This is ../info/gnus, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from gnus.texi.
INFO-DIR-SECTION Emacs
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Gnus: (gnus). The newsreader Gnus.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.
Copyright (C) 1995,96,97,98,99,2000,2001 Free Software Foundation,
Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being "A GNU
Manual", and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation
License" in the Emacs manual.
(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You have freedom to copy and
modify this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development."
This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
File: gnus, Node: Keystrokes, Next: Emacs Lisp, Up: Emacs for Heathens
Keystrokes
----------
* Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
* A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.
Yes, when you use Emacs, you are apt to use the control key, the
shift key and the meta key a lot. This is very annoying to some people
(notably `vi'le users), and the rest of us just love the hell out of
it. Just give up and submit. Emacs really does stand for
"Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift", and not "Editing Macros", as you may
have heard from other disreputable sources (like the Emacs author).
The shift keys are normally located near your pinky fingers, and are
normally used to get capital letters and stuff. You probably use it all
the time. The control key is normally marked "CTRL" or something like
that. The meta key is, funnily enough, never marked as such on any
keyboard. The one I'm currently at has a key that's marked "Alt",
which is the meta key on this keyboard. It's usually located somewhere
to the left hand side of the keyboard, usually on the bottom row.
Now, us Emacs people don't say "press the meta-control-m key",
because that's just too inconvenient. We say "press the `M-C-m' key".
`M-' is the prefix that means "meta" and "C-" is the prefix that means
"control". So "press `C-k'" means "press down the control key, and
hold it down while you press `k'". "Press `M-C-k'" means "press down
and hold down the meta key and the control key and then press `k'".
Simple, ay?
This is somewhat complicated by the fact that not all keyboards have
a meta key. In that case you can use the "escape" key. Then `M-k'
means "press escape, release escape, press `k'". That's much more work
than if you have a meta key, so if that's the case, I respectfully
suggest you get a real keyboard with a meta key. You can't live without
it.
File: gnus, Node: Emacs Lisp, Prev: Keystrokes, Up: Emacs for Heathens
Emacs Lisp
----------
Emacs is the King of Editors because it's really a Lisp interpreter.
Each and every key you tap runs some Emacs Lisp code snippet, and since
Emacs Lisp is an interpreted language, that means that you can configure
any key to run any arbitrary code. You just, like, do it.
Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp, and is run as a bunch of interpreted
functions. (These are byte-compiled for speed, but it's still
interpreted.) If you decide that you don't like the way Gnus does
certain things, it's trivial to have it do something a different way.
(Well, at least if you know how to write Lisp code.) However, that's
beyond the scope of this manual, so we are simply going to talk about
some common constructs that you normally use in your `.emacs' file to
customize Gnus.
If you want to set the variable `gnus-florgbnize' to four (4), you
write the following:
(setq gnus-florgbnize 4)
This function (really "special form") `setq' is the one that can set
a variable to some value. This is really all you need to know. Now
you can go and fill your `.emacs' file with lots of these to change how
Gnus works.
If you have put that thing in your `.emacs' file, it will be read
and `eval'ed (which is lisp-ese for "run") the next time you start
Emacs. If you want to change the variable right away, simply say `C-x
C-e' after the closing parenthesis. That will `eval' the previous
"form", which is a simple `setq' statement here.
Go ahead--just try it, if you're located at your Emacs. After you
`C-x C-e', you will see `4' appear in the echo area, which is the
return value of the form you `eval'ed.
Some pitfalls:
If the manual says "set `gnus-read-active-file' to `some'", that
means:
(setq gnus-read-active-file 'some)
On the other hand, if the manual says "set `gnus-nntp-server' to
`nntp.ifi.uio.no'", that means:
(setq gnus-nntp-server "nntp.ifi.uio.no")
So be careful not to mix up strings (the latter) with symbols (the
former). The manual is unambiguous, but it can be confusing.
File: gnus, Node: Frequently Asked Questions, Prev: Emacs for Heathens, Up: Appendices
Frequently Asked Questions
==========================
This is the Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list. If you have a Web
browser, the official hypertext version is at
`http://www.ccs.neu.edu/software/gnus/', and has probably been updated
since you got this manual.
* Menu:
* Installation FAQ:: Installation of Gnus.
* Customization FAQ:: Customizing Gnus.
* Reading News FAQ:: News Reading Questions.
* Reading Mail FAQ:: Mail Reading Questions.
File: gnus, Node: Installation FAQ, Next: Customization FAQ, Up: Frequently Asked Questions
Installation
------------
* Q1.1 What is the latest version of Gnus?
The latest (and greatest) version is 5.0.10. You might also run
across something called _September Gnus_. September Gnus is the
alpha version of the next major release of Gnus. It is currently
not stable enough to run unless you are prepared to debug lisp.
* Q1.2 Where do I get Gnus?
Any of the following locations:
- `ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/gnus.tar.gz'
- `ftp://ftp.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/'
- `gopher://gopher.pilgrim.umass.edu/11/pub/misc/ding/'
- `ftp://aphrodite.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/pub/ding-gnus/'
- `ftp://ftp.solace.mh.se:/pub/gnu/elisp/'
* Q1.3 Which version of Emacs do I need?
At least GNU Emacs 19.28, or XEmacs 19.12 is recommended. GNU
Emacs 19.25 has been reported to work under certain circumstances,
but it doesn't _officially_ work on it. 19.27 has also been
reported to work. Gnus has been reported to work under OS/2 as
well as Unix.
* Q1.4 Where is timezone.el?
Upgrade to XEmacs 19.13. In earlier versions of XEmacs this file
was placed with Gnus 4.1.3, but that has been corrected.
* Q1.5 When I run Gnus on XEmacs 19.13 I get weird error messages.
You're running an old version of Gnus. Upgrade to at least version
5.0.4.
* Q1.6 How do I unsubscribe from the Mailing List?
Send an e-mail message to `ding-request@ifi.uio.no' with the magic
word _unsubscribe_ somewhere in it, and you will be removed.
If you are reading the digest version of the list, send an e-mail
message to
`ding-rn-digests-d-request@moe.shore.net' with _unsubscribe_ as
the subject and you will be removed.
* Q1.7 How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?
The basic answer is to byte-compile under XEmacs, and then you can
run under either Emacsen. There is, however, a potential version
problem with easymenu.el with Gnu Emacs prior to 19.29.
Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes :
The internal easymenu.el interface changed between 19.28 and 19.29
in order to make it possible to create byte compiled files that
can be shared between Gnu Emacs and XEmacs. The change is upward
compatible, but not downward compatible. This gives the following
compatibility table:
Compiled with: | Can be used with:
----------------+--------------------------------------
19.28 | 19.28 19.29
19.29 | 19.29 XEmacs
XEmacs | 19.29 XEmacs
If you have Gnu Emacs 19.28 or earlier, or XEmacs 19.12 or
earlier, get a recent version of auc-menu.el from
`ftp://ftp.iesd.auc.dk/pub/emacs-lisp/auc-menu.el', and install it
under the name easymenu.el somewhere early in your load path.
* Q1.8 What resources are available?
There is the newsgroup Gnu.emacs.gnus. Discussion of Gnus 5.x is
now taking place there. There is also a mailing list, send mail to
`ding-request@ifi.uio.no' with the magic word _subscribe_
somewhere in it.
_NOTE:_ the traffic on this list is heavy so you may not want to be
on it (unless you use Gnus as your mailer reader, that is). The
mailing list is mainly for developers and testers.
Gnus has a home World Wide Web page at
`http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding.html'.
Gnus has a write up in the X Applications FAQ at
`http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/xapps/Q-III.html'.
The Gnus manual is also available on the World Wide Web. The
canonical source is in Norway at
`http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-manual/gnus_toc.html'.
There are three mirrors in the United States:
1. `http://www.miranova.com/gnus-man/'
2.
`http://www.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/manual/gnus_toc.html'
3. `http://www.rtd.com/~woo/gnus/'
PostScript copies of the Gnus Reference card are available from
`ftp://ftp.cs.ualberta.ca/pub/oolog/gnus/'. They are mirrored at
`ftp://ftp.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/refcard/' in the United
States. And
`ftp://marvin.fkphy.uni-duesseldorf.de/pub/gnus/' in Germany.
An online version of the Gnus FAQ is available at
`http://www.miranova.com/~steve/gnus-faq.html'. Off-line formats
are also available:
ASCII: `ftp://ftp.miranova.com/pub/gnus/gnus-faq'
PostScript: `ftp://ftp.miranova.com/pub/gnus/gnus-faq.ps'.
* Q1.9 Gnus hangs on connecting to NNTP server
I am running XEmacs on SunOS and Gnus prints a message about
Connecting to NNTP server and then just hangs.
Ben Wing <wing@netcom.com> writes :
I wonder if you're hitting the infamous _libresolv_ problem. The
basic problem is that under SunOS you can compile either with DNS
or NIS name lookup libraries but not both. Try substituting the
IP address and see if that works; if so, you need to download the
sources and recompile.
* Q1.10 Mailcrypt 3.4 doesn't work
This problem is verified to still exist in Gnus 5.0.9 and
Mailcrypt 3.4. The answer comes from Peter Arius
<arius@immd2.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>.
I found out that mailcrypt uses `gnus-eval-in-buffer-window',
which is a macro. It seems as if you have compiled mailcrypt with
plain old GNUS in load path, and the XEmacs byte compiler has
inserted that macro definition into `mc-toplev.elc'. The solution
is to recompile `mc-toplev.el' with Gnus 5 in load-path, and it
works fine.
Steve Baur <steve@miranova.com> adds :
The problem also manifests itself if neither GNUS 4 nor Gnus 5 is
in the load-path.
* Q1.11 What other packages work with Gnus?
- Mailcrypt.
Mailcrypt is an Emacs interface to PGP. It works, it installs
without hassle, and integrates very easily. Mailcrypt can be
obtained from
`ftp://cag.lcs.mit.edu/pub/patl/mailcrypt-3.4.tar.gz'.
- Tools for Mime.
Tools for Mime is an Emacs MUA interface to MIME.
Installation is a two-step process unlike most other
packages, so you should be prepared to move the byte-compiled
code somewhere. There are currently two versions of this
package available. It can be obtained from
`ftp://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/GNU/elisp/'. Be sure to apply the
supplied patch. It works with Gnus through version 5.0.9.
In order for all dependencies to work correctly the load
sequence is as follows:
(load "tm-setup")
(load "gnus")
(load "mime-compose")
_NOTE:_ Loading the package disables citation highlighting by
default. To get the old behavior back, use the `M-t' command.
File: gnus, Node: Customization FAQ, Next: Reading News FAQ, Prev: Installation FAQ, Up: Frequently Asked Questions
Customization
-------------
* Q2.1 Custom Edit does not work under XEmacs
The custom package has not been ported to XEmacs.
* Q2.2 How do I quote messages?
I see lots of messages with quoted material in them. I am
wondering how to have Gnus do it for me.
This is Gnus, so there are a number of ways of doing this. You
can use the built-in commands to do this. There are the `F' and
`R' keys from the summary buffer which automatically include the
article being responded to. These commands are also selectable as
Followup and Yank and Reply and Yank in the Post menu.
`C-c C-y' grabs the previous message and prefixes each line with
`ail-indentation-spaces' spaces or `mail-yank-prefix' if that is
non-nil, unless you have set your own `mail-citation-hook', which
will be called to do the job.
You might also consider the Supercite package, which allows for
pretty arbitrarily complex quoting styles. Some people love it,
some people hate it.
* Q2.3 How can I keep my nnvirtual:* groups sorted?
How can I most efficiently arrange matters so as to keep my
nnvirtual:* (etc) groups at the top of my group selection buffer,
whilst keeping everything sorted in alphabetical order.
If you don't subscribe often to new groups then the easiest way is
to first sort the groups and then manually kill and yank the
virtuals wherever you want them.
* Q2.4 Any good suggestions on stuff for an all.SCORE file?
Here is a collection of suggestions from the Gnus mailing list.
1. From "Dave Disser" <disser@sdd.hp.com>
I like blasting anything without lowercase letters. Weeds
out most of the make $$ fast, as well as the lame titles like
"IBM" and "HP-UX" with no further description.
(("Subject"
("^\\(Re: \\)?[^a-z]*$" -200 nil R)))
2. From "Peter Arius" <arius@immd2.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
The most vital entries in my (still young) all.SCORE:
(("xref"
("alt.fan.oj-simpson" -1000 nil s))
("subject"
(concat "\\<\\(make\\|fast\\|big\\)\\s-*"
"\\(money\\|cash\\|bucks?\\)\\>"
-1000 nil r)
("$$$$" -1000 nil s)))
3. From "Per Abrahamsen" <abraham@dina.kvl.dk>
(("subject"
;; CAPS OF THE WORLD, UNITE
("^..[^a-z]+$" -1 nil R)
;; $$$ Make Money $$$ (Try work)
("$" -1 nil s)
;; I'm important! And I have exclamation marks to prove it!
("!" -1 nil s)))
4. From "heddy boubaker" <boubaker@cenatls.cena.dgac.fr>
I would like to contribute with mine.
(
(read-only t)
("subject"
;; ALL CAPS SUBJECTS
("^\\([Rr][Ee]: +\\)?[^a-z]+$" -1 nil R)
;; $$$ Make Money $$$
("$$" -10 nil s)
;; Empty subjects are worthless!
("^ *\\([(<]none[>)]\\|(no subject\\( given\\)?)\\)? *$"
-10 nil r)
;; Sometimes interesting announces occur!
("ANN?OU?NC\\(E\\|ING\\)" +10 nil r)
;; Some people think they're on mailing lists
("\\(un\\)?sub?scribe" -100 nil r)
;; Stop Micro$oft NOW!!
;; ("concat" used to avoid overfull box.)
(concat "\\(m\\(icro\\)?[s$]\\(oft\\|lot\\)?-?\\)?"
"wind?\\(ows\\|aube\\|oze\\)?[- ]*"
"\\('?95\\|NT\\|3[.]1\\|32\\)" -1001 nil r)
;; I've nothing to buy
("\\(for\\|4\\)[- ]*sale" -100 nil r)
;; SELF-DISCIPLINED people
("\\[[^a-z0-9 \t\n][^a-z0-9 \t\n]\\]" +100 nil r)
)
("from"
;; To keep track of posters from my site
(".dgac.fr" +1000 nil s))
("followup"
;; Keep track of answers to my posts
("boubaker" +1000 nil s))
("lines"
;; Some people have really nothing to say!!
(1 -10 nil <=))
(mark -100)
(expunge -1000)
)
5. From "Christopher Jones" <cjones@au.oracle.com>
The sample `all.SCORE' files from Per and boubaker could be
augmented with:
(("subject"
;; No junk mail please!
("please ignore" -500 nil s)
("test" -500 nil e))
)
6. From "Brian Edmonds" <edmonds@cs.ubc.ca>
Augment any of the above with a fast method of scoring down
excessively cross posted articles.
("xref"
;; the more cross posting, the exponentially worse the article
("^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+" -1 nil r)
("^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+" -2 nil r)
("^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+" -4 nil r)
("^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+" -8 nil r)
("^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+"
-16 nil r)
(concat "^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+"
" \\S-+ \\S-+"
-32 nil r)
(concat "^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+"
" \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+" -64 nil r)
(concat "^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+"
" \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+" -128 nil r)
(concat "^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+"
" \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+" -256 nil r)
(concat "^xref: \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+"
" \\S-+" \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+ \\S-+" -512 nil r))
* Q2.5 What do I use to yank-through when replying?
You should probably reply and followup with `R' and `F', instead
of `r' and `f', which solves your problem. But you could try
something like:
(defconst mail-yank-ignored-headers
"^.*:"
"Delete these headers from message when it's inserted in reply.")
* Q2.6 I don't like the default WWW browser
Now when choosing an URL Gnus starts up a W3 buffer, I would like
it to always use Netscape (I don't browse in text-mode ;-).
1. Activate `Customize...' from the `Help' menu.
2. Scroll down to the `WWW Browser' field.
3. Click `mouse-2' on `WWW Browser'.
4. Select `Netscape' from the pop up menu.
5. Press `C-c C-c'
If you are using XEmacs then to specify Netscape do
(setq gnus-button-url 'gnus-netscape-open-url)
* Q2.7 What, if any, relation is between "ask-server" and "(setq
gnus-read-active-file 'some)"?
In order for Gnus to show you the complete list of newsgroups, it
will either have to either store the list locally, or ask the
server to transmit the list. You enable the first with
(setq gnus-save-killed-list t)
and the second with
(setq gnus-read-active-file t)
If both are disabled, Gnus will not know what newsgroups exists.
There is no option to get the list by casting a spell.
* Q2.8 Moving between groups is slow.
Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:
Do you call `define-key' or something like that in one of the
summary mode hooks? This would force Emacs to recalculate the
keyboard shortcuts. Removing the call should speed up `M-x
gnus-summary-mode RET' by a couple of orders of magnitude. You
can use
(define-key gnus-summary-mode-map KEY COMMAND)
in your `.gnus' instead.
File: gnus, Node: Reading News FAQ, Next: Reading Mail FAQ, Prev: Customization FAQ, Up: Frequently Asked Questions
Reading News
------------
* Q3.1 How do I convert my kill files to score files?
Ethan Bradford <ethanb@ptolemy.astro.washington.edu> write a
kill-to-score translator. It is available from
`http://baugi.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-various/gnus-kill-to-score.el'.
* Q3.2 My news server has a lot of groups, and killing groups is
painfully slow.
Don't do that then. The best way to get rid of groups that should
be dead is to edit your newsrc directly. This problem will be
addressed in the near future.
* Q3.3 How do I use an NNTP server with authentication?
Put the following into your .gnus:
(add-hook 'nntp-server-opened-hook 'nntp-send-authinfo)
* Q3.4 Not reading the first article.
How do I avoid reading the first article when a group is selected?
1. Use `RET' to select the group instead of `SPC'.
2. `(setq gnus-auto-select first nil)'
3. Luis Fernandes <elf@mailhost.ee.ryerson.ca>writes:
This is what I use...customize as necessary...
;;; Don't auto-select first article if reading sources, or
;;; archives or jobs postings, etc. and just display the
;;; summary buffer
(add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
(function
(lambda ()
(cond ((string-match "sources" gnus-newsgroup-name)
(setq gnus-auto-select-first nil))
((string-match "jobs" gnus-newsgroup-name)
(setq gnus-auto-select-first nil))
((string-match "comp\\.archives" gnus-newsgroup-name)
(setq gnus-auto-select-first nil))
((string-match "reviews" gnus-newsgroup-name)
(setq gnus-auto-select-first nil))
((string-match "announce" gnus-newsgroup-name)
(setq gnus-auto-select-first nil))
((string-match "binaries" gnus-newsgroup-name)
(setq gnus-auto-select-first nil))
(t
(setq gnus-auto-select-first t))))))
4. Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:
Another possibility is to create an `all.binaries.all.SCORE'
file like this:
((local
(gnus-auto-select-first nil)))
and insert
(setq gnus-auto-select-first t)
in your `.gnus'.
* Q3.5 Why aren't BBDB known posters marked in the summary buffer?
Brian Edmonds <edmonds@cs.ubc.ca> writes:
Due to changes in Gnus 5.0, `bbdb-gnus.el' no longer marks known
posters in the summary buffer. An updated version, `gnus-bbdb.el'
is available at the locations listed below. This package also
supports autofiling of incoming mail to folders specified in the
BBDB. Extensive instructions are included as comments in the file.
Send mail to `majordomo@edmonds.home.cs.ubc.ca' with the following
line in the body of the message: _get misc gnus-bbdb.el_.
Or get it from the World Wide Web:
`http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/edmonds/gnus-bbdb.el'.
File: gnus, Node: Reading Mail FAQ, Prev: Reading News FAQ, Up: Frequently Asked Questions
Reading Mail
------------
* Q4.1 What does the message "Buffer has changed on disk" mean in a
mail group?
Your filter program should not deliver mail directly to your
folders, instead it should put the mail into spool files. Gnus
will then move the mail safely from the spool files into the
folders. This will eliminate the problem. Look it up in the
manual, in the section entitled "Mail & Procmail".
* Q4.2 How do you make articles un-expirable?
I am using nnml to read news and have used
`gnus-auto-expirable-newsgroups' to automagically expire articles
in some groups (Gnus being one of them). Sometimes there are
interesting articles in these groups that I want to keep. Is
there any way of explicitly marking an article as un-expirable -
that is mark it as read but not expirable?
Use `u', `!', `d' or `M-u' in the summary buffer. You just remove
the `E' mark by setting some other mark. It's not necessary to
tick the articles.
* Q4.3 How do I delete bogus nnml: groups?
My problem is that I have various mail (nnml) groups generated
while experimenting with Gnus. How do I remove them now? Setting
the level to 9 does not help. Also `gnus-group-check-bogus-groups'
does not recognize them.
Removing mail groups is tricky at the moment. (It's on the to-do
list, though.) You basically have to kill the groups in Gnus, shut
down Gnus, edit the active file to exclude these groups, and
probably remove the nnml directories that contained these groups
as well. Then start Gnus back up again.
* Q4.4 What happened to my new mail groups?
I got new mail, but I have never seen the groups they should have
been placed in.
They are probably there, but as zombies. Press `A z' to list
zombie groups, and then subscribe to the groups you want with `u'.
This is all documented quite nicely in the user's manual.
* Q4.5 Not scoring mail groups
How do you _totally_ turn off scoring in mail groups?
Use an nnbabyl:all.SCORE (or nnmh, or nnml, or whatever) file
containing:
((adapt ignore)
(local (gnus-use-scoring nil))
(exclude-files "all.SCORE"))