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gnus: Starting Up
The Gnus Newsreader
*******************
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 v5.13
Copyright © 1995–2017 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 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, 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”.
(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and
modify this GNU manual.”
· Starting Up Finding news can be a pain.
· Group Buffer Selecting, subscribing and killing groups.
· Summary Buffer Reading, saving and posting articles.
· Article Buffer Displaying and handling articles.
· Composing Messages Information on sending mail and news.
· Select Methods Gnus reads all messages from various select methods.
· Scoring Assigning values to articles.
· Searching Mail and News search engines.
· Various General purpose settings.
· The End Farewell and goodbye.
· Appendices Terminology, Emacs intro, FAQ, History, Internals.
· GNU Free Documentation License The license for this documentation.
· Index Variable, function and concept index.
· Key Index Key Index.
Other related manuals
· Message Composing messages.
· Emacs-MIME Composing messages; MIME-specific parts.
· Sieve Managing Sieve scripts in Emacs.
· EasyPG PGP/MIME with Gnus.
· SASL SASL authentication in Emacs.
— The Detailed Node Listing —
Starting Gnus
· Finding the News Choosing a method for getting news.
· The Server is Down How can I read my mail then?
· Slave Gnusae You can have more than one Gnus active at a time.
· Fetching a Group Starting Gnus just to read a group.
· New Groups What is Gnus supposed to do with new groups?
· Changing Servers You may want to move from one server to another.
· Startup Files Those pesky startup files—‘.newsrc’.
· Auto Save Recovering from a crash.
· The Active File Reading the active file over a slow line Takes Time.
· Startup Variables Other variables you might change.
New Groups
· Checking New Groups Determining what groups are new.
· Subscription Methods What Gnus should do with new groups.
· Filtering New Groups Making Gnus ignore certain new groups.
Group Buffer
· Group Buffer Format Information listed and how you can change it.
· Group Maneuvering Commands for moving in the group buffer.
· Selecting a Group Actually reading news.
· Subscription Commands Unsubscribing, killing, subscribing.
· Group Data Changing the info for a group.
· Group Levels Levels? What are those, then?
· Group Score A mechanism for finding out what groups you like.
· Marking Groups You can mark groups for later processing.
· Foreign Groups Creating and editing groups.
· Group Parameters Each group may have different parameters set.
· Listing Groups Gnus can list various subsets of the groups.
· Sorting Groups Re-arrange the group order.
· Group Maintenance Maintaining a tidy ‘.newsrc’ file.
· Browse Foreign Server You can browse a server. See what it has to offer.
· Exiting Gnus Stop reading news and get some work done.
· Group Topics A folding group mode divided into topics.
· Non-ASCII Group Names Accessing groups of non-English names.
· Misc Group Stuff Other stuff that you can to do.
Group Buffer Format
· Group Line Specification Deciding how the group buffer is to look.
· Group Mode Line Specification The group buffer mode line.
· Group Highlighting Having nice colors in the group buffer.
Group Topics
· Topic Commands Interactive E-Z commands.
· Topic Variables How to customize the topics the Lisp Way.
· Topic Sorting Sorting each topic individually.
· Topic Topology A map of the world.
· Topic Parameters Parameters that apply to all groups in a topic.
Misc Group Stuff
· Scanning New Messages Asking Gnus to see whether new messages have arrived.
· Group Information Information and help on groups and Gnus.
· Group Timestamp Making Gnus keep track of when you last read a group.
· File Commands Reading and writing the Gnus files.
· Sieve Commands Managing Sieve scripts.
Summary Buffer
· Summary Buffer Format Deciding how the summary buffer is to look.
· Summary Maneuvering Moving around the summary buffer.
· Choosing Articles Reading articles.
· Paging the Article Scrolling the current article.
· Reply Followup and Post Posting articles.
· Delayed Articles Send articles at a later time.
· Marking Articles Marking articles as read, expirable, etc.
· Limiting You can limit the summary buffer.
· Threading How threads are made.
· Sorting the Summary Buffer How articles and threads are sorted.
· Asynchronous Fetching Gnus might be able to pre-fetch articles.
· Article Caching You may store articles in a cache.
· Persistent Articles Making articles expiry-resistant.
· Sticky Articles Article buffers that are not reused.
· Article Backlog Having already read articles hang around.
· Saving Articles Ways of customizing article saving.
· Decoding Articles Gnus can treat series of (uu)encoded articles.
· Article Treatment The article buffer can be mangled at will.
· MIME Commands Doing MIMEy things with the articles.
· Charsets Character set issues.
· Article Commands Doing various things with the article buffer.
· Summary Sorting Sorting the summary buffer in various ways.
· Finding the Parent No child support? Get the parent.
· Alternative Approaches Reading using non-default summaries.
· Tree Display A more visual display of threads.
· Mail Group Commands Some commands can only be used in mail groups.
· Various Summary Stuff What didn’t fit anywhere else.
· Exiting the Summary Buffer Returning to the Group buffer,
or reselecting the current group.
· Crosspost Handling How crossposted articles are dealt with.
· Duplicate Suppression An alternative when crosspost handling fails.
· Security Decrypt and Verify.
· Mailing List Mailing list minor mode.
Summary Buffer Format
· Summary Buffer Lines You can specify how summary lines should look.
· To From Newsgroups How to not display your own name.
· Summary Buffer Mode Line You can say how the mode line should look.
· Summary Highlighting Making the summary buffer all pretty and nice.
Choosing Articles
· Choosing Commands Commands for choosing articles.
· Choosing Variables Variables that influence these commands.
Reply, Followup and Post
· Summary Mail Commands Sending mail.
· Summary Post Commands Sending news.
· Summary Message Commands Other Message-related commands.
· Canceling and Superseding
Marking Articles
· Unread Articles Marks for unread articles.
· Read Articles Marks for read articles.
· Other Marks Marks that do not affect readedness.
· Setting Marks How to set and remove marks.
· Generic Marking Commands How to customize the marking.
· Setting Process Marks How to mark articles for later processing.
Threading
· Customizing Threading Variables you can change to affect the threading.
· Thread Commands Thread based commands in the summary buffer.
Customizing Threading
· Loose Threads How Gnus gathers loose threads into bigger threads.
· Filling In Threads Making the threads displayed look fuller.
· More Threading Even more variables for fiddling with threads.
· Low-Level Threading You thought it was over... but you were wrong!
Decoding Articles
· Uuencoded Articles Uudecode articles.
· Shell Archives Unshar articles.
· PostScript Files Split PostScript.
· Other Files Plain save and binhex.
· Decoding Variables Variables for a happy decoding.
· Viewing Files You want to look at the result of the decoding?
Decoding Variables
· Rule Variables Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
· Other Decode Variables Other decode variables.
· Uuencoding and Posting Variables for customizing uuencoding.
Article Treatment
· Article Highlighting You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
· Article Fontisizing Making emphasized text look nice.
· Article Hiding You also want to make certain info go away.
· Article Washing Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
· Article Header Doing various header transformations.
· Article Buttons Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
· Article Button Levels Controlling appearance of buttons.
· Article Date Grumble, UT!
· Article Display Display various stuff—X-Face, Picons, Smileys, Gravatars
· Article Signature What is a signature?
· Article Miscellanea Various other stuff.
Alternative Approaches
· Pick and Read First mark articles and then read them.
· Binary Groups Auto-decode all articles.
Various Summary Stuff
· Summary Group Information Information oriented commands.
· Searching for Articles Multiple article commands.
· Summary Generation Commands
· Really Various Summary Commands Those pesky non-conformant commands.
Article Buffer
· Hiding Headers Deciding what headers should be displayed.
· Using MIME Pushing articles through MIME before reading them.
· HTML Reading HTML messages.
· Customizing Articles Tailoring the look of the articles.
· Article Keymap Keystrokes available in the article buffer.
· Misc Article Other stuff.
Composing Messages
· Mail Mailing and replying.
· Posting Server What server should you post and mail via?
· POP before SMTP You cannot send a mail unless you read a mail.
· Mail and Post Mailing and posting at the same time.
· Archived Messages Where Gnus stores the messages you’ve sent.
· Posting Styles An easier way to specify who you are.
· Drafts Postponing messages and rejected messages.
· Rejected Articles What happens if the server doesn’t like your article?
· Signing and encrypting How to compose secure messages.
Select Methods
· Server Buffer Making and editing virtual servers.
· Getting News Reading USENET news with Gnus.
· Using IMAP Reading mail from IMAP.
· Getting Mail Reading your personal mail with Gnus.
· Browsing the Web Getting messages from a plethora of Web sources.
· Other Sources Reading directories, files.
· Combined Groups Combining groups into one group.
· Email Based Diary Using mails to manage diary events in Gnus.
· Gnus Unplugged Reading news and mail offline.
Server Buffer
· Server Buffer Format You can customize the look of this buffer.
· Server Commands Commands to manipulate servers.
· Example Methods Examples server specifications.
· Creating a Virtual Server An example session.
· Server Variables Which variables to set.
· Servers and Methods You can use server names as select methods.
· Unavailable Servers Some servers you try to contact may be down.
Getting News
· NNTP Reading news from an NNTP server.
· News Spool Reading news from the local spool.
NNTP
· Direct Functions Connecting directly to the server.
· Indirect Functions Connecting indirectly to the server.
· Common Variables Understood by several connection functions.
Getting Mail
· Mail in a Newsreader Important introductory notes.
· Getting Started Reading Mail A simple cookbook example.
· Splitting Mail How to create mail groups.
· Mail Sources How to tell Gnus where to get mail from.
· Mail Back End Variables Variables for customizing mail handling.
· Fancy Mail Splitting Gnus can do hairy splitting of incoming mail.
· Group Mail Splitting Use group customize to drive mail splitting.
· Incorporating Old Mail What about the old mail you have?
· Expiring Mail Getting rid of unwanted mail.
· Washing Mail Removing cruft from the mail you get.
· Duplicates Dealing with duplicated mail.
· Not Reading Mail Using mail back ends for reading other files.
· Choosing a Mail Back End Gnus can read a variety of mail formats.
Mail Sources
· Mail Source Specifiers How to specify what a mail source is.
· Mail Source Customization Some variables that influence things.
· Fetching Mail Using the mail source specifiers.
Choosing a Mail Back End
· Unix Mail Box Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
· Babyl Babyl was used by older versions of Rmail.
· Mail Spool Store your mail in a private spool?
· MH Spool An mhspool-like back end.
· Maildir Another one-file-per-message format.
· Mail Folders Having one file for each group.
· Comparing Mail Back Ends An in-depth looks at pros and cons.
Browsing the Web
· Archiving Mail
· Web Searches Creating groups from articles that match a string.
· RSS Reading RDF site summary.
Other Sources
· Directory Groups You can read a directory as if it was a newsgroup.
· Anything Groups Dired? Who needs dired?
· Document Groups Single files can be the basis of a group.
· Mail-To-News Gateways Posting articles via mail-to-news gateways.
· The Empty Backend The backend that never has any news.
Document Groups
· Document Server Internals How to add your own document types.
Combined Groups
· Virtual Groups Combining articles from many groups.
Email Based Diary
· The NNDiary Back End Basic setup and usage.
· The Gnus Diary Library Utility toolkit on top of nndiary.
· Sending or Not Sending A final note on sending diary messages.
The NNDiary Back End
· Diary Messages What makes a message valid for nndiary.
· Running NNDiary NNDiary has two modes of operation.
· Customizing NNDiary Bells and whistles.
The Gnus Diary Library
· Diary Summary Line Format A nicer summary buffer line format.
· Diary Articles Sorting A nicer way to sort messages.
· Diary Headers Generation Not doing it manually.
· Diary Group Parameters Not handling them manually.
Gnus Unplugged
· Agent Basics How it all is supposed to work.
· Agent Categories How to tell the Gnus Agent what to download.
· Agent Commands New commands for all the buffers.
· Agent Visuals Ways that the agent may effect your summary buffer.
· Agent as Cache The Agent is a big cache too.
· Agent Expiry How to make old articles go away.
· Agent Regeneration How to recover from lost connections and other accidents.
· Agent and flags How the Agent maintains flags.
· Agent and IMAP How to use the Agent with IMAP.
· Outgoing Messages What happens when you post/mail something?
· Agent Variables Customizing is fun.
· Example Setup An example ‘~/.gnus.el’ file for offline people.
· Batching Agents How to fetch news from a ‘cron’ job.
· Agent Caveats What you think it’ll do and what it does.
Agent Categories
· Category Syntax What a category looks like.
· Category Buffer A buffer for maintaining categories.
· Category Variables Customize’r’Us.
Agent Commands
· Group Agent Commands Configure groups and fetch their contents.
· Summary Agent Commands Manually select then fetch specific articles.
· Server Agent Commands Select the servers that are supported by the agent.
Scoring
· Summary Score Commands Adding score entries for the current group.
· Group Score Commands General score commands.
· Score Variables Customize your scoring. (My, what terminology).
· Score File Format What a score file may contain.
· Score File Editing You can edit score files by hand as well.
· Adaptive Scoring Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
· Home Score File How to say where new score entries are to go.
· Followups To Yourself Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
· Scoring On Other Headers Scoring on non-standard headers.
· Scoring Tips How to score effectively.
· Reverse Scoring That problem child of old is not problem.
· Global Score Files Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
· Kill Files They are still here, but they can be ignored.
· Converting Kill Files Translating kill files to score files.
· Advanced Scoring Using logical expressions to build score rules.
· Score Decays It can be useful to let scores wither away.
Advanced Scoring
· Advanced Scoring Syntax A definition.
· Advanced Scoring Examples What they look like.
· Advanced Scoring Tips Getting the most out of it.
Searching
· nnir Searching with various engines.
· nnmairix Searching with Mairix.
nnir
· What is nnir? What does nnir do.
· Basic Usage How to perform simple searches.
· Setting up nnir How to set up nnir.
Setting up nnir
· Associating Engines How to associate engines.
Various
· Process/Prefix A convention used by many treatment commands.
· Interactive Making Gnus ask you many questions.
· Symbolic Prefixes How to supply some Gnus functions with options.
· Formatting Variables You can specify what buffers should look like.
· Window Layout Configuring the Gnus buffer windows.
· Faces and Fonts How to change how faces look.
· Mode Lines Displaying information in the mode lines.
· Highlighting and Menus Making buffers look all nice and cozy.
· Daemons Gnus can do things behind your back.
· Undo Some actions can be undone.
· Predicate Specifiers Specifying predicates.
· Moderation What to do if you’re a moderator.
· Image Enhancements Modern versions of Emacs/XEmacs can display images.
· Fuzzy Matching What’s the big fuzz?
· Thwarting Email Spam Simple ways to avoid unsolicited commercial email.
· Spam Package A package for filtering and processing spam.
· The Gnus Registry A package for tracking messages by Message-ID.
· Other modes Interaction with other modes.
· Various Various Things that are really various.
Formatting Variables
· Formatting Basics A formatting variable is basically a format string.
· Mode Line Formatting Some rules about mode line formatting variables.
· Advanced Formatting Modifying output in various ways.
· User-Defined Specs Having Gnus call your own functions.
· Formatting Fonts Making the formatting look colorful and nice.
· Positioning Point Moving point to a position after an operation.
· Tabulation Tabulating your output.
· Wide Characters Dealing with wide characters.
Image Enhancements
· X-Face Display a funky, teensy black-and-white image.
· Face Display a funkier, teensier colored image.
· Smileys Show all those happy faces the way they were
meant to be shown.
· Picons How to display pictures of what you’re reading.
· Gravatars Display the avatar of people you read.
· XVarious Other XEmacsy Gnusey variables.
Thwarting Email Spam
· The problem of spam Some background, and some solutions
· Anti-Spam Basics Simple steps to reduce the amount of spam.
· SpamAssassin How to use external anti-spam tools.
· Hashcash Reduce spam by burning CPU time.
Spam Package
· Spam Package Introduction
· Filtering Incoming Mail
· Detecting Spam in Groups
· Spam and Ham Processors
· Spam Package Configuration Examples
· Spam Back Ends
· Extending the Spam package
· Spam Statistics Package
Spam Statistics Package
· Creating a spam-stat dictionary
· Splitting mail using spam-stat
· Low-level interface to the spam-stat dictionary
Appendices
· XEmacs Requirements for installing under XEmacs.
· History How Gnus got where it is today.
· On Writing Manuals Why this is not a beginner’s guide.
· Terminology We use really difficult, like, words here.
· Customization Tailoring Gnus to your needs.
· Troubleshooting What you might try if things do not work.
· Gnus Reference Guide Rilly, rilly technical stuff.
· Emacs for Heathens A short introduction to Emacsian terms.
· Frequently Asked Questions The Gnus FAQ
History
· Gnus Versions What Gnus versions have been released.
· 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.
· Gnus Development How Gnus is developed.
· Contributors Oodles of people.
· New Features Pointers to some of the new stuff in Gnus.
New Features
· ding Gnus New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
· September Gnus The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.2/5.3.
· Red Gnus Third time best—Gnus 5.4/5.5.
· Quassia Gnus Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.
· Pterodactyl Gnus Pentad also starts with P, AKA Gnus 5.8/5.9.
· Oort Gnus It’s big. It’s far out. Gnus 5.10/5.11.
· No Gnus Very punny. Gnus 5.12/5.13
· Ma Gnus Celebrating 25 years of Gnus.
Customization
· Slow/Expensive Connection You run a local Emacs and get the news elsewhere.
· Slow Terminal Connection You run a remote Emacs.
· Little Disk Space You feel that having large setup files is icky.
· Slow Machine You feel like buying a faster machine.
Gnus Reference Guide
· Gnus Utility Functions Common functions and variable to use.
· Back End Interface How Gnus communicates with the servers.
· Score File Syntax A BNF definition of the score file standard.
· Headers How Gnus stores headers internally.
· Ranges A handy format for storing mucho numbers.
· Group Info The group info format.
· Extended Interactive Symbolic prefixes and stuff.
· Emacs/XEmacs Code Gnus can be run under all modern Emacsen.
· Various File Formats Formats of files that Gnus use.
Back End Interface
· Required Back End Functions Functions that must be implemented.
· Optional Back End Functions Functions that need not be implemented.
· Error Messaging How to get messages and report errors.
· Writing New Back Ends Extending old back ends.
· Hooking New Back Ends Into Gnus What has to be done on the Gnus end.
· Mail-like Back Ends Some tips on mail back ends.
Various File Formats
· Active File Format Information on articles and groups available.
· Newsgroups File Format Group descriptions.
Emacs for Heathens
· Keystrokes Entering text and executing commands.
· Emacs Lisp The built-in Emacs programming language.