This is ../info/gnus, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from gnus.texi.
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms
of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions.
File: gnus, Node: Daemons, Next: NoCeM, Prev: Buttons, Up: Various
Daemons
=======
Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does
lots of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not
present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a
while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers
when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that.
Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various "handlers".
Each handler consists of three elements: A FUNCTION, a TIME, and an
IDLE parameter.
Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has
been idle for thirty minutes:
(gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30)
Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is
idle:
(gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t)
This TIME parameter and than IDLE parameter work together in a
strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if IDLE is `nil', then the
function will be called every TIME minutes.
If IDLE is `t', then the function will be called after TIME minutes
only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle, the function will
never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the function will be called
every TIME minutes.
If IDLE is a number and TIME is a number, the function will be
called every TIME minutes only when Emacs has been idle for IDLE
minutes.
If IDLE is a number and TIME is `nil', the function will be called
once every time Emacs has been idle for IDLE minutes.
And if TIME is a string, it should look like `07:31', and the
function will then be called once every day somewhere near that time.
Modified by the IDLE parameter, of course.
(When I say "minute" here, I really mean `gnus-demon-timestep'
seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable, all the
timings in the handlers will be affected.)
To set the whole thing in motion, though, you have to set
`gnus-use-demon' to `t'.
So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this
in your `.gnus' file:
(gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t)
Some ready-made functions to do this have been created:
`gnus-demon-add-nocem', `gnus-demon-add-disconnection',
`gnus-demon-add-nntp-close-connection',
`gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps', `gnus-demon-add-rescan', and
`gnus-demon-add-scanmail'. Just put those functions in your `.gnus' if
you want those abilities.
If you add handlers to `gnus-demon-handlers' directly, you should
run `gnus-demon-init' to make the changes take hold. To cancel all
daemons, you can use the `gnus-demon-cancel' function.
Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you over do it.
Adding functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two
seconds is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable
system. So behave.
File: gnus, Node: NoCeM, Next: Undo, Prev: Daemons, Up: Various
NoCeM
=====
"Spamming" is posting the same article lots and lots of times.
Spamming is bad. Spamming is evil.
Spamming is usually canceled within a day or so by various
anti-spamming agencies. These agencies usually also send out "NoCeM"
messages. NoCeM is pronounced "no see-'em", and means what the name
implies--these are messages that make the offending articles, like, go
away.
What use are these NoCeM messages if the articles are canceled
anyway? Some sites do not honor cancel messages and some sites just
honor cancels from a select few people. Then you may wish to make use
of the NoCeM messages, which are distributed in the `alt.nocem.misc'
newsgroup.
Gnus can read and parse the messages in this group automatically, and
this will make spam disappear.
There are some variables to customize, of course:
`gnus-use-nocem'
Set this variable to `t' to set the ball rolling. It is `nil' by
default.
`gnus-nocem-groups'
Gnus will look for NoCeM messages in the groups in this list. The
default is `("news.lists.filters" "news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins"
"alt.nocem.misc" "news.admin.net-abuse.announce")'.
`gnus-nocem-issuers'
There are many people issuing NoCeM messages. This list says what
people you want to listen to. The default is `("Automoose-1"
"rbraver@ohww.norman.ok.us" "clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca"
"jem@xpat.com" "snowhare@xmission.com" "red@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us
(Richard E. Depew)")'; fine, upstanding citizens all of them.
Known despammers that you can put in this list include:
`clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca;'
Chris Lewis--Major Canadian despammer who has probably
canceled more usenet abuse than anybody else.
`Automoose-1'
The CancelMoose[tm] on autopilot. The CancelMoose[tm] is
reputed to be Norwegian, and was the person(s) who invented
NoCeM.
`jem@xpat.com;'
John Milburn--despammer located in Korea who is getting very
busy these days.
`red@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us (Richard E. Depew)'
Richard E. Depew--lone American despammer. He mostly cancels
binary postings to non-binary groups and removes spews
(regurgitated articles).
You do not have to heed NoCeM messages from all these people--just
the ones you want to listen to. You also don't have to accept all
NoCeM messages from the people you like. Each NoCeM message has a
"type" header that gives the message a (more or less, usually
less) rigorous definition. Common types are `spam', `spew', `mmf',
`binary', and `troll'. To specify this, you have to use `(ISSUER
CONDITIONS ...)' elements in the list. Each condition is either a
string (which is a regexp that matches types you want to use) or a
list on the form `(not STRING)', where STRING is a regexp that
matches types you don't want to use.
For instance, if you want all NoCeM messages from Chris Lewis
except his `troll' messages, you'd say:
("clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" ".*" (not "troll"))
On the other hand, if you just want nothing but his `spam' and
`spew' messages, you'd say:
("clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca" (not ".*") "spew" "spam")
The specs are applied left-to-right.
`gnus-nocem-verifyer'
This should be a function for verifying that the NoCeM issuer is
who she says she is. The default is `mc-verify', which is a
Mailcrypt function. If this is too slow and you don't care for
verification (which may be dangerous), you can set this variable
to `nil'.
If you want signed NoCeM messages to be verified and unsigned
messages not to be verified (but used anyway), you could do
something like:
(setq gnus-nocem-verifyer 'my-gnus-mc-verify)
(defun my-gnus-mc-verify ()
(not (eq 'forged
(ignore-errors
(if (mc-verify)
t
'forged)))))
This might be dangerous, though.
`gnus-nocem-directory'
This is where Gnus will store its NoCeM cache files. The default
is `~/News/NoCeM/'.
`gnus-nocem-expiry-wait'
The number of days before removing old NoCeM entries from the
cache. The default is 15. If you make it shorter Gnus will be
faster, but you might then see old spam.
Using NoCeM could potentially be a memory hog. If you have many
living (i. e., subscribed or unsubscribed groups), your Emacs process
will grow big. If this is a problem, you should kill off all (or most)
of your unsubscribed groups (*note Subscription Commands::).
File: gnus, Node: Undo, Next: Moderation, Prev: NoCeM, Up: Various
Undo
====
It is very useful to be able to undo actions one has done. In normal
Emacs buffers, it's easy enough--you just push the `undo' button. In
Gnus buffers, however, it isn't that simple.
The things Gnus displays in its buffer is of no value whatsoever to
Gnus--it's all just data designed to look nice to the user. Killing a
group in the group buffer with `C-k' makes the line disappear, but
that's just a side-effect of the real action--the removal of the group
in question from the internal Gnus structures. Undoing something like
that can't be done by the normal Emacs `undo' function.
Gnus tries to remedy this somewhat by keeping track of what the user
does and coming up with actions that would reverse the actions the user
takes. When the user then presses the `undo' key, Gnus will run the
code to reverse the previous action, or the previous actions. However,
not all actions are easily reversible, so Gnus currently offers a few
key functions to be undoable. These include killing groups, yanking
groups, and changing the list of read articles of groups. That's it,
really. More functions may be added in the future, but each added
function means an increase in data to be stored, so Gnus will never be
totally undoable.
The undoability is provided by the `gnus-undo-mode' minor mode. It
is used if `gnus-use-undo' is non-`nil', which is the default. The
`M-C-_' key performs the `gnus-undo' command command, which should feel
kinda like the normal Emacs `undo' command.
File: gnus, Node: Moderation, Next: XEmacs Enhancements, Prev: Undo, Up: Various
Moderation
==========
If you are a moderator, you can use the `gnus-mdrtn.el' package. It
is not included in the standard Gnus package. Write a mail to
`larsi@gnus.org' and state what group you moderate, and you'll get a
copy.
The moderation package is implemented as a minor mode for summary
buffers. Put
(add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-moderate)
in your `.gnus.el' file.
If you are the moderator of `rec.zoofle', this is how it's supposed
to work:
1. You split your incoming mail by matching on
`Newsgroups:.*rec.zoofle', which will put all the to-be-posted
articles in some mail group--for instance, `nnml:rec.zoofle'.
2. You enter that group once in a while and post articles using the
`e' (edit-and-post) or `s' (just send unedited) commands.
3. If, while reading the `rec.zoofle' newsgroup, you happen upon some
articles that weren't approved by you, you can cancel them with the
`c' command.
To use moderation mode in these two groups, say:
(setq gnus-moderated-list
"^nnml:rec.zoofle$\\|^rec.zoofle$")
File: gnus, Node: XEmacs Enhancements, Next: Fuzzy Matching, Prev: Moderation, Up: Various
XEmacs Enhancements
===================
XEmacs is able to display pictures and stuff, so Gnus has taken
advantage of that.
* Menu:
* Picons:: How to display pictures of what your reading.
* Smileys:: Show all those happy faces the way they were meant to be shown.
* Toolbar:: Click'n'drool.
* XVarious:: Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
File: gnus, Node: Picons, Next: Smileys, Up: XEmacs Enhancements
Picons
------
So... You want to slow down your news reader even more! This is a
good way to do so. Its also a great way to impress people staring over
your shoulder as you read news.
* Menu:
* Picon Basics:: What are picons and How do I get them.
* Picon Requirements:: Don't go further if you aren't using XEmacs.
* Easy Picons:: Displaying Picons---the easy way.
* Hard Picons:: The way you should do it. You'll learn something.
* Picon Useless Configuration:: Other variables you can trash/tweak/munge/play with.
File: gnus, Node: Picon Basics, Next: Picon Requirements, Up: Picons
Picon Basics
............
What are Picons? To quote directly from the Picons Web site:
"Picons" is short for "personal icons". They're small,
constrained images used to represent users and domains on the net,
organized into databases so that the appropriate image for a given
e-mail address can be found. Besides users and domains, there are
picon databases for Usenet newsgroups and weather forecasts. The
picons are in either monochrome `XBM' format or color `XPM' and
`GIF' formats.
If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you can use Steve
Kinzler's Picons Search engine by setting `gnus-picons-piconsearch-url'
to the string
`http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/search.html'.
Otherwise you need a local copy of his database. For instructions on
obtaining and installing the picons databases, point your Web browser
at
`http://www.cs.indiana.edu/picons/ftp/index.html'. Gnus expects picons
to be installed into a location pointed to by `gnus-picons-database'.
File: gnus, Node: Picon Requirements, Next: Easy Picons, Prev: Picon Basics, Up: Picons
Picon Requirements
..................
To have Gnus display Picons for you, you must be running XEmacs
19.13 or greater since all other versions of Emacs aren't yet able to
display images.
Additionally, you must have `x' support compiled into XEmacs. To
display color picons which are much nicer than the black & white one,
you also need one of `xpm' or `gif' compiled into XEmacs.
If you want to display faces from `X-Face' headers, you should have
the `xface' support compiled into XEmacs. Otherwise you must have the
`netpbm' utilities installed, or munge the `gnus-picons-convert-x-face'
variable to use something else.
File: gnus, Node: Easy Picons, Next: Hard Picons, Prev: Picon Requirements, Up: Picons
Easy Picons
...........
To enable displaying picons, simply put the following line in your
`~/.gnus' file and start Gnus.
(setq gnus-use-picons t)
(add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
'gnus-article-display-picons t)
(add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook
'gnus-picons-article-display-x-face)
and make sure `gnus-picons-database' points to the directory
containing the Picons databases.
Alternatively if you want to use the web piconsearch engine add this:
(setq gnus-picons-piconsearch-url
"http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch")
File: gnus, Node: Hard Picons, Next: Picon Useless Configuration, Prev: Easy Picons, Up: Picons
Hard Picons
...........
Gnus can display picons for you as you enter and leave groups and
articles. It knows how to interact with three sections of the picons
database. Namely, it can display the picons newsgroup pictures,
author's face picture(s), and the authors domain. To enable this
feature, you need to select where to get the picons from, and where to
display them.
`gnus-picons-database'
The location of the picons database. Should point to a directory
containing the `news', `domains', `users' (and so on)
subdirectories. This is only useful if
`gnus-picons-piconsearch-url' is `nil'. Defaults to
`/usr/local/faces/'.
`gnus-picons-piconsearch-url'
The URL for the web picons search engine. The only currently known
engine is `http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch'. To
workaround network delays, icons will be fetched in the
background. If this is `nil' 'the default), then picons are
fetched from local database indicated by `gnus-picons-database'.
`gnus-picons-display-where'
Where the picon images should be displayed. It is `picons' by
default (which by default maps to the buffer `*Picons*'). Other
valid places could be `article', `summary', or `*scratch*' for all
I care. Just make sure that you've made the buffer visible using
the standard Gnus window configuration routines--*note Windows
Configuration::.
`gnus-picons-group-excluded-groups'
Groups that are matched by this regexp won't have their group icons
displayed.
Note: If you set `gnus-use-picons' to `t', it will set up your
window configuration for you to include the `picons' buffer.
Now that you've made those decision, you need to add the following
functions to the appropriate hooks so these pictures will get displayed
at the right time.
`gnus-article-display-picons'
Looks up and displays the picons for the author and the author's
domain in the `gnus-picons-display-where' buffer. Should be added
to the `gnus-article-display-hook'.
`gnus-picons-article-display-x-face'
Decodes and displays the X-Face header if present. This function
should be added to `gnus-article-display-hook'.
Note: You must append them to the hook, so make sure to specify 't'
for the append flag of `add-hook':
(add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-display-picons t)
File: gnus, Node: Picon Useless Configuration, Prev: Hard Picons, Up: Picons
Picon Useless Configuration
...........................
The following variables offer further control over how things are
done, where things are located, and other useless stuff you really
don't need to worry about.
`gnus-picons-news-directories'
List of subdirectories to search in `gnus-picons-database' for
newsgroups faces. `("news")' is the default.
`gnus-picons-user-directories'
List of subdirectories to search in `gnus-picons-database' for user
faces. `("local" "users" "usenix" "misc")' is the default.
`gnus-picons-domain-directories'
List of subdirectories to search in `gnus-picons-database' for
domain name faces. Defaults to `("domains")'. Some people may
want to add `"unknown"' to this list.
`gnus-picons-convert-x-face'
If you don't have `xface' support builtin XEmacs, this is the
command to use to convert the `X-Face' header to an X bitmap
(`xbm'). Defaults to `(format "{ echo '/* Width=48, Height=48
*/'; uncompface; } | icontopbm | pbmtoxbm > %s"
gnus-picons-x-face-file-name)'
`gnus-picons-x-face-file-name'
Names a temporary file to store the `X-Face' bitmap in. Defaults
to `(format "/tmp/picon-xface.%s.xbm" (user-login-name))'.
`gnus-picons-has-modeline-p'
If you have set `gnus-picons-display-where' to `picons', your
XEmacs frame will become really cluttered. To alleviate this a
bit you can set `gnus-picons-has-modeline-p' to `nil'; this will
remove the mode line from the Picons buffer. This is only useful
if `gnus-picons-display-where' is `picons'.
`gnus-picons-refresh-before-display'
If non-nil, display the article buffer before computing the picons.
Defaults to `nil'.
`gnus-picons-display-as-address'
If `t' display textual email addresses along with pictures.
Defaults to `t'.
`gnus-picons-file-suffixes'
Ordered list of suffixes on picon file names to try. Defaults to
`("xpm" "gif" "xbm")' minus those not builtin your XEmacs.
`gnus-picons-display-article-move-p'
Whether to move point to first empty line when displaying picons.
This has only an effect if `gnus-picons-display-where' has value
`article'.
`gnus-picons-clear-cache-on-shutdown'
Whether to clear the picons cache when exiting gnus. Gnus caches
every picons it finds while it is running. This saves some time
in the search process but eats some memory. If this variable is
set to `nil', Gnus will never clear the cache itself; you will
have to manually call `gnus-picons-clear-cache' to clear it.
Otherwise the cache will be cleared every time you exit Gnus.
Defaults to `t'.
File: gnus, Node: Smileys, Next: Toolbar, Prev: Picons, Up: XEmacs Enhancements
Smileys
-------
"Smiley" is a package separate from Gnus, but since Gnus is
currently the only package that uses Smiley, it is documented here.
In short--to use Smiley in Gnus, put the following in your
`.gnus.el' file:
(add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-smiley-display t)
Smiley maps text smiley faces--`:-)', `:-=', `:-(' and the like--to
pictures and displays those instead of the text smiley faces. The
conversion is controlled by a list of regexps that matches text and
maps that to file names.
Smiley supplies two example conversion alists by default:
`smiley-deformed-regexp-alist' (which matches `:)', `:(' and so on),
and `smiley-nosey-regexp-alist' (which matches `:-)', `:-(' and so on).
The alist used is specified by the `smiley-regexp-alist' variable,
which defaults to the value of `smiley-deformed-regexp-alist'.
The first item in each element is the regexp to be matched; the
second element is the regexp match group that is to be replaced by the
picture; and the third element is the name of the file to be displayed.
The following variables customize where Smiley will look for these
files, as well as the color to be used and stuff:
`smiley-data-directory'
Where Smiley will look for smiley faces files.
`smiley-flesh-color'
Skin color. The default is `yellow', which is really racist.
`smiley-features-color'
Color of the features of the face. The default is `black'.
`smiley-tongue-color'
Color of the tongue. The default is `red'.
`smiley-circle-color'
Color of the circle around the face. The default is `black'.
`smiley-mouse-face'
Face used for mouse highlighting over the smiley face.
File: gnus, Node: Toolbar, Next: XVarious, Prev: Smileys, Up: XEmacs Enhancements
Toolbar
-------
`gnus-use-toolbar'
If `nil', don't display toolbars. If non-`nil', it should be one
of `default-toolbar', `top-toolbar', `bottom-toolbar',
`right-toolbar', or `left-toolbar'.
`gnus-group-toolbar'
The toolbar in the group buffer.
`gnus-summary-toolbar'
The toolbar in the summary buffer.
`gnus-summary-mail-toolbar'
The toolbar in the summary buffer of mail groups.
File: gnus, Node: XVarious, Prev: Toolbar, Up: XEmacs Enhancements
Various XEmacs Variables
------------------------
`gnus-xmas-glyph-directory'
This is where Gnus will look for pictures. Gnus will normally
auto-detect this directory, but you may set it manually if you
have an unusual directory structure.
`gnus-xmas-logo-color-alist'
This is an alist where the key is a type symbol and the values are
the foreground and background color of the splash page glyph.
`gnus-xmas-logo-color-style'
This is the key used to look up the color in the alist described
above. Valid values include `flame', `pine', `moss', `irish',
`sky', `tin', `velvet', `grape', `labia', `berry', `neutral', and
`september'.
`gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph'
A glyph displayed in all Gnus mode lines. It is a tiny gnu head by
default.
File: gnus, Node: Fuzzy Matching, Next: Thwarting Email Spam, Prev: XEmacs Enhancements, Up: Various
Fuzzy Matching
==============
Gnus provides "fuzzy matching" of `Subject' lines when doing things
like scoring, thread gathering and thread comparison.
As opposed to regular expression matching, fuzzy matching is very
fuzzy. It's so fuzzy that there's not even a definition of what
"fuzziness" means, and the implementation has changed over time.
Basically, it tries to remove all noise from lines before comparing.
`Re: ', parenthetical remarks, white space, and so on, are filtered out
of the strings before comparing the results. This often leads to
adequate results--even when faced with strings generated by text
manglers masquerading as newsreaders.
File: gnus, Node: Thwarting Email Spam, Next: Various Various, Prev: Fuzzy Matching, Up: Various
Thwarting Email Spam
====================
In these last days of the Usenet, commercial vultures are hanging
about and grepping through news like crazy to find email addresses they
can foist off their scams and products to. As a reaction to this, many
people have started putting nonsense addresses into their `From' lines.
I think this is counterproductive--it makes it difficult for people to
send you legitimate mail in response to things you write, as well as
making it difficult to see who wrote what. This rewriting may perhaps
be a bigger menace than the unsolicited commercial email itself in the
end.
The biggest problem I have with email spam is that it comes in under
false pretenses. I press `g' and Gnus merrily informs me that I have
10 new emails. I say "Golly gee! Happy is me!" and select the mail
group, only to find two pyramid schemes, seven advertisements ("New!
Miracle tonic for growing full, lustrous hair on your toes!") and one
mail asking me to repent and find some god.
This is annoying.
The way to deal with this is having Gnus split out all spam into a
`spam' mail group (*note Splitting Mail::).
First, pick one (1) valid mail address that you can be reached at,
and put it in your `From' header of all your news articles. (I've
chosen `larsi@trym.ifi.uio.no', but for many addresses on the form
`larsi+usenet@ifi.uio.no' will be a better choice. Ask your sysadm
whether your sendmail installation accepts keywords in the local part
of the mail address.)
(setq message-default-news-headers
"From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@trym.ifi.uio.no>\n")
Then put the following split rule in `nnmail-split-fancy' (*note
Fancy Mail Splitting::):
(
...
(to "larsi@trym.ifi.uio.no"
(| ("subject" "re:.*" "misc")
("references" ".*@.*" "misc")
"spam"))
...
)
This says that all mail to this address is suspect, but if it has a
`Subject' that starts with a `Re:' or has a `References' header, it's
probably ok. All the rest goes to the `spam' group. (This idea
probably comes from Tim Pierce.)
In addition, many mail spammers talk directly to your `smtp' server
and do not include your email address explicitly in the `To' header.
Why they do this is unknown--perhaps it's to thwart this thwarting
scheme? In any case, this is trivial to deal with--you just put
anything not addressed to you in the `spam' group by ending your fancy
split rule in this way:
(
...
(to "larsi" "misc")
"spam")
In my experience, this will sort virtually everything into the right
group. You still have to check the `spam' group from time to time to
check for legitimate mail, though. If you feel like being a good net
citizen, you can even send off complaints to the proper authorities on
each unsolicited commercial email--at your leisure.
If you are also a lazy net citizen, you will probably prefer
complaining automatically with the `gnus-junk.el' package, available
FOR FREE at
`<URL:http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/gnus-junk.html>'. Since most
e-mail spam is sent automatically, this may reconcile the cosmic
balance somewhat.
This works for me. It allows people an easy way to contact me (they
can just press `r' in the usual way), and I'm not bothered at all with
spam. It's a win-win situation. Forging `From' headers to point to
non-existent domains is yucky, in my opinion.
File: gnus, Node: Various Various, Prev: Thwarting Email Spam, Up: Various
Various Various
===============
`gnus-home-directory'
All Gnus path variables will be initialized from this variable,
which defaults to `~/'.
`gnus-directory'
Most Gnus storage path variables will be initialized from this
variable, which defaults to the `SAVEDIR' environment variable, or
`~/News/' if that variable isn't set.
Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the `.gnus.el' file is read.
This means that other directory variables that are initialized
from this variable won't be set properly if you set this variable
in `.gnus.el'. Set this variable in `.emacs' instead.
`gnus-default-directory'
Not related to the above variable at all--this variable says what
the default directory of all Gnus buffers should be. If you issue
commands like `C-x C-f', the prompt you'll get starts in the
current buffer's default directory. If this variable is `nil'
(which is the default), the default directory will be the default
directory of the buffer you were in when you started Gnus.
`gnus-verbose'
This variable is an integer between zero and ten. The higher the
value, the more messages will be displayed. If this variable is
zero, Gnus will never flash any messages, if it is seven (which is
the default), most important messages will be shown, and if it is
ten, Gnus won't ever shut up, but will flash so many messages it
will make your head swim.
`gnus-verbose-backends'
This variable works the same way as `gnus-verbose', but it applies
to the Gnus backends instead of Gnus proper.
`nnheader-max-head-length'
When the backends read straight heads of articles, they all try to
read as little as possible. This variable (default 4096) specifies
the absolute max length the backends will try to read before
giving up on finding a separator line between the head and the
body. If this variable is `nil', there is no upper read bound.
If it is `t', the backends won't try to read the articles piece by
piece, but read the entire articles. This makes sense with some
versions of `ange-ftp' or `efs'.
`nnheader-head-chop-length'
This variable (default 2048) says how big a piece of each article
to read when doing the operation described above.
`nnheader-file-name-translation-alist'
This is an alist that says how to translate characters in file
names. For instance, if `:' is invalid as a file character in
file names on your system (you OS/2 user you), you could say
something like:
(setq nnheader-file-name-translation-alist
'((?: . ?_)))
In fact, this is the default value for this variable on OS/2 and MS
Windows (phooey) systems.
`gnus-hidden-properties'
This is a list of properties to use to hide "invisible" text. It
is `(invisible t intangible t)' by default on most systems, which
makes invisible text invisible and intangible.
`gnus-parse-headers-hook'
A hook called before parsing headers. It can be used, for
instance, to gather statistics on the headers fetched, or perhaps
you'd like to prune some headers. I don't see why you'd want
that, though.
`gnus-shell-command-separator'
String used to separate two shell commands. The default is `;'.
File: gnus, Node: The End, Next: Appendices, Prev: Various, Up: Top
The End
*******
Well, that's the manual--you can get on with your life now. Keep in
touch. Say hello to your cats from me.
My *ghod*--I just can't stand goodbyes. Sniffle.
Ol' Charles Reznikoff said it pretty well, so I leave the floor to
him:
*Te Deum*
Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.
Not for victory
but for the day's work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.
File: gnus, Node: Appendices, Next: Index, Prev: The End, Up: Top
Appendices
**********
* Menu:
* History:: How Gnus got where it is today.
* Terminology:: We use really difficult, like, words here.
* Customization:: Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
* Troubleshooting:: What you might try if things do not work.
* A Programmers Guide to Gnus:: Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
* Emacs for Heathens:: A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
* Frequently Asked Questions:: A question-and-answer session.
File: gnus, Node: History, Next: Terminology, Up: Appendices
History
=======
GNUS was written by Masanobu UMEDA. When autumn crept up in '94,
Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and decided to rewrite Gnus.
If you want to investigate the person responsible for this outrage,
you can point your (feh!) web browser to
`http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/'. This is also the primary
distribution point for the new and spiffy versions of Gnus, and is known
as The Site That Destroys Newsrcs And Drives People Mad.
During the first extended alpha period of development, the new Gnus
was called "(ding) Gnus". "(ding)" is, of course, short for "ding is
not Gnus", which is a total and utter lie, but who cares? (Besides,
the "Gnus" in this abbreviation should probably be pronounced "news" as
UMEDA intended, which makes it a more appropriate name, don't you
think?)
In any case, after spending all that energy on coming up with a new
and spunky name, we decided that the name was _too_ spunky, so we
renamed it back again to "Gnus". But in mixed case. "Gnus" vs.
"GNUS". New vs. old.
The first "proper" release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when
it was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus
releases plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).
In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. "September Gnus" (after 99
releases)) was released under the name "Gnus 5.2" (40 releases).
On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as "Gnus 5.4" (67 releases).
On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37
releases. If was released as "Gnus 5.6 on March 8th 1998.
If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name -
"(ding) Gnus", "September Gnus", "Red Gnus", "Quassia Gnus" - don't
panic. Don't let it know that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly.
Whatever you do, don't run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its
reach. Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that
instead.
* Menu:
* Why?:: What's the point of Gnus?
* Compatibility:: Just how compatible is Gnus with GNUS?
* Conformity:: Gnus tries to conform to all standards.
* Emacsen:: Gnus can be run on a few modern Emacsen.
* Contributors:: Oodles of people.
* New Features:: Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
* Newest Features:: Features so new that they haven't been written yet.
File: gnus, Node: Why?, Next: Compatibility, Up: History
Why?
----
What's the point of Gnus?
I want to provide a "rad", "happening", "way cool" and "hep"
newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of. That was my
original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net. If the
volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
newsreaders will be pretty much useless. How do you deal with
newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day? How do you
keep track of millions of people who post?
Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very
much like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
reading and fetching news. Expanding on UMEDA-san's wise decision to
separate the newsreader from the backends, Gnus now offers a simple
interface for anybody who wants to write new backends for fetching mail
and news from different sources. I have added hooks for customizations
everywhere I could imagine it being useful. By doing so, I'm inviting
every one of you to explore and invent.
May Gnus never be complete. `C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs' and `C-u
100 M-x all-hail-xemacs'.
File: gnus, Node: Compatibility, Next: Conformity, Prev: Why?, Up: History
Compatibility
-------------
Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with GNUS. Almost all key
bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course,
but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
Our motto is:
In a cloud bones of steel.
All commands have kept their names. Some internal functions have
changed their names.
The `gnus-uu' package has changed drastically. *Note Decoding
Articles::.
One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
buffers. All variables relevant while reading a group are buffer-local
to the summary buffer they belong in. Although many important
variables have their values copied into their global counterparts
whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this change might
lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.
All code that relies on knowledge of GNUS internals will probably
fail. To take two examples: Sorting `gnus-newsrc-alist' (or changing
it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten. Gnus
maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
peculiar results.
Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably
remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks (`gnus-group-prepare-hook'
and `gnus-summary-prepare-hook'). Gnus provides various integrated
functions for highlighting. These are faster and more accurate. To
make life easier for everybody, Gnus will by default remove all hilit
calls from all hilit hooks. Uncleanliness! Away!
Packages like `expire-kill' will no longer work. As a matter of
fact, you should probably remove all old GNUS packages (and other code)
when you start using Gnus. More likely than not, Gnus already does
what you have written code to make GNUS do. (Snicker.)
Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
new methods are documented in this manual. If you detect a new method
of doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you
have to stop doing it the old way.
Gnus understands all GNUS startup files.
Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
GNUS internals should suffer no problems. If problems occur, please
let me know by issuing that magic command `M-x gnus-bug'.
If you are in the habit of sending bug reports _very_ often, you may
find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while. If so, set
`gnus-bug-create-help-buffer' to `nil' to avoid having it pop up at you.
File: gnus, Node: Conformity, Next: Emacsen, Prev: Compatibility, Up: History
Conformity
----------
No rebels without a clue here, ma'am. We conform to all standards
known to (wo)man. Except for those standards and/or conventions we
disagree with, of course.
*RFC 822*
There are no known breaches of this standard.
*RFC 1036*
There are no known breaches of this standard, either.
*Son-of-RFC 1036*
We do have some breaches to this one.
_MIME_
Gnus does no MIME handling, and this standard-to-be seems to
think that MIME is the bees' knees, so we have major breakage
here.
_X-Newsreader_
This is considered to be a "vanity header", while I consider
it to be consumer information. After seeing so many badly
formatted articles coming from `tin' and `Netscape' I know
not to use either of those for posting articles. I would not
have known that if it wasn't for the `X-Newsreader' header.
If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the
texts mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and
let us know.
File: gnus, Node: Emacsen, Next: Contributors, Prev: Conformity, Up: History
Emacsen
-------
Gnus should work on :
* Emacs 19.32 and up.
* XEmacs 19.14 and up.
* Mule versions based on Emacs 19.32 and up.
Gnus will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than that. Not
reliably, at least.
There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
platforms--XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)--but
other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
Emacsen.
File: gnus, Node: Contributors, Next: New Features, Prev: Emacsen, Up: History
Contributors
------------
The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all
the people on the (ding) mailing list. Every day for over a year I have
gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
every single one of them. Smooches. The people on the list have been
tried beyond endurance, what with my "oh, that's a neat idea <type
type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work" policy for releases.
Micro$oft--bah. Amateurs. I'm _much_ worse. (Or is that "worser"?
"much worser"? "worsest"?)
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for...
oops, wrong show.
* Masanobu UMEDA--the writer of the original GNUS.
* Per Abrahamsen--custom, scoring, highlighting and SOUP code (as
well as numerous other things).
* Luis Fernandes--design and graphics.
* Erik Naggum--help, ideas, support, code and stuff.
* Wes Hardaker--`gnus-picon.el' and the manual section on "picons"
(*note Picons::).
* Kim-Minh Kaplan--further work on the picon code.
* Brad Miller--`gnus-gl.el' and the GroupLens manual section (*note
GroupLens::).
* Sudish Joseph--innumerable bug fixes.
* Ilja Weis--`gnus-topic.el'.
* Steven L. Baur--lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and
fixes.
* Vladimir Alexiev--the refcard and reference booklets.
* Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski--I stole some pieces from the XGnus
distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.
* Scott Byer--`nnfolder.el' enhancements & rewrite.
* Peter Mutsaers--orphan article scoring code.
* Ken Raeburn--POP mail support.
* Hallvard B Furuseth--various bits and pieces, especially dealing
with .newsrc files.
* Brian Edmonds--`gnus-bbdb.el'.
* David Moore--rewrite of `nnvirtual.el' and many other things.
* Kevin Davidson--came up with the name "ding", so blame him.
* François Pinard--many, many interesting and thorough bug reports,
as well as autoconf support.
This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif,
Mark Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.
The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:
Christopher Davis, Andrew Eskilsson, Kai Grossjohann, David Kċgedal,
Richard Pieri, Fabrice Popineau, Daniel Quinlan, Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
and Jack Vinson.
Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:
Jari Aalto, Adrian Aichner, Vladimir Alexiev, Russ Allbery, Peter
Arius, Matt Armstrong, Marc Auslander, Frank Bennett, Robert Bihlmeyer,
Chris Bone, Mark Borges, Mark Boyns, Lance A. Brown, Kees de Bruin,
Martin Buchholz, Joe Buehler, Kevin Buhr, Alastair Burt, Joao Cachopo,
Zlatko Calusic, Massimo Campostrini, Castor, David Charlap, Dan
Christensen, Kevin Christian, Michael R. Cook, Glenn Coombs, Frank D.
Cringle, Geoffrey T. Dairiki, Andre Deparade, Ulrik Dickow, Dave Disser,
Rui-Tao Dong, Joev Dubach, Michael Welsh Duggan, Dave Edmondson, Paul
Eggert, Enami Tsugutomo, Michael Ernst, Luc Van Eycken, Sam Falkner,
Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira, Sigbjorn Finne, Decklin Foster, Gary
D. Foster, Paul Franklin, Guy Geens, Arne Georg Gleditsch, David S.
Goldberg, Michelangelo Grigni, D. Hall, Magnus Hammerin, Kenichi Handa,
Raja R. Harinath, Yoshiki Hayashi, P. E. Jareth Hein, Hisashige Kenji,
Marc Horowitz, Gunnar Horrigmo, Richard Hoskins, Brad Howes, François
Felix Ingrand, Ishikawa Ichiro, Lee Iverson, Iwamuro Motonori, Rajappa
Iyer, Andreas Jaeger, Randell Jesup, Fred Johansen, Gareth Jones, Simon
Josefsson, Greg Klanderman, Karl Kleinpaste, Peter Skov Knudsen, Shuhei
Kobayashi, Koseki Yoshinori, Thor Kristoffersen, Jens Lautenbacher,
Martin Larose, Seokchan Lee, Carsten Leonhardt, James LewisMoss,
Christian Limpach, Markus Linnala, Dave Love, Mike McEwan, Tonny Madsen,
Shlomo Mahlab, Nat Makarevitch, Istvan Marko, David Martin, Jason R.
Mastaler, Gordon Matzigkeit, Timo Metzemakers, Richard Mlynarik, Lantz
Moore, Morioka Tomohiko, Erik Toubro Nielsen, Hrvoje Niksic, Andy
Norman, Fred Oberhauser, C. R. Oldham, Alexandre Oliva, Ken Olstad,
Masaharu Onishi, Hideki Ono, William Perry, Stephen Peters, Jens-Ulrik
Holger Petersen, Ulrich Pfeifer, Matt Pharr, John McClary Prevost, Bill
Pringlemeir, Mike Pullen, Jim Radford, Colin Rafferty, Lasse Rasinen,
Lars Balker Rasmussen, Joe Reiss, Renaud Rioboo, Roland B. Roberts,
Bart Robinson, Christian von Roques, Jason Rumney, Wolfgang Rupprecht,
Jay Sachs, Dewey M. Sasser, Loren Schall, Dan Schmidt, Ralph Schleicher,
Philippe Schnoebelen, Andreas Schwab, Randal L. Schwartz, Justin Sheehy,
Danny Siu, Matt Simmons, Paul D. Smith, Jeff Sparkes, Toby Speight,
Michael Sperber, Darren Stalder, Richard Stallman, Greg Stark, Sam
Steingold, Paul Stodghill, Kurt Swanson, Samuel Tardieu, Teddy, Chuck
Thompson, Philippe Troin, James Troup, Trung Tran-Duc, Aaron M. Ucko,
Aki Vehtari, Didier Verna, Jan Vroonhof, Stefan Waldherr, Pete Ware,
Barry A. Warsaw, Christoph Wedler, Joe Wells, Katsumi Yamaoka, and
Shenghuo Zhu. For a full overview of what each person has done, the
ChangeLogs included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample
reading (550kB and counting).
Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many,
I'm sure.
Gee, that's quite a list of people. I guess that must mean that
there actually are people who are using Gnus. Who'd'a thunk it!
File: gnus, Node: New Features, Next: Newest Features, Prev: Contributors, Up: History
New Features
------------
* Menu:
* ding Gnus:: New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
* September Gnus:: The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.3/5.3.
* Red Gnus:: Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
* Quassia Gnus:: Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
These lists are, of course, just _short_ overviews of the _most_
important new features. No, really. There are tons more. Yes, we
have feeping creaturism in full effect.
File: gnus, Node: ding Gnus, Next: September Gnus, Up: New Features
(ding) Gnus
...........
New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:
* The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like
variables (*note Group Buffer Format:: and *note Summary Buffer
Format::).
* Local spool and several NNTP servers can be used at once (*note
Select Methods::).
* You can combine groups into virtual groups (*note Virtual
Groups::).
* You can read a number of different mail formats (*note Getting
Mail::). All the mail backends implement a convenient mail expiry
scheme (*note Expiring Mail::).
* Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have
lost their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one
thread) or it can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a
complete thread (*note Customizing Threading::).
* Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can
read them as well (*note Listing Groups::).
* Gnus can do partial group updates--you do not have to retrieve the
entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
(*note The Active File::).
* Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups (*note
Group Levels::).
* You can score articles according to any number of criteria (*note
Scoring::). You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
articles for you (*note Adaptive Scoring::).
* Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you
have read if your machine should go down (*note Auto Save::).
* Gnus now has its own startup file (`.gnus') to avoid cluttering up
the `.emacs' file.
* You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and
perform operations on all the marked items (*note
Process/Prefix::).
* You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
results (*note Kibozed Groups::).
* You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything (*note
Listing Groups::).
* You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
servers (*note Browse Foreign Server::).
* Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to
the server (*note Asynchronous Fetching::).
* You can cache articles locally (*note Article Caching::).
* The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized (*note
Decoding Articles::).
* You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known
feature of GNUS' past (*note Uuencoding and Posting::).
* Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
glitches (*note Finding the Parent::).
* Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (*note Group
Information::).
* Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
(*note Document Groups::).
* Articles can be highlighted and customized (*note Customizing
Articles::).
* URLs and other external references can be buttonized (*note
Article Buttons::).
* You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
configuration (*note Windows Configuration::).
* You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard (*note
Buttons::).