointer
21465 Text inside the @samp{%@{} and @samp{%@}} specifiers will have their
21466 normal faces set using @code{gnus-face-0}, which is @code{bold} by
21467 default. If you say @samp{%1@{}, you'll get @code{gnus-face-1} instead,
21468 and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the
21469 @code{mouse-face} specs---you can say @samp{%3(hello%)} to have
21470 @samp{hello} mouse-highlighted with @code{gnus-mouse-face-3}.
21472 Text inside the @samp{%<<} and @samp{%>>} specifiers will get the
21473 special @code{balloon-help} property set to
21474 @code{gnus-balloon-face-0}. If you say @samp{%1<<}, you'll get
21475 @code{gnus-balloon-face-1} and so on. The @code{gnus-balloon-face-*}
21476 variables should be either strings or symbols naming functions that
21477 return a string. When the mouse passes over text with this property
21478 set, a balloon window will appear and display the string. Please
21479 refer to @ref{Tooltips, ,Tooltips, emacs, The Emacs Manual},
21480 (in GNU Emacs) or the doc string of @code{balloon-help-mode} (in
21481 XEmacs) for more information on this. (For technical reasons, the
21482 guillemets have been approximated as @samp{<<} and @samp{>>} in this
21485 Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer:
21488 ;; @r{Create three face types.}
21489 (setq gnus-face-1 'bold)
21490 (setq gnus-face-3 'italic)
21492 ;; @r{We want the article count to be in}
21493 ;; @r{a bold and green face. So we create}
21494 ;; @r{a new face called @code{my-green-bold}.}
21495 (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold)
21496 ;; @r{Set the color.}
21497 (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen")
21498 (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold)
21500 ;; @r{Set the new & fancy format.}
21501 (setq gnus-group-line-format
21502 "%M%S%3@{%5y%@}%2[:%] %(%1@{%g%@}%)\n")
21505 I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable
21506 and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun!
21508 Note that the @samp{%(} specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the
21509 mode-line variables.
21511 @node Positioning Point
21512 @subsection Positioning Point
21514 Gnus usually moves point to a pre-defined place on each line in most
21515 buffers. By default, point move to the first colon character on the
21516 line. You can customize this behavior in three different ways.
21518 You can move the colon character to somewhere else on the line.
21520 @findex gnus-goto-colon
21521 You can redefine the function that moves the point to the colon. The
21522 function is called @code{gnus-goto-colon}.
21524 But perhaps the most convenient way to deal with this, if you don't want
21525 to have a colon in your line, is to use the @samp{%*} specifier. If you
21526 put a @samp{%*} somewhere in your format line definition, Gnus will
21531 @subsection Tabulation
21533 You can usually line up your displays by padding and cutting your
21534 strings. However, when combining various strings of different size, it
21535 can often be more convenient to just output the strings, and then worry
21536 about lining up the following text afterwards.
21538 To do that, Gnus supplies tabulator specs---@samp{%=}. There are two
21539 different types---@dfn{hard tabulators} and @dfn{soft tabulators}.
21541 @samp{%50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
21542 50. If the text is already past column 50, nothing will be inserted.
21543 This is the soft tabulator.
21545 @samp{%-50=} will insert space characters to pad the line up to column
21546 50. If the text is already past column 50, the excess text past column
21547 50 will be removed. This is the hard tabulator.
21550 @node Wide Characters
21551 @subsection Wide Characters
21553 Fixed width fonts in most countries have characters of the same width.
21554 Some countries, however, use Latin characters mixed with wider
21555 characters---most notable East Asian countries.
21557 The problem is that when formatting, Gnus assumes that if a string is 10
21558 characters wide, it'll be 10 Latin characters wide on the screen. In
21559 these countries, that's not true.
21561 @vindex gnus-use-correct-string-widths
21562 To help fix this, you can set @code{gnus-use-correct-string-widths} to
21563 @code{t}. This makes buffer generation slower, but the results will be
21564 prettier. The default value under XEmacs is @code{t} but @code{nil}
21568 @node Window Layout
21569 @section Window Layout
21570 @cindex window layout
21572 No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet.
21574 @vindex gnus-use-full-window
21575 If @code{gnus-use-full-window} non-@code{nil}, Gnus will delete all
21576 other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is
21577 @code{t} by default.
21579 Setting this variable to @code{nil} kinda works, but there are
21580 glitches. Use at your own peril.
21582 @vindex gnus-buffer-configuration
21583 @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} describes how much space each Gnus
21584 buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable:
21587 ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point)
21588 (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4))))
21589 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
21593 This is an alist. The @dfn{key} is a symbol that names some action or
21594 other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window
21595 configuration function will use @code{group} as the key. A full list of
21596 possible names is listed below.
21598 The @dfn{value} (i.e., the @dfn{split}) says how much space each buffer
21599 should occupy. To take the @code{article} split as an example -
21602 (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point)
21606 This @dfn{split} says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper
21607 half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As
21608 you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all
21609 reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number
21610 @code{1.0} is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the
21611 rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken
21612 whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the @code{1.0}
21613 size spec per split.
21615 Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element
21616 @code{point}. In a @code{frame} split, the last subsplit having a leaf
21617 split where the tag @code{frame-focus} is a member (i.e. is the third or
21618 fourth element in the list, depending on whether the @code{point} tag is
21619 present) gets focus.
21621 Here's a more complicated example:
21624 (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4)
21625 (summary 0.25 point)
21626 (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4))
21630 If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number,
21631 then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should
21632 occupy, not a percentage.
21634 If the @dfn{split} looks like something that can be @code{eval}ed (to be
21635 precise---if the @code{car} of the split is a function or a subr), this
21636 split will be @code{eval}ed. If the result is non-@code{nil}, it will
21637 be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if
21638 @code{gnus-carpal} is @code{nil}, and four buffers if @code{gnus-carpal}
21641 Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size:
21644 (article (horizontal 1.0
21649 (summary 0.25 point)
21654 Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that
21655 @code{horizontal} thingie?
21657 If the first element in one of the split is @code{horizontal}, Gnus will
21658 split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side.
21659 Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal
21660 fashion. The number following @code{horizontal} says what percentage of
21661 the screen is to be given to this strip.
21663 For each split, there @emph{must} be one element that has the 100% tag.
21664 The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover
21665 lines from the splits.
21667 To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a valid split
21672 split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form
21673 frame = "(frame " size *split ")"
21674 horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")"
21675 vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")"
21676 buffer = "(" buf-name " " size *[ "point" ] *[ "frame-focus"] ")"
21677 size = number | frame-params
21678 buf-name = group | article | summary ...
21682 The limitations are that the @code{frame} split can only appear as the
21683 top-level split. @var{form} should be an Emacs Lisp form that should
21684 return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and
21685 may contain any number of @code{vertical} and @code{horizontal} splits.
21687 @vindex gnus-window-min-width
21688 @vindex gnus-window-min-height
21689 @cindex window height
21690 @cindex window width
21691 Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less
21692 than @code{gnus-window-min-height} (default 1) characters high, and all
21693 windows must be at least @code{gnus-window-min-width} (default 1)
21694 characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the
21695 splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit,
21696 you can just set these two variables to @code{nil}.
21698 If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, @code{horizontal} and
21699 @code{vertical} splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect.
21700 Windows inside a @code{horizontal} split are shown side-by-side, and
21701 windows within a @code{vertical} split are shown above each other.
21703 @findex gnus-configure-frame
21704 If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call
21705 @code{gnus-configure-frame} directly with a split. This is the function
21706 that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty
21707 nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and
21708 three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you
21709 @code{eval} the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would
21710 look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels.
21711 Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use
21712 @code{gnus-add-configuration} to add your new creation to the buffer
21713 configuration list.
21716 (gnus-configure-frame
21720 (article 0.3 point))
21728 You might want to have several frames as well. No prob---just use the
21729 @code{frame} split:
21732 (gnus-configure-frame
21735 (summary 0.25 point frame-focus)
21737 (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15)
21738 (user-position . t)
21739 (left . -1) (top . 1))
21744 This split will result in the familiar summary/article window
21745 configuration in the first (or ``main'') frame, while a small additional
21746 frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see,
21747 instead of the normal @code{1.0} top-level spec, each additional split
21748 should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec.
21749 @xref{Frame Parameters, , Frame Parameters, elisp, The GNU Emacs Lisp
21750 Reference Manual}. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be
21751 accepted, too---for instance, @code{(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)}
21753 The list of all possible keys for @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} can
21754 be found in its default value.
21756 Note that the @code{message} key is used for both
21757 @code{gnus-group-mail} and @code{gnus-summary-mail-other-window}. If
21758 it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this
21762 (message (horizontal 1.0
21763 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point))
21765 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer)
21770 One common desire for a multiple frame split is to have a separate frame
21771 for composing mail and news while leaving the original frame intact. To
21772 accomplish that, something like the following can be done:
21777 (if (not (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer))
21778 (car (cdr (assoc 'group gnus-buffer-configuration)))
21779 (car (cdr (assoc 'summary gnus-buffer-configuration))))
21780 (vertical ((user-position . t) (top . 1) (left . 1)
21781 (name . "Message"))
21782 (message 1.0 point))))
21785 @findex gnus-add-configuration
21786 Since the @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} variable is so long and
21787 complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config
21788 of a single setting: @code{gnus-add-configuration}. If, for instance,
21789 you want to change the @code{article} setting, you could say:
21792 (gnus-add-configuration
21793 '(article (vertical 1.0
21795 (summary .25 point)
21799 You'd typically stick these @code{gnus-add-configuration} calls in your
21800 @file{~/.gnus.el} file or in some startup hook---they should be run after
21801 Gnus has been loaded.
21803 @vindex gnus-always-force-window-configuration
21804 If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus
21805 won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the
21806 ``right'' window configuration, you can set
21807 @code{gnus-always-force-window-configuration} to non-@code{nil}.
21809 If you're using tree displays (@pxref{Tree Display}), and the tree
21810 window is displayed vertically next to another window, you may also want
21811 to fiddle with @code{gnus-tree-minimize-window} to avoid having the
21814 @subsection Example Window Configurations
21818 Narrow left hand side occupied by group buffer. Right hand side split
21819 between summary buffer (top one-sixth) and article buffer (bottom).
21834 (gnus-add-configuration
21837 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
21839 (summary 0.16 point)
21842 (gnus-add-configuration
21845 (vertical 25 (group 1.0))
21846 (vertical 1.0 (summary 1.0 point)))))
21852 @node Faces and Fonts
21853 @section Faces and Fonts
21858 Fiddling with fonts and faces used to be very difficult, but these days
21859 it is very simple. You simply say @kbd{M-x customize-face}, pick out
21860 the face you want to alter, and alter it via the standard Customize
21865 @section Compilation
21866 @cindex compilation
21867 @cindex byte-compilation
21869 @findex gnus-compile
21871 Remember all those line format specification variables?
21872 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}, @code{gnus-group-line-format}, and so
21873 on. By default, T-gnus will use the byte-compiled codes of these
21874 variables and we can keep a slow-down to a minimum. However, if you set
21875 @code{gnus-compile-user-specs} to @code{nil} (@code{t} by default),
21876 unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down.
21877 (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions
21878 associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of
21881 To help with this, you can run @kbd{M-x gnus-compile} after you've
21882 fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of)
21883 satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and
21884 you'll get top speed again. Note that T-gnus will not save these
21885 compiled specs in the @file{.newsrc.eld} file.
21888 @item gnus-compile-user-specs
21889 @vindex gnus-compile-user-specs
21890 If it is non-nil, the user-defined format specs will be byte-compiled
21891 automatically. The default value of this variable is @code{t}. It has
21892 an effect on the values of @code{gnus-*-line-format-spec}.
21897 @section Mode Lines
21900 @vindex gnus-updated-mode-lines
21901 @code{gnus-updated-mode-lines} says what buffers should keep their mode
21902 lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include
21903 @code{group}, @code{article}, @code{summary}, @code{server},
21904 @code{browse}, and @code{tree}. If the corresponding symbol is present,
21905 Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be
21906 pertinent. If this variable is @code{nil}, screen refresh may be
21909 @cindex display-time
21911 @vindex gnus-mode-non-string-length
21912 By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode
21913 lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes
21914 to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the
21915 mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The
21916 @code{gnus-mode-non-string-length} variable says how long the other
21917 elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put
21918 additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify
21921 @c Hook written by Francesco Potorti` <pot@cnuce.cnr.it>
21923 (add-hook 'display-time-hook
21924 (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length
21926 (if line-number-mode 5 0)
21927 (if column-number-mode 4 0)
21928 (length display-time-string)))))
21931 If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the default), the mode line
21932 strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note
21933 that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage
21934 complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should
21935 configure this variable appropriately for her configuration.
21938 @node Highlighting and Menus
21939 @section Highlighting and Menus
21941 @cindex highlighting
21944 @vindex gnus-visual
21945 The @code{gnus-visual} variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying
21946 aspects. If @code{nil}, Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy
21947 colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the @file{gnus-vis.el}
21950 This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The
21951 following elements are valid, and are all included by default:
21954 @item group-highlight
21955 Do highlights in the group buffer.
21956 @item summary-highlight
21957 Do highlights in the summary buffer.
21958 @item article-highlight
21959 Do highlights in the article buffer.
21961 Turn on highlighting in all buffers.
21963 Create menus in the group buffer.
21965 Create menus in the summary buffers.
21967 Create menus in the article buffer.
21969 Create menus in the browse buffer.
21971 Create menus in the server buffer.
21973 Create menus in the score buffers.
21975 Create menus in all buffers.
21978 So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all
21979 buffers, you could say something like:
21982 (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu))
21985 If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say:
21988 (setq gnus-visual '(highlight))
21991 If @code{gnus-visual} is @code{t}, highlighting and menus will be used
21992 in all Gnus buffers.
21994 Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include:
21997 @item gnus-mouse-face
21998 @vindex gnus-mouse-face
21999 This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No
22000 mouse highlights will be done if @code{gnus-visual} is @code{nil}.
22004 There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus:
22008 @item gnus-article-menu-hook
22009 @vindex gnus-article-menu-hook
22010 Hook called after creating the article mode menu.
22012 @item gnus-group-menu-hook
22013 @vindex gnus-group-menu-hook
22014 Hook called after creating the group mode menu.
22016 @item gnus-summary-menu-hook
22017 @vindex gnus-summary-menu-hook
22018 Hook called after creating the summary mode menu.
22020 @item gnus-server-menu-hook
22021 @vindex gnus-server-menu-hook
22022 Hook called after creating the server mode menu.
22024 @item gnus-browse-menu-hook
22025 @vindex gnus-browse-menu-hook
22026 Hook called after creating the browse mode menu.
22028 @item gnus-score-menu-hook
22029 @vindex gnus-score-menu-hook
22030 Hook called after creating the score mode menu.
22041 Those new-fangled @dfn{mouse} contraptions is very popular with the
22042 young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things
22043 these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was
22044 using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single
22045 machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah!
22049 @vindex gnus-carpal
22050 Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to
22051 do anything by setting @code{gnus-carpal} to @code{t}. Pretty simple,
22052 really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you.
22057 @item gnus-carpal-mode-hook
22058 @vindex gnus-carpal-mode-hook
22059 Hook run in all carpal mode buffers.
22061 @item gnus-carpal-button-face
22062 @vindex gnus-carpal-button-face
22063 Face used on buttons.
22065 @item gnus-carpal-header-face
22066 @vindex gnus-carpal-header-face
22067 Face used on carpal buffer headers.
22069 @item gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
22070 @vindex gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons
22071 Buttons in the group buffer.
22073 @item gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
22074 @vindex gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons
22075 Buttons in the summary buffer.
22077 @item gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
22078 @vindex gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons
22079 Buttons in the server buffer.
22081 @item gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
22082 @vindex gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons
22083 Buttons in the browse buffer.
22086 All the @code{buttons} variables are lists. The elements in these list
22087 are either cons cells where the @code{car} contains a text to be displayed and
22088 the @code{cdr} contains a function symbol, or a simple string.
22096 Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots
22097 of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
22098 present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
22099 while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
22100 when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
22102 Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various
22103 @dfn{handlers}. Each handler consists of three elements: A
22104 @var{function}, a @var{time}, and an @var{idle} parameter.
22106 Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
22107 been idle for thirty minutes:
22110 (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
22113 Here's a handler that scans for @acronym{PGP} headers every hour when
22117 (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
22120 This @var{time} parameter and that @var{idle} parameter work together
22121 in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if @var{idle} is
22122 @code{nil}, then the function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
22124 If @var{idle} is @code{t}, then the function will be called after
22125 @var{time} minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle,
22126 the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the
22127 function will be called every @var{time} minutes.
22129 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is a number, the function will
22130 be called every @var{time} minutes only when Emacs has been idle for
22131 @var{idle} minutes.
22133 If @var{idle} is a number and @var{time} is @code{nil}, the function
22134 will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for @var{idle}
22137 And if @var{time} is a string, it should look like @samp{07:31}, and
22138 the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that
22139 time. Modified by the @var{idle} parameter, of course.
22141 @vindex gnus-demon-timestep
22142 (When I say ``minute'' here, I really mean @code{gnus-demon-timestep}
22143 seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable,
22144 all the timings in the handlers will be affected.)
22146 So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in
22147 your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22149 @findex gnus-demon-add-handler
22151 (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
22154 @findex gnus-demon-add-nocem
22155 @findex gnus-demon-add-scanmail
22156 @findex gnus-demon-add-rescan
22157 @findex gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps
22158 @findex gnus-demon-add-disconnection
22159 Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
22160 @code{gnus-demon-add-nocem}, @code{gnus-demon-add-disconnection},
22161 @code{gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection},
22162 @code{gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps}, @code{gnus-demon-add-rescan}, and
22163 @code{gnus-demon-add-scanmail}. Just put those functions in your
22164 @file{~/.gnus.el} if you want those abilities.
22166 @findex gnus-demon-init
22167 @findex gnus-demon-cancel
22168 @vindex gnus-demon-handlers
22169 If you add handlers to @code{gnus-demon-handlers} directly, you should
22170 run @code{gnus-demon-init} to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
22171 daemons, you can use the @code{gnus-demon-cancel} function.
22173 Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it. Adding
22174 functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds
22175 is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So
22184 @dfn{Spamming} is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
22185 Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
22187 Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various anti-spamming
22188 agencies. These agencies usually also send out @dfn{NoCeM} messages.
22189 NoCeM is pronounced ``no see-'em'', and means what the name
22190 implies---these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
22193 What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled anyway?
22194 Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just honor cancels
22195 from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use of the NoCeM
22196 messages, which are distributed in the @samp{alt.nocem.misc} newsgroup.
22198 Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
22199 this will make spam disappear.
22201 There are some variables to customize, of course:
22204 @item gnus-use-nocem
22205 @vindex gnus-use-nocem
22206 Set this variable to @code{t} to set the ball rolling. It is @code{nil}
22209 @item gnus-nocem-groups
22210 @vindex gnus-nocem-groups
22211 Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
22214 ("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
22215 "alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")
22218 @item gnus-nocem-issuers
22219 @vindex gnus-nocem-issuers
22220 There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
22221 people you want to listen to. The default is
22223 ("Automoose-1" "clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca"
22224 "cosmo.roadkill" "SpamHippo" "hweede@@snafu.de")
22226 fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
22228 Known despammers that you can put in this list are listed at@*
22229 @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~rosalind/nocemreg/nocemreg.html}.
22231 You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people---just the
22232 ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all NoCeM
22233 messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a @dfn{type}
22234 header that gives the message a (more or less, usually less) rigorous
22235 definition. Common types are @samp{spam}, @samp{spew}, @samp{mmf},
22236 @samp{binary}, and @samp{troll}. To specify this, you have to use
22237 @code{(@var{issuer} @var{conditions} @dots{})} elements in the list.
22238 Each condition is either a string (which is a regexp that matches types
22239 you want to use) or a list on the form @code{(not @var{string})}, where
22240 @var{string} is a regexp that matches types you don't want to use.
22242 For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis except his
22243 @samp{troll} messages, you'd say:
22246 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
22249 On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his @samp{spam} and
22250 @samp{spew} messages, you'd say:
22253 ("clewis@@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
22256 The specs are applied left-to-right.
22259 @item gnus-nocem-verifyer
22260 @vindex gnus-nocem-verifyer
22261 @findex pgg-verify-region
22262 This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is who she
22263 says she is. The default is the function using @code{pgg-verify-region}
22268 (pgg-verify-region (point-min) (point-max)))
22271 It returns non-@code{nil} if the verification is successful, otherwise
22272 (including the case the NoCeM message was not signed) returns
22273 @code{nil}. If this is too slow and you don't care for verification
22274 (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable to @code{nil}.
22276 Formerly the default was @code{mc-verify}, which is a Mailcrypt
22277 function. While you can still use it, you can change it into the
22278 default function running with GnuPG if you are willing to add the
22279 @acronym{PGP} public keys to GnuPG's keyring.
22281 @item gnus-nocem-directory
22282 @vindex gnus-nocem-directory
22283 This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default is@*
22284 @file{~/News/NoCeM/}.
22286 @item gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
22287 @vindex gnus-nocem-expiry-wait
22288 The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the cache.
22289 The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be faster, but you
22290 might then see old spam.
22292 @item gnus-nocem-check-from
22293 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-from
22294 Non-@code{nil} means check for valid issuers in message bodies.
22295 Otherwise don't bother fetching articles unless their author matches a
22296 valid issuer; that is much faster if you are selective about the
22299 @item gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
22300 @vindex gnus-nocem-check-article-limit
22301 If non-@code{nil}, the maximum number of articles to check in any NoCeM
22302 group. NoCeM groups can be huge and very slow to process.
22306 Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many living
22307 (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process will grow
22308 big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most) of your
22309 unsubscribed groups (@pxref{Subscription Commands}).
22316 It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
22317 Emacs buffers, it's easy enough---you just push the @code{undo} button.
22318 In Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
22320 The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
22321 Gnus---it's all just data designed to look nice to the user.
22322 Killing a group in the group buffer with @kbd{C-k} makes the line
22323 disappear, but that's just a side-effect of the real action---the
22324 removal of the group in question from the internal Gnus structures.
22325 Undoing something like that can't be done by the normal Emacs
22326 @code{undo} function.
22328 Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
22329 does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
22330 takes. When the user then presses the @code{undo} key, Gnus will run
22331 the code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions.
22332 However, not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers
22333 a few key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups,
22334 yanking groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups.
22335 That's it, really. More functions may be added in the future, but each
22336 added function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will
22337 never be totally undoable.
22339 @findex gnus-undo-mode
22340 @vindex gnus-use-undo
22342 The undoability is provided by the @code{gnus-undo-mode} minor mode. It
22343 is used if @code{gnus-use-undo} is non-@code{nil}, which is the
22344 default. The @kbd{C-M-_} key performs the @code{gnus-undo}
22345 command, which should feel kinda like the normal Emacs @code{undo}
22349 @node Predicate Specifiers
22350 @section Predicate Specifiers
22351 @cindex predicate specifiers
22353 Some Gnus variables are @dfn{predicate specifiers}. This is a special
22354 form that allows flexible specification of predicates without having
22355 to type all that much.
22357 These specifiers are lists consisting of functions, symbols and lists.
22362 (or gnus-article-unseen-p
22363 gnus-article-unread-p)
22366 The available symbols are @code{or}, @code{and} and @code{not}. The
22367 functions all take one parameter.
22369 @findex gnus-make-predicate
22370 Internally, Gnus calls @code{gnus-make-predicate} on these specifiers
22371 to create a function that can be called. This input parameter to this
22372 function will be passed along to all the functions in the predicate
22377 @section Moderation
22380 If you are a moderator, you can use the @file{gnus-mdrtn.el} package.
22381 It is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
22382 @samp{larsi@@gnus.org} and state what group you moderate, and you'll
22385 The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
22389 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
22392 in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file.
22394 If you are the moderator of @samp{rec.zoofle}, this is how it's
22399 You split your incoming mail by matching on
22400 @samp{Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle}, which will put all the to-be-posted
22401 articles in some mail group---for instance, @samp{nnml:rec.zoofle}.
22404 You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the @kbd{e}
22405 (edit-and-post) or @kbd{s} (just send unedited) commands.
22408 If, while reading the @samp{rec.zoofle} newsgroup, you happen upon some
22409 articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
22413 To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
22416 (setq gnus-moderated-list
22417 "^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
22421 @node Fetching a Group
22422 @section Fetching a Group
22423 @cindex fetching a group
22425 @findex gnus-fetch-group
22426 It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say ``I want to read this
22427 group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not''. This is
22428 perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the
22429 command @code{gnus-fetch-group} provides this functionality in any case.
22430 It takes the group name as a parameter.
22433 @node Image Enhancements
22434 @section Image Enhancements
22436 XEmacs, as well as Emacs 21@footnote{Emacs 21 on MS Windows doesn't
22437 support images yet.}, is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has
22438 taken advantage of that.
22441 * X-Face:: Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
22442 * Face:: Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
22443 * Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
22444 * Picons:: How to display pictures of what you're reading.
22445 * XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
22453 @code{X-Face} headers describe a 48x48 pixel black-and-white (1 bit
22454 depth) image that's supposed to represent the author of the message.
22455 It seems to be supported by an ever-growing number of mail and news
22459 @findex gnus-article-display-x-face
22460 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-command
22461 @vindex gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly
22469 Decoding an @code{X-Face} header either requires an Emacs that has
22470 @samp{compface} support (which most XEmacs versions has), or that you
22471 have @samp{compface} installed on your system. If either is true,
22472 Gnus will default to displaying @code{X-Face} headers.
22474 The variable that controls this is the
22475 @code{gnus-article-x-face-command} variable. If this variable is a
22476 string, this string will be executed in a sub-shell. If it is a
22477 function, this function will be called with the face as the argument.
22478 If the @code{gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly} (which is a regexp) matches
22479 the @code{From} header, the face will not be shown.
22481 The default action under Emacs without image support is to fork off the
22482 @code{display} program@footnote{@code{display} is from the ImageMagick
22483 package. For the @code{uncompface} and @code{icontopbm} programs look
22484 for a package like @code{compface} or @code{faces-xface} on a GNU/Linux
22485 system.} to view the face.
22487 Under XEmacs or Emacs 21+ with suitable image support, the default
22488 action is to display the face before the @code{From} header. (It's
22489 nicer if XEmacs has been compiled with @code{X-Face} support---that
22490 will make display somewhat faster. If there's no native @code{X-Face}
22491 support, Gnus will try to convert the @code{X-Face} header using
22492 external programs from the @code{pbmplus} package and
22493 friends.@footnote{On a GNU/Linux system look for packages with names
22494 like @code{netpbm}, @code{libgr-progs} and @code{compface}.})
22496 (Note: @code{x-face} is used in the variable/function names, not
22504 @vindex gnus-x-face
22505 Face to show X-Face. The colors from this face are used as the
22506 foreground and background colors of the displayed X-Faces. The
22507 default colors are black and white.
22509 @item gnus-face-properties-alist
22510 @vindex gnus-face-properties-alist
22511 Alist of image types and properties applied to Face (@pxref{Face}) and
22512 X-Face images. The default value is @code{((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face))
22513 (png . nil))} for Emacs or @code{((xface . (:face gnus-x-face)))} for
22514 XEmacs. Here are examples:
22517 ;; Specify the altitude of Face and X-Face images in the From header.
22518 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
22519 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :ascent 80))
22520 (png . (:ascent 80))))
22522 ;; Show Face and X-Face images as pressed buttons.
22523 (setq gnus-face-properties-alist
22524 '((pbm . (:face gnus-x-face :relief -2))
22525 (png . (:relief -2))))
22528 @pxref{Image Descriptors, ,Image Descriptors, elisp, The Emacs Lisp
22529 Reference Manual} for the valid properties for various image types.
22530 Currently, @code{pbm} is used for X-Face images and @code{png} is used
22531 for Face images in Emacs. Only the @code{:face} property is effective
22532 on the @code{xface} image type in XEmacs if it is built with the
22533 @samp{libcompface} library.
22536 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
22537 easier insertion of X-Face headers in outgoing messages.
22539 @findex gnus-random-x-face
22540 @vindex gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command
22541 @vindex gnus-x-face-directory
22542 @code{gnus-random-x-face} goes through all the @samp{pbm} files in
22543 @code{gnus-x-face-directory} and picks one at random, and then
22544 converts it to the X-Face format by using the
22545 @code{gnus-convert-pbm-to-x-face-command} shell command. The
22546 @samp{pbm} files should be 48x48 pixels big. It returns the X-Face
22547 header data as a string.
22549 @findex gnus-insert-random-x-face-header
22550 @code{gnus-insert-random-x-face-header} calls
22551 @code{gnus-random-x-face} and inserts a @samp{X-Face} header with the
22552 randomly generated data.
22554 @findex gnus-x-face-from-file
22555 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command
22556 @code{gnus-x-face-from-file} takes a GIF file as the parameter, and then
22557 converts the file to X-Face format by using the
22558 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-x-face-command} shell command.
22560 Here's how you would typically use the first function. Put something
22561 like the following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22564 (setq message-required-news-headers
22565 (nconc message-required-news-headers
22566 (list '(X-Face . gnus-random-x-face))))
22569 Using the last function would be something like this:
22572 (setq message-required-news-headers
22573 (nconc message-required-news-headers
22574 (list '(X-Face . (lambda ()
22575 (gnus-x-face-from-file
22576 "~/My-face.gif"))))))
22584 @c #### FIXME: faces and x-faces'implementations should really be harmonized.
22586 @code{Face} headers are essentially a funkier version of @code{X-Face}
22587 ones. They describe a 48x48 pixel colored image that's supposed to
22588 represent the author of the message.
22591 @findex gnus-article-display-face
22592 The contents of a @code{Face} header must be a base64 encoded PNG image.
22593 See @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/face/} for the precise
22596 The @code{gnus-face-properties-alist} variable affects the appearance of
22597 displayed Face images. @xref{X-Face}.
22599 Gnus provides a few convenience functions and variables to allow
22600 easier insertion of Face headers in outgoing messages.
22602 @findex gnus-convert-png-to-face
22603 @code{gnus-convert-png-to-face} takes a 48x48 PNG image, no longer than
22604 726 bytes long, and converts it to a face.
22606 @findex gnus-face-from-file
22607 @vindex gnus-convert-image-to-face-command
22608 @code{gnus-face-from-file} takes a JPEG file as the parameter, and then
22609 converts the file to Face format by using the
22610 @code{gnus-convert-image-to-face-command} shell command.
22612 Here's how you would typically use this function. Put something like the
22613 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22616 (setq message-required-news-headers
22617 (nconc message-required-news-headers
22618 (list '(Face . (lambda ()
22619 (gnus-face-from-file "~/face.jpg"))))))
22624 @subsection Smileys
22629 \gnusfig{-3cm}{0.5cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/BigFace,height=20cm}}
22634 @dfn{Smiley} is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
22635 currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
22637 In short---to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
22638 @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
22641 (setq gnus-treat-display-smileys t)
22644 Smiley maps text smiley faces---@samp{:-)}, @samp{8-)}, @samp{:-(} and
22645 the like---to pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley
22646 faces. The conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches
22647 text and maps that to file names.
22649 @vindex smiley-regexp-alist
22650 The alist used is specified by the @code{smiley-regexp-alist}
22651 variable. The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched;
22652 the second element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by
22653 the picture; and the third element is the name of the file to be
22656 The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
22661 @item smiley-data-directory
22662 @vindex smiley-data-directory
22663 Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
22665 @item gnus-smiley-file-types
22666 @vindex gnus-smiley-file-types
22667 List of suffixes on smiley file names to try.
22681 So@dots{} You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
22682 good way to do so. It's also a great way to impress people staring
22683 over your shoulder as you read news.
22685 What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
22694 @dfn{Picons} is short for ``personal icons''. They're small,
22695 constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
22696 organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
22697 e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are picon
22698 databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The picons are
22699 in either monochrome @code{XBM} format or color @code{XPM} and
22700 @code{GIF} formats.
22703 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
22704 For instructions on obtaining and installing the picons databases,
22705 point your Web browser at
22706 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html}.
22708 If you are using Debian GNU/Linux, saying @samp{apt-get install
22709 picons.*} will install the picons where Gnus can find them.
22711 To enable displaying picons, simply make sure that
22712 @code{gnus-picon-databases} points to the directory containing the
22715 @vindex gnus-picon-style
22716 The variable @code{gnus-picon-style} controls how picons are displayed.
22717 If @code{inline}, the textual representation is replaced. If
22718 @code{right}, picons are added right to the textual representation.
22720 The following variables offer control over where things are located.
22724 @item gnus-picon-databases
22725 @vindex gnus-picon-databases
22726 The location of the picons database. This is a list of directories
22727 containing the @file{news}, @file{domains}, @file{users} (and so on)
22728 subdirectories. Defaults to @code{("/usr/lib/picon"
22729 "/usr/local/faces")}.
22731 @item gnus-picon-news-directories
22732 @vindex gnus-picon-news-directories
22733 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
22734 newsgroups faces. @code{("news")} is the default.
22736 @item gnus-picon-user-directories
22737 @vindex gnus-picon-user-directories
22738 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for user
22739 faces. @code{("users" "usenix" "local" "misc")} is the default.
22741 @item gnus-picon-domain-directories
22742 @vindex gnus-picon-domain-directories
22743 List of subdirectories to search in @code{gnus-picon-databases} for
22744 domain name faces. Defaults to @code{("domains")}. Some people may
22745 want to add @samp{"unknown"} to this list.
22747 @item gnus-picon-file-types
22748 @vindex gnus-picon-file-types
22749 Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
22750 @code{("xpm" "gif" "xbm")} minus those not built-in your Emacs.
22756 @subsection Various XEmacs Variables
22759 @item gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
22760 @vindex gnus-xmas-glyph-directory
22761 This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
22762 auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you have an
22763 unusual directory structure.
22765 @item gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
22766 @vindex gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph
22767 A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
22772 @subsubsection Toolbar
22776 @item gnus-use-toolbar
22777 @vindex gnus-use-toolbar
22778 If @code{nil}, don't display toolbars. If non-@code{nil}, it should be
22779 one of @code{default-toolbar}, @code{top-toolbar}, @code{bottom-toolbar},
22780 @code{right-toolbar}, or @code{left-toolbar}.
22782 @item gnus-group-toolbar
22783 @vindex gnus-group-toolbar
22784 The toolbar in the group buffer.
22786 @item gnus-summary-toolbar
22787 @vindex gnus-summary-toolbar
22788 The toolbar in the summary buffer.
22790 @item gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
22791 @vindex gnus-summary-mail-toolbar
22792 The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
22803 @node Fuzzy Matching
22804 @section Fuzzy Matching
22805 @cindex fuzzy matching
22807 Gnus provides @dfn{fuzzy matching} of @code{Subject} lines when doing
22808 things like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
22810 As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very fuzzy.
22811 It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what @dfn{fuzziness}
22812 means, and the implementation has changed over time.
22814 Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
22815 @samp{Re: }, parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered
22816 out of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
22817 adequate results---even when faced with strings generated by text
22818 manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
22821 @node Thwarting Email Spam
22822 @section Thwarting Email Spam
22826 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
22828 In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging about
22829 and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they can
22830 foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
22831 people have started putting nonsense addresses into their @code{From}
22832 lines. I think this is counterproductive---it makes it difficult for
22833 people to send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as
22834 well as making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may
22835 perhaps be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself
22838 The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
22839 false pretenses. I press @kbd{g} and Gnus merrily informs me that I
22840 have 10 new emails. I say ``Golly gee! Happy is me!'' and select the
22841 mail group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements
22842 (``New! Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!'')
22843 and one mail asking me to repent and find some god.
22845 This is annoying. Here's what you can do about it.
22848 * The problem of spam:: Some background, and some solutions
22849 * Anti-Spam Basics:: Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
22850 * SpamAssassin:: How to use external anti-spam tools.
22851 * Hashcash:: Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
22852 * Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package::
22853 * Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat::
22856 @node The problem of spam
22857 @subsection The problem of spam
22859 @cindex spam filtering approaches
22860 @cindex filtering approaches, spam
22862 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
22864 First, some background on spam.
22866 If you have access to e-mail, you are familiar with spam (technically
22867 termed @acronym{UCE}, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Simply put, it
22868 exists because e-mail delivery is very cheap compared to paper mail,
22869 so only a very small percentage of people need to respond to an UCE to
22870 make it worthwhile to the advertiser. Ironically, one of the most
22871 common spams is the one offering a database of e-mail addresses for
22872 further spamming. Senders of spam are usually called @emph{spammers},
22873 but terms like @emph{vermin}, @emph{scum}, @emph{sociopaths}, and
22874 @emph{morons} are in common use as well.
22876 Spam comes from a wide variety of sources. It is simply impossible to
22877 dispose of all spam without discarding useful messages. A good
22878 example is the TMDA system, which requires senders
22879 unknown to you to confirm themselves as legitimate senders before
22880 their e-mail can reach you. Without getting into the technical side
22881 of TMDA, a downside is clearly that e-mail from legitimate sources may
22882 be discarded if those sources can't or won't confirm themselves
22883 through the TMDA system. Another problem with TMDA is that it
22884 requires its users to have a basic understanding of e-mail delivery
22887 The simplest approach to filtering spam is filtering, at the mail
22888 server or when you sort through incoming mail. If you get 200 spam
22889 messages per day from @samp{random-address@@vmadmin.com}, you block
22890 @samp{vmadmin.com}. If you get 200 messages about @samp{VIAGRA}, you
22891 discard all messages with @samp{VIAGRA} in the message. If you get
22892 lots of spam from Bulgaria, for example, you try to filter all mail
22893 from Bulgarian IPs.
22895 This, unfortunately, is a great way to discard legitimate e-mail. The
22896 risks of blocking a whole country (Bulgaria, Norway, Nigeria, China,
22897 etc.) or even a continent (Asia, Africa, Europe, etc.) from contacting
22898 you should be obvious, so don't do it if you have the choice.
22900 In another instance, the very informative and useful RISKS digest has
22901 been blocked by overzealous mail filters because it @strong{contained}
22902 words that were common in spam messages. Nevertheless, in isolated
22903 cases, with great care, direct filtering of mail can be useful.
22905 Another approach to filtering e-mail is the distributed spam
22906 processing, for instance DCC implements such a system. In essence,
22907 @var{N} systems around the world agree that a machine @var{X} in
22908 Ghana, Estonia, or California is sending out spam e-mail, and these
22909 @var{N} systems enter @var{X} or the spam e-mail from @var{X} into a
22910 database. The criteria for spam detection vary---it may be the number
22911 of messages sent, the content of the messages, and so on. When a user
22912 of the distributed processing system wants to find out if a message is
22913 spam, he consults one of those @var{N} systems.
22915 Distributed spam processing works very well against spammers that send
22916 a large number of messages at once, but it requires the user to set up
22917 fairly complicated checks. There are commercial and free distributed
22918 spam processing systems. Distributed spam processing has its risks as
22919 well. For instance legitimate e-mail senders have been accused of
22920 sending spam, and their web sites and mailing lists have been shut
22921 down for some time because of the incident.
22923 The statistical approach to spam filtering is also popular. It is
22924 based on a statistical analysis of previous spam messages. Usually
22925 the analysis is a simple word frequency count, with perhaps pairs of
22926 words or 3-word combinations thrown into the mix. Statistical
22927 analysis of spam works very well in most of the cases, but it can
22928 classify legitimate e-mail as spam in some cases. It takes time to
22929 run the analysis, the full message must be analyzed, and the user has
22930 to store the database of spam analyses. Statistical analysis on the
22931 server is gaining popularity. This has the advantage of letting the
22932 user Just Read Mail, but has the disadvantage that it's harder to tell
22933 the server that it has misclassified mail.
22935 Fighting spam is not easy, no matter what anyone says. There is no
22936 magic switch that will distinguish Viagra ads from Mom's e-mails.
22937 Even people are having a hard time telling spam apart from non-spam,
22938 because spammers are actively looking to fool us into thinking they
22939 are Mom, essentially. Spamming is irritating, irresponsible, and
22940 idiotic behavior from a bunch of people who think the world owes them
22941 a favor. We hope the following sections will help you in fighting the
22944 @node Anti-Spam Basics
22945 @subsection Anti-Spam Basics
22949 @cindex unsolicited commercial email
22951 One way of dealing with spam is having Gnus split out all spam into a
22952 @samp{spam} mail group (@pxref{Splitting Mail}).
22954 First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at, and
22955 put it in your @code{From} header of all your news articles. (I've
22956 chosen @samp{larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no}, but for many addresses on the form
22957 @samp{larsi+usenet@@ifi.uio.no} will be a better choice. Ask your
22958 sysadmin whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local
22959 part of the mail address.)
22962 (setq message-default-news-headers
22963 "From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
22966 Then put the following split rule in @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
22967 (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
22971 (to "larsi@@trym.ifi.uio.no"
22972 (| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
22973 ("references" ".*@@.*" "misc")
22978 This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
22979 @code{Subject} that starts with a @samp{Re:} or has a @code{References}
22980 header, it's probably ok. All the rest goes to the @samp{spam} group.
22981 (This idea probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
22983 In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your @acronym{SMTP} server
22984 and do not include your email address explicitly in the @code{To}
22985 header. Why they do this is unknown---perhaps it's to thwart this
22986 thwarting scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with---you just
22987 put anything not addressed to you in the @samp{spam} group by ending
22988 your fancy split rule in this way:
22993 (to "larsi" "misc")
22997 In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
22998 group. You still have to check the @samp{spam} group from time to time to
22999 check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
23000 citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
23001 each unsolicited commercial email---at your leisure.
23003 This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they can
23004 just press @kbd{r} in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
23005 spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging @code{From} headers to point
23006 to non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
23008 Be careful with this approach. Spammers are wise to it.
23012 @subsection SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc
23013 @cindex SpamAssassin
23014 @cindex Vipul's Razor
23017 The days where the hints in the previous section were sufficient in
23018 avoiding spam are coming to an end. There are many tools out there
23019 that claim to reduce the amount of spam you get. This section could
23020 easily become outdated fast, as new products replace old, but
23021 fortunately most of these tools seem to have similar interfaces. Even
23022 though this section will use SpamAssassin as an example, it should be
23023 easy to adapt it to most other tools.
23025 Note that this section does not involve the @code{spam.el} package,
23026 which is discussed in the next section. If you don't care for all
23027 the features of @code{spam.el}, you can make do with these simple
23030 If the tool you are using is not installed on the mail server, you
23031 need to invoke it yourself. Ideas on how to use the
23032 @code{:postscript} mail source parameter (@pxref{Mail Source
23033 Specifiers}) follow.
23037 '((file :prescript "formail -bs spamassassin < /var/mail/%u")
23041 "mv %t /tmp/foo; formail -bs spamc < /tmp/foo > %t")))
23044 Once you manage to process your incoming spool somehow, thus making
23045 the mail contain e.g.@: a header indicating it is spam, you are ready to
23046 filter it out. Using normal split methods (@pxref{Splitting Mail}):
23049 (setq nnmail-split-methods '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag: YES")
23053 Or using fancy split methods (@pxref{Fancy Mail Splitting}):
23056 (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy
23057 nnmail-split-fancy '(| ("X-Spam-Flag" "YES" "spam")
23061 Some people might not like the idea of piping the mail through various
23062 programs using a @code{:prescript} (if some program is buggy, you
23063 might lose all mail). If you are one of them, another solution is to
23064 call the external tools during splitting. Example fancy split method:
23067 (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: kevin-spamassassin)
23069 (defun kevin-spamassassin ()
23073 (if (eq 1 (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max)
23074 "spamc" nil nil nil "-c"))
23078 Note that with the nnimap back end, message bodies will not be
23079 downloaded by default. You need to set
23080 @code{nnimap-split-download-body} to @code{t} to do that
23081 (@pxref{Splitting in IMAP}).
23083 That is about it. As some spam is likely to get through anyway, you
23084 might want to have a nifty function to call when you happen to read
23085 spam. And here is the nifty function:
23088 (defun my-gnus-raze-spam ()
23089 "Submit SPAM to Vipul's Razor, then mark it as expirable."
23091 (gnus-summary-show-raw-article)
23092 (gnus-summary-save-in-pipe "razor-report -f -d")
23093 (gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable 1))
23097 @subsection Hashcash
23100 A novel technique to fight spam is to require senders to do something
23101 costly and demonstrably unique for each message they send. This has
23102 the obvious drawback that you cannot rely on everyone in the world
23103 using this technique, since it is not part of the Internet standards,
23104 but it may be useful in smaller communities.
23106 While the tools in the previous section work well in practice, they
23107 work only because the tools are constantly maintained and updated as
23108 new form of spam appears. This means that a small percentage of spam
23109 will always get through. It also means that somewhere, someone needs
23110 to read lots of spam to update these tools. Hashcash avoids that, but
23111 instead prefers that everyone you contact through e-mail supports the
23112 scheme. You can view the two approaches as pragmatic vs dogmatic.
23113 The approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages, but as
23114 often in the real world, a combination of them is stronger than either
23115 one of them separately.
23118 The ``something costly'' is to burn CPU time, more specifically to
23119 compute a hash collision up to a certain number of bits. The
23120 resulting hashcash cookie is inserted in a @samp{X-Hashcash:} header.
23121 For more details, and for the external application @code{hashcash} you
23122 need to install to use this feature, see
23123 @uref{http://www.hashcash.org/}. Even more information can be found
23124 at @uref{http://www.camram.org/}.
23126 If you wish to generate hashcash for each message you send, you can
23127 customize @code{message-generate-hashcash} (@pxref{Mail Headers, ,Mail
23128 Headers,message, The Message Manual}), as in:
23131 (setq message-generate-hashcash t)
23134 You will need to set up some additional variables as well:
23138 @item hashcash-default-payment
23139 @vindex hashcash-default-payment
23140 This variable indicates the default number of bits the hash collision
23141 should consist of. By default this is 20. Suggested useful values
23144 @item hashcash-payment-alist
23145 @vindex hashcash-payment-alist
23146 Some receivers may require you to spend burn more CPU time than the
23147 default. This variable contains a list of @samp{(@var{addr}
23148 @var{amount})} cells, where @var{addr} is the receiver (email address
23149 or newsgroup) and @var{amount} is the number of bits in the collision
23150 that is needed. It can also contain @samp{(@var{addr} @var{string}
23151 @var{amount})} cells, where the @var{string} is the string to use
23152 (normally the email address or newsgroup name is used).
23154 @item hashcash-path
23155 @vindex hashcash-path
23156 Where the @code{hashcash} binary is installed. This variable should
23157 be automatically set by @code{executable-find}, but if it's @code{nil}
23158 (usually because the @code{hashcash} binary is not in your path)
23159 you'll get a warning when you check hashcash payments and an error
23160 when you generate hashcash payments.
23164 Gnus can verify hashcash cookies, although this can also be done by
23165 hand customized mail filtering scripts. To verify a hashcash cookie
23166 in a message, use the @code{mail-check-payment} function in the
23167 @code{hashcash.el} library. You can also use the @code{spam.el}
23168 package with the @code{spam-use-hashcash} back end to validate hashcash
23169 cookies in incoming mail and filter mail accordingly (@pxref{Anti-spam
23170 Hashcash Payments}).
23172 @node Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
23173 @subsection Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
23174 @cindex spam filtering
23177 The idea behind @code{spam.el} is to have a control center for spam detection
23178 and filtering in Gnus. To that end, @code{spam.el} does two things: it
23179 filters new mail, and it analyzes mail known to be spam or ham.
23180 @dfn{Ham} is the name used throughout @code{spam.el} to indicate
23183 Make sure you read the section on the @code{spam.el} sequence of
23184 events. See @xref{Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events}.
23186 @cindex spam-initialize
23187 To use @code{spam.el}, you @strong{must} run the function
23188 @code{spam-initialize} to autoload @file{spam.el} and to install the
23189 @code{spam.el} hooks. There is one exception: if you use the
23190 @code{spam-use-stat} (@pxref{spam-stat spam filtering}) setting, you
23191 should turn it on before @code{spam-initialize}:
23194 (setq spam-use-stat t) ;; if needed
23198 So, what happens when you load @file{spam.el}?
23200 First, some hooks will get installed by @code{spam-initialize}. There
23201 are some hooks for @code{spam-stat} so it can save its databases, and
23202 there are hooks so interesting things will happen when you enter and
23203 leave a group. More on the sequence of events later (@pxref{Spam
23204 ELisp Package Sequence of Events}).
23206 You get the following keyboard commands:
23216 @findex gnus-summary-mark-as-spam
23217 @code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}.
23219 Mark current article as spam, showing it with the @samp{$} mark.
23220 Whenever you see a spam article, make sure to mark its summary line
23221 with @kbd{M-d} before leaving the group. This is done automatically
23222 for unread articles in @emph{spam} groups.
23228 @findex spam-bogofilter-score
23229 @code{spam-bogofilter-score}.
23231 You must have Bogofilter installed for that command to work properly.
23237 Also, when you load @file{spam.el}, you will be able to customize its
23238 variables. Try @code{customize-group} on the @samp{spam} variable
23242 * Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events::
23243 * Spam ELisp Package Filtering of Incoming Mail::
23244 * Spam ELisp Package Global Variables::
23245 * Spam ELisp Package Sorting and Score Display in Summary Buffer::
23246 * Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples::
23247 * Blacklists and Whitelists::
23248 * BBDB Whitelists::
23249 * Gmane Spam Reporting::
23250 * Anti-spam Hashcash Payments::
23252 * Regular Expressions Header Matching::
23254 * SpamAssassin back end::
23255 * ifile spam filtering::
23256 * spam-stat spam filtering::
23258 * Extending the Spam ELisp package::
23261 @node Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events
23262 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Sequence of Events
23263 @cindex spam filtering
23264 @cindex spam filtering sequence of events
23266 You must read this section to understand how @code{spam.el} works.
23267 Do not skip, speed-read, or glance through this section.
23269 There are two @emph{contact points}, if you will, between
23270 @code{spam.el} and the rest of Gnus: checking new mail for spam, and
23273 Getting new mail in Gnus is done in one of two ways. You can either
23274 split your incoming mail or you can classify new articles as ham or
23275 spam when you enter the group.
23277 Splitting incoming mail is better suited to mail back ends such as
23278 @code{nnml} or @code{nnimap} where new mail appears in a single file
23279 called a @dfn{Spool File}. See @xref{Spam ELisp Package Filtering of
23282 @vindex gnus-spam-autodetect
23283 @vindex gnus-spam-autodetect-methods
23284 For back ends such as @code{nntp} there is no incoming mail spool, so
23285 an alternate mechanism must be used. This may also happen for
23286 back ends where the server is in charge of splitting incoming mail, and
23287 Gnus does not do further splitting. The @code{spam-autodetect} and
23288 @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group parameters (accessible with
23289 @kbd{G c} and @kbd{G p} as usual), and the corresponding variables
23290 @code{gnus-spam-autodetect} and @code{gnus-spam-autodetect-methods}
23291 (accessible with @kbd{M-x customize-variable} as usual) can help.
23293 When @code{spam-autodetect} is used (you can turn it on for a
23294 group/topic or wholesale by regular expression matches, as needed), it
23295 hooks into the process of entering a group. Thus, entering a group
23296 with unseen or unread articles becomes the substitute for checking
23297 incoming mail. Whether only unseen articles or all unread articles
23298 will be processed is determined by the
23299 @code{spam-autodetect-recheck-messages}. When set to @code{t}, unread
23300 messages will be rechecked. You should probably stick with the
23301 default of only checking unseen messages.
23303 @code{spam-autodetect} grants the user at once more and less control
23304 of spam filtering. The user will have more control over each group's
23305 spam methods, so for instance the @samp{ding} group may have
23306 @code{spam-use-BBDB} as the autodetection method, while the
23307 @samp{suspect} group may have the @code{spam-use-blacklist} and
23308 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} methods enabled. Every article detected to
23309 be spam will be marked with the spam mark @samp{$} and processed on
23310 exit from the group as normal spam. The user has less control over
23311 the @emph{sequence} of checks, as he might with @code{spam-split}.
23313 When the newly split mail goes into groups, or messages are
23314 autodetected to be ham or spam, those groups must be exited (after
23315 entering, if needed) for further spam processing to happen. It
23316 matters whether the group is considered a ham group, a spam group, or
23317 is unclassified, based on its @code{spam-content} parameter
23318 (@pxref{Spam ELisp Package Global Variables}). Spam groups have the
23319 additional characteristic that, when entered, any unseen or unread
23320 articles (depending on the @code{spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam}
23321 variable) will be marked as spam. Thus, mail split into a spam group
23322 gets automatically marked as spam when you enter the group.
23324 Thus, when you exit a group, the @code{spam-processors} are applied,
23325 if any are set, and the processed mail is moved to the
23326 @code{ham-process-destination} or the @code{spam-process-destination}
23327 depending on the article's classification. If the
23328 @code{ham-process-destination} or the @code{spam-process-destination},
23329 whichever is appropriate, are @code{nil}, the article is left in the
23332 If a spam is found in any group (this can be changed to only non-spam
23333 groups with @code{spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only}), it is
23334 processed by the active @code{spam-processors} (@pxref{Spam ELisp
23335 Package Global Variables}) when the group is exited. Furthermore, the
23336 spam is moved to the @code{spam-process-destination} (@pxref{Spam
23337 ELisp Package Global Variables}) for further training or deletion.
23338 You have to load the @code{gnus-registry.el} package and enable the
23339 @code{spam-log-to-registry} variable if you want spam to be processed
23340 no more than once. Thus, spam is detected and processed everywhere,
23341 which is what most people want. If the
23342 @code{spam-process-destination} is @code{nil}, the spam is marked as
23343 expired, which is usually the right thing to do.
23345 If spam can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
23346 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
23348 If a ham mail is found in a ham group, as determined by the
23349 @code{ham-marks} parameter, it is processed as ham by the active ham
23350 @code{spam-processor} when the group is exited. With the variables
23351 @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} and
23352 @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups} the behavior can be further
23353 altered so ham found anywhere can be processed. You have to load the
23354 @code{gnus-registry.el} package and enable the
23355 @code{spam-log-to-registry} variable if you want ham to be processed
23356 no more than once. Thus, ham is detected and processed only when
23357 necessary, which is what most people want. More on this in
23358 @xref{Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples}.
23360 If ham can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
23361 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
23363 If all this seems confusing, don't worry. Soon it will be as natural
23364 as typing Lisp one-liners on a neural interface@dots{} err, sorry, that's
23365 50 years in the future yet. Just trust us, it's not so bad.
23367 @node Spam ELisp Package Filtering of Incoming Mail
23368 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Filtering of Incoming Mail
23369 @cindex spam filtering
23370 @cindex spam filtering incoming mail
23373 To use the @code{spam.el} facilities for incoming mail filtering, you
23374 must add the following to your fancy split list
23375 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy}:
23381 Note that the fancy split may be called @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or
23382 @code{nnimap-split-fancy}, depending on whether you use the nnmail or
23383 nnimap back ends to retrieve your mail.
23385 Also, @code{spam-split} will not modify incoming mail in any way.
23387 The @code{spam-split} function will process incoming mail and send the
23388 mail considered to be spam into the group name given by the variable
23389 @code{spam-split-group}. By default that group name is @samp{spam},
23390 but you can customize @code{spam-split-group}. Make sure the contents
23391 of @code{spam-split-group} are an @emph{unqualified} group name, for
23392 instance in an @code{nnimap} server @samp{your-server} the value
23393 @samp{spam} will turn out to be @samp{nnimap+your-server:spam}. The
23394 value @samp{nnimap+server:spam}, therefore, is wrong and will
23395 actually give you the group
23396 @samp{nnimap+your-server:nnimap+server:spam} which may or may not
23397 work depending on your server's tolerance for strange group names.
23399 You can also give @code{spam-split} a parameter,
23400 e.g. @code{spam-use-regex-headers} or @code{"maybe-spam"}. Why is
23403 Take these split rules (with @code{spam-use-regex-headers} and
23404 @code{spam-use-blackholes} set):
23407 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
23408 (any "ding" "ding")
23410 ;; @r{default mailbox}
23414 Now, the problem is that you want all ding messages to make it to the
23415 ding folder. But that will let obvious spam (for example, spam
23416 detected by SpamAssassin, and @code{spam-use-regex-headers}) through,
23417 when it's sent to the ding list. On the other hand, some messages to
23418 the ding list are from a mail server in the blackhole list, so the
23419 invocation of @code{spam-split} can't be before the ding rule.
23421 You can let SpamAssassin headers supersede ding rules, but all other
23422 @code{spam-split} rules (including a second invocation of the
23423 regex-headers check) will be after the ding rule:
23428 ;; @r{all spam detected by @code{spam-use-regex-headers} goes to @samp{regex-spam}}
23429 (: spam-split "regex-spam" 'spam-use-regex-headers)
23430 (any "ding" "ding")
23431 ;; @r{all other spam detected by spam-split goes to @code{spam-split-group}}
23433 ;; @r{default mailbox}
23437 This lets you invoke specific @code{spam-split} checks depending on
23438 your particular needs, and to target the results of those checks to a
23439 particular spam group. You don't have to throw all mail into all the
23440 spam tests. Another reason why this is nice is that messages to
23441 mailing lists you have rules for don't have to have resource-intensive
23442 blackhole checks performed on them. You could also specify different
23443 spam checks for your nnmail split vs. your nnimap split. Go crazy.
23445 You should still have specific checks such as
23446 @code{spam-use-regex-headers} set to @code{t}, even if you
23447 specifically invoke @code{spam-split} with the check. The reason is
23448 that when loading @file{spam.el}, some conditional loading is done
23449 depending on what @code{spam-use-xyz} variables you have set. This
23450 is usually not critical, though.
23452 @emph{Note for IMAP users}
23454 The boolean variable @code{nnimap-split-download-body} needs to be
23455 set, if you want to split based on the whole message instead of just
23456 the headers. By default, the nnimap back end will only retrieve the
23457 message headers. If you use a @emph{statistical} filter,
23458 e.g. @code{spam-check-bogofilter}, @code{spam-check-ifile}, or
23459 @code{spam-check-stat} (the splitters that can benefit from the full
23460 message body), this variable will be set automatically. It is not set
23461 for non-statistical back ends by default because it will slow
23462 @acronym{IMAP} down.
23464 @xref{Splitting in IMAP}.
23466 @node Spam ELisp Package Global Variables
23467 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Global Variables
23468 @cindex spam filtering
23469 @cindex spam filtering variables
23470 @cindex spam variables
23473 @vindex gnus-spam-process-newsgroups
23474 The concepts of ham processors and spam processors are very important.
23475 Ham processors and spam processors for a group can be set with the
23476 @code{spam-process} group parameter, or the
23477 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. Ham processors take
23478 mail known to be non-spam (@emph{ham}) and process it in some way so
23479 that later similar mail will also be considered non-spam. Spam
23480 processors take mail known to be spam and process it so similar spam
23481 will be detected later.
23483 The format of the spam or ham processor entry used to be a symbol,
23484 but now it is a @sc{cons} cell. See the individual spam processor entries
23485 for more information.
23487 @vindex gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
23488 Gnus learns from the spam you get. You have to collect your spam in
23489 one or more spam groups, and set or customize the variable
23490 @code{spam-junk-mailgroups} as appropriate. You can also declare
23491 groups to contain spam by setting their group parameter
23492 @code{spam-contents} to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam}, or
23493 by customizing the corresponding variable
23494 @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}. The @code{spam-contents} group
23495 parameter and the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} variable can
23496 also be used to declare groups as @emph{ham} groups if you set their
23497 classification to @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-ham}. If
23498 groups are not classified by means of @code{spam-junk-mailgroups},
23499 @code{spam-contents}, or @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents}, they are
23500 considered @emph{unclassified}. All groups are unclassified by
23503 @vindex gnus-spam-mark
23505 In spam groups, all messages are considered to be spam by default:
23506 they get the @samp{$} mark (@code{gnus-spam-mark}) when you enter the
23507 group. If you have seen a message, had it marked as spam, then
23508 unmarked it, it won't be marked as spam when you enter the group
23509 thereafter. You can disable that behavior, so all unread messages
23510 will get the @samp{$} mark, if you set the
23511 @code{spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam} parameter to @code{nil}. You
23512 should remove the @samp{$} mark when you are in the group summary
23513 buffer for every message that is not spam after all. To remove the
23514 @samp{$} mark, you can use @kbd{M-u} to ``unread'' the article, or
23515 @kbd{d} for declaring it read the non-spam way. When you leave a
23516 group, all spam-marked (@samp{$}) articles are sent to a spam
23517 processor which will study them as spam samples.
23519 Messages may also be deleted in various other ways, and unless
23520 @code{ham-marks} group parameter gets overridden below, marks @samp{R}
23521 and @samp{r} for default read or explicit delete, marks @samp{X} and
23522 @samp{K} for automatic or explicit kills, as well as mark @samp{Y} for
23523 low scores, are all considered to be associated with articles which
23524 are not spam. This assumption might be false, in particular if you
23525 use kill files or score files as means for detecting genuine spam, you
23526 should then adjust the @code{ham-marks} group parameter.
23529 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
23530 marks you want to consider ham. By default, the list contains the
23531 deleted, read, killed, kill-filed, and low-score marks (the idea is
23532 that these articles have been read, but are not spam). It can be
23533 useful to also include the tick mark in the ham marks. It is not
23534 recommended to make the unread mark a ham mark, because it normally
23535 indicates a lack of classification. But you can do it, and we'll be
23540 You can customize this group or topic parameter to be the list of
23541 marks you want to consider spam. By default, the list contains only
23542 the spam mark. It is not recommended to change that, but you can if
23543 you really want to.
23546 When you leave @emph{any} group, regardless of its
23547 @code{spam-contents} classification, all spam-marked articles are sent
23548 to a spam processor, which will study these as spam samples. If you
23549 explicit kill a lot, you might sometimes end up with articles marked
23550 @samp{K} which you never saw, and which might accidentally contain
23551 spam. Best is to make sure that real spam is marked with @samp{$},
23554 @vindex gnus-ham-process-destinations
23555 When you leave a @emph{spam} group, all spam-marked articles are
23556 marked as expired after processing with the spam processor. This is
23557 not done for @emph{unclassified} or @emph{ham} groups. Also, any
23558 @strong{ham} articles in a spam group will be moved to a location
23559 determined by either the @code{ham-process-destination} group
23560 parameter or a match in the @code{gnus-ham-process-destinations}
23561 variable, which is a list of regular expressions matched with group
23562 names (it's easiest to customize this variable with @kbd{M-x
23563 customize-variable @key{RET} gnus-ham-process-destinations}). Each
23564 group name list is a standard Lisp list, if you prefer to customize
23565 the variable manually. If the @code{ham-process-destination}
23566 parameter is not set, ham articles are left in place. If the
23567 @code{spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group} parameter is
23568 set, the ham articles are marked as unread before being moved.
23570 If ham can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
23571 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
23573 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
23574 expression! This enables you to send your ham to a regular mail
23575 group and to a @emph{ham training} group.
23577 When you leave a @emph{ham} group, all ham-marked articles are sent to
23578 a ham processor, which will study these as non-spam samples.
23580 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups
23581 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-spam-groups} is
23582 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in spam groups
23583 to be processed. Normally this is not done, you are expected instead
23584 to send your ham to a ham group and process it there.
23586 @vindex spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups
23587 By default the variable @code{spam-process-ham-in-nonham-groups} is
23588 @code{nil}. Set it to @code{t} if you want ham found in non-ham (spam
23589 or unclassified) groups to be processed. Normally this is not done,
23590 you are expected instead to send your ham to a ham group and process
23593 @vindex gnus-spam-process-destinations
23594 When you leave a @emph{ham} or @emph{unclassified} group, all
23595 @strong{spam} articles are moved to a location determined by either
23596 the @code{spam-process-destination} group parameter or a match in the
23597 @code{gnus-spam-process-destinations} variable, which is a list of
23598 regular expressions matched with group names (it's easiest to
23599 customize this variable with @kbd{M-x customize-variable @key{RET}
23600 gnus-spam-process-destinations}). Each group name list is a standard
23601 Lisp list, if you prefer to customize the variable manually. If the
23602 @code{spam-process-destination} parameter is not set, the spam
23603 articles are only expired. The group name is fully qualified, meaning
23604 that if you see @samp{nntp:servername} before the group name in the
23605 group buffer then you need it here as well.
23607 If spam can not be moved---because of a read-only back end such as
23608 @acronym{NNTP}, for example, it will be copied.
23610 Note that you can use multiples destinations per group or regular
23611 expression! This enables you to send your spam to multiple @emph{spam
23614 @vindex spam-log-to-registry
23615 The problem with processing ham and spam is that Gnus doesn't track
23616 this processing by default. Enable the @code{spam-log-to-registry}
23617 variable so @code{spam.el} will use @code{gnus-registry.el} to track
23618 what articles have been processed, and avoid processing articles
23619 multiple times. Keep in mind that if you limit the number of registry
23620 entries, this won't work as well as it does without a limit.
23622 @vindex spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam
23623 Set this variable if you want only unseen articles in spam groups to
23624 be marked as spam. By default, it is set. If you set it to
23625 @code{nil}, unread articles will also be marked as spam.
23627 @vindex spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group
23628 Set this variable if you want ham to be unmarked before it is moved
23629 out of the spam group. This is very useful when you use something
23630 like the tick mark @samp{!} to mark ham---the article will be placed
23631 in your @code{ham-process-destination}, unmarked as if it came fresh
23632 from the mail server.
23634 @vindex spam-autodetect-recheck-messages
23635 When autodetecting spam, this variable tells @code{spam.el} whether
23636 only unseen articles or all unread articles should be checked for
23637 spam. It is recommended that you leave it off.
23639 @node Spam ELisp Package Sorting and Score Display in Summary Buffer
23640 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Sorting and Score Display in Summary Buffer
23641 @cindex spam scoring
23642 @cindex spam sorting
23643 @cindex spam score summary buffer
23644 @cindex spam sort summary buffer
23647 You can display the spam score of articles in your summary buffer, and
23648 you can sort articles by their spam score.
23650 First you need to decide which back end you will be using. If you use
23651 the @code{spam-use-spamassassin},
23652 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}, or @code{spam-use-regex-headers}
23653 back end, the @code{X-Spam-Status} header will be used. If you use
23654 @code{spam-use-bogofilter}, the @code{X-Bogosity} header will be used.
23655 If you use @code{spam-use-crm114}, any header that matches the CRM114
23656 score format will be used. As long as you set the appropriate back end
23657 variable to t @emph{before} you load @file{spam.el}, you will be
23658 fine. @code{spam.el} will automatically add the right header to the
23659 internal Gnus list of required headers.
23661 To show the spam score in your summary buffer, add this line to your
23662 @code{gnus.el} file (note @code{spam.el} does not do that by default
23663 so it won't override any existing @code{S} formats you may have).
23666 (defalias 'gnus-user-format-function-S 'spam-user-format-function-S)
23669 Now just set your summary line format to use @code{%uS}. Here's an
23670 example that formats the spam score in a 5-character field:
23673 (setq gnus-summary-line-format
23674 "%U%R %10&user-date; $%5uS %6k %B %(%4L: %*%-25,25a%) %s \n")
23677 Finally, to sort by spam status, either do it globally:
23681 gnus-show-threads nil
23682 gnus-article-sort-functions
23683 '(spam-article-sort-by-spam-status))
23686 or per group (@pxref{Sorting the Summary Buffer}).
23688 @node Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples
23689 @subsubsection Spam ELisp Package Configuration Examples
23690 @cindex spam filtering
23691 @cindex spam filtering configuration examples
23692 @cindex spam configuration examples
23695 @subsubheading Ted's setup
23697 From Ted Zlatanov <tzz@@lifelogs.com>.
23699 ;; @r{for @code{gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent} and spam autodetection}
23700 ;; @r{see @file{gnus-registry.el} for more information}
23701 (gnus-registry-initialize)
23704 ;; @r{I like @kbd{C-s} for marking spam}
23705 (define-key gnus-summary-mode-map "\C-s" 'gnus-summary-mark-as-spam)
23708 spam-log-to-registry t ; @r{for spam autodetection}
23710 spam-use-regex-headers t ; @r{catch X-Spam-Flag (SpamAssassin)}
23711 ;; @r{all groups with @samp{spam} in the name contain spam}
23712 gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents
23713 '(("spam" gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
23714 ;; @r{see documentation for these}
23715 spam-move-spam-nonspam-groups-only nil
23716 spam-mark-only-unseen-as-spam t
23717 spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group t
23718 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
23719 ;; @r{understand what this does before you copy it to your own setup!}
23720 nnimap-split-fancy '(|
23721 ;; @r{trace references to parents and put in their group}
23722 (: gnus-registry-split-fancy-with-parent)
23723 ;; @r{this will catch server-side SpamAssassin tags}
23724 (: spam-split 'spam-use-regex-headers)
23725 (any "ding" "ding")
23726 ;; @r{note that spam by default will go to @samp{spam}}
23728 ;; @r{default mailbox}
23731 ;; @r{my parameters, set with @kbd{G p}}
23733 ;; @r{all nnml groups, and all nnimap groups except}
23734 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} and}
23735 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam}: any spam goes to nnimap training,}
23736 ;; @r{because it must have been detected manually}
23738 ((spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
23740 ;; @r{all @acronym{NNTP} groups}
23741 ;; @r{autodetect spam with the blacklist and ham with the BBDB}
23742 ((spam-autodetect-methods spam-use-blacklist spam-use-BBDB)
23743 ;; @r{send all spam to the training group}
23744 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train"))
23746 ;; @r{only some @acronym{NNTP} groups, where I want to autodetect spam}
23747 ((spam-autodetect . t))
23749 ;; @r{my nnimap @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:spam} group}
23751 ;; @r{this is a spam group}
23752 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam)
23754 ;; @r{any spam (which happens when I enter for all unseen messages,}
23755 ;; @r{because of the @code{gnus-spam-newsgroup-contents} setting above), goes to}
23756 ;; @r{@samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train} unless I mark it as ham}
23758 (spam-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:train")
23760 ;; @r{any ham goes to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail} folder, but}
23761 ;; @r{also to my @samp{nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham} folder for training}
23763 (ham-process-destination "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:mail"
23764 "nnimap+mail.lifelogs.com:trainham")
23765 ;; @r{in this group, only @samp{!} marks are ham}
23767 (gnus-ticked-mark))
23768 ;; @r{remembers senders in the blacklist on the way out---this is}
23769 ;; @r{definitely not needed, it just makes me feel better}
23770 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist)))
23772 ;; @r{Later, on the @acronym{IMAP} server I use the @samp{train} group for training}
23773 ;; @r{SpamAssassin to recognize spam, and the @samp{trainham} group fora}
23774 ;; @r{recognizing ham---but Gnus has nothing to do with it.}
23778 @subsubheading Using @code{spam.el} on an IMAP server with a statistical filter on the server
23779 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
23781 My provider has set up bogofilter (in combination with @acronym{DCC}) on
23782 the mail server (@acronym{IMAP}). Recognized spam goes to
23783 @samp{spam.detected}, the rest goes through the normal filter rules,
23784 i.e. to @samp{some.folder} or to @samp{INBOX}. Training on false
23785 positives or negatives is done by copying or moving the article to
23786 @samp{training.ham} or @samp{training.spam} respectively. A cron job on
23787 the server feeds those to bogofilter with the suitable ham or spam
23788 options and deletes them from the @samp{training.ham} and
23789 @samp{training.spam} folders.
23791 With the following entries in @code{gnus-parameters}, @code{spam.el}
23792 does most of the job for me:
23795 ("nnimap:spam\\.detected"
23796 (gnus-article-sort-functions '(gnus-article-sort-by-chars))
23797 (ham-process-destination "nnimap:INBOX" "nnimap:training.ham")
23798 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam))
23799 ("nnimap:\\(INBOX\\|other-folders\\)"
23800 (spam-process-destination . "nnimap:training.spam")
23801 (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham))
23806 @item @b{The Spam folder:}
23808 In the folder @samp{spam.detected}, I have to check for false positives
23809 (i.e. legitimate mails, that were wrongly judged as spam by
23810 bogofilter or DCC).
23812 Because of the @code{gnus-group-spam-classification-spam} entry, all
23813 messages are marked as spam (with @code{$}). When I find a false
23814 positive, I mark the message with some other ham mark (@code{ham-marks},
23815 @ref{Spam ELisp Package Global Variables}). On group exit, those
23816 messages are copied to both groups, @samp{INBOX} (where I want to have
23817 the article) and @samp{training.ham} (for training bogofilter) and
23818 deleted from the @samp{spam.detected} folder.
23820 The @code{gnus-article-sort-by-chars} entry simplifies detection of
23821 false positives for me. I receive lots of worms (sweN, @dots{}), that all
23822 have a similar size. Grouping them by size (i.e. chars) makes finding
23823 other false positives easier. (Of course worms aren't @i{spam}
23824 (@acronym{UCE}, @acronym{UBE}) strictly speaking. Anyhow, bogofilter is
23825 an excellent tool for filtering those unwanted mails for me.)
23827 @item @b{Ham folders:}
23829 In my ham folders, I just hit @kbd{S x}
23830 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) whenever I see an unrecognized spam
23831 mail (false negative). On group exit, those messages are moved to
23832 @samp{training.spam}.
23835 @subsubheading Reporting spam articles in Gmane groups with @code{spam-report.el}
23837 From Reiner Steib <reiner.steib@@gmx.de>.
23839 With following entry in @code{gnus-parameters}, @kbd{S x}
23840 (@code{gnus-summary-mark-as-spam}) marks articles in @code{gmane.*}
23841 groups as spam and reports the to Gmane at group exit:
23845 (spam-process (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane)))
23848 Additionally, I use @code{(setq spam-report-gmane-use-article-number nil)}
23849 because I don't read the groups directly from news.gmane.org, but
23850 through my local news server (leafnode). I.e. the article numbers are
23851 not the same as on news.gmane.org, thus @code{spam-report.el} has to check
23852 the @code{X-Report-Spam} header to find the correct number.
23854 @node Blacklists and Whitelists
23855 @subsubsection Blacklists and Whitelists
23856 @cindex spam filtering
23857 @cindex whitelists, spam filtering
23858 @cindex blacklists, spam filtering
23861 @defvar spam-use-blacklist
23863 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use blacklists when
23864 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are in the blacklist
23865 will be sent to the @code{spam-split-group}. This is an explicit
23866 filter, meaning that it acts only on mail senders @emph{declared} to
23871 @defvar spam-use-whitelist
23873 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists when
23874 splitting incoming mail. Messages whose senders are not in the
23875 whitelist will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
23876 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the whitelist, their
23877 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
23881 @defvar spam-use-whitelist-exclusive
23883 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use whitelists as an
23884 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
23885 unless the sender is in the whitelist. Use with care.
23889 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist
23891 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23892 customizing the group parameters or the
23893 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23894 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
23895 spam-marked articles will be added to the blacklist.
23899 Instead of the obsolete
23900 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blacklist}, it is recommended
23901 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-blacklist)}. Everything will work
23902 the same way, we promise.
23906 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist
23908 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23909 customizing the group parameters or the
23910 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23911 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
23912 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
23917 Instead of the obsolete
23918 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-whitelist}, it is recommended
23919 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-whitelist)}. Everything will work
23920 the same way, we promise.
23924 Blacklists are lists of regular expressions matching addresses you
23925 consider to be spam senders. For instance, to block mail from any
23926 sender at @samp{vmadmin.com}, you can put @samp{vmadmin.com} in your
23927 blacklist. You start out with an empty blacklist. Blacklist entries
23928 use the Emacs regular expression syntax.
23930 Conversely, whitelists tell Gnus what addresses are considered
23931 legitimate. All messages from whitelisted addresses are considered
23932 non-spam. Also see @ref{BBDB Whitelists}. Whitelist entries use the
23933 Emacs regular expression syntax.
23935 The blacklist and whitelist file locations can be customized with the
23936 @code{spam-directory} variable (@file{~/News/spam} by default), or
23937 the @code{spam-whitelist} and @code{spam-blacklist} variables
23938 directly. The whitelist and blacklist files will by default be in the
23939 @code{spam-directory} directory, named @file{whitelist} and
23940 @file{blacklist} respectively.
23942 @node BBDB Whitelists
23943 @subsubsection BBDB Whitelists
23944 @cindex spam filtering
23945 @cindex BBDB whitelists, spam filtering
23946 @cindex BBDB, spam filtering
23949 @defvar spam-use-BBDB
23951 Analogous to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
23952 Whitelists}), but uses the BBDB as the source of whitelisted
23953 addresses, without regular expressions. You must have the BBDB loaded
23954 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} to work properly. Messages whose senders are
23955 not in the BBDB will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an
23956 explicit filter, meaning that unless someone is in the BBDB, their
23957 messages are not assumed to be spam or ham.
23961 @defvar spam-use-BBDB-exclusive
23963 Set this variable to @code{t} if you want to use the BBDB as an
23964 implicit filter, meaning that every message will be considered spam
23965 unless the sender is in the BBDB. Use with care. Only sender
23966 addresses in the BBDB will be allowed through; all others will be
23967 classified as spammers.
23969 While @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} @emph{can} be used as an alias
23970 for @code{spam-use-BBDB} as far as @code{spam.el} is concerned, it is
23971 @emph{not} a separate back end. If you set
23972 @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} to t, @emph{all} your BBDB splitting
23977 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB
23979 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
23980 customizing the group parameters or the
23981 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
23982 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the senders of
23983 ham-marked articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the
23988 Instead of the obsolete
23989 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-BBDB}, it is recommended
23990 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-BBDB)}. Everything will work
23991 the same way, we promise.
23995 @node Gmane Spam Reporting
23996 @subsubsection Gmane Spam Reporting
23997 @cindex spam reporting
23998 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
23999 @cindex Gmane, spam reporting
24002 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane
24004 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24005 customizing the group parameters or the
24006 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24007 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
24008 articles groups will be reported to the Gmane administrators via a
24011 Gmane can be found at @uref{http://gmane.org}.
24015 Instead of the obsolete
24016 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-report-gmane}, it is recommended
24017 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-gmane)}. Everything will work the
24018 same way, we promise.
24022 @defvar spam-report-gmane-use-article-number
24024 This variable is @code{t} by default. Set it to @code{nil} if you are
24025 running your own news server, for instance, and the local article
24026 numbers don't correspond to the Gmane article numbers. When
24027 @code{spam-report-gmane-use-article-number} is @code{nil},
24028 @code{spam-report.el} will use the @code{X-Report-Spam} header that
24033 @node Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
24034 @subsubsection Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
24035 @cindex spam filtering
24036 @cindex hashcash, spam filtering
24039 @defvar spam-use-hashcash
24041 Similar to @code{spam-use-whitelist} (@pxref{Blacklists and
24042 Whitelists}), but uses hashcash tokens for whitelisting messages
24043 instead of the sender address. Messages without a hashcash payment
24044 token will be sent to the next spam-split rule. This is an explicit
24045 filter, meaning that unless a hashcash token is found, the messages
24046 are not assumed to be spam or ham.
24051 @subsubsection Blackholes
24052 @cindex spam filtering
24053 @cindex blackholes, spam filtering
24056 @defvar spam-use-blackholes
24058 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus consult the
24059 blackhole-type distributed spam processing systems (DCC, for instance)
24060 when you set this option. The variable @code{spam-blackhole-servers}
24061 holds the list of blackhole servers Gnus will consult. The current
24062 list is fairly comprehensive, but make sure to let us know if it
24063 contains outdated servers.
24065 The blackhole check uses the @code{dig.el} package, but you can tell
24066 @code{spam.el} to use @code{dns.el} instead for better performance if
24067 you set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil}. It is not recommended at
24068 this time to set @code{spam-use-dig} to @code{nil} despite the
24069 possible performance improvements, because some users may be unable to
24070 use it, but you can try it and see if it works for you.
24074 @defvar spam-blackhole-servers
24076 The list of servers to consult for blackhole checks.
24080 @defvar spam-blackhole-good-server-regex
24082 A regular expression for IPs that should not be checked against the
24083 blackhole server list. When set to @code{nil}, it has no effect.
24087 @defvar spam-use-dig
24089 Use the @code{dig.el} package instead of the @code{dns.el} package.
24090 The default setting of @code{t} is recommended.
24094 Blackhole checks are done only on incoming mail. There is no spam or
24095 ham processor for blackholes.
24097 @node Regular Expressions Header Matching
24098 @subsubsection Regular Expressions Header Matching
24099 @cindex spam filtering
24100 @cindex regular expressions header matching, spam filtering
24103 @defvar spam-use-regex-headers
24105 This option is disabled by default. You can let Gnus check the
24106 message headers against lists of regular expressions when you set this
24107 option. The variables @code{spam-regex-headers-spam} and
24108 @code{spam-regex-headers-ham} hold the list of regular expressions.
24109 Gnus will check against the message headers to determine if the
24110 message is spam or ham, respectively.
24114 @defvar spam-regex-headers-spam
24116 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
24117 the message, positively identify it as spam.
24121 @defvar spam-regex-headers-ham
24123 The list of regular expressions that, when matched in the headers of
24124 the message, positively identify it as ham.
24128 Regular expression header checks are done only on incoming mail.
24129 There is no specific spam or ham processor for regular expressions.
24132 @subsubsection Bogofilter
24133 @cindex spam filtering
24134 @cindex bogofilter, spam filtering
24137 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter
24139 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
24142 With a minimum of care for associating the @samp{$} mark for spam
24143 articles only, Bogofilter training all gets fairly automatic. You
24144 should do this until you get a few hundreds of articles in each
24145 category, spam or not. The command @kbd{S t} in summary mode, either
24146 for debugging or for curiosity, shows the @emph{spamicity} score of
24147 the current article (between 0.0 and 1.0).
24149 Bogofilter determines if a message is spam based on a specific
24150 threshold. That threshold can be customized, consult the Bogofilter
24153 If the @code{bogofilter} executable is not in your path, Bogofilter
24154 processing will be turned off.
24156 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}.
24160 @defvar spam-use-bogofilter-headers
24162 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use Eric Raymond's
24163 speedy Bogofilter, looking only at the message headers. It works
24164 similarly to @code{spam-use-bogofilter}, but the @code{X-Bogosity} header
24165 must be in the message already. Normally you would do this with a
24166 procmail recipe or something similar; consult the Bogofilter
24167 installation documents for details.
24169 You should not enable this if you use @code{spam-use-bogofilter}.
24173 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter
24174 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24175 customizing the group parameters or the
24176 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24177 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles
24178 will be added to the Bogofilter spam database.
24182 Instead of the obsolete
24183 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
24184 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
24185 the same way, we promise.
24188 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter
24189 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24190 customizing the group parameters or the
24191 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24192 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
24193 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the Bogofilter database
24194 of non-spam messages.
24198 Instead of the obsolete
24199 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter}, it is recommended
24200 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-bogofilter)}. Everything will work
24201 the same way, we promise.
24204 @defvar spam-bogofilter-database-directory
24206 This is the directory where Bogofilter will store its databases. It
24207 is not specified by default, so Bogofilter will use its own default
24208 database directory.
24212 The Bogofilter mail classifier is similar to @command{ifile} in intent and
24213 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
24214 @code{spam-use-bogofilter} and @code{spam-use-bogofilter-headers}
24215 variables to indicate to spam-split that Bogofilter should either be
24216 used, or has already been used on the article. The 0.9.2.1 version of
24217 Bogofilter was used to test this functionality.
24219 @node SpamAssassin back end
24220 @subsubsection SpamAssassin back end
24221 @cindex spam filtering
24222 @cindex spamassassin, spam filtering
24225 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin
24227 Set this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use SpamAssassin.
24229 SpamAssassin assigns a score to each article based on a set of rules
24230 and tests, including a Bayesian filter. The Bayesian filter can be
24231 trained by associating the @samp{$} mark for spam articles. The
24232 spam score can be viewed by using the command @kbd{S t} in summary
24235 If you set this variable, each article will be processed by
24236 SpamAssassin when @code{spam-split} is called. If your mail is
24237 preprocessed by SpamAssassin, and you want to just use the
24238 SpamAssassin headers, set @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}
24241 You should not enable this is you use
24242 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers}.
24246 @defvar spam-use-spamassassin-headers
24248 Set this variable if your mail is preprocessed by SpamAssassin and
24249 want @code{spam-split} to split based on the SpamAssassin headers.
24251 You should not enable this is you use @code{spam-use-spamassassin}.
24255 @defvar spam-spamassassin-path
24257 This variable points to the SpamAssassin executable. If you have
24258 @code{spamd} running, you can set this variable to the @code{spamc}
24259 executable for faster processing. See the SpamAssassin documentation
24260 for more information on @code{spamd}/@code{spamc}.
24264 SpamAssassin is a powerful and flexible spam filter that uses a wide
24265 variety of tests to identify spam. A ham and a spam processors are
24266 provided, plus the @code{spam-use-spamassassin} and
24267 @code{spam-use-spamassassin-headers} variables to indicate to
24268 spam-split that SpamAssassin should be either used, or has already
24269 been used on the article. The 2.63 version of SpamAssassin was used
24270 to test this functionality.
24272 @node ifile spam filtering
24273 @subsubsection ifile spam filtering
24274 @cindex spam filtering
24275 @cindex ifile, spam filtering
24278 @defvar spam-use-ifile
24280 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use @command{ifile}, a
24281 statistical analyzer similar to Bogofilter.
24285 @defvar spam-ifile-all-categories
24287 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-use-ifile} to give you all
24288 the ifile categories, not just spam/non-spam. If you use this, make
24289 sure you train ifile as described in its documentation.
24293 @defvar spam-ifile-spam-category
24295 This is the category of spam messages as far as ifile is concerned.
24296 The actual string used is irrelevant, but you probably want to leave
24297 the default value of @samp{spam}.
24300 @defvar spam-ifile-database-path
24302 This is the filename for the ifile database. It is not specified by
24303 default, so ifile will use its own default database name.
24307 The ifile mail classifier is similar to Bogofilter in intent and
24308 purpose. A ham and a spam processor are provided, plus the
24309 @code{spam-use-ifile} variable to indicate to spam-split that ifile
24310 should be used. The 1.2.1 version of ifile was used to test this
24313 @node spam-stat spam filtering
24314 @subsubsection spam-stat spam filtering
24315 @cindex spam filtering
24316 @cindex spam-stat, spam filtering
24320 @xref{Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat}.
24322 @defvar spam-use-stat
24324 Enable this variable if you want @code{spam-split} to use
24325 spam-stat.el, an Emacs Lisp statistical analyzer.
24329 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat
24330 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24331 customizing the group parameters or the
24332 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24333 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the spam-marked
24334 articles will be added to the spam-stat database of spam messages.
24338 Instead of the obsolete
24339 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
24340 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
24341 the same way, we promise.
24344 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat
24345 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24346 customizing the group parameters or the
24347 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is
24348 added to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked
24349 articles in @emph{ham} groups will be added to the spam-stat database
24350 of non-spam messages.
24354 Instead of the obsolete
24355 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-stat}, it is recommended
24356 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-stat)}. Everything will work
24357 the same way, we promise.
24360 This enables @code{spam.el} to cooperate with @file{spam-stat.el}.
24361 @file{spam-stat.el} provides an internal (Lisp-only) spam database,
24362 which unlike ifile or Bogofilter does not require external programs.
24363 A spam and a ham processor, and the @code{spam-use-stat} variable for
24364 @code{spam-split} are provided.
24367 @subsubsection Using SpamOracle with Gnus
24368 @cindex spam filtering
24372 An easy way to filter out spam is to use SpamOracle. SpamOracle is an
24373 statistical mail filtering tool written by Xavier Leroy and needs to be
24374 installed separately.
24376 There are several ways to use SpamOracle with Gnus. In all cases, your
24377 mail is piped through SpamOracle in its @emph{mark} mode. SpamOracle will
24378 then enter an @samp{X-Spam} header indicating whether it regards the
24379 mail as a spam mail or not.
24381 One possibility is to run SpamOracle as a @code{:prescript} from the
24382 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}, (@pxref{SpamAssassin}). This method has
24383 the advantage that the user can see the @emph{X-Spam} headers.
24385 The easiest method is to make @code{spam.el} (@pxref{Filtering Spam
24386 Using The Spam ELisp Package}) call SpamOracle.
24388 @vindex spam-use-spamoracle
24389 To enable SpamOracle usage by @code{spam.el}, set the variable
24390 @code{spam-use-spamoracle} to @code{t} and configure the
24391 @code{nnmail-split-fancy} or @code{nnimap-split-fancy} as described in
24392 the section @xref{Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package}. In
24393 this example the @samp{INBOX} of an nnimap server is filtered using
24394 SpamOracle. Mails recognized as spam mails will be moved to
24395 @code{spam-split-group}, @samp{Junk} in this case. Ham messages stay
24399 (setq spam-use-spamoracle t
24400 spam-split-group "Junk"
24401 nnimap-split-inbox '("INBOX")
24402 nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
24403 nnimap-split-fancy '(| (: spam-split) "INBOX"))
24406 @defvar spam-use-spamoracle
24407 Set to @code{t} if you want Gnus to enable spam filtering using
24411 @defvar spam-spamoracle-binary
24412 Gnus uses the SpamOracle binary called @file{spamoracle} found in the
24413 user's PATH. Using the variable @code{spam-spamoracle-binary}, this
24417 @defvar spam-spamoracle-database
24418 By default, SpamOracle uses the file @file{~/.spamoracle.db} as a database to
24419 store its analyses. This is controlled by the variable
24420 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} which defaults to @code{nil}. That means
24421 the default SpamOracle database will be used. In case you want your
24422 database to live somewhere special, set
24423 @code{spam-spamoracle-database} to this path.
24426 SpamOracle employs a statistical algorithm to determine whether a
24427 message is spam or ham. In order to get good results, meaning few
24428 false hits or misses, SpamOracle needs training. SpamOracle learns the
24429 characteristics of your spam mails. Using the @emph{add} mode
24430 (training mode) one has to feed good (ham) and spam mails to
24431 SpamOracle. This can be done by pressing @kbd{|} in the Summary buffer
24432 and pipe the mail to a SpamOracle process or using @code{spam.el}'s
24433 spam- and ham-processors, which is much more convenient. For a
24434 detailed description of spam- and ham-processors, @xref{Filtering Spam
24435 Using The Spam ELisp Package}.
24437 @defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle
24438 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24439 customizing the group parameter or the
24440 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
24441 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, spam-marked articles will be
24442 sent to SpamOracle as spam samples.
24446 Instead of the obsolete
24447 @code{gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
24448 that you use @code{(spam spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
24449 the same way, we promise.
24452 @defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle
24453 Add this symbol to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter by
24454 customizing the group parameter or the
24455 @code{gnus-spam-process-newsgroups} variable. When this symbol is added
24456 to a group's @code{spam-process} parameter, the ham-marked articles in
24457 @emph{ham} groups will be sent to the SpamOracle as samples of ham
24462 Instead of the obsolete
24463 @code{gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-spamoracle}, it is recommended
24464 that you use @code{(ham spam-use-spamoracle)}. Everything will work
24465 the same way, we promise.
24468 @emph{Example:} These are the Group Parameters of a group that has been
24469 classified as a ham group, meaning that it should only contain ham
24472 ((spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-ham)
24473 (spam-process ((ham spam-use-spamoracle)
24474 (spam spam-use-spamoracle))))
24476 For this group the @code{spam-use-spamoracle} is installed for both
24477 ham and spam processing. If the group contains spam message
24478 (e.g. because SpamOracle has not had enough sample messages yet) and
24479 the user marks some messages as spam messages, these messages will be
24480 processed by SpamOracle. The processor sends the messages to
24481 SpamOracle as new samples for spam.
24483 @node Extending the Spam ELisp package
24484 @subsubsection Extending the Spam ELisp package
24485 @cindex spam filtering
24486 @cindex spam elisp package, extending
24487 @cindex extending the spam elisp package
24489 Say you want to add a new back end called blackbox. For filtering
24490 incoming mail, provide the following:
24498 (defvar spam-use-blackbox nil
24499 "True if blackbox should be used.")
24502 Write @code{spam-check-blackbox} if Blackbox can check incoming mail.
24504 Write @code{spam-blackbox-register-routine} and
24505 @code{spam-blackbox-unregister-routine} using the bogofilter
24506 register/unregister routines as a start, or other restister/unregister
24507 routines more appropriate to Blackbox, if Blackbox can
24508 register/unregister spam and ham.
24513 The @code{spam-check-blackbox} function should return @samp{nil} or
24514 @code{spam-split-group}, observing the other conventions. See the
24515 existing @code{spam-check-*} functions for examples of what you can
24516 do, and stick to the template unless you fully understand the reasons
24521 For processing spam and ham messages, provide the following:
24528 Note you don't have to provide a spam or a ham processor. Only
24529 provide them if Blackbox supports spam or ham processing.
24531 Also, ham and spam processors are being phased out as single
24532 variables. Instead the form @code{(spam spam-use-blackbox)} or
24533 @code{(ham spam-use-blackbox)} is favored. For now, spam/ham
24534 processor variables are still around but they won't be for long.
24537 (defvar gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-spam"
24538 "The Blackbox summary exit spam processor.
24539 Only applicable to spam groups.")
24541 (defvar gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-blackbox "blackbox-ham"
24542 "The whitelist summary exit ham processor.
24543 Only applicable to non-spam (unclassified and ham) groups.")
24552 (const :tag "Spam: Blackbox" (spam spam-use-blackbox))
24553 (const :tag "Ham: Blackbox" (ham spam-use-blackbox))
24555 to the @code{spam-process} group parameter in @code{gnus.el}. Make
24556 sure you do it twice, once for the parameter and once for the
24557 variable customization.
24561 (variable-item spam-use-blackbox)
24563 to the @code{spam-autodetect-methods} group parameter in
24564 @code{gnus.el} if Blackbox can check incoming mail for spam contents.
24566 Finally, use the appropriate @code{spam-install-*-backend} function in
24567 @code{spam.el}. Here are the available functions.
24573 @code{spam-install-backend-alias}
24575 This function will simply install an alias for a back end that does
24576 everything like the original back end. It is currently only used to
24577 make @code{spam-use-BBDB-exclusive} act like @code{spam-use-BBDB}.
24580 @code{spam-install-nocheck-backend}
24582 This function installs a back end that has no check function, but can
24583 register/unregister ham or spam. The @code{spam-use-gmane} back end is
24587 @code{spam-install-checkonly-backend}
24589 This function will install a back end that can only check incoming mail
24590 for spam contents. It can't register or unregister messages.
24591 @code{spam-use-blackholes} and @code{spam-use-hashcash} are such
24595 @code{spam-install-statistical-checkonly-backend}
24597 This function installs a statistical back end (one which requires the
24598 full body of a message to check it) that can only check incoming mail
24599 for contents. @code{spam-use-regex-body} is such a filter.
24602 @code{spam-install-statistical-backend}
24604 This function install a statistical back end with incoming checks and
24605 registration/unregistration routines. @code{spam-use-bogofilter} is
24609 @code{spam-install-backend}
24611 This is the most normal back end installation, where a back end that can
24612 check and register/unregister messages is set up without statistical
24613 abilities. The @code{spam-use-BBDB} is such a back end.
24616 @code{spam-install-mover-backend}
24618 Mover back ends are internal to @code{spam.el} and specifically move
24619 articles around when the summary is exited. You will very probably
24620 never install such a back end.
24626 @node Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat
24627 @subsection Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat
24628 @cindex Paul Graham
24629 @cindex Graham, Paul
24630 @cindex naive Bayesian spam filtering
24631 @cindex Bayesian spam filtering, naive
24632 @cindex spam filtering, naive Bayesian
24634 Paul Graham has written an excellent essay about spam filtering using
24635 statistics: @uref{http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html,A Plan for
24636 Spam}. In it he describes the inherent deficiency of rule-based
24637 filtering as used by SpamAssassin, for example: Somebody has to write
24638 the rules, and everybody else has to install these rules. You are
24639 always late. It would be much better, he argues, to filter mail based
24640 on whether it somehow resembles spam or non-spam. One way to measure
24641 this is word distribution. He then goes on to describe a solution
24642 that checks whether a new mail resembles any of your other spam mails
24645 The basic idea is this: Create a two collections of your mail, one
24646 with spam, one with non-spam. Count how often each word appears in
24647 either collection, weight this by the total number of mails in the
24648 collections, and store this information in a dictionary. For every
24649 word in a new mail, determine its probability to belong to a spam or a
24650 non-spam mail. Use the 15 most conspicuous words, compute the total
24651 probability of the mail being spam. If this probability is higher
24652 than a certain threshold, the mail is considered to be spam.
24654 Gnus supports this kind of filtering. But it needs some setting up.
24655 First, you need two collections of your mail, one with spam, one with
24656 non-spam. Then you need to create a dictionary using these two
24657 collections, and save it. And last but not least, you need to use
24658 this dictionary in your fancy mail splitting rules.
24661 * Creating a spam-stat dictionary::
24662 * Splitting mail using spam-stat::
24663 * Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary::
24666 @node Creating a spam-stat dictionary
24667 @subsubsection Creating a spam-stat dictionary
24669 Before you can begin to filter spam based on statistics, you must
24670 create these statistics based on two mail collections, one with spam,
24671 one with non-spam. These statistics are then stored in a dictionary
24672 for later use. In order for these statistics to be meaningful, you
24673 need several hundred emails in both collections.
24675 Gnus currently supports only the nnml back end for automated dictionary
24676 creation. The nnml back end stores all mails in a directory, one file
24677 per mail. Use the following:
24679 @defun spam-stat-process-spam-directory
24680 Create spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every file
24681 is treated as one spam mail.
24684 @defun spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory
24685 Create non-spam statistics for every file in this directory. Every
24686 file is treated as one non-spam mail.
24689 Usually you would call @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory} on a
24690 directory such as @file{~/Mail/mail/spam} (this usually corresponds
24691 the the group @samp{nnml:mail.spam}), and you would call
24692 @code{spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory} on a directory such as
24693 @file{~/Mail/mail/misc} (this usually corresponds the the group
24694 @samp{nnml:mail.misc}).
24696 When you are using @acronym{IMAP}, you won't have the mails available
24697 locally, so that will not work. One solution is to use the Gnus Agent
24698 to cache the articles. Then you can use directories such as
24699 @file{"~/News/agent/nnimap/mail.yourisp.com/personal_spam"} for
24700 @code{spam-stat-process-spam-directory}. @xref{Agent as Cache}.
24703 This variable holds the hash-table with all the statistics---the
24704 dictionary we have been talking about. For every word in either
24705 collection, this hash-table stores a vector describing how often the
24706 word appeared in spam and often it appeared in non-spam mails.
24709 If you want to regenerate the statistics from scratch, you need to
24710 reset the dictionary.
24712 @defun spam-stat-reset
24713 Reset the @code{spam-stat} hash-table, deleting all the statistics.
24716 When you are done, you must save the dictionary. The dictionary may
24717 be rather large. If you will not update the dictionary incrementally
24718 (instead, you will recreate it once a month, for example), then you
24719 can reduce the size of the dictionary by deleting all words that did
24720 not appear often enough or that do not clearly belong to only spam or
24721 only non-spam mails.
24723 @defun spam-stat-reduce-size
24724 Reduce the size of the dictionary. Use this only if you do not want
24725 to update the dictionary incrementally.
24728 @defun spam-stat-save
24729 Save the dictionary.
24732 @defvar spam-stat-file
24733 The filename used to store the dictionary. This defaults to
24734 @file{~/.spam-stat.el}.
24737 @node Splitting mail using spam-stat
24738 @subsubsection Splitting mail using spam-stat
24740 In order to use @code{spam-stat} to split your mail, you need to add the
24741 following to your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
24744 (require 'spam-stat)
24748 This will load the necessary Gnus code, and the dictionary you
24751 Next, you need to adapt your fancy splitting rules: You need to
24752 determine how to use @code{spam-stat}. The following examples are for
24753 the nnml back end. Using the nnimap back end works just as well. Just
24754 use @code{nnimap-split-fancy} instead of @code{nnmail-split-fancy}.
24756 In the simplest case, you only have two groups, @samp{mail.misc} and
24757 @samp{mail.spam}. The following expression says that mail is either
24758 spam or it should go into @samp{mail.misc}. If it is spam, then
24759 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will return @samp{mail.spam}.
24762 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
24763 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
24767 @defvar spam-stat-split-fancy-spam-group
24768 The group to use for spam. Default is @samp{mail.spam}.
24771 If you also filter mail with specific subjects into other groups, use
24772 the following expression. Only mails not matching the regular
24773 expression are considered potential spam.
24776 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
24777 `(| ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
24778 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
24782 If you want to filter for spam first, then you must be careful when
24783 creating the dictionary. Note that @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} must
24784 consider both mails in @samp{mail.emacs} and in @samp{mail.misc} as
24785 non-spam, therefore both should be in your collection of non-spam
24786 mails, when creating the dictionary!
24789 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
24790 `(| (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
24791 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
24795 You can combine this with traditional filtering. Here, we move all
24796 HTML-only mails into the @samp{mail.spam.filtered} group. Note that since
24797 @code{spam-stat-split-fancy} will never see them, the mails in
24798 @samp{mail.spam.filtered} should be neither in your collection of spam mails,
24799 nor in your collection of non-spam mails, when creating the
24803 (setq nnmail-split-fancy
24804 `(| ("Content-Type" "text/html" "mail.spam.filtered")
24805 (: spam-stat-split-fancy)
24806 ("Subject" "\\bspam-stat\\b" "mail.emacs")
24811 @node Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
24812 @subsubsection Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
24814 The main interface to using @code{spam-stat}, are the following functions:
24816 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-spam
24817 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new spam mail.
24818 Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
24821 @defun spam-stat-buffer-is-no-spam
24822 Called in a buffer, that buffer is considered to be a new non-spam
24823 mail. Use this for new mail that has not been processed before.
24826 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-spam
24827 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be normal
24828 mail but spam. Use this to change the status of a mail that has
24829 already been processed as non-spam.
24832 @defun spam-stat-buffer-change-to-non-spam
24833 Called in a buffer, that buffer is no longer considered to be spam but
24834 normal mail. Use this to change the status of a mail that has already
24835 been processed as spam.
24838 @defun spam-stat-save
24839 Save the hash table to the file. The filename used is stored in the
24840 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
24843 @defun spam-stat-load
24844 Load the hash table from a file. The filename used is stored in the
24845 variable @code{spam-stat-file}.
24848 @defun spam-stat-score-word
24849 Return the spam score for a word.
24852 @defun spam-stat-score-buffer
24853 Return the spam score for a buffer.
24856 @defun spam-stat-split-fancy
24857 Use this function for fancy mail splitting. Add the rule @samp{(:
24858 spam-stat-split-fancy)} to @code{nnmail-split-fancy}
24861 Make sure you load the dictionary before using it. This requires the
24862 following in your @file{~/.gnus.el} file:
24865 (require 'spam-stat)
24869 Typical test will involve calls to the following functions:
24872 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
24873 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
24874 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
24875 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
24876 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
24877 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
24878 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
24879 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
24880 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
24881 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
24882 File size: (nth 7 (file-attributes spam-stat-file))
24883 Number of words: (hash-table-count spam-stat)
24884 Test spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
24885 Test non-spam: (spam-stat-test-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
24888 Here is how you would create your dictionary:
24891 Reset: (setq spam-stat (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
24892 Learn spam: (spam-stat-process-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/spam")
24893 Learn non-spam: (spam-stat-process-non-spam-directory "~/Mail/mail/misc")
24894 Repeat for any other non-spam group you need...
24895 Reduce table size: (spam-stat-reduce-size)
24896 Save table: (spam-stat-save)
24900 @section Interaction with other modes
24905 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} provided some useful functions for dired
24906 buffers. It is enabled with
24908 (add-hook 'dired-mode-hook 'turn-on-gnus-dired-mode)
24913 @findex gnus-dired-attach
24914 Send dired's marked files as an attachment (@code{gnus-dired-attach}).
24915 You will be prompted for a message buffer.
24918 @findex gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap
24919 Visit a file according to the appropriate mailcap entry
24920 (@code{gnus-dired-find-file-mailcap}). With prefix, open file in a new
24924 @findex gnus-dired-print
24925 Print file according to the mailcap entry (@code{gnus-dired-print}). If
24926 there is no print command, print in a PostScript image.
24929 @node Various Various
24930 @section Various Various
24936 @item gnus-home-directory
24937 @vindex gnus-home-directory
24938 All Gnus file and directory variables will be initialized from this
24939 variable, which defaults to @file{~/}.
24941 @item gnus-directory
24942 @vindex gnus-directory
24943 Most Gnus storage file and directory variables will be initialized from
24944 this variable, which defaults to the @env{SAVEDIR} environment
24945 variable, or @file{~/News/} if that variable isn't set.
24947 Note that gnus is mostly loaded when the @file{.gnus.el} file is read.
24948 This means that other directory variables that are initialized from this
24949 variable won't be set properly if you set this variable in
24950 @file{.gnus.el}. Set this variable in @file{.emacs} instead.
24952 @item gnus-default-directory
24953 @vindex gnus-default-directory
24954 Not related to the above variable at all---this variable says what the
24955 default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue commands
24956 like @kbd{C-x C-f}, the prompt you'll get starts in the current buffer's
24957 default directory. If this variable is @code{nil} (which is the
24958 default), the default directory will be the default directory of the
24959 buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
24962 @vindex gnus-verbose
24963 This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the value,
24964 the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is zero, Gnus
24965 will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is the default),
24966 most important messages will be shown, and if it is ten, Gnus won't ever
24967 shut up, but will flash so many messages it will make your head swim.
24969 @item gnus-verbose-backends
24970 @vindex gnus-verbose-backends
24971 This variable works the same way as @code{gnus-verbose}, but it applies
24972 to the Gnus back ends instead of Gnus proper.
24974 @item nnheader-max-head-length
24975 @vindex nnheader-max-head-length
24976 When the back ends read straight heads of articles, they all try to read
24977 as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
24978 the absolute max length the back ends will try to read before giving up
24979 on finding a separator line between the head and the body. If this
24980 variable is @code{nil}, there is no upper read bound. If it is
24981 @code{t}, the back ends won't try to read the articles piece by piece,
24982 but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some versions of
24983 @code{ange-ftp} or @code{efs}.
24985 @item nnheader-head-chop-length
24986 @vindex nnheader-head-chop-length
24987 This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article to
24988 read when doing the operation described above.
24990 @item nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
24991 @vindex nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
24993 @cindex invalid characters in file names
24994 @cindex characters in file names
24995 This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file names.
24996 For instance, if @samp{:} is invalid as a file character in file names
24997 on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say something like:
25001 (setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
25006 In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
25007 Windows (phooey) systems.
25009 @item gnus-hidden-properties
25010 @vindex gnus-hidden-properties
25011 This is a list of properties to use to hide ``invisible'' text. It is
25012 @code{(invisible t intangible t)} by default on most systems, which
25013 makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
25015 @item gnus-parse-headers-hook
25016 @vindex gnus-parse-headers-hook
25017 A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for instance, to
25018 gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps you'd like to prune
25019 some headers. I don't see why you'd want that, though.
25021 @item gnus-shell-command-separator
25022 @vindex gnus-shell-command-separator
25023 String used to separate two shell commands. The default is @samp{;}.
25025 @item gnus-invalid-group-regexp
25026 @vindex gnus-invalid-group-regexp
25028 Regexp to match ``invalid'' group names when querying user for a group
25029 name. The default value catches some @strong{really} invalid group
25030 names who could possibly mess up Gnus internally (like allowing
25031 @samp{:} in a group name, which is normally used to delimit method and
25034 @acronym{IMAP} users might want to allow @samp{/} in group names though.
25042 Well, that's the manual---you can get on with your life now. Keep in
25043 touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
25045 My @strong{ghod}---I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
25047 Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to him:
25053 Not because of victories @*
25056 but for the common sunshine,@*
25058 the largess of the spring.
25062 but for the day's work done@*
25063 as well as I was able;@*
25064 not for a seat upon the dais@*
25065 but at the common table.@*
25070 @chapter Appendices
25073 * XEmacs:: Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
25074 * History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
25075 * On Writing Manuals:: Why this is not a beginner's guide.
25076 * Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
25077 * Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
25078 * Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
25079 * Gnus Reference Guide:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
25080 * Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
25081 * Frequently Asked Questions:: The Gnus FAQ
25088 @cindex installing under XEmacs
25090 XEmacs is distributed as a collection of packages. You should install
25091 whatever packages the Gnus XEmacs package requires. The current
25092 requirements are @samp{gnus}, @samp{mail-lib}, @samp{xemacs-base},
25093 @samp{eterm}, @samp{sh-script}, @samp{net-utils}, @samp{os-utils},
25094 @samp{dired}, @samp{mh-e}, @samp{sieve}, @samp{ps-print}, @samp{W3},
25095 @samp{pgg}, @samp{mailcrypt}, @samp{ecrypto}, and @samp{sasl}.
25102 @sc{gnus} was written by Masanobu @sc{Umeda}. When autumn crept up in
25103 '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
25105 If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
25106 you can point your (feh!) web browser to
25107 @uref{http://quimby.gnus.org/}. This is also the primary
25108 distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is
25109 known as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
25111 During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus was
25112 called ``(ding) Gnus''. @dfn{(ding)} is, of course, short for
25113 @dfn{ding is not Gnus}, which is a total and utter lie, but who cares?
25114 (Besides, the ``Gnus'' in this abbreviation should probably be
25115 pronounced ``news'' as @sc{Umeda} intended, which makes it a more
25116 appropriate name, don't you think?)
25118 In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new and
25119 spunky name, we decided that the name was @emph{too} spunky, so we
25120 renamed it back again to ``Gnus''. But in mixed case. ``Gnus'' vs.
25121 ``@sc{gnus}''. New vs. old.
25124 * Gnus Versions:: What Gnus versions have been released.
25125 * Other Gnus Versions:: Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
25126 * Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
25127 * Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with @sc{gnus}?
25128 * Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
25129 * Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
25130 * Gnus Development:: How Gnus is developed.
25131 * Contributors:: Oodles of people.
25132 * New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
25136 @node Gnus Versions
25137 @subsection Gnus Versions
25139 @cindex September Gnus
25141 @cindex Quassia Gnus
25142 @cindex Pterodactyl Gnus
25145 @cindex Gnus versions
25147 The first ``proper'' release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when it
25148 was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus releases
25149 plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
25151 In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. ``September Gnus'' (after 99
25152 releases)) was released under the name ``Gnus 5.2'' (40 releases).
25154 On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
25155 January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as ``Gnus 5.4'' (67 releases).
25157 On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37 releases.
25158 If was released as ``Gnus 5.6'' on March 8th 1998 (46 releases).
25160 Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released as
25161 ``Gnus 5.8'' (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
25164 On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun.
25166 If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name --
25167 ``(ding) Gnus'', ``September Gnus'', ``Red Gnus'', ``Quassia Gnus'',
25168 ``Pterodactyl Gnus'', ``Oort Gnus'' -- don't panic. Don't let it know
25169 that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't
25170 run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper
25171 released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead.
25174 @node Other Gnus Versions
25175 @subsection Other Gnus Versions
25178 In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
25179 coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
25180 Japan. It's based on a library called @acronym{SEMI}, which provides
25181 @acronym{MIME} capabilities.
25183 These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
25184 Collectively, they are called ``Semi-gnus'', and different strains are
25185 called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos. These provide powerful
25186 @acronym{MIME} and multilingualization things, especially important for
25193 What's the point of Gnus?
25195 I want to provide a ``rad'', ``happening'', ``way cool'' and ``hep''
25196 newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
25197 original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
25198 me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
25199 Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
25200 volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
25201 newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
25202 newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
25203 keep track of millions of people who post?
25205 Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very much
25206 like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
25207 reading and fetching news. Expanding on @sc{Umeda}-san's wise decision
25208 to separate the newsreader from the back ends, Gnus now offers a simple
25209 interface for anybody who wants to write new back ends for fetching mail
25210 and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
25211 everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
25212 every one of you to explore and invent.
25214 May Gnus never be complete. @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs} and
25215 @kbd{C-u 100 M-x all-hail-xemacs}.
25218 @node Compatibility
25219 @subsection Compatibility
25221 @cindex compatibility
25222 Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with @sc{gnus}. Almost all key
25223 bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
25224 but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
25229 @center In a cloud bones of steel.
25233 All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have changed
25236 The @code{gnus-uu} package has changed drastically. @xref{Decoding
25239 One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
25240 buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are
25241 buffer-local to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many
25242 important variables have their values copied into their global
25243 counterparts whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this
25244 change might lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
25246 All code that relies on knowledge of @sc{gnus} internals will probably
25247 fail. To take two examples: Sorting @code{gnus-newsrc-alist} (or
25248 changing it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
25249 maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
25250 speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
25254 @cindex highlighting
25255 Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
25256 remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks
25257 (@code{gnus-group-prepare-hook} and @code{gnus-summary-prepare-hook}).
25258 Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting. These are
25259 faster and more accurate. To make life easier for everybody, Gnus will
25260 by default remove all hilit calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness!
25263 Packages like @code{expire-kill} will no longer work. As a matter of
25264 fact, you should probably remove all old @sc{gnus} packages (and other
25265 code) when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already
25266 does what you have written code to make @sc{gnus} do. (Snicker.)
25268 Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
25269 new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method of
25270 doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you have
25271 to stop doing it the old way.
25273 Gnus understands all @sc{gnus} startup files.
25275 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
25277 @cindex reporting bugs
25279 Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
25280 @sc{gnus} internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur,
25281 please let me know by issuing that magic command @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}.
25283 @vindex gnus-bug-create-help-buffer
25284 If you are in the habit of sending bug reports @emph{very} often, you
25285 may find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
25286 @code{gnus-bug-create-help-buffer} to @code{nil} to avoid having it pop
25291 @subsection Conformity
25293 No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards known
25294 to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we disagree
25302 There are no known breaches of this standard.
25306 There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
25308 @item Son-of-RFC 1036
25309 @cindex Son-of-RFC 1036
25310 We do have some breaches to this one.
25316 These are considered to be ``vanity headers'', while I consider them
25317 to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly formatted
25318 articles coming from @code{tin} and @code{Netscape} I know not to use
25319 either of those for posting articles. I would not have known that if
25320 it wasn't for the @code{X-Newsreader} header.
25325 USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036, based
25326 on Son-of-RFC 1036. They have produced a number of drafts proposing
25327 various changes to the format of news articles. The Gnus towers will
25328 look into implementing the changes when the draft is accepted as an RFC.
25330 @item MIME - RFC 2045-2049 etc
25331 @cindex @acronym{MIME}
25332 All the various @acronym{MIME} RFCs are supported.
25334 @item Disposition Notifications - RFC 2298
25335 Message Mode is able to request notifications from the receiver.
25337 @item PGP - RFC 1991 and RFC 2440
25340 RFC 1991 is the original @acronym{PGP} message specification,
25341 published as an informational RFC. RFC 2440 was the follow-up, now
25342 called Open PGP, and put on the Standards Track. Both document a
25343 non-@acronym{MIME} aware @acronym{PGP} format. Gnus supports both
25344 encoding (signing and encryption) and decoding (verification and
25347 @item PGP/MIME - RFC 2015/3156
25348 RFC 2015 (superseded by 3156 which references RFC 2440 instead of RFC
25349 1991) describes the @acronym{MIME}-wrapping around the RFC 1991/2440 format.
25350 Gnus supports both encoding and decoding.
25352 @item S/MIME - RFC 2633
25353 RFC 2633 describes the @acronym{S/MIME} format.
25355 @item IMAP - RFC 1730/2060, RFC 2195, RFC 2086, RFC 2359, RFC 2595, RFC 1731
25356 RFC 1730 is @acronym{IMAP} version 4, updated somewhat by RFC 2060
25357 (@acronym{IMAP} 4 revision 1). RFC 2195 describes CRAM-MD5
25358 authentication for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2086 describes access control
25359 lists (ACLs) for @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 2359 describes a @acronym{IMAP}
25360 protocol enhancement. RFC 2595 describes the proper @acronym{TLS}
25361 integration (STARTTLS) with @acronym{IMAP}. RFC 1731 describes the
25362 GSSAPI/Kerberos4 mechanisms for @acronym{IMAP}.
25366 If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the texts
25367 mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and let us
25372 @subsection Emacsen
25378 Gnus should work on:
25386 XEmacs 21.4 and up.
25390 This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
25391 that. Not reliably, at least. Older versions of Gnus may work on older
25392 Emacs versions. However, T-gnus does support ``Mule 2.3 based on Emacs
25393 19.34'' and possibly the versions of XEmacs prior to 21.1.1, e.g. 20.4.
25394 See the file ``README'' in the T-gnus distribution for more details.
25396 There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
25397 platforms---XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)---but
25398 other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
25402 @node Gnus Development
25403 @subsection Gnus Development
25405 Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle. The first phase involves much
25406 discussion on the @samp{ding@@gnus.org} mailing list, where people
25407 propose changes and new features, post patches and new back ends. This
25408 phase is called the @dfn{alpha} phase, since the Gnusae released in this
25409 phase are @dfn{alpha releases}, or (perhaps more commonly in other
25410 circles) @dfn{snapshots}. During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be
25411 unstable and should not be used by casual users. Gnus alpha releases
25412 have names like ``Red Gnus'' and ``Quassia Gnus''.
25414 After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
25415 @dfn{frozen}, and only bug fixes are applied. Gnus loses the prefix,
25416 and is called things like ``Gnus 5.6.32'' instead. Normal people are
25417 supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
25418 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus} newsgroup.
25421 @vindex mail-source-delete-incoming
25422 Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released Gnusae.
25423 In particular, @code{mail-source-delete-incoming} defaults to @code{nil} in
25424 alpha Gnusae and @code{t} in released Gnusae. This is to prevent
25425 lossage of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.
25427 The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
25428 newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns. It's true that
25429 having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
25430 can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
25431 importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
25432 introduced may confuse casual users. New features are frequently
25433 introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
25434 either discarded or totally rewritten. People reading the mailing list
25435 usually keep up with these rapid changes, while people on the newsgroup
25436 can't be assumed to do so.
25441 @subsection Contributors
25442 @cindex contributors
25444 The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all the
25445 people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
25446 gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
25447 every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
25448 tried beyond endurance, what with my ``oh, that's a neat idea <type
25449 type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
25450 work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
25451 off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work'' policy for releases.
25452 Micro$oft---bah. Amateurs. I'm @emph{much} worse. (Or is that
25453 ``worser''? ``much worser''? ``worsest''?)
25455 I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for@dots{} oops,
25461 Masanobu @sc{Umeda}---the writer of the original @sc{gnus}.
25464 Shenghuo Zhu---uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
25465 nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with @acronym{MIME} and
25466 other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
25467 functionality and stuff.
25470 Per Abrahamsen---custom, scoring, highlighting and @sc{soup} code (as
25471 well as numerous other things).
25474 Luis Fernandes---design and graphics.
25477 Joe Reiss---creator of the smiley faces.
25480 Justin Sheehy---the @acronym{FAQ} maintainer.
25483 Erik Naggum---help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
25486 Wes Hardaker---@file{gnus-picon.el} and the manual section on
25487 @dfn{picons} (@pxref{Picons}).
25490 Kim-Minh Kaplan---further work on the picon code.
25493 Brad Miller---@file{gnus-gl.el} and the GroupLens manual section.
25496 Sudish Joseph---innumerable bug fixes.
25499 Ilja Weis---@file{gnus-topic.el}.
25502 Steven L. Baur---lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and fixes.
25505 Vladimir Alexiev---the refcard and reference booklets.
25508 Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski---I stole some pieces from the XGnus
25509 distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
25512 Scott Byer---@file{nnfolder.el} enhancements & rewrite.
25515 Peter Mutsaers---orphan article scoring code.
25518 Ken Raeburn---POP mail support.
25521 Hallvard B Furuseth---various bits and pieces, especially dealing with
25525 Brian Edmonds---@file{gnus-bbdb.el}.
25528 David Moore---rewrite of @file{nnvirtual.el} and many other things.
25531 Kevin Davidson---came up with the name @dfn{ding}, so blame him.
25534 Fran@,{c}ois Pinard---many, many interesting and thorough bug reports, as
25535 well as autoconf support.
25539 This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif, Mark
25540 Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
25542 The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
25557 Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
25559 Katsumi Yamaoka, @c Yamaoka
25563 Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
25573 Alexei V. Barantsev,
25588 Massimo Campostrini,
25593 Jae-you Chung, @c ?
25594 James H. Cloos, Jr.,
25598 Andrew J. Cosgriff,
25601 Geoffrey T. Dairiki,
25607 Michael Welsh Duggan,
25612 Enami Tsugutomo, @c Enami
25616 Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira,
25624 Arne Georg Gleditsch,
25626 Michelangelo Grigni,
25630 Kenichi Handa, @c Handa
25632 Yoshiki Hayashi, @c Hayashi
25634 Hisashige Kenji, @c Hisashige
25641 Fran@,{c}ois Felix Ingrand,
25642 Tatsuya Ichikawa, @c Ichikawa
25643 Ishikawa Ichiro, @c Ishikawa
25645 Iwamuro Motonori, @c Iwamuro
25655 Peter Skov Knudsen,
25656 Shuhei Kobayashi, @c Kobayashi
25658 Koseki Yoshinori, @c Koseki
25659 Thor Kristoffersen,
25662 Seokchan Lee, @c Lee
25680 Morioka Tomohiko, @c Morioka
25681 Erik Toubro Nielsen,
25688 Masaharu Onishi, @c Onishi
25693 Jens-Ulrik Holger Petersen,
25697 John McClary Prevost,
25703 Lars Balker Rasmussen,
25708 Christian von Roques,
25711 Wolfgang Rupprecht,
25718 Philippe Schnoebelen,
25720 Randal L. Schwartz,
25734 Kiyokazu Suto, @c Suto
25739 Tozawa Akihiko, @c Tozawa
25759 For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
25760 included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
25761 (550kB and counting).
25763 Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many, I'm
25766 Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that there
25767 actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
25771 @subsection New Features
25772 @cindex new features
25775 * ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
25776 * September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
25777 * Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
25778 * Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
25779 * Pterodactyl Gnus:: Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
25780 * Oort Gnus:: It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
25781 * No Gnus:: Lars, FIXME!
25784 These lists are, of course, just @emph{short} overviews of the
25785 @emph{most} important new features. No, really. There are tons more.
25786 Yes, we have feeping creaturism in full effect.
25789 @subsubsection (ding) Gnus
25791 New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
25796 The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like variables
25797 (@pxref{Group Buffer Format} and @pxref{Summary Buffer Format}).
25800 Local spool and several @acronym{NNTP} servers can be used at once
25801 (@pxref{Select Methods}).
25804 You can combine groups into virtual groups (@pxref{Virtual Groups}).
25807 You can read a number of different mail formats (@pxref{Getting Mail}).
25808 All the mail back ends implement a convenient mail expiry scheme
25809 (@pxref{Expiring Mail}).
25812 Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have lost
25813 their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread) or it
25814 can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete thread
25815 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
25818 Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can read
25819 them as well (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
25822 Gnus can do partial group updates---you do not have to retrieve the
25823 entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
25824 (@pxref{The Active File}).
25827 Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups
25828 (@pxref{Group Levels}).
25831 You can score articles according to any number of criteria
25832 (@pxref{Scoring}). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
25833 articles for you (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
25836 Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
25837 manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you have
25838 read if your machine should go down (@pxref{Auto Save}).
25841 Gnus now has its own startup file (@file{~/.gnus.el}) to avoid
25842 cluttering up the @file{.emacs} file.
25845 You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and perform
25846 operations on all the marked items (@pxref{Process/Prefix}).
25849 You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
25850 results (@pxref{Kibozed Groups}).
25853 You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything
25854 (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
25857 You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
25858 servers (@pxref{Browse Foreign Server}).
25861 Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to the
25862 server (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
25865 You can cache articles locally (@pxref{Article Caching}).
25868 The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized
25869 (@pxref{Decoding Articles}).
25872 You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known feature
25873 of @sc{gnus}' past (@pxref{Uuencoding and Posting}).
25876 Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
25877 glitches (@pxref{Finding the Parent}).
25880 Gnus can fetch @acronym{FAQ}s and group descriptions (@pxref{Group Information}).
25883 Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
25884 (@pxref{Document Groups}).
25887 Articles can be highlighted and customized (@pxref{Customizing
25891 URLs and other external references can be buttonized (@pxref{Article
25895 You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
25896 configuration (@pxref{Window Layout}).
25899 You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard
25905 @node September Gnus
25906 @subsubsection September Gnus
25910 \gnusfig{-28cm}{0cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/september,height=20cm}}
25914 New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:
25919 A new message composition mode is used. All old customization variables
25920 for @code{mail-mode}, @code{rnews-reply-mode} and @code{gnus-msg} are
25924 Gnus is now able to generate @dfn{sparse} threads---threads where
25925 missing articles are represented by empty nodes (@pxref{Customizing
25929 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
25933 Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server
25934 (@pxref{Archived Messages}).
25937 Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
25941 Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions.
25944 Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (@pxref{Picons}).
25947 A @code{trn}-like tree buffer can be displayed (@pxref{Tree Display}).
25950 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
25954 An @code{nn}-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
25955 buffers (@pxref{Pick and Read}).
25958 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
25962 In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (@pxref{Binary
25966 Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (@pxref{Group
25970 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
25974 Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (@pxref{Summary Mail Commands}).
25977 Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
25978 is possible (@pxref{Group Score}).
25981 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
25985 Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
25986 groups of groups (@pxref{Marking Groups}).
25989 Caching is possible in virtual groups.
25992 @code{nndoc} now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
25993 news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything
25994 else (@pxref{Document Groups}).
25997 Gnus has a new back end (@code{nnsoup}) to create/read SOUP packets
26001 The Gnus cache is much faster.
26004 Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (@pxref{Sorting
26008 New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
26009 expiry times (@pxref{Group Parameters}).
26012 All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used
26013 (@pxref{Formatting Fonts}).
26016 There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on process
26017 marked articles on the @kbd{M P} submap (@pxref{Setting Process Marks}).
26020 The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
26021 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
26022 bound to keys on the @kbd{/} submap (@pxref{Limiting}).
26025 Articles can be made persistent with the @kbd{*} command
26026 (@pxref{Persistent Articles}).
26029 All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
26032 Article headers can be buttonized (@pxref{Article Washing}).
26035 All mail back ends support fetching articles by @code{Message-ID}.
26038 Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (@pxref{Duplicates}).
26041 All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
26042 buffer (@pxref{Article Keymap}).
26045 Frames can be part of @code{gnus-buffer-configuration} (@pxref{Window
26049 Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (@pxref{Daemons}).
26052 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fseptember,height=5cm}}
26057 Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (@pxref{NoCeM}).
26060 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
26064 Groups can be made permanently visible (@pxref{Listing Groups}).
26067 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
26071 Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
26074 Gnus respects the @code{Mail-Copies-To} header.
26077 Threads can be gathered by looking at the @code{References} header
26078 (@pxref{Customizing Threading}).
26081 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
26082 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
26086 Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
26087 refetching (@pxref{Article Backlog}).
26090 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
26094 A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
26095 buffer to allow easier treatment.
26098 Gnus can suggest where to save articles (@pxref{Saving Articles}).
26101 Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (@pxref{Saving
26105 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
26109 @code{gnus-uu} can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
26110 articles (@pxref{Other Decode Variables}).
26113 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
26117 Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
26118 (@pxref{Article Washing}).
26121 Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
26122 cited text to hide is now customizable (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
26125 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
26129 Boring headers can be hidden (@pxref{Article Hiding}).
26132 Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
26135 Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
26141 @subsubsection Red Gnus
26143 New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:
26147 \gnusfig{-5.5cm}{-4cm}{\epsfig{figure=ps/red,height=20cm}}
26154 @file{nntp.el} has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
26157 Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
26158 Gnus (@pxref{Asynchronous Fetching}).
26161 Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like @code{and},
26162 @code{or}, @code{not}, and parent redirection (@pxref{Advanced
26166 Article washing status can be displayed in the
26167 article mode line (@pxref{Misc Article}).
26170 @file{gnus.el} has been split into many smaller files.
26173 Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
26174 (@pxref{Duplicate Suppression}).
26177 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
26181 New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
26182 considered home score and adapt files (@pxref{Home Score File}) have
26186 @code{nndoc} was rewritten to be easily extendable (@pxref{Document
26187 Server Internals}).
26190 Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (@pxref{Topic
26194 Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.
26197 Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions
26198 (@pxref{Article Signature}).
26201 Summary pick mode has been made to look more @code{nn}-like. Line
26202 numbers are displayed and the @kbd{.} command can be used to pick
26203 articles (@code{Pick and Read}).
26206 Commands for moving the @file{.newsrc.eld} from one server to
26207 another have been added (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
26210 There's a way now to specify that ``uninteresting'' fields be suppressed
26211 when generating lines in buffers (@pxref{Advanced Formatting}).
26214 Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with @kbd{C-M-_}
26218 Scoring can be done on words using the new score type @code{w}
26219 (@pxref{Score File Format}).
26222 Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
26223 (@pxref{Adaptive Scoring}).
26226 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
26230 Scores can be decayed (@pxref{Score Decays}).
26233 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
26237 Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The Date is
26238 normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (@pxref{Score File Format}).
26241 A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
26242 the native server (@pxref{Changing Servers}).
26245 A new command for reading collections of documents
26246 (@code{nndoc} with @code{nnvirtual} on top) has been added---@kbd{C-M-d}
26247 (@pxref{Really Various Summary Commands}).
26250 Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (@pxref{Setting Process
26254 A new mail-to-news back end makes it possible to post even when the @acronym{NNTP}
26255 server doesn't allow posting (@pxref{Mail-To-News Gateways}).
26258 A new back end for reading searches from Web search engines
26259 (@dfn{DejaNews}, @dfn{Alta Vista}, @dfn{InReference}) has been added
26260 (@pxref{Web Searches}).
26263 Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
26264 functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (@pxref{Topic
26268 Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (@code{Sorting
26272 Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (@pxref{Summary Generation
26276 \marginpar[\mbox{}\hfill\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}]{\epsfig{figure=ps/fred,width=3cm}}
26281 Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (@pxref{Score
26285 Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (@pxref{Splitting
26289 More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from incoming
26290 mail before saving the mail (@pxref{Washing Mail}).
26293 Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:
26299 @subsubsection Quassia Gnus
26301 New features in Gnus 5.6:
26306 New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
26307 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added.
26308 @xref{Gnus Unplugged}, for the full story.
26311 The @code{nndraft} back end has returned, but works differently than
26312 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the @code{nndraft}
26313 group, which is created automatically.
26316 @code{gnus-alter-header-function} can now be used to alter header
26320 @code{gnus-summary-goto-article} now accept Message-ID's.
26323 A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
26324 outside the region: @kbd{C-c C-v}.
26327 You can now post to component group in @code{nnvirtual} groups with
26331 @code{nntp-rlogin-program}---new variable to ease customization.
26334 @code{C-u C-c C-c} in @code{gnus-article-edit-mode} will now inhibit
26335 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
26338 New element in @code{gnus-boring-article-headers}---@code{long-to}.
26341 @kbd{M-i} symbolic prefix command. @xref{Symbolic Prefixes}, for
26345 @kbd{L} and @kbd{I} in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
26346 @kbd{a} to add the score rule to the @file{all.SCORE} file.
26349 @code{gnus-simplify-subject-functions} variable to allow greater
26350 control over simplification.
26353 @kbd{A T}---new command for fetching the current thread.
26356 @kbd{/ T}---new command for including the current thread in the
26360 @kbd{M-RET} is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
26363 @samp{\\1}-expressions are now valid in @code{nnmail-split-methods}.
26366 The @code{custom-face-lookup} function has been removed.
26367 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
26368 rewrite them to use @code{face-spec-set} instead.
26371 Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
26372 @kbd{a} forces normal posting method.
26375 New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
26379 For easier debugging of @code{nntp}, you can set
26380 @code{nntp-record-commands} to a non-@code{nil} value.
26383 @code{nntp} now uses @file{~/.authinfo}, a @file{.netrc}-like file, for
26384 controlling where and how to send @sc{authinfo} to @acronym{NNTP} servers.
26387 A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
26391 A history of where mails have been split is available.
26394 A new article date command has been added---@code{article-date-iso8601}.
26397 Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
26398 @code{gnus-score-thread-simplify}.
26401 A new function for citing in Message has been
26402 added---@code{message-cite-original-without-signature}.
26405 @code{article-strip-all-blank-lines}---new article command.
26408 A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
26412 A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
26413 @code{gnus-adaptive-word-minimum} variable.
26416 The ``lapsed date'' article header can be kept continually
26417 updated by the @code{gnus-start-date-timer} command.
26420 Web listserv archives can be read with the @code{nnlistserv} back end.
26423 Old dejanews archives can now be read by @code{nnweb}.
26427 @node Pterodactyl Gnus
26428 @subsubsection Pterodactyl Gnus
26430 New features in Gnus 5.8:
26435 The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
26436 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
26438 If you used procmail like in
26441 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
26442 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
26443 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
26444 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
26447 this now has changed to
26451 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
26455 @xref{Mail Source Specifiers}.
26458 Gnus is now a @acronym{MIME}-capable reader. This affects many parts of
26459 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
26462 Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too
26463 many parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
26466 @code{gnus-auto-select-first} can now be a function to be
26467 called to position point.
26470 The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
26471 summary buffers and @acronym{NOV} files.
26474 @code{gnus-article-display-hook} has been removed. Instead, a number
26475 of variables starting with @code{gnus-treat-} have been added.
26478 The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now works in a
26479 subtly different manner.
26482 New web-based back ends have been added: @code{nnslashdot},
26483 @code{nnwarchive} and @code{nnultimate}. nnweb has been revamped,
26484 again, to keep up with ever-changing layouts.
26487 Gnus can now read @acronym{IMAP} mail via @code{nnimap}.
26492 @subsubsection Oort Gnus
26495 New features in Gnus 5.10:
26500 @kbd{F} (@code{gnus-article-followup-with-original}) and @kbd{R}
26501 (@code{gnus-article-reply-with-original}) only yank the text in the
26502 region if the region is active.
26505 @code{gnus-group-read-ephemeral-group} can be called interactively,
26509 In draft groups, @kbd{e} is now bound to @code{gnus-draft-edit-message}.
26510 Use @kbd{B w} for @code{gnus-summary-edit-article} instead.
26513 The revised Gnus @acronym{FAQ} is included in the manual,
26514 @xref{Frequently Asked Questions}.
26517 Upgrading from previous (stable) version if you have used Oort.
26519 If you have tried Oort (the unstable Gnus branch leading to this
26520 release) but went back to a stable version, be careful when upgrading to
26521 this version. In particular, you will probably want to remove all
26522 @file{.marks} (nnml) and @file{.mrk} (nnfolder) files, so that flags are
26523 read from your @file{.newsrc.eld} instead of from the
26524 @file{.marks}/@file{.mrk} file where this release store flags. See a
26525 later entry for more information about marks. Note that downgrading
26526 isn't save in general.
26531 More buttons for URLs, mail addresses, Message-IDs, Info links, man
26532 pages and Emacs or Gnus related references. @xref{Article Buttons}. The
26533 variables @code{gnus-button-@var{*}-level} can be used to control the
26534 appearance of all article buttons. @xref{Article Button Levels}.
26539 @code{gnus-dired-minor-mode} (see @ref{Other modes}) installs key
26540 bindings in dired buffers to send a file as an attachment, open a file
26541 using the appropriate mailcap entry, and print a file using the mailcap
26545 Gnus can display RSS newsfeeds as a newsgroup. @xref{RSS}.
26548 Single-part yenc encoded attachments can be decoded.
26553 The picons code has been reimplemented to work in GNU Emacs---some of
26554 the previous options have been removed or renamed.
26556 Picons are small ``personal icons'' representing users, domain and
26557 newsgroups, which can be displayed in the Article buffer.
26561 If the new option @code{gnus-treat-body-boundary} is non-@code{nil}, a
26562 boundary line is drawn at the end of the headers.
26565 Retrieval of charters and control messages
26567 There are new commands for fetching newsgroup charters (@kbd{H c}) and
26568 control messages (@kbd{H C}).
26573 You can delay the sending of a message with @kbd{C-c C-j} in the Message
26574 buffer. The messages are delivered at specified time. This is useful
26575 for sending yourself reminders. @xref{Delayed Articles}.
26578 If @code{auto-compression-mode} is enabled, attachments are automatically
26579 decompressed when activated.
26582 If the new option @code{nnml-use-compressed-files} is non-@code{nil},
26583 the nnml back end allows compressed message files.
26586 Signed article headers (X-PGP-Sig) can be verified with @kbd{W p}.
26589 The Summary Buffer uses an arrow in the fringe to indicate the current
26590 article. Use @code{(setq gnus-summary-display-arrow nil)} to disable it.
26593 Warn about email replies to news
26595 Do you often find yourself replying to news by email by mistake? Then
26596 the new option @code{gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news} is just the thing for
26600 If the new option @code{gnus-summary-display-while-building} is
26601 non-@code{nil}, the summary buffer is shown and updated as it's being
26605 The new @code{recent} mark @samp{.} indicates newly arrived messages (as
26606 opposed to old but unread messages).
26609 The new option @code{gnus-gcc-mark-as-read} automatically marks
26610 Gcc articles as read.
26613 The nndoc back end now supports mailman digests and exim bounces.
26616 Gnus supports RFC 2369 mailing list headers, and adds a number of
26617 related commands in mailing list groups. @xref{Mailing List}.
26620 The Date header can be displayed in a format that can be read aloud
26621 in English. @xref{Article Date}.
26624 The envelope sender address can be customized when using Sendmail.
26625 @xref{Mail Variables, Mail Variables,, message, Message Manual}.
26628 diffs are automatically highlighted in groups matching
26629 @code{mm-uu-diff-groups-regexp}
26632 @acronym{TLS} wrapper shipped with Gnus
26634 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} is now supported in @acronym{IMAP} and
26635 @acronym{NNTP} via @file{tls.el} and GNUTLS. The old
26636 @acronym{TLS}/@acronym{SSL} support via (external third party)
26637 @file{ssl.el} and OpenSSL still works.
26640 New @file{make.bat} for compiling and installing Gnus under MS Windows
26642 Use @file{make.bat} if you want to install Gnus under MS Windows, the
26643 first argument to the batch-program should be the directory where
26644 @file{xemacs.exe} respectively @file{emacs.exe} is located, iff you want
26645 to install Gnus after compiling it, give @file{make.bat} @code{/copy} as
26646 the second parameter.
26648 @file{make.bat} has been rewritten from scratch, it now features
26649 automatic recognition of XEmacs and GNU Emacs, generates
26650 @file{gnus-load.el}, checks if errors occur while compilation and
26651 generation of info files and reports them at the end of the build
26652 process. It now uses @code{makeinfo} if it is available and falls
26653 back to @file{infohack.el} otherwise. @file{make.bat} should now
26654 install all files which are necessary to run Gnus and be generally a
26655 complete replacement for the @code{configure; make; make install}
26656 cycle used under Unix systems.
26658 The new @file{make.bat} makes @file{make-x.bat} superfluous, so it has
26662 Support for non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names
26664 Message supports non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To: and
26665 Cc: and will query you whether to perform encoding when you try to
26666 send a message. The variable @code{message-use-idna} controls this.
26667 Gnus will also decode non-@acronym{ASCII} domain names in From:, To:
26668 and Cc: when you view a message. The variable @code{gnus-use-idna}
26672 Better handling of Microsoft citation styles
26674 Gnus now tries to recognize the mangled header block that some Microsoft
26675 mailers use to indicate that the rest of the message is a citation, even
26676 though it is not quoted in any way. The variable
26677 @code{gnus-cite-unsightly-citation-regexp} matches the start of these
26681 @code{gnus-article-skip-boring}
26683 If you set @code{gnus-article-skip-boring} to @code{t}, then Gnus will
26684 not scroll down to show you a page that contains only boring text,
26685 which by default means cited text and signature. You can customize
26686 what is skippable using @code{gnus-article-boring-faces}.
26688 This feature is especially useful if you read many articles that
26689 consist of a little new content at the top with a long, untrimmed
26690 message cited below.
26693 The format spec @code{%C} for positioning point has changed to @code{%*}.
26696 The new variable @code{gnus-parameters} can be used to set group parameters.
26698 Earlier this was done only via @kbd{G p} (or @kbd{G c}), which stored
26699 the parameters in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, but via this variable you can
26700 enjoy the powers of customize, and simplified backups since you set the
26701 variable in @file{~/.emacs} instead of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. The
26702 variable maps regular expressions matching group names to group
26705 (setq gnus-parameters
26707 (gnus-show-threads nil)
26708 (gnus-use-scoring nil))
26709 ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$"
26710 (to-group . "\\1"))))
26714 Smileys (@samp{:-)}, @samp{;-)} etc) are now iconized for Emacs too.
26716 Put @code{(setq gnus-treat-display-smileys nil)} in @file{~/.emacs} to
26720 Gnus no longer generate the Sender: header automatically.
26722 Earlier it was generated iff the user configurable email address was
26723 different from the Gnus guessed default user address. As the guessing
26724 algorithm is rarely correct these days, and (more controversially) the
26725 only use of the Sender: header was to check if you are entitled to
26726 cancel/supersede news (which is now solved by Cancel Locks instead,
26727 see another entry), generation of the header has been disabled by
26728 default. See the variables @code{message-required-headers},
26729 @code{message-required-news-headers}, and
26730 @code{message-required-mail-headers}.
26733 Features from third party @file{message-utils.el} added to @file{message.el}.
26735 Message now asks if you wish to remove @samp{(was: <old subject>)} from
26736 subject lines (see @code{message-subject-trailing-was-query}). @kbd{C-c
26737 M-m} and @kbd{C-c M-f} inserts markers indicating included text.
26738 @kbd{C-c C-f a} adds a X-No-Archive: header. @kbd{C-c C-f x} inserts
26739 appropriate headers and a note in the body for cross-postings and
26740 followups (see the variables @code{message-cross-post-@var{*}}).
26743 References and X-Draft-Headers are no longer generated when you start
26744 composing messages and @code{message-generate-headers-first} is
26748 Improved anti-spam features.
26750 Gnus is now able to take out spam from your mail and news streams
26751 using a wide variety of programs and filter rules. Among the supported
26752 methods are RBL blocklists, bogofilter and white/blacklists. Hooks
26753 for easy use of external packages such as SpamAssassin and Hashcash
26754 are also new. @xref{Thwarting Email Spam}.
26757 Easy inclusion of X-Faces headers.
26760 Face headers handling.
26763 In the summary buffer, the new command @kbd{/ N} inserts new messages
26764 and @kbd{/ o} inserts old messages.
26767 Gnus decodes morse encoded messages if you press @kbd{W m}.
26770 Unread count correct in nnimap groups.
26772 The estimated number of unread articles in the group buffer should now
26773 be correct for nnimap groups. This is achieved by calling
26774 @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} from the
26775 @code{gnus-setup-news-hook} (called on startup) and
26776 @code{gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook}. (called after getting new
26777 mail). If you have modified those variables from the default, you may
26778 want to add @code{nnimap-fixup-unread-after-getting-new-news} again. If
26779 you were happy with the estimate and want to save some (minimal) time
26780 when getting new mail, remove the function.
26783 Group Carbon Copy (GCC) quoting
26785 To support groups that contains SPC and other weird characters, groups
26786 are quoted before they are placed in the Gcc: header. This means
26787 variables such as @code{gnus-message-archive-group} should no longer
26788 contain quote characters to make groups containing SPC work. Also, if
26789 you are using the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar} (indicating Gcc
26790 into two groups) you must change it to return the list
26791 @code{("nnml:foo" "nnml:bar")}, otherwise the Gcc: line will be quoted
26792 incorrectly. Note that returning the string @samp{nnml:foo, nnml:bar}
26793 was incorrect earlier, it just didn't generate any problems since it
26794 was inserted directly.
26797 @file{~/News/overview/} not used.
26799 As a result of the following change, the @file{~/News/overview/}
26800 directory is not used any more. You can safely delete the entire
26806 The Gnus Agent has seen a major updated and is now enabled by default,
26807 and all nntp and nnimap servers from @code{gnus-select-method} and
26808 @code{gnus-secondary-select-method} are agentized by default. Earlier
26809 only the server in @code{gnus-select-method} was agentized by the
26810 default, and the agent was disabled by default. When the agent is
26811 enabled, headers are now also retrieved from the Agent cache instead
26812 of the back ends when possible. Earlier this only happened in the
26813 unplugged state. You can enroll or remove servers with @kbd{J a} and
26814 @kbd{J r} in the server buffer. Gnus will not download articles into
26815 the Agent cache, unless you instruct it to do so, though, by using
26816 @kbd{J u} or @kbd{J s} from the Group buffer. You revert to the old
26817 behavior of having the Agent disabled with @code{(setq gnus-agent
26818 nil)}. Note that putting @code{(gnus-agentize)} in @file{~/.gnus.el}
26819 is not needed any more.
26822 @code{gnus-summary-line-format}
26824 The default value changed to @samp{%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%)
26825 %s\n}. Moreover @code{gnus-extra-headers},
26826 @code{nnmail-extra-headers} and @code{gnus-ignored-from-addresses}
26827 changed their default so that the users name will be replaced by the
26828 recipient's name or the group name posting to for @acronym{NNTP}
26832 @file{deuglify.el} (@code{gnus-article-outlook-deuglify-article})
26834 A new file from Raymond Scholz @email{rscholz@@zonix.de} for deuglifying
26835 broken Outlook (Express) articles.
26838 @code{(require 'gnus-load)}
26840 If you use a stand-alone Gnus distribution, you'd better add
26841 @code{(require 'gnus-load)} into your @file{~/.emacs} after adding the Gnus
26842 lisp directory into load-path.
26844 File @file{gnus-load.el} contains autoload commands, functions and variables,
26845 some of which may not be included in distributions of Emacsen.
26848 @code{gnus-slave-unplugged}
26850 A new command which starts Gnus offline in slave mode.
26853 @code{message-insinuate-rmail}
26855 Adding @code{(message-insinuate-rmail)} and @code{(setq
26856 mail-user-agent 'gnus-user-agent)} in @file{.emacs} convinces Rmail to
26857 compose, reply and forward messages in message-mode, where you can
26858 enjoy the power of @acronym{MML}.
26861 @code{message-minibuffer-local-map}
26863 The line below enables BBDB in resending a message:
26865 (define-key message-minibuffer-local-map [(tab)]
26866 'bbdb-complete-name)
26870 Externalizing and deleting of attachments.
26872 If @code{gnus-gcc-externalize-attachments} or
26873 @code{message-fcc-externalize-attachments} is non-@code{nil}, attach
26874 local files as external parts.
26876 The command @code{gnus-mime-save-part-and-strip} (bound to @kbd{C-o}
26877 on @acronym{MIME} buttons) saves a part and replaces the part with an
26878 external one. @code{gnus-mime-delete-part} (bound to @kbd{d} on
26879 @acronym{MIME} buttons) removes a part. It works only on back ends
26880 that support editing.
26883 @code{gnus-default-charset}
26885 The default value is determined from the
26886 @code{current-language-environment} variable, instead of
26887 @code{iso-8859-1}. Also the @samp{.*} item in
26888 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} is removed.
26891 @code{gnus-posting-styles}
26893 Add a new format of match like
26895 ((header "to" "larsi.*org")
26896 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
26898 The old format like the lines below is obsolete, but still accepted.
26900 (header "to" "larsi.*org"
26901 (Organization "Somewhere, Inc."))
26905 @code{message-ignored-news-headers} and @code{message-ignored-mail-headers}
26907 @samp{X-Draft-From} and @samp{X-Gnus-Agent-Meta-Information} have been
26908 added into these two variables. If you customized those, perhaps you
26909 need add those two headers too.
26912 Gnus reads the @acronym{NOV} and articles in the Agent if plugged.
26914 If one reads an article while plugged, and the article already exists
26915 in the Agent, it won't get downloaded once more. @code{(setq
26916 gnus-agent-cache nil)} reverts to the old behavior.
26919 Gnus supports the ``format=flowed'' (RFC 2646) parameter. On
26920 composing messages, it is enabled by @code{use-hard-newlines}.
26921 Decoding format=flowed was present but not documented in earlier
26925 Gnus supports the generation of RFC 2298 Disposition Notification requests.
26927 This is invoked with the @kbd{C-c M-n} key binding from message mode.
26930 Gnus supports Maildir groups.
26932 Gnus includes a new back end @file{nnmaildir.el}. @xref{Maildir}.
26935 Printing capabilities are enhanced.
26937 Gnus supports Muttprint natively with @kbd{O P} from the Summary and
26938 Article buffers. Also, each individual @acronym{MIME} part can be
26939 printed using @kbd{p} on the @acronym{MIME} button.
26942 Message supports the Importance: (RFC 2156) header.
26944 In the message buffer, @kbd{C-c C-f C-i} or @kbd{C-c C-u} cycles through
26948 Gnus supports Cancel Locks in News.
26950 This means a header @samp{Cancel-Lock} is inserted in news posting. It is
26951 used to determine if you wrote an article or not (for canceling and
26952 superseding). Gnus generates a random password string the first time
26953 you post a message, and saves it in your @file{~/.emacs} using the Custom
26954 system. While the variable is called @code{canlock-password}, it is not
26955 security sensitive data. Publishing your canlock string on the web
26956 will not allow anyone to be able to anything she could not already do.
26957 The behavior can be changed by customizing @code{message-insert-canlock}.
26960 Gnus supports server-side mail filtering using Sieve.
26962 Sieve rules can be added as Group Parameters for groups, and the
26963 complete Sieve script is generated using @kbd{D g} from the Group
26964 buffer, and then uploaded to the server using @kbd{C-c C-l} in the
26965 generated Sieve buffer. @xref{Sieve Commands}, and the new Sieve
26966 manual @ref{Top, , Top, sieve, Emacs Sieve}.
26969 Extended format specs.
26971 Format spec @samp{%&user-date;} is added into
26972 @code{gnus-summary-line-format-alist}. Also, user defined extended
26973 format specs are supported. The extended format specs look like
26974 @samp{%u&foo;}, which invokes function
26975 @code{gnus-user-format-function-@var{foo}}. Because @samp{&} is used as the
26976 escape character, old user defined format @samp{%u&} is no longer supported.
26979 @kbd{/ *} (@code{gnus-summary-limit-include-cached}) is rewritten.
26981 It was aliased to @kbd{Y c}
26982 (@code{gnus-summary-insert-cached-articles}). The new function filters
26983 out other articles.
26985 @item Some limiting commands accept a @kbd{C-u} prefix to negate the match.
26987 If @kbd{C-u} is used on subject, author or extra headers, i.e., @kbd{/
26988 s}, @kbd{/ a}, and @kbd{/ x}
26989 (@code{gnus-summary-limit-to-@{subject,author,extra@}}) respectively, the
26990 result will be to display all articles that do not match the expression.
26993 Group names are treated as UTF-8 by default.
26995 This is supposedly what USEFOR wanted to migrate to. See
26996 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist} and
26997 @code{gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist} for customization.
27000 The nnml and nnfolder back ends store marks for each groups.
27002 This makes it possible to take backup of nnml/nnfolder servers/groups
27003 separately of @file{~/.newsrc.eld}, while preserving marks. It also
27004 makes it possible to share articles and marks between users (without
27005 sharing the @file{~/.newsrc.eld} file) within e.g. a department. It
27006 works by storing the marks stored in @file{~/.newsrc.eld} in a per-group
27007 file @file{.marks} (for nnml) and @file{@var{groupname}.mrk} (for
27008 nnfolder, named @var{groupname}). If the nnml/nnfolder is moved to
27009 another machine, Gnus will automatically use the @file{.marks} or
27010 @file{.mrk} file instead of the information in @file{~/.newsrc.eld}.
27011 The new server variables @code{nnml-marks-is-evil} and
27012 @code{nnfolder-marks-is-evil} can be used to disable this feature.
27015 The menu bar item (in Group and Summary buffer) named ``Misc'' has
27016 been renamed to ``Gnus''.
27019 The menu bar item (in Message mode) named ``@acronym{MML}'' has been
27020 renamed to ``Attachments''. Note that this menu also contains security
27021 related stuff, like signing and encryption (@pxref{Security, Security,,
27022 message, Message Manual}).
27025 @code{gnus-group-charset-alist} and
27026 @code{gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist}.
27028 The regexps in these variables are compared with full group names
27029 instead of real group names in 5.8. Users who customize these
27030 variables should change those regexps accordingly. For example:
27032 ("^han\\>" euc-kr) -> ("\\(^\\|:\\)han\\>" euc-kr)
27036 Gnus supports @acronym{PGP} (RFC 1991/2440), @acronym{PGP/MIME} (RFC
27037 2015/3156) and @acronym{S/MIME} (RFC 2630-2633).
27039 It needs an external @acronym{S/MIME} and OpenPGP implementation, but no
27040 additional Lisp libraries. This add several menu items to the
27041 Attachments menu, and @kbd{C-c RET} key bindings, when composing
27042 messages. This also obsoletes @code{gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook}.
27045 Gnus inlines external parts (message/external).
27048 @acronym{MML} (Mime compose) prefix changed from @kbd{M-m} to @kbd{C-c
27051 This change was made to avoid conflict with the standard binding of
27052 @code{back-to-indentation}, which is also useful in message mode.
27055 The default for @code{message-forward-show-mml} changed to symbol @code{best}.
27057 The behavior for the @code{best} value is to show @acronym{MML} (i.e.,
27058 convert to @acronym{MIME}) when appropriate. @acronym{MML} will not be
27059 used when forwarding signed or encrypted messages, as the conversion
27060 invalidate the digital signature.
27064 @subsubsection No Gnus
27067 New features in No Gnus:
27068 @c FIXME: Gnus 5.12?
27070 @include gnus-news.texi
27076 @section The Manual
27080 This manual was generated from a TeXinfo file and then run through
27081 either @code{texi2dvi}
27083 or my own home-brewed TeXinfo to \LaTeX\ transformer,
27084 and then run through @code{latex} and @code{dvips}
27086 to get what you hold in your hands now.
27088 The following conventions have been used:
27093 This is a @samp{string}
27096 This is a @kbd{keystroke}
27099 This is a @file{file}
27102 This is a @code{symbol}
27106 So if I were to say ``set @code{flargnoze} to @samp{yes}'', that would
27110 (setq flargnoze "yes")
27113 If I say ``set @code{flumphel} to @code{yes}'', that would mean:
27116 (setq flumphel 'yes)
27119 @samp{yes} and @code{yes} are two @emph{very} different things---don't
27120 ever get them confused.
27124 Of course, everything in this manual is of vital interest, so you should
27125 read it all. Several times. However, if you feel like skimming the
27126 manual, look for that gnu head you should see in the margin over
27127 there---it means that what's being discussed is of more importance than
27128 the rest of the stuff. (On the other hand, if everything is infinitely
27129 important, how can anything be more important than that? Just one more
27130 of the mysteries of this world, I guess.)
27136 @node On Writing Manuals
27137 @section On Writing Manuals
27139 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
27140 that's already there. This is not how this manual is written. When
27141 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
27142 straight away. I then see that it's difficult to explain the
27143 functionality, so I write how it's supposed to be, and then I change the
27144 implementation. Writing the documentation and writing the code goes
27147 This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow. It
27148 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you're
27149 looking for it. It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
27152 That would be a totally different book, that should be written using the
27153 reference manual as source material. It would look quite differently.
27158 @section Terminology
27160 @cindex terminology
27165 This is what you are supposed to use this thing for---reading news.
27166 News is generally fetched from a nearby @acronym{NNTP} server, and is
27167 generally publicly available to everybody. If you post news, the entire
27168 world is likely to read just what you have written, and they'll all
27169 snigger mischievously. Behind your back.
27173 Everything that's delivered to you personally is mail. Some news/mail
27174 readers (like Gnus) blur the distinction between mail and news, but
27175 there is a difference. Mail is private. News is public. Mailing is
27176 not posting, and replying is not following up.
27180 Send a mail to the person who has written what you are reading.
27184 Post an article to the current newsgroup responding to the article you
27189 Gnus considers mail and news to be mostly the same, really. The only
27190 difference is how to access the actual articles. News articles are
27191 commonly fetched via the protocol @acronym{NNTP}, whereas mail
27192 messages could be read from a file on the local disk. The internal
27193 architecture of Gnus thus comprises a ``front end'' and a number of
27194 ``back ends''. Internally, when you enter a group (by hitting
27195 @key{RET}, say), you thereby invoke a function in the front end in
27196 Gnus. The front end then ``talks'' to a back end and says things like
27197 ``Give me the list of articles in the foo group'' or ``Show me article
27200 So a back end mainly defines either a protocol (the @code{nntp} back
27201 end accesses news via @acronym{NNTP}, the @code{nnimap} back end
27202 accesses mail via @acronym{IMAP}) or a file format and directory
27203 layout (the @code{nnspool} back end accesses news via the common
27204 ``spool directory'' format, the @code{nnml} back end access mail via a
27205 file format and directory layout that's quite similar).
27207 Gnus does not handle the underlying media, so to speak---this is all
27208 done by the back ends. A back end is a collection of functions to
27209 access the articles.
27211 However, sometimes the term ``back end'' is also used where ``server''
27212 would have been more appropriate. And then there is the term ``select
27213 method'' which can mean either. The Gnus terminology can be quite
27218 Gnus will always use one method (and back end) as the @dfn{native}, or
27219 default, way of getting news.
27223 You can also have any number of foreign groups active at the same time.
27224 These are groups that use non-native non-secondary back ends for getting
27229 Secondary back ends are somewhere half-way between being native and being
27230 foreign, but they mostly act like they are native.
27234 A message that has been posted as news.
27237 @cindex mail message
27238 A message that has been mailed.
27242 A mail message or news article
27246 The top part of a message, where administrative information (etc.) is
27251 The rest of an article. Everything not in the head is in the
27256 A line from the head of an article.
27260 A collection of such lines, or a collection of heads. Or even a
27261 collection of @acronym{NOV} lines.
27263 @item @acronym{NOV}
27264 @cindex @acronym{NOV}
27265 When Gnus enters a group, it asks the back end for the headers of all
27266 unread articles in the group. Most servers support the News OverView
27267 format, which is more compact and much faster to read and parse than the
27268 normal @sc{head} format.
27272 Each group is subscribed at some @dfn{level} or other (1-9). The ones
27273 that have a lower level are ``more'' subscribed than the groups with a
27274 higher level. In fact, groups on levels 1-5 are considered
27275 @dfn{subscribed}; 6-7 are @dfn{unsubscribed}; 8 are @dfn{zombies}; and 9
27276 are @dfn{killed}. Commands for listing groups and scanning for new
27277 articles will all use the numeric prefix as @dfn{working level}.
27279 @item killed groups
27280 @cindex killed groups
27281 No information on killed groups is stored or updated, which makes killed
27282 groups much easier to handle than subscribed groups.
27284 @item zombie groups
27285 @cindex zombie groups
27286 Just like killed groups, only slightly less dead.
27289 @cindex active file
27290 The news server has to keep track of what articles it carries, and what
27291 groups exist. All this information in stored in the active file, which
27292 is rather large, as you might surmise.
27295 @cindex bogus groups
27296 A group that exists in the @file{.newsrc} file, but isn't known to the
27297 server (i.e., it isn't in the active file), is a @emph{bogus group}.
27298 This means that the group probably doesn't exist (any more).
27301 @cindex activating groups
27302 The act of asking the server for info on a group and computing the
27303 number of unread articles is called @dfn{activating the group}.
27304 Un-activated groups are listed with @samp{*} in the group buffer.
27308 News servers store their articles locally in one fashion or other.
27309 One old-fashioned storage method is to have just one file per
27310 article. That's called a ``traditional spool''.
27314 A machine one can connect to and get news (or mail) from.
27316 @item select method
27317 @cindex select method
27318 A structure that specifies the back end, the server and the virtual
27321 @item virtual server
27322 @cindex virtual server
27323 A named select method. Since a select method defines all there is to
27324 know about connecting to a (physical) server, taking the thing as a
27325 whole is a virtual server.
27329 Taking a buffer and running it through a filter of some sort. The
27330 result will (more often than not) be cleaner and more pleasing than the
27333 @item ephemeral groups
27334 @cindex ephemeral groups
27335 @cindex temporary groups
27336 Most groups store data on what articles you have read. @dfn{Ephemeral}
27337 groups are groups that will have no data stored---when you exit the
27338 group, it'll disappear into the aether.
27341 @cindex solid groups
27342 This is the opposite of ephemeral groups. All groups listed in the
27343 group buffer are solid groups.
27345 @item sparse articles
27346 @cindex sparse articles
27347 These are article placeholders shown in the summary buffer when
27348 @code{gnus-build-sparse-threads} has been switched on.
27352 To put responses to articles directly after the articles they respond
27353 to---in a hierarchical fashion.
27357 @cindex thread root
27358 The first article in a thread is the root. It is the ancestor of all
27359 articles in the thread.
27363 An article that has responses.
27367 An article that responds to a different article---its parent.
27371 A collection of messages in one file. The most common digest format is
27372 specified by RFC 1153.
27375 @cindex splitting, terminolgy
27376 @cindex mail sorting
27377 @cindex mail filtering (splitting)
27378 The action of sorting your emails according to certain rules. Sometimes
27379 incorrectly called mail filtering.
27385 @node Customization
27386 @section Customization
27387 @cindex general customization
27389 All variables are properly documented elsewhere in this manual. This
27390 section is designed to give general pointers on how to customize Gnus
27391 for some quite common situations.
27394 * Slow/Expensive Connection:: You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
27395 * Slow Terminal Connection:: You run a remote Emacs.
27396 * Little Disk Space:: You feel that having large setup files is icky.
27397 * Slow Machine:: You feel like buying a faster machine.
27401 @node Slow/Expensive Connection
27402 @subsection Slow/Expensive NNTP Connection
27404 If you run Emacs on a machine locally, and get your news from a machine
27405 over some very thin strings, you want to cut down on the amount of data
27406 Gnus has to get from the @acronym{NNTP} server.
27410 @item gnus-read-active-file
27411 Set this to @code{nil}, which will inhibit Gnus from requesting the
27412 entire active file from the server. This file is often very large. You
27413 also have to set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
27414 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make sure that Gnus
27415 doesn't suddenly decide to fetch the active file anyway.
27417 @item gnus-nov-is-evil
27418 This one has to be @code{nil}. If not, grabbing article headers from
27419 the @acronym{NNTP} server will not be very fast. Not all @acronym{NNTP} servers
27420 support @sc{xover}; Gnus will detect this by itself.
27424 @node Slow Terminal Connection
27425 @subsection Slow Terminal Connection
27427 Let's say you use your home computer for dialing up the system that runs
27428 Emacs and Gnus. If your modem is slow, you want to reduce (as much as
27429 possible) the amount of data sent over the wires.
27433 @item gnus-auto-center-summary
27434 Set this to @code{nil} to inhibit Gnus from re-centering the summary
27435 buffer all the time. If it is @code{vertical}, do only vertical
27436 re-centering. If it is neither @code{nil} nor @code{vertical}, do both
27437 horizontal and vertical recentering.
27439 @item gnus-visible-headers
27440 Cut down on the headers included in the articles to the
27441 minimum. You can, in fact, make do without them altogether---most of the
27442 useful data is in the summary buffer, anyway. Set this variable to
27443 @samp{^NEVVVVER} or @samp{From:}, or whatever you feel you need.
27445 Set this hook to all the available hiding commands:
27447 (setq gnus-treat-hide-headers 'head
27448 gnus-treat-hide-signature t
27449 gnus-treat-hide-citation t)
27452 @item gnus-use-full-window
27453 By setting this to @code{nil}, you can make all the windows smaller.
27454 While this doesn't really cut down much generally, it means that you
27455 have to see smaller portions of articles before deciding that you didn't
27456 want to read them anyway.
27458 @item gnus-thread-hide-subtree
27459 If this is non-@code{nil}, all threads in the summary buffer will be
27463 @item gnus-updated-mode-lines
27464 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not put information in the buffer mode
27465 lines, which might save some time.
27469 @node Little Disk Space
27470 @subsection Little Disk Space
27473 The startup files can get rather large, so you may want to cut their
27474 sizes a bit if you are running out of space.
27478 @item gnus-save-newsrc-file
27479 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never save @file{.newsrc}---it will
27480 only save @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
27481 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
27484 @item gnus-read-newsrc-file
27485 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will never read @file{.newsrc}---it will
27486 only read @file{.newsrc.eld}. This means that you will not be able to
27487 use any other newsreaders than Gnus. This variable is @code{t} by
27490 @item gnus-save-killed-list
27491 If this is @code{nil}, Gnus will not save the list of dead groups. You
27492 should also set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} to @code{ask-server}
27493 and @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} if you set this
27494 variable to @code{nil}. This variable is @code{t} by default.
27500 @subsection Slow Machine
27501 @cindex slow machine
27503 If you have a slow machine, or are just really impatient, there are a
27504 few things you can do to make Gnus run faster.
27506 Set @code{gnus-check-new-newsgroups} and
27507 @code{gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups} to @code{nil} to make startup faster.
27509 Set @code{gnus-show-threads}, @code{gnus-use-cross-reference} and
27510 @code{gnus-nov-is-evil} to @code{nil} to make entering and exiting the
27511 summary buffer faster.
27515 @node Troubleshooting
27516 @section Troubleshooting
27517 @cindex troubleshooting
27519 Gnus works @emph{so} well straight out of the box---I can't imagine any
27527 Make sure your computer is switched on.
27530 Make sure that you really load the current Gnus version. If you have
27531 been running @sc{gnus}, you need to exit Emacs and start it up again before
27535 Try doing an @kbd{M-x gnus-version}. If you get something that looks
27536 like @samp{T-gnus 6.17.* (based on Gnus v5.10.*; for SEMI 1.1*, FLIM
27537 1.1*)} you have the right files loaded. Otherwise you have some old
27538 @file{.el} files lying around. Delete these.
27541 Read the help group (@kbd{G h} in the group buffer) for a
27542 @acronym{FAQ} and a how-to.
27545 @vindex max-lisp-eval-depth
27546 Gnus works on many recursive structures, and in some extreme (and very
27547 rare) cases Gnus may recurse down ``too deeply'' and Emacs will beep at
27548 you. If this happens to you, set @code{max-lisp-eval-depth} to 500 or
27549 something like that.
27552 If all else fails, report the problem as a bug.
27555 @cindex reporting bugs
27557 @kindex M-x gnus-bug
27559 If you find a bug in Gnus, you can report it with the @kbd{M-x gnus-bug}
27560 command. @kbd{M-x set-variable RET debug-on-error RET t RET}, and send
27561 me the backtrace. I will fix bugs, but I can only fix them if you send
27562 me a precise description as to how to reproduce the bug.
27564 You really can never be too detailed in a bug report. Always use the
27565 @kbd{M-x gnus-bug} command when you make bug reports, even if it creates
27566 a 10Kb mail each time you use it, and even if you have sent me your
27567 environment 500 times before. I don't care. I want the full info each
27570 It is also important to remember that I have no memory whatsoever. If
27571 you send a bug report, and I send you a reply, and then you just send
27572 back ``No, it's not! Moron!'', I will have no idea what you are
27573 insulting me about. Always over-explain everything. It's much easier
27574 for all of us---if I don't have all the information I need, I will just
27575 mail you and ask for more info, and everything takes more time.
27577 If the problem you're seeing is very visual, and you can't quite explain
27578 it, copy the Emacs window to a file (with @code{xwd}, for instance), put
27579 it somewhere it can be reached, and include the URL of the picture in
27583 If you would like to contribute a patch to fix bugs or make
27584 improvements, please produce the patch using @samp{diff -u}.
27587 If you want to debug your problem further before reporting, possibly
27588 in order to solve the problem yourself and send a patch, you can use
27589 edebug. Debugging Lisp code is documented in the Elisp manual
27590 (@pxref{Debugging, , Debugging Lisp Programs, elisp, The GNU Emacs
27591 Lisp Reference Manual}). To get you started with edebug, consider if
27592 you discover some weird behavior when pressing @kbd{c}, the first
27593 step is to do @kbd{C-h k c} and click on the hyperlink (Emacs only) in
27594 the documentation buffer that leads you to the function definition,
27595 then press @kbd{M-x edebug-defun RET} with point inside that function,
27596 return to Gnus and press @kbd{c} to invoke the code. You will be
27597 placed in the lisp buffer and can single step using @kbd{SPC} and
27598 evaluate expressions using @kbd{M-:} or inspect variables using
27599 @kbd{C-h v}, abort execution with @kbd{q}, and resume execution with
27600 @kbd{c} or @kbd{g}.
27605 Sometimes, a problem do not directly generate an elisp error but
27606 manifests itself by causing Gnus to be very slow. In these cases, you
27607 can use @kbd{M-x toggle-debug-on-quit} and press @kbd{C-g} when things are
27608 slow, and then try to analyze the backtrace (repeating the procedure
27609 helps isolating the real problem areas).
27611 A fancier approach is to use the elisp profiler, ELP. The profiler is
27612 (or should be) fully documented elsewhere, but to get you started
27613 there are a few steps that need to be followed. First, instrument the
27614 part of Gnus you are interested in for profiling, e.g. @kbd{M-x
27615 elp-instrument-package RET gnus} or @kbd{M-x elp-instrument-package
27616 RET message}. Then perform the operation that is slow and press
27617 @kbd{M-x elp-results}. You will then see which operations that takes
27618 time, and can debug them further. If the entire operation takes much
27619 longer than the time spent in the slowest function in the profiler
27620 output, you probably profiled the wrong part of Gnus. To reset
27621 profiling statistics, use @kbd{M-x elp-reset-all}. @kbd{M-x
27622 elp-restore-all} is supposed to remove profiling, but given the
27623 complexities and dynamic code generation in Gnus, it might not always
27626 @cindex gnu.emacs.gnus
27627 @cindex ding mailing list
27628 If you just need help, you are better off asking on
27629 @samp{gnu.emacs.gnus}. I'm not very helpful. You can also ask on
27630 @email{ding@@gnus.org, the ding mailing list}. Write to
27631 @email{ding-request@@gnus.org} to subscribe.
27635 @node Gnus Reference Guide
27636 @section Gnus Reference Guide
27638 It is my hope that other people will figure out smart stuff that Gnus
27639 can do, and that other people will write those smart things as well. To
27640 facilitate that I thought it would be a good idea to describe the inner
27641 workings of Gnus. And some of the not-so-inner workings, while I'm at
27644 You can never expect the internals of a program not to change, but I
27645 will be defining (in some details) the interface between Gnus and its
27646 back ends (this is written in stone), the format of the score files
27647 (ditto), data structures (some are less likely to change than others)
27648 and general methods of operation.
27651 * Gnus Utility Functions:: Common functions and variable to use.
27652 * Back End Interface:: How Gnus communicates with the servers.
27653 * Score File Syntax:: A BNF definition of the score file standard.
27654 * Headers:: How Gnus stores headers internally.
27655 * Ranges:: A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
27656 * Group Info:: The group info format.
27657 * Extended Interactive:: Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
27658 * Emacs/XEmacs Code:: Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
27659 * Various File Formats:: Formats of files that Gnus use.
27663 @node Gnus Utility Functions
27664 @subsection Gnus Utility Functions
27665 @cindex Gnus utility functions
27666 @cindex utility functions
27668 @cindex internal variables
27670 When writing small functions to be run from hooks (and stuff), it's
27671 vital to have access to the Gnus internal functions and variables.
27672 Below is a list of the most common ones.
27676 @item gnus-newsgroup-name
27677 @vindex gnus-newsgroup-name
27678 This variable holds the name of the current newsgroup.
27680 @item gnus-find-method-for-group
27681 @findex gnus-find-method-for-group
27682 A function that returns the select method for @var{group}.
27684 @item gnus-group-real-name
27685 @findex gnus-group-real-name
27686 Takes a full (prefixed) Gnus group name, and returns the unprefixed
27689 @item gnus-group-prefixed-name
27690 @findex gnus-group-prefixed-name
27691 Takes an unprefixed group name and a select method, and returns the full
27692 (prefixed) Gnus group name.
27694 @item gnus-get-info
27695 @findex gnus-get-info
27696 Returns the group info list for @var{group}.
27698 @item gnus-group-unread
27699 @findex gnus-group-unread
27700 The number of unread articles in @var{group}, or @code{t} if that is
27704 @findex gnus-active
27705 The active entry for @var{group}.
27707 @item gnus-set-active
27708 @findex gnus-set-active
27709 Set the active entry for @var{group}.
27711 @item gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
27712 @findex gnus-add-current-to-buffer-list
27713 Adds the current buffer to the list of buffers to be killed on Gnus
27716 @item gnus-continuum-version
27717 @findex gnus-continuum-version
27718 Takes a Gnus version string as a parameter and returns a floating point
27719 number. Earlier versions will always get a lower number than later
27722 @item gnus-group-read-only-p
27723 @findex gnus-group-read-only-p
27724 Says whether @var{group} is read-only or not.
27726 @item gnus-news-group-p
27727 @findex gnus-news-group-p
27728 Says whether @var{group} came from a news back end.
27730 @item gnus-ephemeral-group-p
27731 @findex gnus-ephemeral-group-p
27732 Says whether @var{group} is ephemeral or not.
27734 @item gnus-server-to-method
27735 @findex gnus-server-to-method
27736 Returns the select method corresponding to @var{server}.
27738 @item gnus-server-equal
27739 @findex gnus-server-equal
27740 Says whether two virtual servers are equal.
27742 @item gnus-group-native-p
27743 @findex gnus-group-native-p
27744 Says whether @var{group} is native or not.
27746 @item gnus-group-secondary-p
27747 @findex gnus-group-secondary-p
27748 Says whether @var{group} is secondary or not.
27750 @item gnus-group-foreign-p
27751 @findex gnus-group-foreign-p
27752 Says whether @var{group} is foreign or not.
27754 @item gnus-group-find-parameter
27755 @findex gnus-group-find-parameter
27756 Returns the parameter list of @var{group}. If given a second parameter,
27757 returns the value of that parameter for @var{group}.
27759 @item gnus-group-set-parameter
27760 @findex gnus-group-set-parameter
27761 Takes three parameters; @var{group}, @var{parameter} and @var{value}.
27763 @item gnus-narrow-to-body
27764 @findex gnus-narrow-to-body
27765 Narrows the current buffer to the body of the article.
27767 @item gnus-check-backend-function
27768 @findex gnus-check-backend-function
27769 Takes two parameters, @var{function} and @var{group}. If the back end
27770 @var{group} comes from supports @var{function}, return non-@code{nil}.
27773 (gnus-check-backend-function "request-scan" "nnml:misc")
27777 @item gnus-read-method
27778 @findex gnus-read-method
27779 Prompts the user for a select method.
27784 @node Back End Interface
27785 @subsection Back End Interface
27787 Gnus doesn't know anything about @acronym{NNTP}, spools, mail or virtual
27788 groups. It only knows how to talk to @dfn{virtual servers}. A virtual
27789 server is a @dfn{back end} and some @dfn{back end variables}. As examples
27790 of the first, we have @code{nntp}, @code{nnspool} and @code{nnmbox}. As
27791 examples of the latter we have @code{nntp-port-number} and
27792 @code{nnmbox-directory}.
27794 When Gnus asks for information from a back end---say @code{nntp}---on
27795 something, it will normally include a virtual server name in the
27796 function parameters. (If not, the back end should use the ``current''
27797 virtual server.) For instance, @code{nntp-request-list} takes a virtual
27798 server as its only (optional) parameter. If this virtual server hasn't
27799 been opened, the function should fail.
27801 Note that a virtual server name has no relation to some physical server
27802 name. Take this example:
27806 (nntp-address "ifi.uio.no")
27807 (nntp-port-number 4324))
27810 Here the virtual server name is @samp{odd-one} while the name of
27811 the physical server is @samp{ifi.uio.no}.
27813 The back ends should be able to switch between several virtual servers.
27814 The standard back ends implement this by keeping an alist of virtual
27815 server environments that they pull down/push up when needed.
27817 There are two groups of interface functions: @dfn{required functions},
27818 which must be present, and @dfn{optional functions}, which Gnus will
27819 always check for presence before attempting to call 'em.
27821 All these functions are expected to return data in the buffer
27822 @code{nntp-server-buffer} (@samp{ *nntpd*}), which is somewhat
27823 unfortunately named, but we'll have to live with it. When I talk about
27824 @dfn{resulting data}, I always refer to the data in that buffer. When I
27825 talk about @dfn{return value}, I talk about the function value returned by
27826 the function call. Functions that fail should return @code{nil} as the
27829 Some back ends could be said to be @dfn{server-forming} back ends, and
27830 some might be said not to be. The latter are back ends that generally
27831 only operate on one group at a time, and have no concept of ``server''
27832 ---they have a group, and they deliver info on that group and nothing
27835 Gnus identifies each message by way of group name and article number. A
27836 few remarks about these article numbers might be useful. First of all,
27837 the numbers are positive integers. Secondly, it is normally not
27838 possible for later articles to ``re-use'' older article numbers without
27839 confusing Gnus. That is, if a group has ever contained a message
27840 numbered 42, then no other message may get that number, or Gnus will get
27841 mightily confused.@footnote{See the function
27842 @code{nnchoke-request-update-info}, @ref{Optional Back End Functions}.}
27843 Third, article numbers must be assigned in order of arrival in the
27844 group; this is not necessarily the same as the date of the message.
27846 The previous paragraph already mentions all the ``hard'' restrictions that
27847 article numbers must fulfill. But it seems that it might be useful to
27848 assign @emph{consecutive} article numbers, for Gnus gets quite confused
27849 if there are holes in the article numbering sequence. However, due to
27850 the ``no-reuse'' restriction, holes cannot be avoided altogether. It's
27851 also useful for the article numbers to start at 1 to avoid running out
27852 of numbers as long as possible.
27854 Note that by convention, back ends are named @code{nnsomething}, but
27855 Gnus also comes with some @code{nnnotbackends}, such as
27856 @file{nnheader.el}, @file{nnmail.el} and @file{nnoo.el}.
27858 In the examples and definitions I will refer to the imaginary back end
27861 @cindex @code{nnchoke}
27864 * Required Back End Functions:: Functions that must be implemented.
27865 * Optional Back End Functions:: Functions that need not be implemented.
27866 * Error Messaging:: How to get messages and report errors.
27867 * Writing New Back Ends:: Extending old back ends.
27868 * Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus:: What has to be done on the Gnus end.
27869 * Mail-like Back Ends:: Some tips on mail back ends.
27873 @node Required Back End Functions
27874 @subsubsection Required Back End Functions
27878 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-headers ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FETCH-OLD)
27880 @var{articles} is either a range of article numbers or a list of
27881 @code{Message-ID}s. Current back ends do not fully support either---only
27882 sequences (lists) of article numbers, and most back ends do not support
27883 retrieval of @code{Message-ID}s. But they should try for both.
27885 The result data should either be HEADs or @acronym{NOV} lines, and the result
27886 value should either be @code{headers} or @code{nov} to reflect this.
27887 This might later be expanded to @code{various}, which will be a mixture
27888 of HEADs and @acronym{NOV} lines, but this is currently not supported by Gnus.
27890 If @var{fetch-old} is non-@code{nil} it says to try fetching ``extra
27891 headers'', in some meaning of the word. This is generally done by
27892 fetching (at most) @var{fetch-old} extra headers less than the smallest
27893 article number in @code{articles}, and filling the gaps as well. The
27894 presence of this parameter can be ignored if the back end finds it
27895 cumbersome to follow the request. If this is non-@code{nil} and not a
27896 number, do maximum fetches.
27898 Here's an example HEAD:
27901 221 1056 Article retrieved.
27902 Path: ifi.uio.no!sturles
27903 From: sturles@@ifi.uio.no (Sturle Sunde)
27904 Newsgroups: ifi.discussion
27905 Subject: Re: Something very droll
27906 Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:02:57 +0100
27907 Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
27909 Message-ID: <38o8e1$a0o@@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
27910 References: <38jdmq$4qu@@visbur.ifi.uio.no>
27911 NNTP-Posting-Host: holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no
27915 So a @code{headers} return value would imply that there's a number of
27916 these in the data buffer.
27918 Here's a BNF definition of such a buffer:
27922 head = error / valid-head
27923 error-message = [ "4" / "5" ] 2number " " <error message> eol
27924 valid-head = valid-message *header "." eol
27925 valid-message = "221 " <number> " Article retrieved." eol
27926 header = <text> eol
27930 (The version of BNF used here is the one used in RFC822.)
27932 If the return value is @code{nov}, the data buffer should contain
27933 @dfn{network overview database} lines. These are basically fields
27937 nov-buffer = *nov-line
27938 nov-line = field 7*8[ <TAB> field ] eol
27939 field = <text except TAB>
27942 For a closer look at what should be in those fields,
27946 @item (nnchoke-open-server SERVER &optional DEFINITIONS)
27948 @var{server} is here the virtual server name. @var{definitions} is a
27949 list of @code{(VARIABLE VALUE)} pairs that define this virtual server.
27951 If the server can't be opened, no error should be signaled. The back end
27952 may then choose to refuse further attempts at connecting to this
27953 server. In fact, it should do so.
27955 If the server is opened already, this function should return a
27956 non-@code{nil} value. There should be no data returned.
27959 @item (nnchoke-close-server &optional SERVER)
27961 Close connection to @var{server} and free all resources connected
27962 to it. Return @code{nil} if the server couldn't be closed for some
27965 There should be no data returned.
27968 @item (nnchoke-request-close)
27970 Close connection to all servers and free all resources that the back end
27971 have reserved. All buffers that have been created by that back end
27972 should be killed. (Not the @code{nntp-server-buffer}, though.) This
27973 function is generally only called when Gnus is shutting down.
27975 There should be no data returned.
27978 @item (nnchoke-server-opened &optional SERVER)
27980 If @var{server} is the current virtual server, and the connection to the
27981 physical server is alive, then this function should return a
27982 non-@code{nil} value. This function should under no circumstances
27983 attempt to reconnect to a server we have lost connection to.
27985 There should be no data returned.
27988 @item (nnchoke-status-message &optional SERVER)
27990 This function should return the last error message from @var{server}.
27992 There should be no data returned.
27995 @item (nnchoke-request-article ARTICLE &optional GROUP SERVER TO-BUFFER)
27997 The result data from this function should be the article specified by
27998 @var{article}. This might either be a @code{Message-ID} or a number.
27999 It is optional whether to implement retrieval by @code{Message-ID}, but
28000 it would be nice if that were possible.
28002 If @var{to-buffer} is non-@code{nil}, the result data should be returned
28003 in this buffer instead of the normal data buffer. This is to make it
28004 possible to avoid copying large amounts of data from one buffer to
28005 another, while Gnus mainly requests articles to be inserted directly
28006 into its article buffer.
28008 If it is at all possible, this function should return a cons cell where
28009 the @code{car} is the group name the article was fetched from, and the @code{cdr} is
28010 the article number. This will enable Gnus to find out what the real
28011 group and article numbers are when fetching articles by
28012 @code{Message-ID}. If this isn't possible, @code{t} should be returned
28013 on successful article retrieval.
28016 @item (nnchoke-request-group GROUP &optional SERVER FAST)
28018 Get data on @var{group}. This function also has the side effect of
28019 making @var{group} the current group.
28021 If @var{fast}, don't bother to return useful data, just make @var{group}
28024 Here's an example of some result data and a definition of the same:
28027 211 56 1000 1059 ifi.discussion
28030 The first number is the status, which should be 211. Next is the
28031 total number of articles in the group, the lowest article number, the
28032 highest article number, and finally the group name. Note that the total
28033 number of articles may be less than one might think while just
28034 considering the highest and lowest article numbers, but some articles
28035 may have been canceled. Gnus just discards the total-number, so
28036 whether one should take the bother to generate it properly (if that is a
28037 problem) is left as an exercise to the reader. If the group contains no
28038 articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1 and the
28042 group-status = [ error / info ] eol
28043 error = [ "4" / "5" ] 2<number> " " <Error message>
28044 info = "211 " 3* [ <number> " " ] <string>
28048 @item (nnchoke-close-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
28050 Close @var{group} and free any resources connected to it. This will be
28051 a no-op on most back ends.
28053 There should be no data returned.
28056 @item (nnchoke-request-list &optional SERVER)
28058 Return a list of all groups available on @var{server}. And that means
28061 Here's an example from a server that only carries two groups:
28064 ifi.test 0000002200 0000002000 y
28065 ifi.discussion 3324 3300 n
28068 On each line we have a group name, then the highest article number in
28069 that group, the lowest article number, and finally a flag. If the group
28070 contains no articles, the lowest article number should be reported as 1
28071 and the highest as 0.
28074 active-file = *active-line
28075 active-line = name " " <number> " " <number> " " flags eol
28077 flags = "n" / "y" / "m" / "x" / "j" / "=" name
28080 The flag says whether the group is read-only (@samp{n}), is moderated
28081 (@samp{m}), is dead (@samp{x}), is aliased to some other group
28082 (@samp{=other-group}) or none of the above (@samp{y}).
28085 @item (nnchoke-request-post &optional SERVER)
28087 This function should post the current buffer. It might return whether
28088 the posting was successful or not, but that's not required. If, for
28089 instance, the posting is done asynchronously, it has generally not been
28090 completed by the time this function concludes. In that case, this
28091 function should set up some kind of sentinel to beep the user loud and
28092 clear if the posting could not be completed.
28094 There should be no result data from this function.
28099 @node Optional Back End Functions
28100 @subsubsection Optional Back End Functions
28104 @item (nnchoke-retrieve-groups GROUPS &optional SERVER)
28106 @var{groups} is a list of groups, and this function should request data
28107 on all those groups. How it does it is of no concern to Gnus, but it
28108 should attempt to do this in a speedy fashion.
28110 The return value of this function can be either @code{active} or
28111 @code{group}, which says what the format of the result data is. The
28112 former is in the same format as the data from
28113 @code{nnchoke-request-list}, while the latter is a buffer full of lines
28114 in the same format as @code{nnchoke-request-group} gives.
28117 group-buffer = *active-line / *group-status
28121 @item (nnchoke-request-update-info GROUP INFO &optional SERVER)
28123 A Gnus group info (@pxref{Group Info}) is handed to the back end for
28124 alterations. This comes in handy if the back end really carries all
28125 the information (as is the case with virtual and imap groups). This
28126 function should destructively alter the info to suit its needs, and
28127 should return a non-@code{nil} value (exceptionally,
28128 @code{nntp-request-update-info} always returns @code{nil} not to waste
28129 the network resources).
28131 There should be no result data from this function.
28134 @item (nnchoke-request-type GROUP &optional ARTICLE)
28136 When the user issues commands for ``sending news'' (@kbd{F} in the
28137 summary buffer, for instance), Gnus has to know whether the article the
28138 user is following up on is news or mail. This function should return
28139 @code{news} if @var{article} in @var{group} is news, @code{mail} if it
28140 is mail and @code{unknown} if the type can't be decided. (The
28141 @var{article} parameter is necessary in @code{nnvirtual} groups which
28142 might very well combine mail groups and news groups.) Both @var{group}
28143 and @var{article} may be @code{nil}.
28145 There should be no result data from this function.
28148 @item (nnchoke-request-set-mark GROUP ACTION &optional SERVER)
28150 Set/remove/add marks on articles. Normally Gnus handles the article
28151 marks (such as read, ticked, expired etc) internally, and store them in
28152 @file{~/.newsrc.eld}. Some back ends (such as @acronym{IMAP}) however carry
28153 all information about the articles on the server, so Gnus need to
28154 propagate the mark information to the server.
28156 @var{action} is a list of mark setting requests, having this format:
28159 (RANGE ACTION MARK)
28162 @var{range} is a range of articles you wish to update marks on.
28163 @var{action} is @code{add} or @code{del}, used to add marks or remove
28164 marks (preserving all marks not mentioned). @var{mark} is a list of
28165 marks; where each mark is a symbol. Currently used marks are
28166 @code{read}, @code{tick}, @code{reply}, @code{expire}, @code{killed},
28167 @code{dormant}, @code{save}, @code{download}, @code{unsend},
28168 @code{forward} and @code{recent}, but your back end should, if
28169 possible, not limit itself to these.
28171 Given contradictory actions, the last action in the list should be the
28172 effective one. That is, if your action contains a request to add the
28173 @code{tick} mark on article 1 and, later in the list, a request to
28174 remove the mark on the same article, the mark should in fact be removed.
28176 An example action list:
28179 (((5 12 30) 'del '(tick))
28180 ((10 . 90) 'add '(read expire))
28181 ((92 94) 'del '(read)))
28184 The function should return a range of articles it wasn't able to set the
28185 mark on (currently not used for anything).
28187 There should be no result data from this function.
28189 @item (nnchoke-request-update-mark GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
28191 If the user tries to set a mark that the back end doesn't like, this
28192 function may change the mark. Gnus will use whatever this function
28193 returns as the mark for @var{article} instead of the original
28194 @var{mark}. If the back end doesn't care, it must return the original
28195 @var{mark}, and not @code{nil} or any other type of garbage.
28197 The only use for this I can see is what @code{nnvirtual} does with
28198 it---if a component group is auto-expirable, marking an article as read
28199 in the virtual group should result in the article being marked as
28202 There should be no result data from this function.
28205 @item (nnchoke-request-scan &optional GROUP SERVER)
28207 This function may be called at any time (by Gnus or anything else) to
28208 request that the back end check for incoming articles, in one way or
28209 another. A mail back end will typically read the spool file or query
28210 the @acronym{POP} server when this function is invoked. The
28211 @var{group} doesn't have to be heeded---if the back end decides that
28212 it is too much work just scanning for a single group, it may do a
28213 total scan of all groups. It would be nice, however, to keep things
28214 local if that's practical.
28216 There should be no result data from this function.
28219 @item (nnchoke-request-group-description GROUP &optional SERVER)
28221 The result data from this function should be a description of
28225 description-line = name <TAB> description eol
28227 description = <text>
28230 @item (nnchoke-request-list-newsgroups &optional SERVER)
28232 The result data from this function should be the description of all
28233 groups available on the server.
28236 description-buffer = *description-line
28240 @item (nnchoke-request-newgroups DATE &optional SERVER)
28242 The result data from this function should be all groups that were
28243 created after @samp{date}, which is in normal human-readable date format
28244 (i.e., the date format used in mail and news headers, and returned by
28245 the function @code{message-make-date} by default). The data should be
28246 in the active buffer format.
28248 It is okay for this function to return ``too many'' groups; some back ends
28249 might find it cheaper to return the full list of groups, rather than
28250 just the new groups. But don't do this for back ends with many groups.
28251 Normally, if the user creates the groups herself, there won't be too
28252 many groups, so @code{nnml} and the like are probably safe. But for
28253 back ends like @code{nntp}, where the groups have been created by the
28254 server, it is quite likely that there can be many groups.
28257 @item (nnchoke-request-create-group GROUP &optional SERVER)
28259 This function should create an empty group with name @var{group}.
28261 There should be no return data.
28264 @item (nnchoke-request-expire-articles ARTICLES &optional GROUP SERVER FORCE)
28266 This function should run the expiry process on all articles in the
28267 @var{articles} range (which is currently a simple list of article
28268 numbers.) It is left up to the back end to decide how old articles
28269 should be before they are removed by this function. If @var{force} is
28270 non-@code{nil}, all @var{articles} should be deleted, no matter how new
28273 This function should return a list of articles that it did not/was not
28276 There should be no result data returned.
28279 @item (nnchoke-request-move-article ARTICLE GROUP SERVER ACCEPT-FORM &optional LAST)
28281 This function should move @var{article} (which is a number) from
28282 @var{group} by calling @var{accept-form}.
28284 This function should ready the article in question for moving by
28285 removing any header lines it has added to the article, and generally
28286 should ``tidy up'' the article. Then it should @code{eval}
28287 @var{accept-form} in the buffer where the ``tidy'' article is. This
28288 will do the actual copying. If this @code{eval} returns a
28289 non-@code{nil} value, the article should be removed.
28291 If @var{last} is @code{nil}, that means that there is a high likelihood
28292 that there will be more requests issued shortly, so that allows some
28295 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
28296 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
28298 The group should exist before the back end is asked to accept the
28299 article for that group.
28301 There should be no data returned.
28304 @item (nnchoke-request-accept-article GROUP &optional SERVER LAST)
28306 This function takes the current buffer and inserts it into @var{group}.
28307 If @var{last} in @code{nil}, that means that there will be more calls to
28308 this function in short order.
28310 The function should return a cons where the @code{car} is the group name and
28311 the @code{cdr} is the article number that the article was entered as.
28313 There should be no data returned.
28316 @item (nnchoke-request-replace-article ARTICLE GROUP BUFFER)
28318 This function should remove @var{article} (which is a number) from
28319 @var{group} and insert @var{buffer} there instead.
28321 There should be no data returned.
28324 @item (nnchoke-request-delete-group GROUP FORCE &optional SERVER)
28326 This function should delete @var{group}. If @var{force}, it should
28327 really delete all the articles in the group, and then delete the group
28328 itself. (If there is such a thing as ``the group itself''.)
28330 There should be no data returned.
28333 @item (nnchoke-request-rename-group GROUP NEW-NAME &optional SERVER)
28335 This function should rename @var{group} into @var{new-name}. All
28336 articles in @var{group} should move to @var{new-name}.
28338 There should be no data returned.
28343 @node Error Messaging
28344 @subsubsection Error Messaging
28346 @findex nnheader-report
28347 @findex nnheader-get-report
28348 The back ends should use the function @code{nnheader-report} to report
28349 error conditions---they should not raise errors when they aren't able to
28350 perform a request. The first argument to this function is the back end
28351 symbol, and the rest are interpreted as arguments to @code{format} if
28352 there are multiple of them, or just a string if there is one of them.
28353 This function must always returns @code{nil}.
28356 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "You did something totally bogus")
28358 (nnheader-report 'nnchoke "Could not request group %s" group)
28361 Gnus, in turn, will call @code{nnheader-get-report} when it gets a
28362 @code{nil} back from a server, and this function returns the most
28363 recently reported message for the back end in question. This function
28364 takes one argument---the server symbol.
28366 Internally, these functions access @var{back-end}@code{-status-string},
28367 so the @code{nnchoke} back end will have its error message stored in
28368 @code{nnchoke-status-string}.
28371 @node Writing New Back Ends
28372 @subsubsection Writing New Back Ends
28374 Many back ends are quite similar. @code{nnml} is just like
28375 @code{nnspool}, but it allows you to edit the articles on the server.
28376 @code{nnmh} is just like @code{nnml}, but it doesn't use an active file,
28377 and it doesn't maintain overview databases. @code{nndir} is just like
28378 @code{nnml}, but it has no concept of ``groups'', and it doesn't allow
28381 It would make sense if it were possible to ``inherit'' functions from
28382 back ends when writing new back ends. And, indeed, you can do that if you
28383 want to. (You don't have to if you don't want to, of course.)
28385 All the back ends declare their public variables and functions by using a
28386 package called @code{nnoo}.
28388 To inherit functions from other back ends (and allow other back ends to
28389 inherit functions from the current back end), you should use the
28395 This macro declares the first parameter to be a child of the subsequent
28396 parameters. For instance:
28399 (nnoo-declare nndir
28403 @code{nndir} has declared here that it intends to inherit functions from
28404 both @code{nnml} and @code{nnmh}.
28407 This macro is equivalent to @code{defvar}, but registers the variable as
28408 a public server variable. Most state-oriented variables should be
28409 declared with @code{defvoo} instead of @code{defvar}.
28411 In addition to the normal @code{defvar} parameters, it takes a list of
28412 variables in the parent back ends to map the variable to when executing
28413 a function in those back ends.
28416 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
28417 "Where nndir will look for groups."
28418 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
28421 This means that @code{nnml-current-directory} will be set to
28422 @code{nndir-directory} when an @code{nnml} function is called on behalf
28423 of @code{nndir}. (The same with @code{nnmh}.)
28425 @item nnoo-define-basics
28426 This macro defines some common functions that almost all back ends should
28430 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
28434 This macro is just like @code{defun} and takes the same parameters. In
28435 addition to doing the normal @code{defun} things, it registers the
28436 function as being public so that other back ends can inherit it.
28438 @item nnoo-map-functions
28439 This macro allows mapping of functions from the current back end to
28440 functions from the parent back ends.
28443 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
28444 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
28445 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0))
28448 This means that when @code{nndir-retrieve-headers} is called, the first,
28449 third, and fourth parameters will be passed on to
28450 @code{nnml-retrieve-headers}, while the second parameter is set to the
28451 value of @code{nndir-current-group}.
28454 This macro allows importing functions from back ends. It should be the
28455 last thing in the source file, since it will only define functions that
28456 haven't already been defined.
28462 nnmh-request-newgroups)
28466 This means that calls to @code{nndir-request-list} should just be passed
28467 on to @code{nnmh-request-list}, while all public functions from
28468 @code{nnml} that haven't been defined in @code{nndir} yet should be
28473 Below is a slightly shortened version of the @code{nndir} back end.
28476 ;;; @r{nndir.el --- single directory newsgroup access for Gnus}
28477 ;; @r{Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.}
28481 (require 'nnheader)
28485 (eval-when-compile (require 'cl))
28487 (nnoo-declare nndir
28490 (defvoo nndir-directory nil
28491 "Where nndir will look for groups."
28492 nnml-current-directory nnmh-current-directory)
28494 (defvoo nndir-nov-is-evil nil
28495 "*Non-nil means that nndir will never retrieve NOV headers."
28498 (defvoo nndir-current-group ""
28500 nnml-current-group nnmh-current-group)
28501 (defvoo nndir-top-directory nil nil nnml-directory nnmh-directory)
28502 (defvoo nndir-get-new-mail nil nil nnml-get-new-mail nnmh-get-new-mail)
28504 (defvoo nndir-status-string "" nil nnmh-status-string)
28505 (defconst nndir-version "nndir 1.0")
28507 ;;; @r{Interface functions.}
28509 (nnoo-define-basics nndir)
28511 (deffoo nndir-open-server (server &optional defs)
28512 (setq nndir-directory
28513 (or (cadr (assq 'nndir-directory defs))
28515 (unless (assq 'nndir-directory defs)
28516 (push `(nndir-directory ,server) defs))
28517 (push `(nndir-current-group
28518 ,(file-name-nondirectory
28519 (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
28521 (push `(nndir-top-directory
28522 ,(file-name-directory (directory-file-name nndir-directory)))
28524 (nnoo-change-server 'nndir server defs))
28526 (nnoo-map-functions nndir
28527 (nnml-retrieve-headers 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
28528 (nnmh-request-article 0 nndir-current-group 0 0)
28529 (nnmh-request-group nndir-current-group 0 0)
28530 (nnmh-close-group nndir-current-group 0))
28534 nnmh-status-message
28536 nnmh-request-newgroups))
28542 @node Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
28543 @subsubsection Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus
28545 @vindex gnus-valid-select-methods
28546 @findex gnus-declare-backend
28547 Having Gnus start using your new back end is rather easy---you just
28548 declare it with the @code{gnus-declare-backend} functions. This will
28549 enter the back end into the @code{gnus-valid-select-methods} variable.
28551 @code{gnus-declare-backend} takes two parameters---the back end name and
28552 an arbitrary number of @dfn{abilities}.
28557 (gnus-declare-backend "nnchoke" 'mail 'respool 'address)
28560 The above line would then go in the @file{nnchoke.el} file.
28562 The abilities can be:
28566 This is a mailish back end---followups should (probably) go via mail.
28568 This is a newsish back end---followups should (probably) go via news.
28570 This back end supports both mail and news.
28572 This is neither a post nor mail back end---it's something completely
28575 It supports respooling---or rather, it is able to modify its source
28576 articles and groups.
28578 The name of the server should be in the virtual server name. This is
28579 true for almost all back ends.
28580 @item prompt-address
28581 The user should be prompted for an address when doing commands like
28582 @kbd{B} in the group buffer. This is true for back ends like
28583 @code{nntp}, but not @code{nnmbox}, for instance.
28587 @node Mail-like Back Ends
28588 @subsubsection Mail-like Back Ends
28590 One of the things that separate the mail back ends from the rest of the
28591 back ends is the heavy dependence by most of the mail back ends on
28592 common functions in @file{nnmail.el}. For instance, here's the
28593 definition of @code{nnml-request-scan}:
28596 (deffoo nnml-request-scan (&optional group server)
28597 (setq nnml-article-file-alist nil)
28598 (nnmail-get-new-mail 'nnml 'nnml-save-nov nnml-directory group))
28601 It simply calls @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} with a few parameters,
28602 and @code{nnmail} takes care of all the moving and splitting of the
28605 This function takes four parameters.
28609 This should be a symbol to designate which back end is responsible for
28612 @item exit-function
28613 This function should be called after the splitting has been performed.
28615 @item temp-directory
28616 Where the temporary files should be stored.
28619 This optional argument should be a group name if the splitting is to be
28620 performed for one group only.
28623 @code{nnmail-get-new-mail} will call @var{back-end}@code{-save-mail} to
28624 save each article. @var{back-end}@code{-active-number} will be called to
28625 find the article number assigned to this article.
28627 The function also uses the following variables:
28628 @var{back-end}@code{-get-new-mail} (to see whether to get new mail for
28629 this back end); and @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} and
28630 @var{back-end}@code{-active-file} to generate the new active file.
28631 @var{back-end}@code{-group-alist} should be a group-active alist, like
28635 (("a-group" (1 . 10))
28636 ("some-group" (34 . 39)))
28640 @node Score File Syntax
28641 @subsection Score File Syntax
28643 Score files are meant to be easily parseable, but yet extremely
28644 mallable. It was decided that something that had the same read syntax
28645 as an Emacs Lisp list would fit that spec.
28647 Here's a typical score file:
28651 ("win95" -10000 nil s)
28658 BNF definition of a score file:
28661 score-file = "" / "(" *element ")"
28662 element = rule / atom
28663 rule = string-rule / number-rule / date-rule
28664 string-rule = "(" quote string-header quote space *string-match ")"
28665 number-rule = "(" quote number-header quote space *number-match ")"
28666 date-rule = "(" quote date-header quote space *date-match ")"
28668 string-header = "subject" / "from" / "references" / "message-id" /
28669 "xref" / "body" / "head" / "all" / "followup"
28670 number-header = "lines" / "chars"
28671 date-header = "date"
28672 string-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
28673 space date [ "" / [ space string-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
28674 score = "nil" / <integer>
28675 date = "nil" / <natural number>
28676 string-match-t = "nil" / "s" / "substring" / "S" / "Substring" /
28677 "r" / "regex" / "R" / "Regex" /
28678 "e" / "exact" / "E" / "Exact" /
28679 "f" / "fuzzy" / "F" / "Fuzzy"
28680 number-match = "(" <integer> [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
28681 space date [ "" / [ space number-match-t ] ] ] ] ] ")"
28682 number-match-t = "nil" / "=" / "<" / ">" / ">=" / "<="
28683 date-match = "(" quote <string> quote [ "" / [ space score [ "" /
28684 space date [ "" / [ space date-match-t ] ] ] ] ")"
28685 date-match-t = "nil" / "at" / "before" / "after"
28686 atom = "(" [ required-atom / optional-atom ] ")"
28687 required-atom = mark / expunge / mark-and-expunge / files /
28688 exclude-files / read-only / touched
28689 optional-atom = adapt / local / eval
28690 mark = "mark" space nil-or-number
28691 nil-or-number = "nil" / <integer>
28692 expunge = "expunge" space nil-or-number
28693 mark-and-expunge = "mark-and-expunge" space nil-or-number
28694 files = "files" *[ space <string> ]
28695 exclude-files = "exclude-files" *[ space <string> ]
28696 read-only = "read-only" [ space "nil" / space "t" ]
28697 adapt = "adapt" [ space "ignore" / space "t" / space adapt-rule ]
28698 adapt-rule = "(" *[ <string> *[ "(" <string> <integer> ")" ] ")"
28699 local = "local" *[ space "(" <string> space <form> ")" ]
28700 eval = "eval" space <form>
28701 space = *[ " " / <TAB> / <NEWLINE> ]
28704 Any unrecognized elements in a score file should be ignored, but not
28707 As you can see, white space is needed, but the type and amount of white
28708 space is irrelevant. This means that formatting of the score file is
28709 left up to the programmer---if it's simpler to just spew it all out on
28710 one looong line, then that's ok.
28712 The meaning of the various atoms are explained elsewhere in this
28713 manual (@pxref{Score File Format}).
28717 @subsection Headers
28719 Internally Gnus uses a format for storing article headers that
28720 corresponds to the @acronym{NOV} format in a mysterious fashion. One could
28721 almost suspect that the author looked at the @acronym{NOV} specification and
28722 just shamelessly @emph{stole} the entire thing, and one would be right.
28724 @dfn{Header} is a severely overloaded term. ``Header'' is used in
28725 RFC 1036 to talk about lines in the head of an article (e.g.,
28726 @code{From}). It is used by many people as a synonym for
28727 ``head''---``the header and the body''. (That should be avoided, in my
28728 opinion.) And Gnus uses a format internally that it calls ``header'',
28729 which is what I'm talking about here. This is a 9-element vector,
28730 basically, with each header (ouch) having one slot.
28732 These slots are, in order: @code{number}, @code{subject}, @code{from},
28733 @code{date}, @code{id}, @code{references}, @code{chars}, @code{lines},
28734 @code{xref}, and @code{extra}. There are macros for accessing and
28735 setting these slots---they all have predictable names beginning with
28736 @code{mail-header-} and @code{mail-header-set-}, respectively.
28738 All these slots contain strings, except the @code{extra} slot, which
28739 contains an alist of header/value pairs (@pxref{To From Newsgroups}).
28745 @sc{gnus} introduced a concept that I found so useful that I've started
28746 using it a lot and have elaborated on it greatly.
28748 The question is simple: If you have a large amount of objects that are
28749 identified by numbers (say, articles, to take a @emph{wild} example)
28750 that you want to qualify as being ``included'', a normal sequence isn't
28751 very useful. (A 200,000 length sequence is a bit long-winded.)
28753 The solution is as simple as the question: You just collapse the
28757 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12)
28760 is transformed into
28763 ((1 . 6) (10 . 12))
28766 To avoid having those nasty @samp{(13 . 13)} elements to denote a
28767 lonesome object, a @samp{13} is a valid element:
28770 ((1 . 6) 7 (10 . 12))
28773 This means that comparing two ranges to find out whether they are equal
28774 is slightly tricky:
28777 ((1 . 5) 7 8 (10 . 12))
28783 ((1 . 5) (7 . 8) (10 . 12))
28786 are equal. In fact, any non-descending list is a range:
28792 is a perfectly valid range, although a pretty long-winded one. This is
28799 and is equal to the previous range.
28801 Here's a BNF definition of ranges. Of course, one must remember the
28802 semantic requirement that the numbers are non-descending. (Any number
28803 of repetition of the same number is allowed, but apt to disappear in
28807 range = simple-range / normal-range
28808 simple-range = "(" number " . " number ")"
28809 normal-range = "(" start-contents ")"
28810 contents = "" / simple-range *[ " " contents ] /
28811 number *[ " " contents ]
28814 Gnus currently uses ranges to keep track of read articles and article
28815 marks. I plan on implementing a number of range operators in C if The
28816 Powers That Be are willing to let me. (I haven't asked yet, because I
28817 need to do some more thinking on what operators I need to make life
28818 totally range-based without ever having to convert back to normal
28823 @subsection Group Info
28825 Gnus stores all permanent info on groups in a @dfn{group info} list.
28826 This list is from three to six elements (or more) long and exhaustively
28827 describes the group.
28829 Here are two example group infos; one is a very simple group while the
28830 second is a more complex one:
28833 ("no.group" 5 ((1 . 54324)))
28835 ("nnml:my.mail" 3 ((1 . 5) 9 (20 . 55))
28836 ((tick (15 . 19)) (replied 3 6 (19 . 3)))
28838 ((auto-expire . t) (to-address . "ding@@gnus.org")))
28841 The first element is the @dfn{group name}---as Gnus knows the group,
28842 anyway. The second element is the @dfn{subscription level}, which
28843 normally is a small integer. (It can also be the @dfn{rank}, which is a
28844 cons cell where the @code{car} is the level and the @code{cdr} is the
28845 score.) The third element is a list of ranges of read articles. The
28846 fourth element is a list of lists of article marks of various kinds.
28847 The fifth element is the select method (or virtual server, if you like).
28848 The sixth element is a list of @dfn{group parameters}, which is what
28849 this section is about.
28851 Any of the last three elements may be missing if they are not required.
28852 In fact, the vast majority of groups will normally only have the first
28853 three elements, which saves quite a lot of cons cells.
28855 Here's a BNF definition of the group info format:
28858 info = "(" group space ralevel space read
28859 [ "" / [ space marks-list [ "" / [ space method [ "" /
28860 space parameters ] ] ] ] ] ")"
28861 group = quote <string> quote
28862 ralevel = rank / level
28863 level = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
28864 rank = "(" level "." score ")"
28865 score = <integer in the range of 1 to inf>
28867 marks-lists = nil / "(" *marks ")"
28868 marks = "(" <string> range ")"
28869 method = "(" <string> *elisp-forms ")"
28870 parameters = "(" *elisp-forms ")"
28873 Actually that @samp{marks} rule is a fib. A @samp{marks} is a
28874 @samp{<string>} consed on to a @samp{range}, but that's a bitch to say
28877 If you have a Gnus info and want to access the elements, Gnus offers a
28878 series of macros for getting/setting these elements.
28881 @item gnus-info-group
28882 @itemx gnus-info-set-group
28883 @findex gnus-info-group
28884 @findex gnus-info-set-group
28885 Get/set the group name.
28887 @item gnus-info-rank
28888 @itemx gnus-info-set-rank
28889 @findex gnus-info-rank
28890 @findex gnus-info-set-rank
28891 Get/set the group rank (@pxref{Group Score}).
28893 @item gnus-info-level
28894 @itemx gnus-info-set-level
28895 @findex gnus-info-level
28896 @findex gnus-info-set-level
28897 Get/set the group level.
28899 @item gnus-info-score
28900 @itemx gnus-info-set-score
28901 @findex gnus-info-score
28902 @findex gnus-info-set-score
28903 Get/set the group score (@pxref{Group Score}).
28905 @item gnus-info-read
28906 @itemx gnus-info-set-read
28907 @findex gnus-info-read
28908 @findex gnus-info-set-read
28909 Get/set the ranges of read articles.
28911 @item gnus-info-marks
28912 @itemx gnus-info-set-marks
28913 @findex gnus-info-marks
28914 @findex gnus-info-set-marks
28915 Get/set the lists of ranges of marked articles.
28917 @item gnus-info-method
28918 @itemx gnus-info-set-method
28919 @findex gnus-info-method
28920 @findex gnus-info-set-method
28921 Get/set the group select method.
28923 @item gnus-info-params
28924 @itemx gnus-info-set-params
28925 @findex gnus-info-params
28926 @findex gnus-info-set-params
28927 Get/set the group parameters.
28930 All the getter functions take one parameter---the info list. The setter
28931 functions take two parameters---the info list and the new value.
28933 The last three elements in the group info aren't mandatory, so it may be
28934 necessary to extend the group info before setting the element. If this
28935 is necessary, you can just pass on a non-@code{nil} third parameter to
28936 the three final setter functions to have this happen automatically.
28939 @node Extended Interactive
28940 @subsection Extended Interactive
28941 @cindex interactive
28942 @findex gnus-interactive
28944 Gnus extends the standard Emacs @code{interactive} specification
28945 slightly to allow easy use of the symbolic prefix (@pxref{Symbolic
28946 Prefixes}). Here's an example of how this is used:
28949 (defun gnus-summary-increase-score (&optional score symp)
28950 (interactive (gnus-interactive "P\ny"))
28955 The best thing to do would have been to implement
28956 @code{gnus-interactive} as a macro which would have returned an
28957 @code{interactive} form, but this isn't possible since Emacs checks
28958 whether a function is interactive or not by simply doing an @code{assq}
28959 on the lambda form. So, instead we have @code{gnus-interactive}
28960 function that takes a string and returns values that are usable to
28961 @code{interactive}.
28963 This function accepts (almost) all normal @code{interactive} specs, but
28968 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbol
28969 The current symbolic prefix---the @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol}
28973 @vindex gnus-current-prefix-symbols
28974 A list of the current symbolic prefixes---the
28975 @code{gnus-current-prefix-symbol} variable.
28978 The current article number---the @code{gnus-summary-article-number}
28982 The current article header---the @code{gnus-summary-article-header}
28986 The current group name---the @code{gnus-group-group-name}
28992 @node Emacs/XEmacs Code
28993 @subsection Emacs/XEmacs Code
28997 While Gnus runs under Emacs, XEmacs and Mule, I decided that one of the
28998 platforms must be the primary one. I chose Emacs. Not because I don't
28999 like XEmacs or Mule, but because it comes first alphabetically.
29001 This means that Gnus will byte-compile under Emacs with nary a warning,
29002 while XEmacs will pump out gigabytes of warnings while byte-compiling.
29003 As I use byte-compilation warnings to help me root out trivial errors in
29004 Gnus, that's very useful.
29006 I've also consistently used Emacs function interfaces, but have used
29007 Gnusey aliases for the functions. To take an example: Emacs defines a
29008 @code{run-at-time} function while XEmacs defines a @code{start-itimer}
29009 function. I then define a function called @code{gnus-run-at-time} that
29010 takes the same parameters as the Emacs @code{run-at-time}. When running
29011 Gnus under Emacs, the former function is just an alias for the latter.
29012 However, when running under XEmacs, the former is an alias for the
29013 following function:
29016 (defun gnus-xmas-run-at-time (time repeat function &rest args)
29020 (,function ,@@args))
29024 This sort of thing has been done for bunches of functions. Gnus does
29025 not redefine any native Emacs functions while running under XEmacs---it
29026 does this @code{defalias} thing with Gnus equivalents instead. Cleaner
29029 In the cases where the XEmacs function interface was obviously cleaner,
29030 I used it instead. For example @code{gnus-region-active-p} is an alias
29031 for @code{region-active-p} in XEmacs, whereas in Emacs it is a function.
29033 Of course, I could have chosen XEmacs as my native platform and done
29034 mapping functions the other way around. But I didn't. The performance
29035 hit these indirections impose on Gnus under XEmacs should be slight.
29038 @node Various File Formats
29039 @subsection Various File Formats
29042 * Active File Format:: Information on articles and groups available.
29043 * Newsgroups File Format:: Group descriptions.
29047 @node Active File Format
29048 @subsubsection Active File Format
29050 The active file lists all groups available on the server in
29051 question. It also lists the highest and lowest current article numbers
29054 Here's an excerpt from a typical active file:
29057 soc.motss 296030 293865 y
29058 alt.binaries.pictures.fractals 3922 3913 n
29059 comp.sources.unix 1605 1593 m
29060 comp.binaries.ibm.pc 5097 5089 y
29061 no.general 1000 900 y
29064 Here's a pseudo-BNF definition of this file:
29067 active = *group-line
29068 group-line = group spc high-number spc low-number spc flag <NEWLINE>
29069 group = <non-white-space string>
29071 high-number = <non-negative integer>
29072 low-number = <positive integer>
29073 flag = "y" / "n" / "m" / "j" / "x" / "=" group
29076 For a full description of this file, see the manual pages for
29077 @samp{innd}, in particular @samp{active(5)}.
29080 @node Newsgroups File Format
29081 @subsubsection Newsgroups File Format
29083 The newsgroups file lists groups along with their descriptions. Not all
29084 groups on the server have to be listed, and not all groups in the file
29085 have to exist on the server. The file is meant purely as information to
29088 The format is quite simple; a group name, a tab, and the description.
29089 Here's the definition:
29093 line = group tab description <NEWLINE>
29094 group = <non-white-space string>
29096 description = <string>
29101 @node Emacs for Heathens
29102 @section Emacs for Heathens
29104 Believe it or not, but some people who use Gnus haven't really used
29105 Emacs much before they embarked on their journey on the Gnus Love Boat.
29106 If you are one of those unfortunates whom ``@kbd{C-M-a}'', ``kill the
29107 region'', and ``set @code{gnus-flargblossen} to an alist where the key
29108 is a regexp that is used for matching on the group name'' are magical
29109 phrases with little or no meaning, then this appendix is for you. If
29110 you are already familiar with Emacs, just ignore this and go fondle your
29114 * Keystrokes:: Entering text and executing commands.
29115 * Emacs Lisp:: The built-in Emacs programming language.
29120 @subsection Keystrokes
29124 Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
29127 A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
29130 Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the shift
29131 key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
29132 (notably @code{vi}le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out
29133 of it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
29134 ``Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift'', and not ``Editing Macros'', as you
29135 may have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
29137 The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
29138 normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
29139 the time. The control key is normally marked ``CTRL'' or something like
29140 that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
29141 keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked ``Alt'',
29142 which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
29143 to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
29145 Now, us Emacs people don't say ``press the meta-control-m key'',
29146 because that's just too inconvenient. We say ``press the @kbd{C-M-m}
29147 key''. @kbd{M-} is the prefix that means ``meta'' and ``C-'' is the
29148 prefix that means ``control''. So ``press @kbd{C-k}'' means ``press
29149 down the control key, and hold it down while you press @kbd{k}''.
29150 ``Press @kbd{C-M-k}'' means ``press down and hold down the meta key and
29151 the control key and then press @kbd{k}''. Simple, ay?
29153 This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have a
29154 meta key. In that case you can use the ``escape'' key. Then @kbd{M-k}
29155 means ``press escape, release escape, press @kbd{k}''. That's much more
29156 work than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
29157 suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
29163 @subsection Emacs Lisp
29165 Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
29166 Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
29167 Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
29168 any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
29170 Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
29171 functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
29172 interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
29173 certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
29174 (Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
29175 beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
29176 some common constructs that you normally use in your @file{.emacs} file
29179 If you want to set the variable @code{gnus-florgbnize} to four (4), you
29180 write the following:
29183 (setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
29186 This function (really ``special form'') @code{setq} is the one that can
29187 set a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
29188 you can go and fill your @file{.emacs} file with lots of these to change
29191 If you have put that thing in your @file{.emacs} file, it will be read
29192 and @code{eval}ed (which is lisp-ese for ``run'') the next time you
29193 start Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say
29194 @kbd{C-x C-e} after the closing parenthesis. That will @code{eval} the
29195 previous ``form'', which is a simple @code{setq} statement here.
29197 Go ahead---just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
29198 @kbd{C-x C-e}, you will see @samp{4} appear in the echo area, which
29199 is the return value of the form you @code{eval}ed.
29203 If the manual says ``set @code{gnus-read-active-file} to @code{some}'',
29207 (setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
29210 On the other hand, if the manual says ``set @code{gnus-nntp-server} to
29211 @samp{nntp.ifi.uio.no}'', that means:
29214 (setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
29217 So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
29218 former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
29221 @include gnus-faq.texi
29241 @c Local Variables:
29243 @c coding: iso-8859-1