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.