Gnus Manual

You can read news (and mail) from within Emacs by using Gnus. The news can be gotten by any nefarious means you can think of---NNTP, local spool or your mbox file. All at the same time, if you want to push your luck.

This manual corresponds to Gnus v5.10.2.

1. Starting Gnus		Finding news can be a pain.
2. Group Buffer		Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
3. Summary Buffer		Reading, saving and posting articles.
4. Article Buffer		Displaying and handling articles.
5. Composing Messages		Information on sending mail and news.
6. Select Methods		Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
7. Scoring		Assigning values to articles.
8. Various		General purpose settings.
9. The End		Farewell and goodbye.
10. Appendices		Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
11. Index		Variable, function and concept index.
12. Key Index

Other related manuals


 -- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Starting Gnus

1.1 Finding the News		Choosing a method for getting news.
1.2 The First Time		What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
1.3 The Server is Down		How can I read my mail then?
1.4 Slave Gnusae		You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
1.5 Fetching a Group		Starting Gnus just to read a group.
1.6 New Groups		What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
1.7 Changing Servers		You may want to move from one server to another.
1.8 Startup Files		Those pesky startup files---`.newsrc'.
1.9 Auto Save		Recovering from a crash.
1.10 The Active File		Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
1.11 Startup Variables		Other variables you might change.

New Groups

1.6.1 Checking New Groups		Determining what groups are new.
1.6.2 Subscription Methods		What Gnus should do with new groups.
1.6.3 Filtering New Groups		Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.

Group Buffer

2.1 Group Buffer Format		Information listed and how you can change it.
2.2 Group Maneuvering		Commands for moving in the group buffer.
2.3 Selecting a Group		Actually reading news.
2.4 Subscription Commands		Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
2.5 Group Data		Changing the info for a group.
2.6 Group Levels		Levels? What are those, then?
2.7 Group Score		A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
2.8 Marking Groups		You can mark groups for later processing.
2.9 Foreign Groups		Creating and editing groups.
2.10 Group Parameters		Each group may have different parameters set.
2.11 Listing Groups		Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
2.12 Sorting Groups		Re-arrange the group order.
2.13 Group Maintenance		Maintaining a tidy `.newsrc' file.
2.14 Browse Foreign Server		You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
2.15 Exiting Gnus		Stop reading news and get some work done.
2.16 Group Topics		A folding group mode divided into topics.
2.17 Misc Group Stuff		Other stuff that you can to do.

Group Buffer Format

2.1.1 Group Line Specification		Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
2.1.2 Group Mode Line Specification		The group buffer mode line.
2.1.3 Group Highlighting		Having nice colors in the group buffer.

Group Topics

2.16.1 Topic Commands		Interactive E-Z commands.
2.16.2 Topic Variables		How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
2.16.3 Topic Sorting		Sorting each topic individually.
2.16.4 Topic Topology		A map of the world.
2.16.5 Topic Parameters		Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.

Misc Group Stuff

2.17.1 Scanning New Messages		Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
2.17.2 Group Information		Information and help on groups and Gnus.
2.17.3 Group Timestamp		Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
2.17.4 File Commands		Reading and writing the Gnus files.
2.17.5 Sieve Commands		Managing Sieve scripts.

Summary Buffer

3.1 Summary Buffer Format		Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
3.2 Summary Maneuvering		Moving around the summary buffer.
3.3 Choosing Articles		Reading articles.
3.4 Scrolling the Article		Scrolling the current article.
3.5 Reply, Followup and Post		Posting articles.
3.6 Delayed Articles		Send articles at a later time.
3.7 Marking Articles		Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
3.8 Limiting		You can limit the summary buffer.
3.9 Threading		How threads are made.
3.10 Sorting the Summary Buffer		How articles and threads are sorted.
3.11 Asynchronous Article Fetching		Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
3.12 Article Caching		You may store articles in a cache.
3.13 Persistent Articles		Making articles expiry-resistant.
3.14 Article Backlog		Having already read articles hang around.
3.15 Saving Articles		Ways of customizing article saving.
3.16 Decoding Articles		Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
3.17 Article Treatment		The article buffer can be mangled at will.
3.18 MIME Commands		Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
3.19 Charsets		Character set issues.
3.20 Article Commands		Doing various things with the article buffer.
3.21 Summary Sorting		Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
3.22 Finding the Parent		No child support? Get the parent.
3.23 Alternative Approaches		Reading using non-default summaries.
3.24 Tree Display		A more visual display of threads.
3.25 Mail Group Commands		Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
3.26 Various Summary Stuff		What didn't fit anywhere else.
3.27 Exiting the Summary Buffer		Returning to the Group buffer, or reselecting the current group.
3.28 Crosspost Handling		How crossposted articles are dealt with.
3.29 Duplicate Suppression		An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
3.30 Security		Decrypt and Verify.
3.31 Mailing List		Mailing list minor mode.

Summary Buffer Format

3.1.1 Summary Buffer Lines		You can specify how summary lines should look.
3.1.2 To From Newsgroups		How to not display your own name.
3.1.3 Summary Buffer Mode Line		You can say how the mode line should look.
3.1.4 Summary Highlighting		Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.

Choosing Articles

3.3.1 Choosing Commands		Commands for choosing articles.
3.3.2 Choosing Variables		Variables that influence these commands.

Reply, Followup and Post

3.5.1 Summary Mail Commands		Sending mail.
3.5.2 Summary Post Commands		Sending news.
3.5.3 Summary Message Commands		Other Message-related commands.
3.5.4 Canceling Articles

Marking Articles

3.7.1 Unread Articles		Marks for unread articles.
3.7.2 Read Articles		Marks for read articles.
3.7.3 Other Marks		Marks that do not affect readedness.
3.7.4 Setting Marks		How to set and remove marks.
3.7.5 Generic Marking Commands		How to customize the marking.
3.7.6 Setting Process Marks		How to mark articles for later processing.

Threading

3.9.1 Customizing Threading		Variables you can change to affect the threading.
3.9.2 Thread Commands		Thread based commands in the summary buffer.

Customizing Threading

3.9.1.1 Loose Threads		How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
3.9.1.2 Filling In Threads		Making the threads displayed look fuller.
3.9.1.3 More Threading		Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
3.9.1.4 Low-Level Threading		You thought it was over... but you were wrong!

Decoding Articles

3.16.1 Uuencoded Articles		Uudecode articles.
3.16.2 Shell Archives		Unshar articles.
3.16.3 PostScript Files		Split PostScript.
3.16.4 Other Files		Plain save and binhex.
3.16.5 Decoding Variables		Variables for a happy decoding.
3.16.6 Viewing Files		You want to look at the result of the decoding?

Decoding Variables

3.16.5.1 Rule Variables		Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
3.16.5.2 Other Decode Variables		Other decode variables.
3.16.5.3 Uuencoding and Posting		Variables for customizing uuencoding.

Article Treatment

3.17.1 Article Highlighting		You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
3.17.2 Article Fontisizing		Making emphasized text look nice.
3.17.3 Article Hiding		You also want to make certain info go away.
3.17.4 Article Washing		Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
3.17.5 Article Header		Doing various header transformations.
3.17.6 Article Buttons		Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
3.17.7 Article button levels		Controlling appearance of buttons.
3.17.8 Article Date		Grumble, UT!
3.17.9 Article Display		Display various stuff--X-Face, Picons, Smileys
3.17.10 Article Signature		What is a signature?
3.17.11 Article Miscellanea		Various other stuff.

Alternative Approaches

3.23.1 Pick and Read		First mark articles and then read them.
3.23.2 Binary Groups		Auto-decode all articles.

Various Summary Stuff

3.26.1 Summary Group Information		Information oriented commands.
3.26.2 Searching for Articles		Multiple article commands.
3.26.3 Summary Generation Commands
3.26.4 Really Various Summary Commands		Those pesky non-conformant commands.

Article Buffer

4.1 Hiding Headers		Deciding what headers should be displayed.
4.2 Using MIME		Pushing articles through MIME before reading them.
4.3 Customizing Articles		Tailoring the look of the articles.
4.4 Article Keymap		Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
4.5 Misc Article		Other stuff.

Composing Messages

5.1 Mail		Mailing and replying.
5.2 Posting Server		What server should you post and mail via?
5.3 Mail and Post		Mailing and posting at the same time.
5.4 Archived Messages		Where Gnus stores the messages you've sent.
5.5 Posting Styles		An easier way to specify who you are.
5.6 Drafts		Postponing messages and rejected messages.
5.7 Rejected Articles		What happens if the server doesn't like your article?
5.8 Signing and encrypting		How to compose secure messages.

Select Methods

6.1 Server Buffer		Making and editing virtual servers.
6.2 Getting News		Reading USENET news with Gnus.
6.3 Getting Mail		Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
6.4 Browsing the Web		Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
6.5 IMAP		Using Gnus as a IMAP client.
6.6 Other Sources		Reading directories, files, SOUP packets.
6.7 Combined Groups		Combining groups into one group.
6.8 Gnus Unplugged		Reading news and mail offline.

Server Buffer

6.1.1 Server Buffer Format		You can customize the look of this buffer.
6.1.2 Server Commands		Commands to manipulate servers.
6.1.3 Example Methods		Examples server specifications.
6.1.4 Creating a Virtual Server		An example session.
6.1.5 Server Variables		Which variables to set.
6.1.6 Servers and Methods		You can use server names as select methods.
6.1.7 Unavailable Servers		Some servers you try to contact may be down.

Getting News

6.2.1 NNTP		Reading news from an NNTP server.
6.2.2 News Spool		Reading news from the local spool.

NNTP

6.2.1.1 Direct Functions		Connecting directly to the server.
6.2.1.2 Indirect Functions		Connecting indirectly to the server.
6.2.1.3 Common Variables		Understood by several connection functions.

Getting Mail

6.3.1 Mail in a Newsreader		Important introductory notes.
6.3.2 Getting Started Reading Mail		A simple cookbook example.
6.3.3 Splitting Mail		How to create mail groups.
6.3.4 Mail Sources		How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
6.3.5 Mail Back End Variables		Variables for customizing mail handling.
6.3.6 Fancy Mail Splitting		Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
6.3.7 Group Mail Splitting		Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
6.3.8 Incorporating Old Mail		What about the old mail you have?
6.3.9 Expiring Mail		Getting rid of unwanted mail.
6.3.10 Washing Mail		Removing cruft from the mail you get.
6.3.11 Duplicates		Dealing with duplicated mail.
6.3.12 Not Reading Mail		Using mail back ends for reading other files.
6.3.13 Choosing a Mail Back End		Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.

Mail Sources

6.3.4.1 Mail Source Specifiers		How to specify what a mail source is.
6.3.4.3 Mail Source Customization		Some variables that influence things.
6.3.4.4 Fetching Mail		Using the mail source specifiers.

Choosing a Mail Back End

6.3.13.1 Unix Mail Box		Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
6.3.13.2 Rmail Babyl		Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
6.3.13.3 Mail Spool		Store your mail in a private spool?
6.3.13.4 MH Spool		An mhspool-like back end.
6.3.13.5 Maildir		Another one-file-per-message format.
6.3.13.10 Mail Folders		Having one file for each group.
6.3.13.11 Comparing Mail Back Ends		An in-depth looks at pros and cons.

Browsing the Web

6.4.1 Archiving Mail
6.4.2 Web Searches		Creating groups from articles that match a string.
6.4.3 Slashdot		Reading the Slashdot comments.
6.4.4 Ultimate		The Ultimate Bulletin Board systems.
6.4.5 Web Archive		Reading mailing list archived on web.
6.4.6 RSS		Reading RDF site summary.
6.4.7 Customizing w3		Doing stuff to Emacs/w3 from Gnus.

IMAP

6.5.1 Splitting in IMAP		Splitting mail with nnimap.
6.5.2 Expiring in IMAP		Expiring mail with nnimap.
6.5.3 Editing IMAP ACLs		Limiting/enabling other users access to a mailbox.
6.5.4 Expunging mailboxes		Equivalent of a "compress mailbox" button.
6.5.5 A note on namespaces		How to (not) use IMAP namespace in Gnus.

Other Sources

6.6.1 Directory Groups		You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
6.6.2 Anything Groups		Dired? Who needs dired?
6.6.3 Document Groups		Single files can be the basis of a group.
6.6.4 SOUP		Reading SOUP packets "offline".
6.6.5 Mail-To-News Gateways		Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.

Document Groups

6.6.3.1 Document Server Internals

How to add your own document types.

SOUP

6.6.4.1 SOUP Commands		Commands for creating and sending SOUP packets
6.6.4.2 SOUP Groups		A back end for reading SOUP packets.
6.6.4.3 SOUP Replies		How to enable nnsoup to take over mail and news.

Combined Groups

6.7.1 Virtual Groups		Combining articles from many groups.
6.7.2 Kibozed Groups		Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.

Gnus Unplugged

6.8.1 Agent Basics		How it all is supposed to work.
6.8.2 Agent Categories		How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
6.8.3 Agent Commands		New commands for all the buffers.
6.8.4 Agent Visuals		Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
6.8.5 Agent as Cache		The Agent is a big cache too.
6.8.6 Agent Expiry		How to make old articles go away.
6.8.7 Agent Regeneration		How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
6.8.8 Agent and IMAP		How to use the Agent with IMAP.
6.8.9 Outgoing Messages		What happens when you post/mail something?
6.8.10 Agent Variables		Customizing is fun.
6.8.11 Example Setup		An example `~/.gnus.el' file for offline people.
6.8.12 Batching Agents		How to fetch news from a cron job.
6.8.13 Agent Caveats		What you think it'll do and what it does.

Agent Categories

6.8.2.1 Category Syntax		What a category looks like.
6.8.2.2 Category Buffer		A buffer for maintaining categories.
6.8.2.3 Category Variables		Customize'r'Us.

Agent Commands

6.8.3.1 Group Agent Commands		Configure groups and fetch their contents.
6.8.3.2 Summary Agent Commands		Manually select then fetch specific articles.
6.8.3.3 Server Agent Commands		Select the servers that are supported by the agent.

Scoring

7.1 Summary Score Commands		Adding score entries for the current group.
7.2 Group Score Commands		General score commands.
7.3 Score Variables		Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
7.4 Score File Format		What a score file may contain.
7.5 Score File Editing		You can edit score files by hand as well.
7.6 Adaptive Scoring		Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
7.7 Home Score File		How to say where new score entries are to go.
7.8 Followups To Yourself		Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
7.9 Scoring On Other Headers		Scoring on non-standard headers.
7.10 Scoring Tips		How to score effectively.
7.11 Reverse Scoring		That problem child of old is not problem.
7.12 Global Score Files		Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
7.13 Kill Files		They are still here, but they can be ignored.
7.14 Converting Kill Files		Translating kill files to score files.
7.15 GroupLens		Getting predictions on what you like to read.
7.16 Advanced Scoring		Using logical expressions to build score rules.
7.17 Score Decays		It can be useful to let scores wither away.

GroupLens

7.15.1 Using GroupLens		How to make Gnus use GroupLens.
7.15.2 Rating Articles		Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles.
7.15.3 Displaying Predictions		Displaying predictions given by GroupLens.
7.15.4 GroupLens Variables		Customizing GroupLens.

Advanced Scoring

7.16.1 Advanced Scoring Syntax		A definition.
7.16.2 Advanced Scoring Examples		What they look like.
7.16.3 Advanced Scoring Tips		Getting the most out of it.

Various

8.1 Process/Prefix		A convention used by many treatment commands.
8.2 Interactive		Making Gnus ask you many questions.
8.3 Symbolic Prefixes		How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
8.4 Formatting Variables		You can specify what buffers should look like.
8.5 Window Layout		Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
8.6 Faces and Fonts		How to change how faces look.
8.7 Compilation		How to speed Gnus up.
8.8 Mode Lines		Displaying information in the mode lines.
8.9 Highlighting and Menus		Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
8.10 Buttons		Get tendinitis in ten easy steps!
8.11 Daemons		Gnus can do things behind your back.
8.12 NoCeM		How to avoid spam and other fatty foods.
8.13 Undo		Some actions can be undone.
8.14 Predicate Specifiers		Specifying predicates.
8.15 Moderation		What to do if you're a moderator.
8.16 Image Enhancements		Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
8.17 Fuzzy Matching		What's the big fuzz?
8.18 Thwarting Email Spam		A how-to on avoiding unsolicited commercial email.
8.19 Various Various		Things that are really various.

Formatting Variables

8.4.1 Formatting Basics		A formatting variable is basically a format string.
8.4.2 Mode Line Formatting		Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
8.4.3 Advanced Formatting		Modifying output in various ways.
8.4.4 User-Defined Specs		Having Gnus call your own functions.
8.4.5 Formatting Fonts		Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
8.4.6 Positioning Point		Moving point to a position after an operation.
8.4.7 Tabulation		Tabulating your output.
8.4.8 Wide Characters		Dealing with wide characters.

Image Enhancements

8.16.1 X-Face		Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
8.16.2 Face		Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
8.16.3 Smileys		Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
8.16.4 Picons		How to display pictures of what you're reading.
8.16.5 Various XEmacs Variables		Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.

Thwarting Email Spam

8.18.1 The problem of spam		Some background, and some solutions
8.18.2 Anti-Spam Basics		Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
8.18.3 SpamAssassin, Vipul's Razor, DCC, etc		How to use external anti-spam tools.
8.18.4 Hashcash		Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
8.18.5 Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package
8.18.6 Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat

Filtering Spam Using The Spam ELisp Package

8.18.5.1 Blacklists and Whitelists
8.18.5.2 BBDB Whitelists
8.18.5.3 Gmane Spam Reporting
8.18.5.4 Anti-spam Hashcash Payments
8.18.5.5 Blackholes
8.18.5.6 Regular Expressions Header Matching
8.18.5.7 Bogofilter
8.18.5.8 ifile spam filtering
8.18.5.9 spam-stat spam filtering
8.18.5.10 Using SpamOracle with Gnus
8.18.5.11 Extending the spam elisp package

Filtering Spam Using Statistics with spam-stat

8.18.6.1 Creating a spam-stat dictionary
8.18.6.2 Splitting mail using spam-stat
8.18.6.3 Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary

Appendices

10.1 XEmacs		Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
10.2 History		How Gnus got where it is today.
10.3 On Writing Manuals		Why this is not a beginner's guide.
10.4 Terminology		We use really difficult, like, words here.
10.5 Customization		Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
10.6 Troubleshooting		What you might try if things do not work.
10.7 Gnus Reference Guide		Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
10.8 Emacs for Heathens		A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
10.9 Frequently Asked Questions		The Gnus FAQ.

History

10.2.1 Gnus Versions		What Gnus versions have been released.
10.2.2 Other Gnus Versions		Other Gnus versions that also have been released.
10.2.3 Why?		What's the point of Gnus?
10.2.4 Compatibility		Just how compatible is Gnus with GNUS?
10.2.5 Conformity		Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
10.2.6 Emacsen		Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
10.2.7 Gnus Development		How Gnus is developed.
10.2.8 Contributors		Oodles of people.
10.2.9 New Features		Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.

New Features

10.2.9.1 (ding) Gnus		New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
10.2.9.2 September Gnus		The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
10.2.9.3 Red Gnus		Third time best--Gnus 5.4/5.5.
10.2.9.4 Quassia Gnus		Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
10.2.9.5 Pterodactyl Gnus		Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
10.2.9.6 Oort Gnus		It's big. It's far out. Gnus 5.10.

Customization

10.5.1 Slow/Expensive NNTP Connection		You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
10.5.2 Slow Terminal Connection		You run a remote Emacs.
10.5.3 Little Disk Space		You feel that having large setup files is icky.
10.5.4 Slow Machine		You feel like buying a faster machine.

Gnus Reference Guide

10.7.1 Gnus Utility Functions		Common functions and variable to use.
10.7.2 Back End Interface		How Gnus communicates with the servers.
10.7.3 Score File Syntax		A BNF definition of the score file standard.
10.7.4 Headers		How Gnus stores headers internally.
10.7.5 Ranges		A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
10.7.6 Group Info		The group info format.
10.7.7 Extended Interactive		Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
10.7.8 Emacs/XEmacs Code		Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
10.7.9 Various File Formats		Formats of files that Gnus use.

Back End Interface

10.7.2.1 Required Back End Functions		Functions that must be implemented.
10.7.2.2 Optional Back End Functions		Functions that need not be implemented.
10.7.2.3 Error Messaging		How to get messages and report errors.
10.7.2.4 Writing New Back Ends		Extending old back ends.
10.7.2.5 Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus		What has to be done on the Gnus end.
10.7.2.6 Mail-like Back Ends		Some tips on mail back ends.

Various File Formats

10.7.9.1 Active File Format		Information on articles and groups available.
10.7.9.2 Newsgroups File Format		Group descriptions.

Emacs for Heathens

10.8.1 Keystrokes		Entering text and executing commands.
10.8.2 Emacs Lisp		The built-in Emacs programming language.

1. Starting Gnus

If your system administrator has set things up properly, starting Gnus and reading news is extremely easy--you just type M-x gnus in your Emacs.

If you want to start Gnus in a different frame, you can use the command M-x gnus-other-frame instead.

If things do not go smoothly at startup, you have to twiddle some variables in your `~/.gnus.el' file. This file is similar to `~/.emacs', but is read when Gnus starts.

If you puzzle at any terms used in this manual, please refer to the terminology section (see section 10.4 Terminology).

1.1 Finding the News		Choosing a method for getting news.
1.2 The First Time		What does Gnus do the first time you start it?
1.3 The Server is Down		How can I read my mail then?
1.4 Slave Gnusae		You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
1.5 Fetching a Group		Starting Gnus just to read a group.
1.6 New Groups		What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
1.7 Changing Servers		You may want to move from one server to another.
1.8 Startup Files		Those pesky startup files---`.newsrc'.
1.9 Auto Save		Recovering from a crash.
1.10 The Active File		Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
1.11 Startup Variables		Other variables you might change.

1.1 Finding the News

The gnus-select-method variable says where Gnus should look for news. This variable should be a list where the first element says how and the second element says where. This method is your native method. All groups not fetched with this method are foreign groups.

For instance, if the `news.somewhere.edu' NNTP server is where you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:

(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))

If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:

(setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))

If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost certainly be much faster. But do not use the local spool if your server is running Leafnode; in this case, use (nntp "localhost").

If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the NNTPSERVER environment variable. If that variable isn't set, Gnus will see whether gnus-nntpserver-file (`/etc/nntpserver' by default) has any opinions on the matter. If that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an NNTP server. That's a long shot, though.

If gnus-nntp-server is set, this variable will override gnus-select-method. You should therefore set gnus-nntp-server to nil, which is what it is by default.

You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an NNTP server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to gnus (i.e., C-u M-x gnus), Gnus will let you choose between the servers in the gnus-secondary-servers list (if any). You can also just type in the name of any server you feel like visiting. (Note that this will set gnus-nntp-server, which means that if you then M-x gnus later in the same Emacs session, Gnus will contact the same server.)

However, if you use one NNTP server regularly and are just interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be better served by using the B command in the group buffer. It will let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe to any of the groups you want to. This also makes `.newsrc' maintenance much tidier. See section 2.9 Foreign Groups.

A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the gnus-secondary-select-methods variable. The select methods listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the gnus-select-method server. They will also be queried for active files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native groups are.

For instance, if you use the nnmbox back end to read your mail, you would typically set this variable to

(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))

1.2 The First Time

If no startup files exist, Gnus will try to determine what groups should be subscribed by default.

If the variable gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups is set, Gnus will subscribe you to just those groups in that list, leaving the rest killed. Your system administrator should have set this variable to something useful.

Since she hasn't, Gnus will just subscribe you to a few arbitrarily picked groups (i.e., `*.newusers'). (Arbitrary is defined here as whatever Lars thinks you should read.)

You'll also be subscribed to the Gnus documentation group, which should help you with most common problems.

If gnus-default-subscribed-newsgroups is t, Gnus will just use the normal functions for handling new groups, and not do anything special.

1.3 The Server is Down

If the default server is down, Gnus will understandably have some problems starting. However, if you have some mail groups in addition to the news groups, you may want to start Gnus anyway.

Gnus, being the trusting sort of program, will ask whether to proceed without a native select method if that server can't be contacted. This will happen whether the server doesn't actually exist (i.e., you have given the wrong address) or the server has just momentarily taken ill for some reason or other. If you decide to continue and have no foreign groups, you'll find it difficult to actually do anything in the group buffer. But, hey, that's your problem. Blllrph!

If you know that the server is definitely down, or you just want to read your mail without bothering with the server at all, you can use the gnus-no-server command to start Gnus. That might come in handy if you're in a hurry as well. This command will not attempt to contact your primary server--instead, it will just activate all groups on level 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no native groups on those two levels.) Also see section 2.6 Group Levels.

1.4 Slave Gnusae

You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the same time. If you are using different `.newsrc' files (e.g., if you are using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers), that is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.

The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same `.newsrc' file.

To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the Gnus Towers have come up with a new concept: Masters and slaves. (We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have taken out a copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in conjunction with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to me. Usage of the patent (Master/Slave Relationships In Computer Applications) will be much more expensive, of course.)

Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with M-x gnus (or however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with M-x gnus-slave. These slaves won't save normal `.newsrc' files, but instead save slave files that contain information only on what groups have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus starts, it will read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all information from them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence they were created, so the latest changes will have precedence.)

Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the information in the normal (i.e., master) `.newsrc' file.

If the `.newsrc*' files have not been saved in the master when the slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save file. If you answer "yes", the unsaved changes to the master will be incorporated into the slave. If you answer "no", the slave may see some messages as unread that have been read in the master.

1.5 Fetching a Group

It is sometimes convenient to be able to just say "I want to read this group and I don't care whether Gnus has been started or not". This is perhaps more useful for people who write code than for users, but the command gnus-fetch-group provides this functionality in any case. It takes the group name as a parameter.

1.6 New Groups

If you are satisfied that you really never want to see any new groups, you can set gnus-check-new-newsgroups to nil. This will also save you some time at startup. Even if this variable is nil, you can always subscribe to the new groups just by pressing U in the group buffer (see section 2.13 Group Maintenance). This variable is ask-server by default. If you set this variable to always, then Gnus will query the back ends for new groups even when you do the g command (see section 2.17.1 Scanning New Messages).

1.6.1 Checking New Groups		Determining what groups are new.
1.6.2 Subscription Methods		What Gnus should do with new groups.
1.6.3 Filtering New Groups		Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.

1.6.1 Checking New Groups

Gnus normally determines whether a group is new or not by comparing the list of groups from the active file(s) with the lists of subscribed and dead groups. This isn't a particularly fast method. If gnus-check-new-newsgroups is ask-server, Gnus will ask the server for new groups since the last time. This is both faster and cheaper. This also means that you can get rid of the list of killed groups altogether, so you may set gnus-save-killed-list to nil, which will save time both at startup, at exit, and all over. Saves disk space, too. Why isn't this the default, then? Unfortunately, not all servers support this command.

I bet I know what you're thinking now: How do I find out whether my server supports ask-server? No? Good, because I don't have a fail-safe answer. I would suggest just setting this variable to ask-server and see whether any new groups appear within the next few days. If any do, then it works. If none do, then it doesn't work. I could write a function to make Gnus guess whether the server supports ask-server, but it would just be a guess. So I won't. You could telnet to the server and say HELP and see whether it lists `NEWGROUPS' among the commands it understands. If it does, then it might work. (But there are servers that lists `NEWGROUPS' without supporting the function properly.)

This variable can also be a list of select methods. If so, Gnus will issue an ask-server command to each of the select methods, and subscribe them (or not) using the normal methods. This might be handy if you are monitoring a few servers for new groups. A side effect is that startup will take much longer, so you can meditate while waiting. Use the mantra "dingnusdingnusdingnus" to achieve permanent bliss.

1.6.2 Subscription Methods

What Gnus does when it encounters a new group is determined by the gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method variable.

This variable should contain a function. This function will be called with the name of the new group as the only parameter.

Some handy pre-fab functions are:

gnus-subscribe-zombies

Make all new groups zombies. This is the default. You can browse the zombies later (with A z) and either kill them all off properly (with S z), or subscribe to them (with u).

gnus-subscribe-randomly

Subscribe all new groups in arbitrary order. This really means that all new groups will be added at "the top" of the group buffer.

gnus-subscribe-alphabetically

Subscribe all new groups in alphabetical order.

gnus-subscribe-hierarchically

Subscribe all new groups hierarchically. The difference between this function and gnus-subscribe-alphabetically is slight. gnus-subscribe-alphabetically will subscribe new groups in a strictly alphabetical fashion, while this function will enter groups into its hierarchy. So if you want to have the `rec' hierarchy before the `comp' hierarchy, this function will not mess that configuration up. Or something like that.

gnus-subscribe-interactively

Subscribe new groups interactively. This means that Gnus will ask you about all new groups. The groups you choose to subscribe to will be subscribed hierarchically.

gnus-subscribe-killed

Kill all new groups.

gnus-subscribe-topics

Put the groups into the topic that has a matching subscribe topic parameter (see section 2.16.5 Topic Parameters). For instance, a subscribe topic parameter that looks like

"nnslashdot"

will mean that all groups that match that regex will be subscribed under that topic.

If no topics match the groups, the groups will be subscribed in the top-level topic.

A closely related variable is gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive. (That's quite a mouthful.) If this variable is non-nil, Gnus will ask you in a hierarchical fashion whether to subscribe to new groups or not. Gnus will ask you for each sub-hierarchy whether you want to descend the hierarchy or not.

One common mistake is to set the variable a few paragraphs above (gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method) to gnus-subscribe-hierarchical-interactive. This is an error. This will not work. This is ga-ga. So don't do it.

1.6.3 Filtering New Groups

A nice and portable way to control which new newsgroups should be subscribed (or ignored) is to put an options line at the start of the `.newsrc' file. Here's an example:

options -n !alt.all !rec.all sci.all

This line obviously belongs to a serious-minded intellectual scientific person (or she may just be plain old boring), because it says that all groups that have names beginning with `alt' and `rec' should be ignored, and all groups with names beginning with `sci' should be subscribed. Gnus will not use the normal subscription method for subscribing these groups. gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method is used instead. This variable defaults to gnus-subscribe-alphabetically.

If you don't want to mess with your `.newsrc' file, you can just set the two variables gnus-options-subscribe and gnus-options-not-subscribe. These two variables do exactly the same as the `.newsrc' `options -n' trick. Both are regexps, and if the new group matches the former, it will be unconditionally subscribed, and if it matches the latter, it will be ignored.

Yet another variable that meddles here is gnus-auto-subscribed-groups. It works exactly like gnus-options-subscribe, and is therefore really superfluous, but I thought it would be nice to have two of these. This variable is more meant for setting some ground rules, while the other variable is used more for user fiddling. By default this variable makes all new groups that come from mail back ends (nnml, nnbabyl, nnfolder, nnmbox, nnmh, and nnmaildir) subscribed. If you don't like that, just set this variable to nil.

New groups that match this regexp are subscribed using gnus-subscribe-options-newsgroup-method.

1.7 Changing Servers

Sometimes it is necessary to move from one NNTP server to another. This happens very rarely, but perhaps you change jobs, or one server is very flaky and you want to use another.

Changing the server is pretty easy, right? You just change gnus-select-method to point to the new server?

Wrong!

Article numbers are not (in any way) kept synchronized between different NNTP servers, and the only way Gnus keeps track of what articles you have read is by keeping track of article numbers. So when you change gnus-select-method, your `.newsrc' file becomes worthless.

Gnus provides a few functions to attempt to translate a `.newsrc' file from one server to another. They all have one thing in common--they take a looong time to run. You don't want to use these functions more than absolutely necessary.

If you have access to both servers, Gnus can request the headers for all the articles you have read and compare Message-IDs and map the article numbers of the read articles and article marks. The M-x gnus-change-server command will do this for all your native groups. It will prompt for the method you want to move to.

You can also move individual groups with the M-x gnus-group-move-group-to-server command. This is useful if you want to move a (foreign) group from one server to another.

If you don't have access to both the old and new server, all your marks and read ranges have become worthless. You can use the M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups command to clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.

Clear the data from the current group only--nix out marks and the list of read articles (gnus-group-clear-data).

After changing servers, you must move the cache hierarchy away, since the cached articles will have wrong article numbers, which will affect which articles Gnus thinks are read. gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups will ask you if you want to have it done automatically; for gnus-group-clear-data, you can use M-x gnus-cache-move-cache (but beware, it will move the cache for all groups).

1.8 Startup Files

Now, you all know about the `.newsrc' file. All subscription information is traditionally stored in this file.

Things got a bit more complicated with GNUS. In addition to keeping the `.newsrc' file updated, it also used a file called `.newsrc.el' for storing all the information that didn't fit into the `.newsrc' file. (Actually, it also duplicated everything in the `.newsrc' file.) GNUS would read whichever one of these files was the most recently saved, which enabled people to swap between GNUS and other newsreaders.

That was kinda silly, so Gnus went one better: In addition to the `.newsrc' and `.newsrc.el' files, Gnus also has a file called `.newsrc.eld'. It will read whichever of these files that are most recent, but it will never write a `.newsrc.el' file. You should never delete the `.newsrc.eld' file--it contains much information not stored in the `.newsrc' file.

You can turn off writing the `.newsrc' file by setting gnus-save-newsrc-file to nil, which means you can delete the file and save some space, as well as exiting from Gnus faster. However, this will make it impossible to use other newsreaders than Gnus. But hey, who would want to, right? Similarly, setting gnus-read-newsrc-file to nil makes Gnus ignore the `.newsrc' file and any `.newsrc-SERVER' files, which is convenient if you have a tendency to use Netscape once in a while.

If gnus-save-killed-list (default t) is nil, Gnus will not save the list of killed groups to the startup file. This will save both time (when starting and quitting) and space (on disk). It will also mean that Gnus has no record of what groups are new or old, so the automatic new groups subscription methods become meaningless. You should always set gnus-check-new-newsgroups to nil or ask-server if you set this variable to nil (see section 1.6 New Groups). This variable can also be a regular expression. If that's the case, remove all groups that do not match this regexp before saving. This can be useful in certain obscure situations that involve several servers where not all servers support ask-server.

The gnus-startup-file variable says where the startup files are. The default value is `~/.newsrc', with the Gnus (El Dingo) startup file being whatever that one is, with a `.eld' appended. If you want version control for this file, set gnus-backup-startup-file. It respects the same values as the version-control variable.

gnus-save-newsrc-hook is called before saving any of the newsrc files, while gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook is called just before saving the `.newsrc.eld' file, and gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook is called just before saving the `.newsrc' file. The latter two are commonly used to turn version control on or off. Version control is on by default when saving the startup files. If you want to turn backup creation off, say something like:

(defun turn-off-backup () (set (make-local-variable 'backup-inhibited) t)) (add-hook 'gnus-save-quick-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup) (add-hook 'gnus-save-standard-newsrc-hook 'turn-off-backup)

When Gnus starts, it will read the gnus-site-init-file (`.../site-lisp/gnus' by default) and gnus-init-file (`~/.gnus' by default) files. These are normal Emacs Lisp files and can be used to avoid cluttering your `~/.emacs' and `site-init' files with Gnus stuff. Gnus will also check for files with the same names as these, but with `.elc' and `.el' suffixes. In other words, if you have set gnus-init-file to `~/.gnus', it will look for `~/.gnus.elc', `~/.gnus.el', and finally `~/.gnus' (in this order).

1.9 Auto Save

Whenever you do something that changes the Gnus data (reading articles, catching up, killing/subscribing groups), the change is added to a special dribble buffer. This buffer is auto-saved the normal Emacs way. If your Emacs should crash before you have saved the `.newsrc' files, all changes you have made can be recovered from this file.

If Gnus detects this file at startup, it will ask the user whether to read it. The auto save file is deleted whenever the real startup file is saved.

If gnus-use-dribble-file is nil, Gnus won't create and maintain a dribble buffer. The default is t.

Gnus will put the dribble file(s) in gnus-dribble-directory. If this variable is nil, which it is by default, Gnus will dribble into the directory where the `.newsrc' file is located. (This is normally the user's home directory.) The dribble file will get the same file permissions as the `.newsrc' file.

If gnus-always-read-dribble-file is non-nil, Gnus will read the dribble file on startup without querying the user.

1.10 The Active File

When Gnus starts, or indeed whenever it tries to determine whether new articles have arrived, it reads the active file. This is a very large file that lists all the active groups and articles on the server.

Before examining the active file, Gnus deletes all lines that match the regexp gnus-ignored-newsgroups. This is done primarily to reject any groups with bogus names, but you can use this variable to make Gnus ignore hierarchies you aren't ever interested in. However, this is not recommended. In fact, it's highly discouraged. Instead, see section 1.6 New Groups for an overview of other variables that can be used instead.

The active file can be rather Huge, so if you have a slow network, you can set gnus-read-active-file to nil to prevent Gnus from reading the active file. This variable is some by default.

Gnus will try to make do by getting information just on the groups that you actually subscribe to.

Note that if you subscribe to lots and lots of groups, setting this variable to nil will probably make Gnus slower, not faster. At present, having this variable nil will slow Gnus down considerably, unless you read news over a 2400 baud modem.

This variable can also have the value some. Gnus will then attempt to read active info only on the subscribed groups. On some servers this is quite fast (on sparkling, brand new INN servers that support the LIST ACTIVE group command), on others this isn't fast at all. In any case, some should be faster than nil, and is certainly faster than t over slow lines.

Some news servers (old versions of Leafnode and old versions of INN, for instance) do not support the LIST ACTIVE group. For these servers, nil is probably the most efficient value for this variable.

If this variable is nil, Gnus will ask for group info in total lock-step, which isn't very fast. If it is some and you use an NNTP server, Gnus will pump out commands as fast as it can, and read all the replies in one swoop. This will normally result in better performance, but if the server does not support the aforementioned LIST ACTIVE group command, this isn't very nice to the server.

If you think that starting up Gnus takes too long, try all the three different values for this variable and see what works best for you.

In any case, if you use some or nil, you should definitely kill all groups that you aren't interested in to speed things up.

Note that this variable also affects active file retrieval from secondary select methods.

1.11 Startup Variables

gnus-load-hook

A hook run while Gnus is being loaded. Note that this hook will normally be run just once in each Emacs session, no matter how many times you start Gnus.

gnus-before-startup-hook

A hook run after starting up Gnus successfully.

gnus-startup-hook

A hook run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus

gnus-started-hook

A hook that is run as the very last thing after starting up Gnus successfully.

gnus-setup-news-hook

A hook that is run after reading the `.newsrc' file(s), but before generating the group buffer.

gnus-check-bogus-newsgroups

If non-nil, Gnus will check for and delete all bogus groups at startup. A bogus group is a group that you have in your `.newsrc' file, but doesn't exist on the news server. Checking for bogus groups can take quite a while, so to save time and resources it's best to leave this option off, and do the checking for bogus groups once in a while from the group buffer instead (see section 2.13 Group Maintenance).

gnus-inhibit-startup-message

If non-nil, the startup message won't be displayed. That way, your boss might not notice as easily that you are reading news instead of doing your job. Note that this variable is used before `~/.gnus.el' is loaded, so it should be set in `.emacs' instead.

gnus-no-groups-message

Message displayed by Gnus when no groups are available.

gnus-play-startup-jingle

If non-nil, play the Gnus jingle at startup.

gnus-startup-jingle

Jingle to be played if the above variable is non-nil. The default is `Tuxedomoon.Jingle4.au'.

2. Group Buffer

The group buffer lists all (or parts) of the available groups. It is the first buffer shown when Gnus starts, and will never be killed as long as Gnus is active.

2.1 Group Buffer Format		Information listed and how you can change it.
2.2 Group Maneuvering		Commands for moving in the group buffer.
2.3 Selecting a Group		Actually reading news.
2.4 Subscription Commands		Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
2.5 Group Data		Changing the info for a group.
2.6 Group Levels		Levels? What are those, then?
2.7 Group Score		A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
2.8 Marking Groups		You can mark groups for later processing.
2.9 Foreign Groups		Creating and editing groups.
2.10 Group Parameters		Each group may have different parameters set.
2.11 Listing Groups		Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
2.12 Sorting Groups		Re-arrange the group order.
2.13 Group Maintenance		Maintaining a tidy `.newsrc' file.
2.14 Browse Foreign Server		You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
2.15 Exiting Gnus		Stop reading news and get some work done.
2.16 Group Topics		A folding group mode divided into topics.
2.17 Misc Group Stuff		Other stuff that you can to do.

2.1 Group Buffer Format

2.1.1 Group Line Specification		Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
2.1.2 Group Mode Line Specification		The group buffer mode line.
2.1.3 Group Highlighting		Having nice colors in the group buffer.

2.1.1 Group Line Specification

The default format of the group buffer is nice and dull, but you can make it as exciting and ugly as you feel like.

Here's a couple of example group lines:

25: news.announce.newusers * 0: alt.fan.andrea-dworkin

Quite simple, huh?

You can see that there are 25 unread articles in `news.announce.newusers'. There are no unread articles, but some ticked articles, in `alt.fan.andrea-dworkin' (see that little asterisk at the beginning of the line?).

You can change that format to whatever you want by fiddling with the gnus-group-line-format variable. This variable works along the lines of a format specification, which is pretty much the same as a printf specifications, for those of you who use (feh!) C. See section 8.4 Formatting Variables.

`%M%S%5y:%B%(%g%)\n' is the value that produced those lines above.

There should always be a colon on the line; the cursor always moves to the colon after performing an operation. See section 8.4.6 Positioning Point. Nothing else is required--not even the group name. All displayed text is just window dressing, and is never examined by Gnus. Gnus stores all real information it needs using text properties.

(Note that if you make a really strange, wonderful, spreadsheet-like layout, everybody will believe you are hard at work with the accounting instead of wasting time reading news.)

Here's a list of all available format characters:

`M'

An asterisk if the group only has marked articles.

`S'

Whether the group is subscribed.

`L'

Level of subscribedness.

`N'

Number of unread articles.

`I'

Number of dormant articles.

`T'

Number of ticked articles.

`R'

Number of read articles.

`U'

Number of unseen articles.

`t'

Estimated total number of articles. (This is really max-number minus min-number plus 1.)

Gnus uses this estimation because the NNTP protocol provides efficient access to max-number and min-number but getting the true unread message count is not possible efficiently. For hysterical raisins, even the mail back ends, where the true number of unread messages might be available efficiently, use the same limited interface. To remove this restriction from Gnus means that the back end interface has to be changed, which is not an easy job. If you want to work on this, please contact the Gnus mailing list.

`y'

Number of unread, unticked, non-dormant articles.

`i'

Number of ticked and dormant articles.

`g'

Full group name.

`G'

Group name.

`C'

Group comment (see section 2.10 Group Parameters) or group name if there is no comment element in the group parameters.

`D'

Newsgroup description. You need to read the group descriptions before these will appear, and to do that, you either have to set gnus-read-active-file or use the group buffer M-d command.

`o'

`m' if moderated.

`O'

`(m)' if moderated.

`s'

Select method.

`B'

If the summary buffer for the group is open or not.

`n'

Select from where.

`z'

A string that looks like `<%s:%n>' if a foreign select method is used.

`P'

Indentation based on the level of the topic (see section 2.16 Group Topics).

`c'

Short (collapsed) group name. The gnus-group-uncollapsed-levels variable says how many levels to leave at the end of the group name. The default is 1--this will mean that group names like `gnu.emacs.gnus' will be shortened to `g.e.gnus'.

`m'

`%' (gnus-new-mail-mark) if there has arrived new mail to the group lately.

`p'

`#' (gnus-process-mark) if the group is process marked.

`d'

A string that says when you last read the group (see section 2.17.3 Group Timestamp).

`u'

User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus will call the function gnus-user-format-function-`X', where `X' is the letter following `%u'. The function will be passed a single dummy parameter as argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other specifier.

All the "number-of" specs will be filled with an asterisk (`*') if no info is available--for instance, if it is a non-activated foreign group, or a bogus native group.

2.1.2 Group Mode Line Specification

The mode line can be changed by setting gnus-group-mode-line-format (see section 8.4.2 Mode Line Formatting). It doesn't understand that many format specifiers:

`S'

The native news server.

`M'

The native select method.

2.1.3 Group Highlighting

Highlighting in the group buffer is controlled by the gnus-group-highlight variable. This is an alist with elements that look like (form . face). If form evaluates to something non-nil, the face will be used on the line.

Here's an example value for this variable that might look nice if the background is dark:

(cond (window-system (setq custom-background-mode 'light) (defface my-group-face-1 '((t (:foreground "Red" :bold t))) "First group face") (defface my-group-face-2 '((t (:foreground "DarkSeaGreen4" :bold t))) "Second group face") (defface my-group-face-3 '((t (:foreground "Green4" :bold t))) "Third group face") (defface my-group-face-4 '((t (:foreground "SteelBlue" :bold t))) "Fourth group face") (defface my-group-face-5 '((t (:foreground "Blue" :bold t))) "Fifth group face"))) (setq gnus-group-highlight '(((> unread 200) . my-group-face-1) ((and (< level 3) (zerop unread)) . my-group-face-2) ((< level 3) . my-group-face-3) ((zerop unread) . my-group-face-4) (t . my-group-face-5)))

Also see section 8.6 Faces and Fonts.

Variables that are dynamically bound when the forms are evaluated include:

group

The group name.

unread

The number of unread articles in the group.

method

The select method.

mailp

Whether the group is a mail group.

level

The level of the group.

score

The score of the group.

ticked

The number of ticked articles in the group.

total

The total number of articles in the group. Or rather, max-number minus min-number plus one.

topic

When using the topic minor mode, this variable is bound to the current topic being inserted.

When the forms are evaled, point is at the beginning of the line of the group in question, so you can use many of the normal Gnus functions for snarfing info on the group.

gnus-group-update-hook is called when a group line is changed. It will not be called when gnus-visual is nil. This hook calls gnus-group-highlight-line by default.

2.2 Group Maneuvering

All movement commands understand the numeric prefix and will behave as expected, hopefully.

n

Go to the next group that has unread articles (gnus-group-next-unread-group).

p

DEL

Go to the previous group that has unread articles (gnus-group-prev-unread-group).

N

Go to the next group (gnus-group-next-group).

P

Go to the previous group (gnus-group-prev-group).

M-n

Go to the next unread group on the same (or lower) level (gnus-group-next-unread-group-same-level).

M-p

Go to the previous unread group on the same (or lower) level (gnus-group-prev-unread-group-same-level).

Three commands for jumping to groups:

j

Jump to a group (and make it visible if it isn't already) (gnus-group-jump-to-group). Killed groups can be jumped to, just like living groups.

,

Jump to the unread group with the lowest level (gnus-group-best-unread-group).

.

Jump to the first group with unread articles (gnus-group-first-unread-group).

If gnus-group-goto-unread is nil, all the movement commands will move to the next group, not the next unread group. Even the commands that say they move to the next unread group. The default is t.

2.3 Selecting a Group

SPACE

Select the current group, switch to the summary buffer and display the first unread article (gnus-group-read-group). If there are no unread articles in the group, or if you give a non-numerical prefix to this command, Gnus will offer to fetch all the old articles in this group from the server. If you give a numerical prefix n, n determines the number of articles Gnus will fetch. If n is positive, Gnus fetches the n newest articles, if n is negative, Gnus fetches the abs(n) oldest articles.

Thus, SPC enters the group normally, C-u SPC offers old articles, C-u 4 2 SPC fetches the 42 newest articles, and C-u - 4 2 SPC fetches the 42 oldest ones.

When you are in the group (in the Summary buffer), you can type M-g to fetch new articles, or C-u M-g to also show the old ones.

RET

Select the current group and switch to the summary buffer (gnus-group-select-group). Takes the same arguments as gnus-group-read-group---the only difference is that this command does not display the first unread article automatically upon group entry.

M-RET

This does the same as the command above, but tries to do it with the minimum amount of fuzz (gnus-group-quick-select-group). No scoring/killing will be performed, there will be no highlights and no expunging. This might be useful if you're in a real hurry and have to enter some humongous group. If you give a 0 prefix to this command (i.e., 0 M-RET), Gnus won't even generate the summary buffer, which is useful if you want to toggle threading before generating the summary buffer (see section 3.26.3 Summary Generation Commands).

M-SPACE

This is yet one more command that does the same as the RET command, but this one does it without expunging and hiding dormants (gnus-group-visible-select-group).

C-M-RET

Finally, this command selects the current group ephemerally without doing any processing of its contents (gnus-group-select-group-ephemerally). Even threading has been turned off. Everything you do in the group after selecting it in this manner will have no permanent effects.

The gnus-large-newsgroup variable says what Gnus should consider to be a big group. If it is nil, no groups are considered big. The default value is 200. If the group has more (unread and/or ticked) articles than this, Gnus will query the user before entering the group. The user can then specify how many articles should be fetched from the server. If the user specifies a negative number (-n), the n oldest articles will be fetched. If it is positive, the n articles that have arrived most recently will be fetched.

gnus-large-ephemeral-newsgroup is the same as gnus-large-newsgroup, but is only used for ephemeral newsgroups.

If gnus-auto-select-first is non-nil, select an article automatically when entering a group with the SPACE command. Which article this is is controlled by the gnus-auto-select-subject variable. Valid values for this variable is:

unread

Place point on the subject line of the first unread article.

first

Place point on the subject line of the first article.

unseen

Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article.

unseen-or-unread

Place point on the subject line of the first unseen article, and if there is no such article, place point on the subject line of the first unread article.

best

Place point on the subject line of the highest-scored unread article.

This variable can also be a function. In that case, that function will be called to place point on a subject line.

If you want to prevent automatic selection in some group (say, in a binary group with Huge articles) you can set the gnus-auto-select-first variable to nil in gnus-select-group-hook, which is called when a group is selected.

2.4 Subscription Commands

S t

u

Toggle subscription to the current group (gnus-group-unsubscribe-current-group).

S s

U

Prompt for a group to subscribe, and then subscribe it. If it was subscribed already, unsubscribe it instead (gnus-group-unsubscribe-group).

S k

C-k

Kill the current group (gnus-group-kill-group).

S y

C-y

Yank the last killed group (gnus-group-yank-group).

C-x C-t

Transpose two groups (gnus-group-transpose-groups). This isn't really a subscription command, but you can use it instead of a kill-and-yank sequence sometimes.

S w

C-w

Kill all groups in the region (gnus-group-kill-region).

S z

Kill all zombie groups (gnus-group-kill-all-zombies).

S C-k

Kill all groups on a certain level (gnus-group-kill-level). These groups can't be yanked back after killing, so this command should be used with some caution. The only time where this command comes in really handy is when you have a `.newsrc' with lots of unsubscribed groups that you want to get rid off. S C-k on level 7 will kill off all unsubscribed groups that do not have message numbers in the `.newsrc' file.

Also see section 2.6 Group Levels.

2.5 Group Data

c

Mark all unticked articles in this group as read (gnus-group-catchup-current). gnus-group-catchup-group-hook is called when catching up a group from the group buffer.

C

Mark all articles in this group, even the ticked ones, as read (gnus-group-catchup-current-all).

M-c

Clear the data from the current group--nix out marks and the list of read articles (gnus-group-clear-data).

M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups

If you have switched from one NNTP server to another, all your marks and read ranges have become worthless. You can use this command to clear out all data that you have on your native groups. Use with caution.

2.6 Group Levels

All groups have a level of subscribedness. For instance, if a group is on level 2, it is more subscribed than a group on level 5. You can ask Gnus to just list groups on a given level or lower (see section 2.11 Listing Groups), or to just check for new articles in groups on a given level or lower (see section 2.17.1 Scanning New Messages).

Remember: The higher the level of the group, the less important it is.

S l

Set the level of the current group. If a numeric prefix is given, the next n groups will have their levels set. The user will be prompted for a level.

Gnus considers groups from levels 1 to gnus-level-subscribed (inclusive) (default 5) to be subscribed, gnus-level-subscribed (exclusive) and gnus-level-unsubscribed (inclusive) (default 7) to be unsubscribed, gnus-level-zombie to be zombies (walking dead) (default 8) and gnus-level-killed to be killed (completely dead) (default 9). Gnus treats subscribed and unsubscribed groups exactly the same, but zombie and killed groups have no information on what articles you have read, etc, stored. This distinction between dead and living groups isn't done because it is nice or clever, it is done purely for reasons of efficiency.

It is recommended that you keep all your mail groups (if any) on quite low levels (e.g. 1 or 2).

Maybe the following description of the default behavior of Gnus helps to understand what these levels are all about. By default, Gnus shows you subscribed nonempty groups, but by hitting L you can have it show empty subscribed groups and unsubscribed groups, too. Type l to go back to showing nonempty subscribed groups again. Thus, unsubscribed groups are hidden, in a way.

Zombie and killed groups are similar to unsubscribed groups in that they are hidden by default. But they are different from subscribed and unsubscribed groups in that Gnus doesn't ask the news server for information (number of messages, number of unread messages) on zombie and killed groups. Normally, you use C-k to kill the groups you aren't interested in. If most groups are killed, Gnus is faster.

Why does Gnus distinguish between zombie and killed groups? Well, when a new group arrives on the server, Gnus by default makes it a zombie group. This means that you are normally not bothered with new groups, but you can type A z to get a list of all new groups. Subscribe the ones you like and kill the ones you don't want. (A k shows a list of killed groups.)

If you want to play with the level variables, you should show some care. Set them once, and don't touch them ever again. Better yet, don't touch them at all unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Two closely related variables are gnus-level-default-subscribed (default 3) and gnus-level-default-unsubscribed (default 6), which are the levels that new groups will be put on if they are (un)subscribed. These two variables should, of course, be inside the relevant valid ranges.

If gnus-keep-same-level is non-nil, some movement commands will only move to groups of the same level (or lower). In particular, going from the last article in one group to the next group will go to the next group of the same level (or lower). This might be handy if you want to read the most important groups before you read the rest.

If this variable is best, Gnus will make the next newsgroup the one with the best level.

All groups with a level less than or equal to gnus-group-default-list-level will be listed in the group buffer by default.

If gnus-group-list-inactive-groups is non-nil, non-active groups will be listed along with the unread groups. This variable is t by default. If it is nil, inactive groups won't be listed.

If gnus-group-use-permanent-levels is non-nil, once you give a level prefix to g or l, all subsequent commands will use this level as the "work" level.

Gnus will normally just activate (i. e., query the server about) groups on level gnus-activate-level or less. If you don't want to activate unsubscribed groups, for instance, you might set this variable to 5. The default is 6.

2.7 Group Score

You would normally keep important groups on high levels, but that scheme is somewhat restrictive. Don't you wish you could have Gnus sort the group buffer according to how often you read groups, perhaps? Within reason?

This is what group score is for. You can have Gnus assign a score to each group through the mechanism described below. You can then sort the group buffer based on this score. Alternatively, you can sort on score and then level. (Taken together, the level and the score is called the rank of the group. A group that is on level 4 and has a score of 1 has a higher rank than a group on level 5 that has a score of 300. (The level is the most significant part and the score is the least significant part.))

If you want groups you read often to get higher scores than groups you read seldom you can add the gnus-summary-bubble-group function to the gnus-summary-exit-hook hook. This will result (after sorting) in a bubbling sort of action. If you want to see that in action after each summary exit, you can add gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank or gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score to the same hook, but that will slow things down somewhat.

2.8 Marking Groups

If you want to perform some command on several groups, and they appear subsequently in the group buffer, you would normally just give a numerical prefix to the command. Most group commands will then do your bidding on those groups.

However, if the groups are not in sequential order, you can still perform a command on several groups. You simply mark the groups first with the process mark and then execute the command.

#

M m

Set the mark on the current group (gnus-group-mark-group).

M-#

M u

Remove the mark from the current group (gnus-group-unmark-group).

M U

Remove the mark from all groups (gnus-group-unmark-all-groups).

M w

Mark all groups between point and mark (gnus-group-mark-region).

M b

Mark all groups in the buffer (gnus-group-mark-buffer).

M r

Mark all groups that match some regular expression (gnus-group-mark-regexp).

Also see section 8.1 Process/Prefix.

If you want to execute some command on all groups that have been marked with the process mark, you can use the M-& (gnus-group-universal-argument) command. It will prompt you for the command to be executed.

2.9 Foreign Groups

Below are some group mode commands for making and editing general foreign groups, as well as commands to ease the creation of a few special-purpose groups. All these commands insert the newly created groups under point---gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method is not consulted.

G m

Make a new group (gnus-group-make-group). Gnus will prompt you for a name, a method and possibly an address. For an easier way to subscribe to NNTP groups (see section 2.14 Browse Foreign Server).

G r

Rename the current group to something else (gnus-group-rename-group). This is valid only on some groups--mail groups mostly. This command might very well be quite slow on some back ends.

G c

Customize the group parameters (gnus-group-customize).

G e

Enter a buffer where you can edit the select method of the current group (gnus-group-edit-group-method).

G p

Enter a buffer where you can edit the group parameters (gnus-group-edit-group-parameters).

G E

Enter a buffer where you can edit the group info (gnus-group-edit-group).

G d

Make a directory group (see section 6.6.1 Directory Groups). You will be prompted for a directory name (gnus-group-make-directory-group).

G h

Make the Gnus help group (gnus-group-make-help-group).

G a

Make a Gnus archive group (gnus-group-make-archive-group). By default a group pointing to the most recent articles will be created (gnus-group-recent-archive-directory), but given a prefix, a full group will be created from gnus-group-archive-directory.

G k

Make a kiboze group. You will be prompted for a name, for a regexp to match groups to be "included" in the kiboze group, and a series of strings to match on headers (gnus-group-make-kiboze-group). See section 6.7.2 Kibozed Groups.

G D

Read an arbitrary directory as if it were a newsgroup with the nneething back end (gnus-group-enter-directory). See section 6.6.2 Anything Groups.

G f

Make a group based on some file or other (gnus-group-make-doc-group). If you give a prefix to this command, you will be prompted for a file name and a file type. Currently supported types are mbox, babyl, digest, news, rnews, mmdf, forward, rfc934, rfc822-forward, mime-parts, standard-digest, slack-digest, clari-briefs, nsmail, outlook, oe-dbx, and mailman. If you run this command without a prefix, Gnus will guess at the file type. See section 6.6.3 Document Groups.

G u

Create one of the groups mentioned in gnus-useful-groups (gnus-group-make-useful-group).

G w

Make an ephemeral group based on a web search (gnus-group-make-web-group). If you give a prefix to this command, make a solid group instead. You will be prompted for the search engine type and the search string. Valid search engine types include google, dejanews, and gmane. See section 6.4.2 Web Searches.

If you use the google search engine, you can limit the search to a particular group by using a match string like `shaving group:alt.sysadmin.recovery'.

G DEL

This function will delete the current group (gnus-group-delete-group). If given a prefix, this function will actually delete all the articles in the group, and forcibly remove the group itself from the face of the Earth. Use a prefix only if you are absolutely sure of what you are doing. This command can't be used on read-only groups (like nntp group), though.

G V

Make a new, fresh, empty nnvirtual group (gnus-group-make-empty-virtual). See section 6.7.1 Virtual Groups.

G v

Add the current group to an nnvirtual group (gnus-group-add-to-virtual). Uses the process/prefix convention.

See section 6. Select Methods, for more information on the various select methods.

If gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups is a positive number, Gnus will check all foreign groups with this level or lower at startup. This might take quite a while, especially if you subscribe to lots of groups from different NNTP servers. Also see section 2.6 Group Levels; gnus-activate-level also affects activation of foreign newsgroups.

2.10 Group Parameters

The group parameters store information local to a particular group. Here's an example group parameter list:

((to-address . "ding@gnus.org") (auto-expire . t))

We see that each element consists of a "dotted pair"---the thing before the dot is the key, while the thing after the dot is the value. All the parameters have this form except local variable specs, which are not dotted pairs, but proper lists.

Some parameters have correspondent customizable variables, each of which is an alist of regexps and values.

The following group parameters can be used:

to-address

Address used by when doing followups and new posts.

(to-address . "some@where.com")

This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed mailing lists--mailing lists where it's expected that everybody that writes to the mailing list is subscribed to it. Since using this parameter ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list itself, it means that members won't receive two copies of your followups.

Using to-address will actually work whether the group is foreign or not. Let's say there's a group on the server that is called `fa.4ad-l'. This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten the articles from a mail-to-news gateway. Posting directly to this group is therefore impossible--you have to send mail to the mailing list address instead.

See also gnus-parameter-to-address-alist.

to-list

Address used when doing a in that group.

(to-list . "some@where.com")

It is totally ignored when doing a followup--except that if it is present in a news group, you'll get mail group semantics when doing f.

If you do an a command in a mail group and you have neither a to-list group parameter nor a to-address group parameter, then a to-list group parameter will be added automatically upon sending the message if gnus-add-to-list is set to t.

If you do an a command in a mail group and you don't have a to-list group parameter, one will be added automatically upon sending the message.

If this variable is set, gnus-mailing-list-mode is turned on when entering summary buffer.

See also gnus-parameter-to-list-alist.

subscribed

If this parameter is set to t, Gnus will consider the to-address and to-list parameters for this group as addresses of mailing lists you are subscribed to. Giving Gnus this information is (only) a first step in getting it to generate correct Mail-Followup-To headers for your posts to these lists. See section `Mailing Lists' in The Message Manual, for a complete treatment of available MFT support.

See also gnus-find-subscribed-addresses, the function that directly uses this group parameter.

visible

If the group parameter list has the element (visible . t), that group will always be visible in the Group buffer, regardless of whether it has any unread articles.

broken-reply-to

Elements like (broken-reply-to . t) signals that Reply-To headers in this group are to be ignored, and for the header to be hidden if reply-to is part of gnus-boring-article-headers. This can be useful if you're reading a mailing list group where the listserv has inserted Reply-To headers that point back to the listserv itself. That is broken behavior. So there!

to-group

Elements like (to-group . "some.group.name") means that all posts in that group will be sent to some.group.name.

newsgroup

If you have (newsgroup . t) in the group parameter list, Gnus will treat all responses as if they were responses to news articles. This can be useful if you have a mail group that's really a mirror of a news group.

gcc-self

If (gcc-self . t) is present in the group parameter list, newly composed messages will be Gcc'd to the current group. If (gcc-self . none) is present, no Gcc: header will be generated, if (gcc-self . "string") is present, this string will be inserted literally as a gcc header. This parameter takes precedence over any default Gcc rules as described later (see section 5.4 Archived Messages).

Caveat: It yields an error putting (gcc-self . t) in groups of an nntp server or so, because an nntp server doesn't accept articles.

auto-expire

If the group parameter has an element that looks like (auto-expire . t), all articles read will be marked as expirable. For an alternative approach, see section 6.3.9 Expiring Mail.

See also gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups.

total-expire

If the group parameter has an element that looks like (total-expire . t), all read articles will be put through the expiry process, even if they are not marked as expirable. Use with caution. Unread, ticked and dormant articles are not eligible for expiry.

See also gnus-total-expirable-newsgroups.

expiry-wait

If the group parameter has an element that looks like (expiry-wait . 10), this value will override any nnmail-expiry-wait and nnmail-expiry-wait-function (see section 6.3.9 Expiring Mail) when expiring expirable messages. The value can either be a number of days (not necessarily an integer) or the symbols never or immediate.

expiry-target

Where expired messages end up. This parameter overrides nnmail-expiry-target.

score-file

Elements that look like (score-file . "file") will make `file' into the current score file for the group in question. All interactive score entries will be put into this file.

adapt-file

Elements that look like (adapt-file . "file") will make `file' into the current adaptive file for the group in question. All adaptive score entries will be put into this file.

admin-address

When unsubscribing from a mailing list you should never send the unsubscription notice to the mailing list itself. Instead, you'd send messages to the administrative address. This parameter allows you to put the admin address somewhere convenient.

display

Elements that look like (display . MODE) say which articles to display on entering the group. Valid values are:

all

Display all articles, both read and unread.

an integer

Display the last integer articles in the group. This is the same as entering the group with C-u integer.

default

Display the default visible articles, which normally includes unread and ticked articles.

an array

Display articles that satisfy a predicate.

Here are some examples:

[unread]

Display only unread articles.

[not expire]

Display everything except expirable articles.

[and (not reply) (not expire)]

Display everything except expirable and articles you've already responded to.

The available operators are not, and and or. Predicates include tick, unsend, undownload, unread, dormant, expire, reply, killed, bookmark, score, save, cache, forward, unseen and recent.

The display parameter works by limiting the summary buffer to the subset specified. You can pop the limit by using the / w command (see section 3.8 Limiting).

comment

Elements that look like (comment . "This is a comment") are arbitrary comments on the group. You can display comments in the group line (see section 2.1.1 Group Line Specification).

charset

Elements that look like (charset . iso-8859-1) will make iso-8859-1 the default charset; that is, the charset that will be used for all articles that do not specify a charset.

See also gnus-group-charset-alist.

ignored-charsets

Elements that look like (ignored-charsets x-unknown iso-8859-1) will make iso-8859-1 and x-unknown ignored; that is, the default charset will be used for decoding articles.

See also gnus-group-ignored-charsets-alist.

posting-style

You can store additional posting style information for this group here (see section 5.5 Posting Styles). The format is that of an entry in the gnus-posting-styles alist, except that there's no regexp matching the group name (of course). Style elements in this group parameter will take precedence over the ones found in gnus-posting-styles.

For instance, if you want a funky name and signature in this group only, instead of hacking gnus-posting-styles, you could put something like this in the group parameters:

(posting-style (name "Funky Name") ("X-My-Header" "Funky Value") (signature "Funky Signature"))

post-method

If it is set, the value is used as the method for posting message instead of gnus-post-method.

banner

An item like (banner . regexp) causes any part of an article that matches the regular expression regexp to be stripped. Instead of regexp, you can also use the symbol signature which strips the last signature or any of the elements of the alist gnus-article-banner-alist.

sieve

This parameter contains a Sieve test that should match incoming mail that should be placed in this group. From this group parameter, a Sieve `IF' control structure is generated, having the test as the condition and `fileinto "group.name";' as the body.

For example, if the `INBOX.list.sieve' group has the (sieve address "sender" "sieve-admin@extundo.com") group parameter, when translating the group parameter into a Sieve script (see section 2.17.5 Sieve Commands) the following Sieve code is generated:

if address \"sender\" \"sieve-admin@extundo.com\" { fileinto \"INBOX.list.sieve\"; }

The Sieve language is described in RFC 3028. See section `Top' in Emacs Sieve.

(variable form)

You can use the group parameters to set variables local to the group you are entering. If you want to turn threading off in `news.answers', you could put (gnus-show-threads nil) in the group parameters of that group. gnus-show-threads will be made into a local variable in the summary buffer you enter, and the form nil will be evaled there.

Note that this feature sets the variable locally to the summary buffer. But some variables are evaluated in the article buffer, or in the message buffer (of a reply or followup or otherwise newly created message). As a workaround, it might help to add the variable in question to gnus-newsgroup-variables. See section 3.26 Various Summary Stuff. So if you want to set message-from-style via the group parameters, then you may need the following statement elsewhere in your `~/.gnus' file:

(add-to-list 'gnus-newsgroup-variables 'message-from-style)

A use for this feature is to remove a mailing list identifier tag in the subject fields of articles. E.g. if the news group

nntp+news.gnus.org:gmane.text.docbook.apps

has the tag `DOC-BOOK-APPS:' in the subject of all articles, this tag can be removed from the article subjects in the summary buffer for the group by putting (gnus-list-identifiers "DOCBOOK-APPS:") into the group parameters for the group.

This can also be used as a group-specific hook function, if you'd like. If you want to hear a beep when you enter a group, you could put something like (dummy-variable (ding)) in the parameters of that group. dummy-variable will be set to the result of the (ding) form, but who cares?

Use the G p or the G c command to edit group parameters of a group. (G p presents you with a Lisp-based interface, G c presents you with a Customize-like interface. The latter helps avoid silly Lisp errors.) You might also be interested in reading about topic parameters (see section 2.16.5 Topic Parameters).

Group parameters can be set via the gnus-parameters variable too. But some variables, such as visible, have no effect. For example:

(setq gnus-parameters '(("mail\\..*" (gnus-show-threads nil) (gnus-use-scoring nil) (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%d:%ub%-23,23f%]%) %s\n") (gcc-self . t) (display . all)) ("^nnimap:\\(foo.bar\\)$" (to-group . "\\1")) ("mail\\.me" (gnus-use-scoring t)) ("list\\..*" (total-expire . t) (broken-reply-to . t))))

String value of parameters will be subjected to regexp substitution, as the to-group example shows.

2.11 Listing Groups

These commands all list various slices of the groups available.

l

A s

List all groups that have unread articles (gnus-group-list-groups). If the numeric prefix is used, this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it only lists groups of level five (i.e., gnus-group-default-list-level) or lower (i.e., just subscribed groups).

L

A u

List all groups, whether they have unread articles or not (gnus-group-list-all-groups). If the numeric prefix is used, this command will list only groups of level ARG and lower. By default, it lists groups of level seven or lower (i.e., just subscribed and unsubscribed groups).

A l

List all unread groups on a specific level (gnus-group-list-level). If given a prefix, also list the groups with no unread articles.

A k

List all killed groups (gnus-group-list-killed). If given a prefix argument, really list all groups that are available, but aren't currently (un)subscribed. This could entail reading the active file from the server.

A z

List all zombie groups (gnus-group-list-zombies).

A m

List all unread, subscribed groups with names that match a regexp (gnus-group-list-matching).

A M

List groups that match a regexp (gnus-group-list-all-matching).

A A

List absolutely all groups in the active file(s) of the server(s) you are connected to (gnus-group-list-active). This might very well take quite a while. It might actually be a better idea to do a A M to list all matching, and just give `.' as the thing to match on. Also note that this command may list groups that don't exist (yet)---these will be listed as if they were killed groups. Take the output with some grains of salt.

A a

List all groups that have names that match a regexp (gnus-group-apropos).

A d

List all groups that have names or descriptions that match a regexp (gnus-group-description-apropos).

A c

List all groups with cached articles (gnus-group-list-cached).

A ?

List all groups with dormant articles (gnus-group-list-dormant).

A /

List groups limited within the current selection (gnus-group-list-limit).

A f

Flush groups from the current selection (gnus-group-list-flush).

A p

List groups plus the current selection (gnus-group-list-plus).

Groups that match the gnus-permanently-visible-groups regexp will always be shown, whether they have unread articles or not. You can also add the visible element to the group parameters in question to get the same effect.

Groups that have just ticked articles in it are normally listed in the group buffer. If gnus-list-groups-with-ticked-articles is nil, these groups will be treated just like totally empty groups. It is t by default.

2.12 Sorting Groups

The C-c C-s (gnus-group-sort-groups) command sorts the group buffer according to the function(s) given by the gnus-group-sort-function variable. Available sorting functions include:

gnus-group-sort-by-alphabet

Sort the group names alphabetically. This is the default.

gnus-group-sort-by-real-name

Sort the group alphabetically on the real (unprefixed) group names.

gnus-group-sort-by-level

Sort by group level.

gnus-group-sort-by-score

Sort by group score. See section 2.7 Group Score.

gnus-group-sort-by-rank

Sort by group score and then the group level. The level and the score are, when taken together, the group's rank. See section 2.7 Group Score.

gnus-group-sort-by-unread

Sort by number of unread articles.

gnus-group-sort-by-method

Sort alphabetically on the select method.

gnus-group-sort-by-server

Sort alphabetically on the Gnus server name.

gnus-group-sort-function can also be a list of sorting functions. In that case, the most significant sort key function must be the last one.

There are also a number of commands for sorting directly according to some sorting criteria:

G S a

Sort the group buffer alphabetically by group name (gnus-group-sort-groups-by-alphabet).

G S u

Sort the group buffer by the number of unread articles (gnus-group-sort-groups-by-unread).

G S l

Sort the group buffer by group level (gnus-group-sort-groups-by-level).

G S v

Sort the group buffer by group score (gnus-group-sort-groups-by-score). See section 2.7 Group Score.

G S r

Sort the group buffer by group rank (gnus-group-sort-groups-by-rank). See section 2.7 Group Score.

G S m

Sort the group buffer alphabetically by back end name
(gnus-group-sort-groups-by-method).

G S n

Sort the group buffer alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name (gnus-group-sort-groups-by-real-name).

All the commands below obey the process/prefix convention (see section 8.1 Process/Prefix).

When given a symbolic prefix (see section 8.3 Symbolic Prefixes), all these commands will sort in reverse order.

You can also sort a subset of the groups:

G P a

Sort the groups alphabetically by group name (gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-alphabet).

G P u

Sort the groups by the number of unread articles (gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-unread).

G P l

Sort the groups by group level (gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-level).

G P v

Sort the groups by group score (gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-score). See section 2.7 Group Score.

G P r

Sort the groups by group rank (gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-rank). See section 2.7 Group Score.

G P m

Sort the groups alphabetically by back end name
(gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-method).

G P n

Sort the groups alphabetically by real (unprefixed) group name (gnus-group-sort-selected-groups-by-real-name).

G P s

Sort the groups according to gnus-group-sort-function.

And finally, note that you can use C-k and C-y to manually move groups around.

2.13 Group Maintenance

b

Find bogus groups and delete them (gnus-group-check-bogus-groups).

F

Find new groups and process them (gnus-group-find-new-groups). With 1 C-u, use the ask-server method to query the server for new groups. With 2 C-u's, use most complete method possible to query the server for new groups, and subscribe the new groups as zombies.

C-c C-x

Run all expirable articles in the current group through the expiry process (if any) (gnus-group-expire-articles). That is, delete all expirable articles in the group that have been around for a while. (see section 6.3.9 Expiring Mail).

C-c C-M-x

Run all expirable articles in all groups through the expiry process (gnus-group-expire-all-groups).

2.14 Browse Foreign Server

B

You will be queried for a select method and a server name. Gnus will then attempt to contact this server and let you browse the groups there (gnus-group-browse-foreign-server).

A new buffer with a list of available groups will appear. This buffer will use the gnus-browse-mode. This buffer looks a bit (well, a lot) like a normal group buffer.

Here's a list of keystrokes available in the browse mode:

n

Go to the next group (gnus-group-next-group).

p

Go to the previous group (gnus-group-prev-group).

SPACE

Enter the current group and display the first article (gnus-browse-read-group).

RET

Enter the current group (gnus-browse-select-group).

u

Unsubscribe to the current group, or, as will be the case here, subscribe to it (gnus-browse-unsubscribe-current-group).

l

q

Exit browse mode (gnus-browse-exit).

d

Describe the current group (gnus-browse-describe-group).

?

Describe browse mode briefly (well, there's not much to describe, is there) (gnus-browse-describe-briefly).

2.15 Exiting Gnus

Yes, Gnus is ex(c)iting.

z

Suspend Gnus (gnus-group-suspend). This doesn't really exit Gnus, but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer. I'm not sure why this is a gain, but then who am I to judge?

q

Quit Gnus (gnus-group-exit).

Q

Quit Gnus without saving the `.newsrc' files (gnus-group-quit). The dribble file will be saved, though (see section 1.9 Auto Save).

gnus-suspend-gnus-hook is called when you suspend Gnus and gnus-exit-gnus-hook is called when you quit Gnus, while gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook is called as the final item when exiting Gnus.

Note:

Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet go numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy sitting behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the back of her plastic chair.

2.16 Group Topics

If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group them hierarchically according to topics. You put your Emacs groups over here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?) you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway. You can even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs groups or the sex groups--or both! Go wild!

Here's an example:

Gnus Emacs -- I wuw it! 3: comp.emacs 2: alt.religion.emacs Naughty Emacs 452: alt.sex.emacs 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery Misc 8: comp.binaries.fractals 13: comp.sources.unix

To get this fab functionality you simply turn on (ooh!) the gnus-topic minor mode--type t in the group buffer. (This is a toggling command.)

Go ahead, just try it. I'll still be here when you get back. La de dum... Nice tune, that... la la la... What, you're back? Yes, and now press l. There. All your groups are now listed under `misc'. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Hot and bothered?

If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode to the hook for the group mode. Put the following line in your `~/.gnus.el' file:

(add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)

2.16.1 Topic Commands		Interactive E-Z commands.
2.16.2 Topic Variables		How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
2.16.3 Topic Sorting		Sorting each topic individually.
2.16.4 Topic Topology		A map of the world.
2.16.5 Topic Parameters		Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.

2.16.1 Topic Commands

When the topic minor mode is turned on, a new T submap will be available. In addition, a few of the standard keys change their definitions slightly.

In general, the following kinds of operations are possible on topics. First of all, you want to create topics. Secondly, you want to put groups in topics and to move them around until you have an order you like. The third kind of operation is to show/hide parts of the whole shebang. You might want to hide a topic including its subtopics and groups, to get a better overview of the other groups.

Here is a list of the basic keys that you might need to set up topics the way you like.

T n

Prompt for a new topic name and create it (gnus-topic-create-topic).

T TAB

TAB

"Indent" the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the previous topic (gnus-topic-indent). If given a prefix, "un-indent" the topic instead.

M-TAB

"Un-indent" the current topic so that it becomes a sub-topic of the parent of its current parent (gnus-topic-unindent).

The following two keys can be used to move groups and topics around. They work like the well-known cut and paste. C-k is like cut and C-y is like paste. Of course, this being Emacs, we use the terms kill and yank rather than cut and paste.

C-k

Kill a group or topic (gnus-topic-kill-group). All groups in the topic will be removed along with the topic.

C-y

Yank the previously killed group or topic (gnus-topic-yank-group). Note that all topics will be yanked before all groups.

So, to move a topic to the beginning of the list of topics, just hit C-k on it. This is like the "cut" part of cut and paste. Then, move the cursor to the beginning of the buffer (just below the "Gnus" topic) and hit C-y. This is like the "paste" part of cut and paste. Like I said -- E-Z.

You can use C-k and C-y on groups as well as on topics. So you can move topics around as well as groups.

After setting up the topics the way you like them, you might wish to hide a topic, or to show it again. That's why we have the following key.

RET

SPACE

Either select a group or fold a topic (gnus-topic-select-group). When you perform this command on a group, you'll enter the group, as usual. When done on a topic line, the topic will be folded (if it was visible) or unfolded (if it was folded already). So it's basically a toggling command on topics. In addition, if you give a numerical prefix, group on that level (and lower) will be displayed.

Now for a list of other commands, in no particular order.

T m

Move the current group to some other topic (gnus-topic-move-group). This command uses the process/prefix convention (see section 8.1 Process/Prefix).

T j

Go to a topic (gnus-topic-jump-to-topic).

T c

Copy the current group to some other topic (gnus-topic-copy-group). This command uses the process/prefix convention (see section 8.1 Process/Prefix).

T h

Hide the current topic (gnus-topic-hide-topic). If given a prefix, hide the topic permanently.

T s

Show the current topic (gnus-topic-show-topic). If given a prefix, show the topic permanently.

T D

Remove a group from the current topic (gnus-topic-remove-group). This command is mainly useful if you have the same group in several topics and wish to remove it from one of the topics. You may also remove a group from all topics, but in that case, Gnus will add it to the root topic the next time you start Gnus. In fact, all new groups (which, naturally, don't belong to any topic) will show up in the root topic.

This command uses the process/prefix convention (see section 8.1 Process/Prefix).

T M

Move all groups that match some regular expression to a topic (gnus-topic-move-matching).

T C

Copy all groups that match some regular expression to a topic (gnus-topic-copy-matching).

T H

Toggle hiding empty topics (gnus-topic-toggle-display-empty-topics).

T #

Mark all groups in the current topic with the process mark (gnus-topic-mark-topic). This command works recursively on sub-topics unless given a prefix.

T M-#

Remove the process mark from all groups in the current topic (gnus-topic-unmark-topic). This command works recursively on sub-topics unless given a prefix.

C-c C-x

Run all expirable articles in the current group or topic through the expiry process (if any) (gnus-topic-expire-articles). (see section 6.3.9 Expiring Mail).

T r

Rename a topic (gnus-topic-rename).

T DEL

Delete an empty topic (gnus-topic-delete).

A T

List all groups that Gnus knows about in a topics-ified way (gnus-topic-list-active).

T M-n

Go to the next topic (gnus-topic-goto-next-topic).

T M-p

Go to the next topic (gnus-topic-goto-previous-topic).

G p

Edit the topic parameters (gnus-topic-edit-parameters). See section 2.16.5 Topic Parameters.

2.16.2 Topic Variables

The previous section told you how to tell Gnus which topics to display. This section explains how to tell Gnus what to display about each topic.

The topic lines themselves are created according to the gnus-topic-line-format variable (see section 8.4 Formatting Variables). Valid elements are:

`i'

Indentation.

`n'

Topic name.

`v'

Visibility.

`l'

Level.

`g'

Number of groups in the topic.

`a'

Number of unread articles in the topic.

`A'

Number of unread articles in the topic and all its subtopics.

Each sub-topic (and the groups in the sub-topics) will be indented with gnus-topic-indent-level times the topic level number of spaces. The default is 2.

gnus-topic-mode-hook is called in topic minor mode buffers.

The gnus-topic-display-empty-topics says whether to display even topics that have no unread articles in them. The default is t.

2.16.3 Topic Sorting

You can sort the groups in each topic individually with the following commands:

T S a

Sort the current topic alphabetically by group name (gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-alphabet).

T S u

Sort the current topic by the number of unread articles (gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-unread).

T S l

Sort the current topic by group level (gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-level).

T S v

Sort the current topic by group score (gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-score). See section 2.7 Group Score.

T S r

Sort the current topic by group rank (gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-rank). See section 2.7 Group Score.

T S m

Sort the current topic alphabetically by back end name (gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-method).

T S e

Sort the current topic alphabetically by server name (gnus-topic-sort-groups-by-server).

T S s

Sort the current topic according to the function(s) given by the gnus-group-sort-function variable (gnus-topic-sort-groups).

When given a prefix argument, all these commands will sort in reverse order. See section 2.12 Sorting Groups, for more information about group sorting.

2.16.4 Topic Topology

So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:

Gnus Emacs -- I wuw it! 3: comp.emacs 2: alt.religion.emacs Naughty Emacs 452: alt.sex.emacs 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery Misc 8: comp.binaries.fractals 13: comp.sources.unix

So, here we have one top-level topic (`Gnus'), two topics under that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as follows:

(("Gnus" visible) (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible) (("Naughty Emacs" visible))) (("Misc" visible)))

This is in fact how the variable gnus-topic-topology would look for the display above. That variable is saved in the `.newsrc.eld' file, and shouldn't be messed with manually--unless you really want to. Since this variable is read from the `.newsrc.eld' file, setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.

This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right), and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently allowed---visible and invisible.

2.16.5 Topic Parameters

All groups in a topic will inherit group parameters from the parent (and ancestor) topic parameters. All valid group parameters are valid topic parameters (see section 2.10 Group Parameters).

In addition, the following parameters are only valid as topic parameters:

subscribe

When subscribing new groups by topic (see section 1.6.2 Subscription Methods), the subscribe topic parameter says what groups go in what topic. Its value should be a regexp to match the groups that should go in that topic.

subscribe-level

When subscribing new groups by topic (see the subscribe parameter), the group will be subscribed with the level specified in the subscribe-level instead of gnus-level-default-subscribed.

Group parameters (of course) override topic parameters, and topic parameters in sub-topics override topic parameters in super-topics. You know. Normal inheritance rules. (Rules is here a noun, not a verb, although you may feel free to disagree with me here.)

Gnus Emacs 3: comp.emacs 2: alt.religion.emacs 452: alt.sex.emacs Relief 452: alt.sex.emacs 0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery Misc 8: comp.binaries.fractals 13: comp.sources.unix 452: alt.sex.emacs

The `Emacs' topic has the topic parameter (score-file . "emacs.SCORE"); the `Relief' topic has the topic parameter (score-file . "relief.SCORE"); and the `Misc' topic has the topic parameter (score-file . "emacs.SCORE"). In addition,
`alt.religion.emacs' has the group parameter (score-file . "religion.SCORE").

Now, when you enter `alt.sex.emacs' in the `Relief' topic, you will get the `relief.SCORE' home score file. If you enter the same group in the `Emacs' topic, you'll get the `emacs.SCORE' home score file. If you enter the group `alt.religion.emacs', you'll get the `religion.SCORE' home score file.

This seems rather simple and self-evident, doesn't it? Well, yes. But there are some problems, especially with the total-expiry parameter. Say you have a mail group in two topics; one with total-expiry and one without. What happens when you do M-x gnus-expire-all-expirable-groups? Gnus has no way of telling which one of these topics you mean to expire articles from, so anything may happen. In fact, I hereby declare that it is undefined what happens. You just have to be careful if you do stuff like that.

2.17 Misc Group Stuff

2.17.1 Scanning New Messages		Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
2.17.2 Group Information		Information and help on groups and Gnus.
2.17.3 Group Timestamp		Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
2.17.4 File Commands		Reading and writing the Gnus files.
2.17.5 Sieve Commands		Managing Sieve scripts.

^

Enter the server buffer (gnus-group-enter-server-mode). See section 6.1 Server Buffer.

a

Start composing a message (a news by default) (gnus-group-post-news). If given a prefix, post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group to post to. Contrary to what the name of this function suggests, the prepared article might be a mail instead of a news, if a mail group is specified with the prefix argument. See section 5. Composing Messages.

m

Mail a message somewhere (gnus-group-mail). If given a prefix, use the posting style of the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for a group name to find the posting style. See section 5. Composing Messages.

i

Start composing a news (gnus-group-news). If given a prefix, post to the group under the point. If the prefix is 1, prompt for group to post to. See section 5. Composing Messages.

This function actually prepares a news even when using mail groups. This is useful for "posting" messages to mail groups without actually sending them over the network: they're just saved directly to the group in question. The corresponding back end must have a request-post method for this to work though.

Variables for the group buffer:

gnus-group-mode-hook

is called after the group buffer has been created.

gnus-group-prepare-hook

is called after the group buffer is generated. It may be used to modify the buffer in some strange, unnatural way.

gnus-group-prepared-hook

is called as the very last thing after the group buffer has been generated. It may be used to move point around, for instance.

gnus-permanently-visible-groups

Groups matching this regexp will always be listed in the group buffer, whether they are empty or not.

gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist

An alist of method and the charset for group names. It is used to show non-ASCII group names.

For example:

(setq gnus-group-name-charset-method-alist '(((nntp "news.com.cn") . cn-gb-2312)))

gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist

An alist of regexp of group name and the charset for group names. It is used to show non-ASCII group names. ((".*" utf-8)) is the default value if UTF-8 is supported, otherwise the default is nil.

For example:

(setq gnus-group-name-charset-group-alist '(("\\.com\\.cn:" . cn-gb-2312)))

2.17.1 Scanning New Messages

g

Check the server(s) for new articles. If the numerical prefix is used, this command will check only groups of level arg and lower (gnus-group-get-new-news). If given a non-numerical prefix, this command will force a total re-reading of the active file(s) from the back end(s).

M-g

Check whether new articles have arrived in the current group (gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group). gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating says whether this command is to move point to the next group or not. It is t by default.

C-c M-g

Activate absolutely all groups (gnus-activate-all-groups).

R

Restart Gnus (gnus-group-restart). This saves the `.newsrc' file(s), closes the connection to all servers, clears up all run-time Gnus variables, and then starts Gnus all over again.

gnus-get-new-news-hook is run just before checking for new news.

gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook is run after checking for new news.

2.17.2 Group Information

H f

Try to fetch the FAQ for the current group (gnus-group-fetch-faq). Gnus will try to get the FAQ from gnus-group-faq-directory, which is usually a directory on a remote machine. This variable can also be a list of directories. In that case, giving a prefix to this command will allow you to choose between the various sites. ange-ftp (or efs) will be used for fetching the file.

If fetching from the first site is unsuccessful, Gnus will attempt to go through gnus-group-faq-directory and try to open them one by one.

H c

Try to open the charter for the current group in a web browser (gnus-group-fetch-charter). Query for a group if given a prefix argument.

Gnus will use gnus-group-charter-alist to find the location of the charter. If no location is known, Gnus will fetch the control messages for the group, which in some cases includes the charter.

H C

Fetch the control messages for the group from the archive at ftp.isc.org (gnus-group-fetch-control). Query for a group if given a prefix argument.

If gnus-group-fetch-control-use-browse-url is non-nil, Gnus will open the control messages in a browser using browse-url. Otherwise they are fetched using ange-ftp and displayed in an ephemeral group.

Note that the control messages are compressed. To use this command you need to turn on auto-compression-mode (see section `Compressed Files' in The Emacs Manual).

H d

C-c C-d

Describe the current group (gnus-group-describe-group). If given a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description from the server.

M-d

Describe all groups (gnus-group-describe-all-groups). If given a prefix, force Gnus to re-read the description file from the server.

H v

V

Display current Gnus version numbers (gnus-version).

?

Give a very short help message (gnus-group-describe-briefly).

C-c C-i

Go to the Gnus info node (gnus-info-find-node).

2.17.3 Group Timestamp

It can be convenient to let Gnus keep track of when you last read a group. To set the ball rolling, you should add gnus-group-set-timestamp to gnus-select-group-hook:

(add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook 'gnus-group-set-timestamp)

After doing this, each time you enter a group, it'll be recorded.

This information can be displayed in various ways--the easiest is to use the `%d' spec in the group line format:

(setq gnus-group-line-format "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %d\n")

This will result in lines looking like:

* 0: mail.ding 19961002T012943 0: custom 19961002T012713

As you can see, the date is displayed in compact ISO 8601 format. This may be a bit too much, so to just display the date, you could say something like:

(setq gnus-group-line-format "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %6,6~(cut 2)d\n")

If you would like greater control of the time format, you can use a user-defined format spec. Something like the following should do the trick:

(setq gnus-group-line-format "%M\%S\%p\%P\%5y: %(%-40,40g%) %ud\n") (defun gnus-user-format-function-d (headers) (let ((time (gnus-group-timestamp gnus-tmp-group))) (if time (format-time-string "%b %d %H:%M" time) "")))

2.17.4 File Commands

r

Re-read the init file (gnus-init-file, which defaults to `~/.gnus.el') (gnus-group-read-init-file).

s

Save the `.newsrc.eld' file (and `.newsrc' if wanted) (gnus-group-save-newsrc). If given a prefix, force saving the file(s) whether Gnus thinks it is necessary or not.

2.17.5 Sieve Commands

Sieve is a server-side mail filtering language. In Gnus you can use the sieve group parameter (see section 2.10 Group Parameters) to specify sieve rules that should apply to each group. Gnus provides two commands to translate all these group parameters into a proper Sieve script that can be transfered to the server somehow.

The generated Sieve script is placed in gnus-sieve-file (by default `~/.sieve'). The Sieve code that Gnus generate is placed between two delimiters, gnus-sieve-region-start and gnus-sieve-region-end, so you may write additional Sieve code outside these delimiters that will not be removed the next time you regenerate the Sieve script.

The variable gnus-sieve-crosspost controls how the Sieve script is generated. If it is non-nil (the default) articles is placed in all groups that have matching rules, otherwise the article is only placed in the group with the first matching rule. For example, the group parameter `(sieve address "sender" "owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu")' will generate the following piece of Sieve code if gnus-sieve-crosspost is nil. (When gnus-sieve-crosspost is non-nil, it looks the same except that the line containing the call to stop is removed.)

if address "sender" "owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu" { fileinto "INBOX.ding"; stop; }

See section `Top' in Emacs Sieve.

D g

Regenerate a Sieve script from the sieve group parameters and put you into the gnus-sieve-file without saving it.

D u

Regenerates the Gnus managed part of gnus-sieve-file using the sieve group parameters, save the file and upload it to the server using the sieveshell program.

3. Summary Buffer

A line for each article is displayed in the summary buffer. You can move around, read articles, post articles and reply to articles.

The most common way to a summary buffer is to select a group from the group buffer (see section 2.3 Selecting a Group).

You can have as many summary buffers open as you wish.

3.1 Summary Buffer Format		Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
3.2 Summary Maneuvering		Moving around the summary buffer.
3.3 Choosing Articles		Reading articles.
3.4 Scrolling the Article		Scrolling the current article.
3.5 Reply, Followup and Post		Posting articles.
3.6 Delayed Articles		Send articles at a later time.
3.7 Marking Articles		Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
3.8 Limiting		You can limit the summary buffer.
3.9 Threading		How threads are made.
3.10 Sorting the Summary Buffer		How articles and threads are sorted.
3.11 Asynchronous Article Fetching		Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
3.12 Article Caching		You may store articles in a cache.
3.13 Persistent Articles		Making articles expiry-resistant.
3.14 Article Backlog		Having already read articles hang around.
3.15 Saving Articles		Ways of customizing article saving.
3.16 Decoding Articles		Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
3.17 Article Treatment		The article buffer can be mangled at will.
3.18 MIME Commands		Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
3.19 Charsets		Character set issues.
3.20 Article Commands		Doing various things with the article buffer.
3.21 Summary Sorting		Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
3.22 Finding the Parent		No child support? Get the parent.
3.23 Alternative Approaches		Reading using non-default summaries.
3.24 Tree Display		A more visual display of threads.
3.25 Mail Group Commands		Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
3.26 Various Summary Stuff		What didn't fit anywhere else.
3.27 Exiting the Summary Buffer		Returning to the Group buffer, or reselecting the current group.
3.28 Crosspost Handling		How crossposted articles are dealt with.
3.29 Duplicate Suppression		An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
3.30 Security		Decrypt and Verify.
3.31 Mailing List		Mailing list minor mode.

3.1 Summary Buffer Format

3.1.1 Summary Buffer Lines		You can specify how summary lines should look.
3.1.2 To From Newsgroups		How to not display your own name.
3.1.3 Summary Buffer Mode Line		You can say how the mode line should look.
3.1.4 Summary Highlighting		Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.

Gnus will use the value of the gnus-extract-address-components variable as a function for getting the name and address parts of a From header. Two pre-defined functions exist: gnus-extract-address-components, which is the default, quite fast, and too simplistic solution; and mail-extract-address-components, which works very nicely, but is slower. The default function will return the wrong answer in 5% of the cases. If this is unacceptable to you, use the other function instead:

(setq gnus-extract-address-components 'mail-extract-address-components)

gnus-summary-same-subject is a string indicating that the current article has the same subject as the previous. This string will be used with those specs that require it. The default is "".

3.1.1 Summary Buffer Lines

You can change the format of the lines in the summary buffer by changing the gnus-summary-line-format variable. It works along the same lines as a normal format string, with some extensions (see section 8.4 Formatting Variables).

There should always be a colon or a point position marker on the line; the cursor always moves to the point position marker or the colon after performing an operation. (Of course, Gnus wouldn't be Gnus if it wasn't possible to change this. Just write a new function gnus-goto-colon which does whatever you like with the cursor.) See section 8.4.6 Positioning Point.

The default string is `%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n'.

The following format specification characters and extended format specification(s) are understood:

`N'

Article number.

`S'

Subject string. List identifiers stripped, gnus-list-identifies. See section 3.17.3 Article Hiding.

`s'

Subject if the article is the root of the thread or the previous article had a different subject, gnus-summary-same-subject otherwise. (gnus-summary-same-subject defaults to "".)

`F'

Full From header.

`n'

The name (from the From header).

`f'

The name, To header or the Newsgroups header (see section 3.1.2 To From Newsgroups).

`a'

The name (from the From header). This differs from the n spec in that it uses the function designated by the gnus-extract-address-components variable, which is slower, but may be more thorough.

`A'

The address (from the From header). This works the same way as the a spec.

`L'

Number of lines in the article.

`c'

Number of characters in the article. This specifier is not supported in some methods (like nnfolder).

`k'

Pretty-printed version of the number of characters in the article; for example, `1.2k' or `0.4M'.

`I'

Indentation based on thread level (see section 3.9.1 Customizing Threading).

`B'

A complex trn-style thread tree, showing response-connecting trace lines. A thread could be drawn like this:

> +-> | +-> | | \-> | | \-> | \-> +-> \->

You can customize the appearance with the following options. Note that it is possible to make the thread display look really neat by replacing the default ASCII characters with graphic line-drawing glyphs.

gnus-sum-thread-tree-root

Used for the root of a thread. If nil, use subject instead. The default is `> '.

gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root

Used for the false root of a thread (see section 3.9.1.1 Loose Threads). If nil, use subject instead. The default is `> '.

gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent

Used for a thread with just one message. If nil, use subject instead. The default is `'.

gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical

Used for drawing a vertical line. The default is `| '.

gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent

Used for indenting. The default is ` '.

gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other

Used for a leaf with brothers. The default is `+-> '.

gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf

Used for a leaf without brothers. The default is `\-> '

`T'

Nothing if the article is a root and lots of spaces if it isn't (it pushes everything after it off the screen).

`['

Opening bracket, which is normally `[', but can also be `<' for adopted articles (see section 3.9.1 Customizing Threading).

`]'

Closing bracket, which is normally `]', but can also be `>' for adopted articles.

`>'

One space for each thread level.

`<'

Twenty minus thread level spaces.

`U'

Unread. See section 3.7.2 Read Articles.

`R'

This misleadingly named specifier is the secondary mark. This mark will say whether the article has been replied to, has been cached, or has been saved. See section 3.7.3 Other Marks.

`i'

Score as a number (see section 7. Scoring).

`z'

Zcore, `+' if above the default level and `-' if below the default level. If the difference between gnus-summary-default-score and the score is less than gnus-summary-zcore-fuzz, this spec will not be used.

`V'

Total thread score.

`x'

Xref.

`D'

Date.

`d'

The Date in DD-MMM format.

`o'

The Date in YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS format.

`M'

Message-ID.

`r'

References.

`t'

Number of articles in the current sub-thread. Using this spec will slow down summary buffer generation somewhat.

`e'

An `=' (gnus-not-empty-thread-mark) will be displayed if the article has any children.

`P'

The line number.

`O'

Download mark.

`&user-date;'

Age sensitive date format. Various date format is defined in gnus-user-date-format-alist.

`u'

User defined specifier. The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus will call the function gnus-user-format-function-x, where x is the letter following `%u'. The function will be passed the current header as argument. The function should return a string, which will be inserted into the summary just like information from any other summary specifier.

Text between `%(' and `%)' will be highlighted with gnus-mouse-face when the mouse point is placed inside the area. There can only be one such area.

The `%U' (status), `%R' (replied) and `%z' (zcore) specs have to be handled with care. For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will compute what column these characters will end up in, and "hard-code" that. This means that it is invalid to have these specs after a variable-length spec. Well, you might not be arrested, but your summary buffer will look strange, which is bad enough.

The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as possible. (Isn't that the case with everything, though? But I digress.)

This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.

3.1.2 To From Newsgroups

In some groups (particularly in archive groups), the From header isn't very interesting, since all the articles there are written by you. To display the information in the To or Newsgroups headers instead, you need to decide three things: What information to gather; where to display it; and when to display it.

1. The reading of extra header information is controlled by the gnus-extra-headers. This is a list of header symbols. For instance:

   (setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Newsgroups X-Newsreader))

   This will result in Gnus trying to obtain these three headers, and storing it in header structures for later easy retrieval.

2. The value of these extra headers can be accessed via the gnus-extra-header function. Here's a format line spec that will access the X-Newsreader header:

   "%~(form (gnus-extra-header 'X-Newsreader))@"

3. The gnus-ignored-from-addresses variable says when the `%f' summary line spec returns the To, Newsreader or From header. If this regexp matches the contents of the From header, the value of the To or Newsreader headers are used instead.

A related variable is nnmail-extra-headers, which controls when to include extra headers when generating overview (NOV) files. If you have old overview files, you should regenerate them after changing this variable, by entering the server buffer using ^, and then g on the appropriate mail server (e.g. nnml) to cause regeneration.

You also have to instruct Gnus to display the data by changing the %n spec to the %f spec in the gnus-summary-line-format variable.

In summary, you'd typically put something like the following in `~/.gnus.el':

(setq gnus-extra-headers '(To Newsgroups)) (setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers) (setq gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z%I%(%[%4L: %-23,23f%]%) %s\n") (setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses "Your Name Here")

(The values listed above are the default values in Gnus. Alter them to fit your needs.)

A note for news server administrators, or for users who wish to try to convince their news server administrator to provide some additional support:

The above is mostly useful for mail groups, where you have control over the NOV files that are created. However, if you can persuade your nntp admin to add (in the usual implementation, notably INN):

Newsgroups:full

to the end of her `overview.fmt' file, then you can use that just as you would the extra headers from the mail groups.

3.1.3 Summary Buffer Mode Line

You can also change the format of the summary mode bar (see section 8.4.2 Mode Line Formatting). Set gnus-summary-mode-line-format to whatever you like. The default is `Gnus: %%b [%A] %Z'.

Here are the elements you can play with:

`G'

Group name.

`p'

Unprefixed group name.

`A'

Current article number.

`z'

Current article score.

`V'

Gnus version.

`U'

Number of unread articles in this group.

`e'

Number of unread articles in this group that aren't displayed in the summary buffer.

`Z'

A string with the number of unread and unselected articles represented either as `<%U(+%e) more>' if there are both unread and unselected articles, and just as `<%U more>' if there are just unread articles and no unselected ones.

`g'

Shortish group name. For instance, `rec.arts.anime' will be shortened to `r.a.anime'.

`S'

Subject of the current article.

`u'

User-defined spec (see section 8.4.4 User-Defined Specs).

`s'

Name of the current score file (see section 7. Scoring).

`d'

Number of dormant articles (see section 3.7.1 Unread Articles).

`t'

Number of ticked articles (see section 3.7.1 Unread Articles).

`r'

Number of articles that have been marked as read in this session.

`E'

Number of articles expunged by the score files.

3.1.4 Summary Highlighting

gnus-visual-mark-article-hook

This hook is run after selecting an article. It is meant to be used for highlighting the article in some way. It is not run if gnus-visual is nil.

gnus-summary-update-hook

This hook is called when a summary line is changed. It is not run if gnus-visual is nil.

gnus-summary-selected-face

This is the face (or font as some people call it) used to highlight the current article in the summary buffer.

gnus-summary-highlight

Summary lines are highlighted according to this variable, which is a list where the elements are of the format (form . face). If you would, for instance, like ticked articles to be italic and high-scored articles to be bold, you could set this variable to something like

(((eq mark gnus-ticked-mark) . italic) ((> score default) . bold))

As you may have guessed, if form returns a non-nil value, face will be applied to the line.

3.2 Summary Maneuvering

All the straight movement commands understand the numeric prefix and behave pretty much as you'd expect.

None of these commands select articles.

G M-n

M-n

Go to the next summary line of an unread article (gnus-summary-next-unread-subject).

G M-p

M-p

Go to the previous summary line of an unread article (gnus-summary-prev-unread-subject).

G g

Ask for an article number and then go to the summary line of that article without displaying the article (gnus-summary-goto-subject).

If Gnus asks you to press a key to confirm going to the next group, you can use the C-n and C-p keys to move around the group buffer, searching for the next group to read without actually returning to the group buffer.

Variables related to summary movement:

gnus-auto-select-next

If you issue one of the movement commands (like n) and there are no more unread articles after the current one, Gnus will offer to go to the next group. If this variable is t and the next group is empty, Gnus will exit summary mode and return to the group buffer. If this variable is neither t nor nil, Gnus will select the next group with unread articles. As a special case, if this variable is quietly, Gnus will select the next group without asking for confirmation. If this variable is almost-quietly, the same will happen only if you are located on the last article in the group. Finally, if this variable is slightly-quietly, the Z n command will go to the next group without confirmation. Also see section 2.6 Group Levels.

gnus-auto-select-same

If non-nil, all the movement commands will try to go to the next article with the same subject as the current. (Same here might mean roughly equal. See gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit for details (see section 3.9.1 Customizing Threading).) If there are no more articles with the same subject, go to the first unread article.

This variable is not particularly useful if you use a threaded display.

gnus-summary-check-current

If non-nil, all the "unread" movement commands will not proceed to the next (or previous) article if the current article is unread. Instead, they will choose the current article.

gnus-auto-center-summary

If non-nil, Gnus will keep the point in the summary buffer centered at all times. This makes things quite tidy, but if you have a slow network connection, or simply do not like this un-Emacsism, you can set this variable to nil to get the normal Emacs scrolling action. This will also inhibit horizontal re-centering of the summary buffer, which might make it more inconvenient to read extremely long threads.

This variable can also be a number. In that case, center the window at the given number of lines from the top.

3.3 Choosing Articles

3.3.1 Choosing Commands		Commands for choosing articles.
3.3.2 Choosing Variables		Variables that influence these commands.

3.3.1 Choosing Commands

None of the following movement commands understand the numeric prefix, and they all select and display an article.

If you want to fetch new articles or redisplay the group, see 3.27 Exiting the Summary Buffer.

SPACE

Select the current article, or, if that one's read already, the next unread article (gnus-summary-next-page).

If you have an article window open already and you press SPACE again, the article will be scrolled. This lets you conveniently SPACE through an entire newsgroup. See section 3.4 Scrolling the Article.

G n

n

Go to next unread article (gnus-summary-next-unread-article).

G p

p

Go to previous unread article (gnus-summary-prev-unread-article).

G N

N

Go to the next article (gnus-summary-next-article).

G P

P

Go to the previous article (gnus-summary-prev-article).

G C-n

Go to the next article with the same subject (gnus-summary-next-same-subject).

G C-p

Go to the previous article with the same subject (gnus-summary-prev-same-subject).

G f

.

Go to the first unread article (gnus-summary-first-unread-article).

G b

,

Go to the unread article with the highest score (gnus-summary-best-unread-article). If given a prefix argument, go to the first unread article that has a score over the default score.

G l

l

Go to the previous article read (gnus-summary-goto-last-article).

G o

Pop an article off the summary history and go to this article (gnus-summary-pop-article). This command differs from the command above in that you can pop as many previous articles off the history as you like, while l toggles the two last read articles. For a somewhat related issue (if you use these commands a lot), see section 3.14 Article Backlog.

G j

j

Ask for an article number or Message-ID, and then go to that article (gnus-summary-goto-article).

3.3.2 Choosing Variables

Some variables relevant for moving and selecting articles:

gnus-auto-extend-newsgroup

All the movement commands will try to go to the previous (or next) article, even if that article isn't displayed in the Summary buffer if this variable is non-nil. Gnus will then fetch the article from the server and display it in the article buffer.

gnus-select-article-hook

This hook is called whenever an article is selected. By default it exposes any threads hidden under the selected article. If you would like each article to be saved in the Agent as you read it, putting gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article on this hook will do so.

gnus-mark-article-hook

This hook is called whenever an article is selected. It is intended to be used for marking articles as read. The default value is gnus-summary-mark-read-and-unread-as-read, and will change the mark of almost any article you read to gnus-unread-mark. The only articles not affected by this function are ticked, dormant, and expirable articles. If you'd instead like to just have unread articles marked as read, you can use gnus-summary-mark-unread-as-read instead. It will leave marks like gnus-low-score-mark, gnus-del-mark (and so on) alone.

3.4 Scrolling the Article

SPACE

Pressing SPACE will scroll the current article forward one page, or, if you have come to the end of the current article, will choose the next article (gnus-summary-next-page).

If gnus-article-skip-boring is non-nil and the rest of the article consists only of citations and signature, then it will be skipped; the next article will be shown instead. You can customize what is considered uninteresting with gnus-article-boring-faces. You can manually view the article's pages, no matter how boring, using C-M-v.

DEL

Scroll the current article back one page (gnus-summary-prev-page).

RET

Scroll the current article one line forward (gnus-summary-scroll-up).

M-RET

Scroll the current article one line backward (gnus-summary-scroll-down).

A g

g

(Re)fetch the current article (gnus-summary-show-article). If given a prefix, fetch the current article, but don't run any of the article treatment functions. This will give you a "raw" article, just the way it came from the server.

If given a numerical prefix, you can do semi-manual charset stuff. C-u 0 g cn-gb-2312 RET will decode the message as if it were encoded in the cn-gb-2312 charset. If you have

(setq gnus-summary-show-article-charset-alist '((1 . cn-gb-2312) (2 . big5)))

then you can say C-u 1 g to get the same effect.

A <

<

Scroll to the beginning of the article (gnus-summary-beginning-of-article).

A >

>

Scroll to the end of the article (gnus-summary-end-of-article).

A s

s

Perform an isearch in the article buffer (gnus-summary-isearch-article).

h

Select the article buffer (gnus-summary-select-article-buffer).