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2311 lines
73 KiB
Plaintext
2311 lines
73 KiB
Plaintext
@c \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
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@c Uncomment 1st line before texing this file alone.
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@c %**start of header
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@c Copyright (C) 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,
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@c 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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@c
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@c Do not modify this file, it was generated from gnus-faq.xml, available from
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@c <URL:http://my.gnus.org/FAQ/>.
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@c
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@setfilename gnus-faq.info
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@settitle Frequently Asked Questions
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@c %**end of header
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@c
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@node Frequently Asked Questions
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@section Frequently Asked Questions
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@menu
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* FAQ - Changes::
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* FAQ - Introduction:: About Gnus and this FAQ.
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* FAQ 1 - Installation FAQ:: Installation of Gnus.
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* FAQ 2 - Startup / Group buffer:: Start up questions and the
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first buffer Gnus shows you.
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* FAQ 3 - Getting Messages:: Making Gnus read your mail
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and news.
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* FAQ 4 - Reading messages:: How to efficiently read
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messages.
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* FAQ 5 - Composing messages:: Composing mails or Usenet
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postings.
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* FAQ 6 - Old messages:: Importing, archiving,
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searching and deleting messages.
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* FAQ 7 - Gnus in a dial-up environment:: Reading mail and news while
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offline.
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* FAQ 8 - Getting help:: When this FAQ isn't enough.
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* FAQ 9 - Tuning Gnus:: How to make Gnus faster.
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* FAQ - Glossary:: Terms used in the FAQ
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explained.
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@end menu
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@subheading Abstract
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This is the new Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list.
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If you have a Web browser, the official hypertext version is at
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@uref{http://my.gnus.org/FAQ/},
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the Docbook source is available from
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@uref{http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnus/, http://sourceforge.net}.
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Please submit features and suggestions to the
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@email{faq-discuss@@my.gnus.org, FAQ discussion list}.
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The list is protected against junk mail with
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@uref{http://smarden.org/qconfirm/index.html, qconfirm}. As
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a subscriber, your submissions will automatically pass. You can
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also subscribe to the list by sending a blank email to
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@email{faq-discuss-subscribe@@my.gnus.org, faq-discuss-subscribe@@my.gnus.org}
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and @uref{http://mail1.kens.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-browse?command=monthbythread%26list=faq-discuss, browse
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the archive (BROKEN)}.
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@node FAQ - Changes
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@subheading Changes
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@itemize @bullet
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@item
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Updated FAQ to reflect release of Gnus 5.10 and start of
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No Gnus development.
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@end itemize
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@node FAQ - Introduction
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@subheading Introduction
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This is the Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list.
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Gnus is a Usenet Newsreader and Electronic Mail User Agent implemented
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as a part of Emacs. It's been around in some form for almost a decade
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now, and has been distributed as a standard part of Emacs for much of
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that time. Gnus 5 is the latest (and greatest) incarnation. The
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original version was called GNUS, and was written by Masanobu UMEDA.
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When autumn crept up in '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored and
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decided to rewrite Gnus.
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Its biggest strength is the fact that it is extremely
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customizable. It is somewhat intimidating at first glance, but
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most of the complexity can be ignored until you're ready to take
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advantage of it. If you receive a reasonable volume of e-mail
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(you're on various mailing lists), or you would like to read
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high-volume mailing lists but cannot keep up with them, or read
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high volume newsgroups or are just bored, then Gnus is what you
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want.
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This FAQ was maintained by Justin Sheehy until March 2002. He
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would like to thank Steve Baur and Per Abrahamsen for doing a wonderful
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job with this FAQ before him. We would like to do the same - thanks,
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Justin!
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If you have a Web browser, the official hypertext version is at:
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@uref{http://my.gnus.org/FAQ/}.
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This version is much nicer than the unofficial hypertext
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versions that are archived at Utrecht, Oxford, Smart Pages, Ohio
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State, and other FAQ archives. See the resources question below
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if you want information on obtaining it in another format.
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The information contained here was compiled with the assistance
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of the Gnus development mailing list, and any errors or
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misprints are the my.gnus.org team's fault, sorry.
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@node FAQ 1 - Installation FAQ
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@subsection Installation FAQ
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@menu
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* [1.1]:: What is the latest version of Gnus?
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* [1.2]:: What's new in 5.10?
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* [1.3]:: Where and how to get Gnus?
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* [1.4]:: What to do with the tarball now?
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* [1.5]:: I sometimes read references to No Gnus and Oort Gnus, what
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are those?
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* [1.6]:: Which version of Emacs do I need?
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* [1.7]:: How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?
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@end menu
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@node [1.1]
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@subsubheading Question 1.1
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What is the latest version of Gnus?
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@subsubheading Answer
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Jingle please: Gnus 5.10 is released, get it while it's
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hot! As well as the step in version number is rather
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small, Gnus 5.10 has tons of new features which you
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shouldn't miss. The current release (5.13) should be at
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least as stable as the latest release of the 5.8 series.
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@node [1.2]
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@subsubheading Question 1.2
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What's new in 5.10?
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@subsubheading Answer
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First of all, you should have a look into the file
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GNUS-NEWS in the toplevel directory of the Gnus tarball,
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there the most important changes are listed. Here's a
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short list of the changes I find especially
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important/interesting:
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@itemize @bullet
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@item
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Major rewrite of the Gnus agent, Gnus agent is now
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active by default.
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@item
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Many new article washing functions for dealing with
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ugly formatted articles.
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@item
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Anti Spam features.
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@item
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Message-utils now included in Gnus.
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@item
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New format specifiers for summary lines, e.g. %B for
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a complex trn-style thread tree.
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@end itemize
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@node [1.3]
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@subsubheading Question 1.3
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Where and how to get Gnus?
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@subsubheading Answer
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Gnus is released independent from releases of Emacs and XEmacs.
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Therefore, the version bundled with Emacs or the version in XEmacs'
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package system might not be up to date (e.g. Gnus 5.9 bundled with Emacs
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20 is outdated).
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@c
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You can get the latest released version of Gnus from
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@uref{http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz} or via anonymous FTP from
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@uref{ftp://ftp.gnus.org/pub/gnus/gnus.tar.gz}.
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@node [1.4]
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@subsubheading Question 1.4
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What to do with the tarball now?
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@subsubheading Answer
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Untar it via @samp{tar xvzf gnus.tar.gz} and do the common
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@samp{./configure; make; make install} circle.
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(under MS-Windows either get the Cygwin environment from
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@uref{http://www.cygwin.com}
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which allows you to do what's described above or unpack the
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tarball with some packer (e.g. Winace from
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@uref{http://www.winace.com})
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and use the batch-file make.bat included in the tarball to install
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Gnus.) If you don't want to (or aren't allowed to) install Gnus
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system-wide, you can install it in your home directory and add the
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following lines to your ~/.xemacs/init.el or ~/.emacs:
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@example
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(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/gnus/lisp")
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(if (featurep 'xemacs)
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(add-to-list 'Info-directory-list "/path/to/gnus/texi/")
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(add-to-list 'Info-default-directory-list "/path/to/gnus/texi/"))
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@end example
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@noindent
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Make sure that you don't have any Gnus related stuff
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before this line, on MS Windows use something like
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"C:/path/to/lisp" (yes, "/").
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@node [1.5]
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@subsubheading Question 1.5
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I sometimes read references to No Gnus and Oort Gnus,
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what are those?
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@subsubheading Answer
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Oort Gnus was the name of the development version of
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Gnus, which became Gnus 5.10 in autumn 2003. No Gnus is
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the name of the current development version which will
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once become Gnus 5.12 or Gnus 6. (If you're wondering why
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not 5.11, the odd version numbers are normally used for
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the Gnus versions bundled with Emacs)
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@node [1.6]
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@subsubheading Question 1.6
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Which version of Emacs do I need?
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@subsubheading Answer
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Gnus 5.10 requires an Emacs version that is greater than or equal
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to Emacs 20.7 or XEmacs 21.1.
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The development versions of Gnus (aka No Gnus) requires Emacs 21
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or XEmacs 21.4.
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@node [1.7]
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@subsubheading Question 1.7
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How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?
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@subsubheading Answer
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You can't use the same copy of Gnus in both as the Lisp
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files are byte-compiled to a format which is different
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depending on which Emacs did the compilation. Get one copy
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of Gnus for Emacs and one for XEmacs.
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@node FAQ 2 - Startup / Group buffer
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@subsection Startup / Group buffer
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@menu
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* [2.1]:: Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-save
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file exists. Do you want to read it?", what does this mean and
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how to prevent it?
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* [2.2]:: Gnus doesn't remember which groups I'm subscribed to,
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what's this?
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* [2.3]:: How to change the format of the lines in Group buffer?
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* [2.4]:: My group buffer becomes a bit crowded, is there a way to
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sort my groups into categories so I can easier browse through
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them?
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* [2.5]:: How to manually sort the groups in Group buffer? How to
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sort the groups in a topic?
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@end menu
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@node [2.1]
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@subsubheading Question 2.1
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Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-save
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file exists. Do you want to read it?", what does this mean
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and how to prevent it?
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@subsubheading Answer
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This message means that the last time you used Gnus, it
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wasn't properly exited and therefor couldn't write its
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informations to disk (e.g. which messages you read), you
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are now asked if you want to restore those informations
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from the auto-save file.
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To prevent this message make sure you exit Gnus
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via @samp{q} in group buffer instead of
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just killing Emacs.
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@node [2.2]
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@subsubheading Question 2.2
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Gnus doesn't remember which groups I'm subscribed to,
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what's this?
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@subsubheading Answer
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You get the message described in the q/a pair above while
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starting Gnus, right? It's an other symptom for the same
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problem, so read the answer above.
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@node [2.3]
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@subsubheading Question 2.3
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How to change the format of the lines in Group buffer?
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@subsubheading Answer
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You've got to tweak the value of the variable
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gnus-group-line-format. See the manual node "Group Line
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Specification" for information on how to do this. An
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example for this (guess from whose .gnus :-)):
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@example
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(setq gnus-group-line-format "%P%M%S[%5t]%5y : %(%g%)\n")
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@end example
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@noindent
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@node [2.4]
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@subsubheading Question 2.4
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My group buffer becomes a bit crowded, is there a way to
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sort my groups into categories so I can easier browse
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through them?
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@subsubheading Answer
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Gnus offers the topic mode, it allows you to sort your
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groups in, well, topics, e.g. all groups dealing with
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Linux under the topic linux, all dealing with music under
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the topic music and all dealing with scottish music under
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the topic scottish which is a subtopic of music.
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To enter topic mode, just hit t while in Group buffer. Now
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you can use @samp{T n} to create a topic
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at point and @samp{T m} to move a group to
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a specific topic. For more commands see the manual or the
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menu. You might want to include the %P specifier at the
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beginning of your gnus-group-line-format variable to have
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the groups nicely indented.
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@node [2.5]
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@subsubheading Question 2.5
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How to manually sort the groups in Group buffer? How to
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sort the groups in a topic?
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@subsubheading Answer
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Move point over the group you want to move and
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hit @samp{C-k}, now move point to the
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place where you want the group to be and
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hit @samp{C-y}.
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@node FAQ 3 - Getting Messages
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@subsection Getting Messages
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@menu
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* [3.1]:: I just installed Gnus, started it via @samp{M-x gnus}
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but it only says "nntp (news) open error", what to do?
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* [3.2]:: I'm working under Windows and have no idea what ~/.gnus.el
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means.
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* [3.3]:: My news server requires authentication, how to store user
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name and password on disk?
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* [3.4]:: Gnus seems to start up OK, but I can't find out how to
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subscribe to a group.
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* [3.5]:: Gnus doesn't show all groups / Gnus says I'm not allowed
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to post on this server as well as I am, what's that?
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* [3.6]:: I want Gnus to fetch news from several servers, is this
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possible?
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* [3.7]:: And how about local spool files?
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* [3.8]:: OK, reading news works now, but I want to be able to read
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my mail with Gnus, too. How to do it?
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* [3.9]:: And what about IMAP?
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* [3.10]:: At the office we use one of those MS Exchange servers, can
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I use Gnus to read my mail from it?
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* [3.11]:: Can I tell Gnus not to delete the mails on the server it
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retrieves via POP3?
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@end menu
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@node [3.1]
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@subsubheading Question 3.1
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|
I just installed Gnus, started it via
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@samp{M-x gnus}
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but it only says "nntp (news) open error", what to do?
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@subsubheading Answer
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You've got to tell Gnus where to fetch the news from. Read
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the documentation for information on how to do this. As a
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first start, put those lines in ~/.gnus.el:
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@example
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(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.yourprovider.net"))
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(setq user-mail-address "you@@yourprovider.net")
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(setq user-full-name "Your Name")
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@end example
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@noindent
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@node [3.2]
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@subsubheading Question 3.2
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I'm working under Windows and have no idea what ~/.gnus.el means.
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@subsubheading Answer
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The ~/ means the home directory where Gnus and Emacs look
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for the configuration files. However, you don't really
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need to know what this means, it suffices that Emacs knows
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what it means :-) You can type
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@samp{C-x C-f ~/.gnus.el RET }
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(yes, with the forward slash, even on Windows), and
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Emacs will open the right file for you. (It will most
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likely be new, and thus empty.)
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However, I'd discourage you from doing so, since the
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directory Emacs chooses will most certainly not be what
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you want, so let's do it the correct way.
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The first thing you've got to do is to
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create a suitable directory (no blanks in directory name
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please) e.g. c:\myhome. Then you must set the environment
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variable HOME to this directory. To do this under Win9x
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or Me include the line
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@example
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SET HOME=C:\myhome
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@end example
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@noindent
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in your autoexec.bat and reboot. Under NT, 2000 and XP, hit
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Winkey+Pause/Break to enter system options (if it doesn't work, go to
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Control Panel -> System -> Advanced). There you'll find the possibility
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to set environment variables. Create a new one with name HOME and value
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C:\myhome. Rebooting is not necessary.
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Now to create ~/.gnus.el, say
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@samp{C-x C-f ~/.gnus.el RET C-x C-s}.
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in Emacs.
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@node [3.3]
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@subsubheading Question 3.3
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|
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My news server requires authentication, how to store
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user name and password on disk?
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@subsubheading Answer
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Create a file ~/.authinfo which includes for each server a line like this
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@example
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machine news.yourprovider.net login YourUserName password YourPassword
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@end example
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@noindent
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.
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Make sure that the file isn't readable to others if you
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work on a OS which is capable of doing so. (Under Unix
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say
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@example
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chmod 600 ~/.authinfo
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@end example
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@noindent
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in a shell.)
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@node [3.4]
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|
@subsubheading Question 3.4
|
|
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|
Gnus seems to start up OK, but I can't find out how to
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|
subscribe to a group.
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@subsubheading Answer
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|
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If you know the name of the group say @samp{U
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|
name.of.group RET} in group buffer (use the
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|
tab-completion Luke). Otherwise hit ^ in group buffer,
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|
this brings you to the server buffer. Now place point (the
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|
cursor) over the server which carries the group you want,
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hit @samp{RET}, move point to the group
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you want to subscribe to and say @samp{u}
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to subscribe to it.
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@node [3.5]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 3.5
|
|
|
|
Gnus doesn't show all groups / Gnus says I'm not allowed to
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|
post on this server as well as I am, what's that?
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@subsubheading Answer
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|
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Some providers allow restricted anonymous access and full
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access only after authorization. To make Gnus send authinfo
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to those servers append
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@example
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force yes
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@end example
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@noindent
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to the line for those servers in ~/.authinfo.
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@node [3.6]
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|
@subsubheading Question 3.6
|
|
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|
I want Gnus to fetch news from several servers, is this possible?
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|
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@subsubheading Answer
|
|
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|
Of course. You can specify more sources for articles in the
|
|
variable gnus-secondary-select-methods. Add something like
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|
this in ~/.gnus.el:
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|
|
@example
|
|
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
|
|
'(nntp "news.yourSecondProvider.net"))
|
|
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
|
|
'(nntp "news.yourThirdProvider.net"))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [3.7]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 3.7
|
|
|
|
And how about local spool files?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
No problem, this is just one more select method called
|
|
nnspool, so you want this:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnspool ""))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Or this if you don't want an NNTP Server as primary news source:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Gnus will look for the spool file in /usr/spool/news, if you
|
|
want something different, change the line above to something like this:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
|
|
'(nnspool ""
|
|
(nnspool-directory "/usr/local/myspoolddir")))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
This sets the spool directory for this server only.
|
|
You might have to specify more stuff like the program used
|
|
to post articles, see the Gnus manual on how to do this.
|
|
|
|
@node [3.8]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 3.8
|
|
|
|
OK, reading news works now, but I want to be able to read my mail
|
|
with Gnus, too. How to do it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
That's a bit harder since there are many possible sources
|
|
for mail, many possible ways for storing mail and many
|
|
different ways for sending mail. The most common cases are
|
|
these: 1: You want to read your mail from a pop3 server and
|
|
send them directly to a SMTP Server 2: Some program like
|
|
fetchmail retrieves your mail and stores it on disk from
|
|
where Gnus shall read it. Outgoing mail is sent by
|
|
Sendmail, Postfix or some other MTA. Sometimes, you even
|
|
need a combination of the above cases.
|
|
|
|
However, the first thing to do is to tell Gnus in which way
|
|
it should store the mail, in Gnus terminology which back end
|
|
to use. Gnus supports many different back ends, the most
|
|
commonly used one is nnml. It stores every mail in one file
|
|
and is therefor quite fast. However you might prefer a one
|
|
file per group approach if your file system has problems with
|
|
many small files, the nnfolder back end is then probably the
|
|
choice for you. To use nnml add the following to ~/.gnus.el:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnml ""))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
As you might have guessed, if you want nnfolder, it's
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnfolder ""))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Now we need to tell Gnus, where to get it's mail from. If
|
|
it's a POP3 server, then you need something like this:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "mail-source"
|
|
'(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(pop :server "pop.YourProvider.net"
|
|
:user "yourUserName"
|
|
:password "yourPassword")))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Make sure ~/.gnus.el isn't readable to others if you store
|
|
your password there. If you want to read your mail from a
|
|
traditional spool file on your local machine, it's
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "mail-source"
|
|
'(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(file :path "/path/to/spool/file"))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
If it's a Maildir, with one file per message as used by
|
|
postfix, Qmail and (optionally) fetchmail it's
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "mail-source"
|
|
'(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(maildir :path "/path/to/Maildir/"
|
|
:subdirs ("cur" "new")))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
And finally if you want to read your mail from several files
|
|
in one directory, for example because procmail already split your
|
|
mail, it's
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "mail-source"
|
|
'(add-to-list 'mail-sources
|
|
'(directory :path "/path/to/procmail-dir/"
|
|
:suffix ".prcml")))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Where :suffix ".prcml" tells Gnus only to use files with the
|
|
suffix .prcml.
|
|
|
|
OK, now you only need to tell Gnus how to send mail. If you
|
|
want to send mail via sendmail (or whichever MTA is playing
|
|
the role of sendmail on your system), you don't need to do
|
|
anything. However, if you want to send your mail to an
|
|
SMTP Server you need the following in your ~/.gnus.el
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
|
|
(setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
|
|
(setq smtpmail-default-smtp-server "smtp.yourProvider.net")
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [3.9]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 3.9
|
|
|
|
And what about IMAP?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
There are two ways of using IMAP with Gnus. The first one is
|
|
to use IMAP like POP3, that means Gnus fetches the mail from
|
|
the IMAP server and stores it on disk. If you want to do
|
|
this (you don't really want to do this) add the following to
|
|
~/.gnus.el
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(imap :server "mail.mycorp.com"
|
|
:user "username"
|
|
:pass "password"
|
|
:stream network
|
|
:authentication login
|
|
:mailbox "INBOX"
|
|
:fetchflag "\\Seen"))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
You might have to tweak the values for stream and/or
|
|
authentication, see the Gnus manual node "Mail Source
|
|
Specifiers" for possible values.
|
|
|
|
If you want to use IMAP the way it's intended, you've got to
|
|
follow a different approach. You've got to add the nnimap
|
|
back end to your select method and give the information
|
|
about the server there.
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
|
|
'(nnimap "Give the baby a name"
|
|
(nnimap-address "imap.yourProvider.net")
|
|
(nnimap-port 143)
|
|
(nnimap-list-pattern "archive.*")))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Again, you might have to specify how to authenticate to the
|
|
server if Gnus can't guess the correct way, see the Manual
|
|
Node "IMAP" for detailed information.
|
|
|
|
@node [3.10]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 3.10
|
|
|
|
At the office we use one of those MS Exchange servers, can I use
|
|
Gnus to read my mail from it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Offer your administrator a pair of new running shoes for
|
|
activating IMAP on the server and follow the instructions
|
|
above.
|
|
|
|
@node [3.11]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 3.11
|
|
|
|
Can I tell Gnus not to delete the mails on the server it
|
|
retrieves via POP3?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
First of all, that's not the way POP3 is intended to work,
|
|
if you have the possibility, you should use the IMAP
|
|
Protocol if you want your messages to stay on the
|
|
server. Nevertheless there might be situations where you
|
|
need the feature, but sadly Gnus itself has no predefined
|
|
functionality to do so.
|
|
|
|
However this is Gnus county so there are possibilities to
|
|
achieve what you want. The easiest way is to get an external
|
|
program which retrieves copies of the mail and stores them
|
|
on disk, so Gnus can read it from there. On Unix systems you
|
|
could use e.g. fetchmail for this, on MS Windows you can use
|
|
Hamster, an excellent local news and mail server.
|
|
|
|
The other solution would be, to replace the method Gnus
|
|
uses to get mail from POP3 servers by one which is capable
|
|
of leaving the mail on the server. If you use XEmacs, get
|
|
the package mail-lib, it includes an enhanced pop3.el,
|
|
look in the file, there's documentation on how to tell
|
|
Gnus to use it and not to delete the retrieved mail. For
|
|
GNU Emacs look for the file epop3.el which can do the same
|
|
(If you know the home of this file, please send me an
|
|
e-mail). You can also tell Gnus to use an external program
|
|
(e.g. fetchmail) to fetch your mail, see the info node
|
|
"Mail Source Specifiers" in the Gnus manual on how to do
|
|
it.
|
|
|
|
@node FAQ 4 - Reading messages
|
|
@subsection Reading messages
|
|
|
|
@menu
|
|
* [4.1]:: When I enter a group, all read messages are gone. How to
|
|
view them again?
|
|
* [4.2]:: How to tell Gnus to show an important message every time I
|
|
enter a group, even when it's read?
|
|
* [4.3]:: How to view the headers of a message?
|
|
* [4.4]:: How to view the raw unformatted message?
|
|
* [4.5]:: How can I change the headers Gnus displays by default at
|
|
the top of the article buffer?
|
|
* [4.6]:: I'd like Gnus NOT to render HTML-mails but show me the
|
|
text part if it's available. How to do it?
|
|
* [4.7]:: Can I use some other browser than w3 to render my
|
|
HTML-mails?
|
|
* [4.8]:: Is there anything I can do to make poorly formatted mails
|
|
more readable?
|
|
* [4.9]:: Is there a way to automatically ignore posts by specific
|
|
authors or with specific words in the subject? And can I highlight
|
|
more interesting ones in some way?
|
|
* [4.10]:: How can I disable threading in some (e.g. mail-) groups,
|
|
or set other variables specific for some groups?
|
|
* [4.11]:: Can I highlight messages written by me and follow-ups to
|
|
those?
|
|
* [4.12]:: The number of total messages in a group which Gnus
|
|
displays in group buffer is by far to high, especially in mail
|
|
groups. Is this a bug?
|
|
* [4.13]:: I don't like the layout of summary and article buffer, how
|
|
to change it? Perhaps even a three pane display?
|
|
* [4.14]:: I don't like the way the Summary buffer looks, how to
|
|
tweak it?
|
|
* [4.15]:: How to split incoming mails in several groups?
|
|
@end menu
|
|
|
|
@node [4.1]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.1
|
|
|
|
When I enter a group, all read messages are gone. How to view them again?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
If you enter the group by saying
|
|
@samp{RET}
|
|
in group buffer with point over the group, only unread and ticked messages are loaded. Say
|
|
@samp{C-u RET}
|
|
instead to load all available messages. If you want only the e.g. 300 newest say
|
|
@samp{C-u 300 RET}
|
|
|
|
Loading only unread messages can be annoying if you have threaded view enabled, say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-fetch-old-headers 'some)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el to load enough old articles to prevent teared threads, replace 'some with t to load
|
|
all articles (Warning: Both settings enlarge the amount of data which is
|
|
fetched when you enter a group and slow down the process of entering a group).
|
|
|
|
If you already use Gnus 5.10, you can say
|
|
@samp{/o N}
|
|
In summary buffer to load the last N messages, this feature is not available in 5.8.8
|
|
|
|
If you don't want all old messages, but the parent of the message you're just reading,
|
|
you can say @samp{^}, if you want to retrieve the whole thread
|
|
the message you're just reading belongs to, @samp{A T} is your friend.
|
|
|
|
@node [4.2]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.2
|
|
|
|
How to tell Gnus to show an important message every time I
|
|
enter a group, even when it's read?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You can tick important messages. To do this hit
|
|
@samp{u} while point is in summary buffer
|
|
over the message. When you want to remove the mark, hit
|
|
either @samp{d} (this deletes the tick
|
|
mark and set's unread mark) or @samp{M c}
|
|
(which deletes all marks for the message).
|
|
|
|
@node [4.3]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.3
|
|
|
|
How to view the headers of a message?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Say @samp{t}
|
|
to show all headers, one more
|
|
@samp{t}
|
|
hides them again.
|
|
|
|
@node [4.4]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.4
|
|
|
|
How to view the raw unformatted message?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Say
|
|
@samp{C-u g}
|
|
to show the raw message
|
|
@samp{g}
|
|
returns to normal view.
|
|
|
|
@node [4.5]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.5
|
|
|
|
How can I change the headers Gnus displays by default at
|
|
the top of the article buffer?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
The variable gnus-visible-headers controls which headers
|
|
are shown, its value is a regular expression, header lines
|
|
which match it are shown. So if you want author, subject,
|
|
date, and if the header exists, Followup-To and MUA / NUA
|
|
say this in ~/.gnus.el:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-visible-headers
|
|
'("^From" "^Subject" "^Date" "^Newsgroups" "^Followup-To"
|
|
"^User-Agent" "^X-Newsreader" "^X-Mailer"))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [4.6]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.6
|
|
|
|
I'd like Gnus NOT to render HTML-mails but show me the
|
|
text part if it's available. How to do it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "mm-decode"
|
|
'(progn
|
|
(add-to-list 'mm-discouraged-alternatives "text/html")
|
|
(add-to-list 'mm-discouraged-alternatives "text/richtext")))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el. If you don't want HTML rendered, even if there's no text alternative add
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq mm-automatic-display (remove "text/html" mm-automatic-display))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
too.
|
|
|
|
@node [4.7]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.7
|
|
|
|
Can I use some other browser than w3 to render my HTML-mails?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Only if you use Gnus 5.10 or younger. In this case you've got the
|
|
choice between w3, w3m, links, lynx and html2text, which
|
|
one is used can be specified in the variable
|
|
mm-text-html-renderer, so if you want links to render your
|
|
mail say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq mm-text-html-renderer 'links)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [4.8]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.8
|
|
|
|
Is there anything I can do to make poorly formatted mails
|
|
more readable?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Gnus offers you several functions to "wash" incoming mail, you can
|
|
find them if you browse through the menu, item
|
|
Article->Washing. The most interesting ones are probably "Wrap
|
|
long lines" (@samp{W w}), "Decode ROT13"
|
|
(@samp{W r}) and "Outlook Deuglify" which repairs
|
|
the dumb quoting used by many users of Microsoft products
|
|
(@samp{W Y f} gives you full deuglify.
|
|
See @samp{W Y C-h} or have a look at the menus for
|
|
other deuglifications). Outlook deuglify is only available since
|
|
Gnus 5.10.
|
|
|
|
@node [4.9]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.9
|
|
|
|
Is there a way to automatically ignore posts by specific
|
|
authors or with specific words in the subject? And can I
|
|
highlight more interesting ones in some way?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You want Scoring. Scoring means, that you define rules
|
|
which assign each message an integer value. Depending on
|
|
the value the message is highlighted in summary buffer (if
|
|
it's high, say +2000) or automatically marked read (if the
|
|
value is low, say -800) or some other action happens.
|
|
|
|
There are basically three ways of setting up rules which assign
|
|
the scoring-value to messages. The first and easiest way is to set
|
|
up rules based on the article you are just reading. Say you're
|
|
reading a message by a guy who always writes nonsense and you want
|
|
to ignore his messages in the future. Hit
|
|
@samp{L}, to set up a rule which lowers the score.
|
|
Now Gnus asks you which the criteria for lowering the Score shall
|
|
be. Hit @samp{?} twice to see all possibilities,
|
|
we want @samp{a} which means the author (the from
|
|
header). Now Gnus wants to know which kind of matching we want.
|
|
Hit either @samp{e} for an exact match or
|
|
@samp{s} for substring-match and delete afterwards
|
|
everything but the name to score down all authors with the given
|
|
name no matter which email address is used. Now you need to tell
|
|
Gnus when to apply the rule and how long it should last, hit e.g.
|
|
@samp{p} to apply the rule now and let it last
|
|
forever. If you want to raise the score instead of lowering it say
|
|
@samp{I} instead of @samp{L}.
|
|
|
|
You can also set up rules by hand. To do this say @samp{V
|
|
f} in summary buffer. Then you are asked for the name
|
|
of the score file, it's name.of.group.SCORE for rules valid in
|
|
only one group or all.Score for rules valid in all groups. See the
|
|
Gnus manual for the exact syntax, basically it's one big list
|
|
whose elements are lists again. the first element of those lists
|
|
is the header to score on, then one more list with what to match,
|
|
which score to assign, when to expire the rule and how to do the
|
|
matching. If you find me very interesting, you could e.g. add the
|
|
following to your all.Score:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(("references" ("hschmi22.userfqdn.rz-online.de" 500 nil s))
|
|
("message-id" ("hschmi22.userfqdn.rz-online.de" 999 nil s)))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
This would add 999 to the score of messages written by me
|
|
and 500 to the score of messages which are a (possibly
|
|
indirect) answer to a message written by me. Of course
|
|
nobody with a sane mind would do this :-)
|
|
|
|
The third alternative is adaptive scoring. This means Gnus
|
|
watches you and tries to find out what you find
|
|
interesting and what annoying and sets up rules
|
|
which reflect this. Adaptive scoring can be a huge help
|
|
when reading high traffic groups. If you want to activate
|
|
adaptive scoring say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring t)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el.
|
|
|
|
@node [4.10]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.10
|
|
|
|
How can I disable threading in some (e.g. mail-) groups, or
|
|
set other variables specific for some groups?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
While in group buffer move point over the group and hit
|
|
@samp{G c}, this opens a buffer where you
|
|
can set options for the group. At the bottom of the buffer
|
|
you'll find an item that allows you to set variables
|
|
locally for the group. To disable threading enter
|
|
gnus-show-threads as name of variable and nil as
|
|
value. Hit button done at the top of the buffer when
|
|
you're ready.
|
|
|
|
@node [4.11]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.11
|
|
|
|
Can I highlight messages written by me and follow-ups to
|
|
those?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Stop those "Can I ..." questions, the answer is always yes
|
|
in Gnus Country :-). It's a three step process: First we
|
|
make faces (specifications of how summary-line shall look
|
|
like) for those postings, then we'll give them some
|
|
special score and finally we'll tell Gnus to use the new
|
|
faces. You can find detailed instructions on how to do it on
|
|
@uref{http://my.gnus.org/node/view/224, my.gnus.org}
|
|
|
|
@node [4.12]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.12
|
|
|
|
The number of total messages in a group which Gnus
|
|
displays in group buffer is by far to high, especially in
|
|
mail groups. Is this a bug?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
No, that's a matter of design of Gnus, fixing this would
|
|
mean reimplementation of major parts of Gnus'
|
|
back ends. Gnus thinks "highest-article-number -
|
|
lowest-article-number = total-number-of-articles". This
|
|
works OK for Usenet groups, but if you delete and move
|
|
many messages in mail groups, this fails. To cure the
|
|
symptom, enter the group via @samp{C-u RET}
|
|
(this makes Gnus get all messages), then
|
|
hit @samp{M P b} to mark all messages and
|
|
then say @samp{B m name.of.group} to move
|
|
all messages to the group they have been in before, they
|
|
get new message numbers in this process and the count is
|
|
right again (until you delete and move your mail to other
|
|
groups again).
|
|
|
|
@node [4.13]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.13
|
|
|
|
I don't like the layout of summary and article buffer, how
|
|
to change it? Perhaps even a three pane display?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You can control the windows configuration by calling the
|
|
function gnus-add-configuration. The syntax is a bit
|
|
complicated but explained very well in the manual node
|
|
"Window Layout". Some popular examples:
|
|
|
|
Instead 25% summary 75% article buffer 35% summary and 65%
|
|
article (the 1.0 for article means "take the remaining
|
|
space"):
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(gnus-add-configuration
|
|
'(article (vertical 1.0 (summary .35 point) (article 1.0))))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
A three pane layout, Group buffer on the left, summary
|
|
buffer top-right, article buffer bottom-right:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(gnus-add-configuration
|
|
'(article
|
|
(horizontal 1.0
|
|
(vertical 25
|
|
(group 1.0))
|
|
(vertical 1.0
|
|
(summary 0.25 point)
|
|
(article 1.0)))))
|
|
(gnus-add-configuration
|
|
'(summary
|
|
(horizontal 1.0
|
|
(vertical 25
|
|
(group 1.0))
|
|
(vertical 1.0
|
|
(summary 1.0 point)))))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [4.14]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.14
|
|
|
|
I don't like the way the Summary buffer looks, how to tweak it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You've got to play around with the variable
|
|
gnus-summary-line-format. It's value is a string of
|
|
symbols which stand for things like author, date, subject
|
|
etc. A list of the available specifiers can be found in the
|
|
manual node "Summary Buffer Lines" and the often forgotten
|
|
node "Formatting Variables" and it's sub-nodes. There
|
|
you'll find useful things like positioning the cursor and
|
|
tabulators which allow you a summary in table form, but
|
|
sadly hard tabulators are broken in 5.8.8.
|
|
|
|
Since 5.10, Gnus offers you some very nice new specifiers,
|
|
e.g. %B which draws a thread-tree and %&user-date which
|
|
gives you a date where the details are dependent of the
|
|
articles age. Here's an example which uses both:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-summary-line-format ":%U%R %B %s %-60=|%4L |%-20,20f |%&user-date; \n")
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
resulting in:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
:O Re: [Richard Stallman] rfc2047.el | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:06
|
|
:O Re: Revival of the ding-patches list | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:12
|
|
:R > Re: Find correct list of articles for a gro| 25 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:16
|
|
:O \-> ... | 21 |Kai Grossjohann | 0:01
|
|
:R > Re: Cry for help: deuglify.el - moving stuf| 28 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:34
|
|
:O \-> ... | 115 |Raymond Scholz | 1:24
|
|
:O \-> ... | 19 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |15:33
|
|
:O Slow mailing list | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:49
|
|
:O Re: `@@' mark not documented | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:50
|
|
:R > Re: Gnus still doesn't count messages prope| 23 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt |Sat 23:57
|
|
:O \-> ... | 18 |Kai Grossjohann | 0:35
|
|
:O \-> ... | 13 |Lars Magne Ingebrigt | 0:56
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [4.15]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 4.15
|
|
|
|
How to split incoming mails in several groups?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Gnus offers two possibilities for splitting mail, the easy
|
|
nnmail-split-methods and the more powerful Fancy Mail
|
|
Splitting. I'll only talk about the first one, refer to
|
|
the manual, node "Fancy Mail Splitting" for the latter.
|
|
|
|
The value of nnmail-split-methods is a list, each element
|
|
is a list which stands for a splitting rule. Each rule has
|
|
the form "group where matching articles should go to",
|
|
"regular expression which has to be matched", the first
|
|
rule which matches wins. The last rule must always be a
|
|
general rule (regular expression .*) which denotes where
|
|
articles should go which don't match any other rule. If
|
|
the folder doesn't exist yet, it will be created as soon
|
|
as an article lands there. By default the mail will be
|
|
send to all groups whose rules match. If you
|
|
don't want that (you probably don't want), say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq nnmail-crosspost nil)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el.
|
|
|
|
An example might be better than thousand words, so here's
|
|
my nnmail-split-methods. Note that I send duplicates in a
|
|
special group and that the default group is spam, since I
|
|
filter all mails out which are from some list I'm
|
|
subscribed to or which are addressed directly to me
|
|
before. Those rules kill about 80% of the Spam which
|
|
reaches me (Email addresses are changed to prevent spammers
|
|
from using them):
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq nnmail-split-methods
|
|
'(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate")
|
|
("XEmacs-NT" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@xemacs.invalid.*")
|
|
("Gnus-Tut" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@socha.invalid.*")
|
|
("tcsh" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@mx.gw.invalid.*")
|
|
("BAfH" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@.*uni-muenchen.invalid.*")
|
|
("Hamster-src" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*hamster-sourcen@@yahoogroups.\\(de\\|com\\).*")
|
|
("Tagesschau" "^From: tagesschau <localpart@@www.tagesschau.invalid>$")
|
|
("Replies" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*localpart@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid.*")
|
|
("EK" "^From:.*\\(localpart@@privateprovider.invalid\\|localpart@@workplace.invalid\\).*")
|
|
("Spam" "^Content-Type:.*\\(ks_c_5601-1987\\|EUC-KR\\|big5\\|iso-2022-jp\\).*")
|
|
("Spam" "^Subject:.*\\(This really work\\|XINGA\\|ADV:\\|XXX\\|adult\\|sex\\).*")
|
|
("Spam" "^Subject:.*\\(\=\?ks_c_5601-1987\?\\|\=\?euc-kr\?\\|\=\?big5\?\\).*")
|
|
("Spam" "^X-Mailer:\\(.*BulkMailer.*\\|.*MIME::Lite.*\\|\\)")
|
|
("Spam" "^X-Mailer:\\(.*CyberCreek Avalanche\\|.*http\:\/\/GetResponse\.com\\)")
|
|
("Spam" "^From:.*\\(verizon\.net\\|prontomail\.com\\|money\\|ConsumerDirect\\).*")
|
|
("Spam" "^Delivered-To: GMX delivery to spamtrap@@gmx.invalid$")
|
|
("Spam" "^Received: from link2buy.com")
|
|
("Spam" "^CC: .*azzrael@@t-online.invalid")
|
|
("Spam" "^X-Mailer-Version: 1.50 BETA")
|
|
("Uni" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*localpart@@uni-koblenz.invalid.*")
|
|
("Inbox" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*\\(my\ name\\|address@@one.invalid\\|adress@@two.invalid\\)")
|
|
("Spam" "")))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node FAQ 5 - Composing messages
|
|
@subsection Composing messages
|
|
|
|
@menu
|
|
* [5.1]:: What are the basic commands I need to know for sending
|
|
mail and postings?
|
|
* [5.2]:: How to enable automatic word-wrap when composing messages?
|
|
* [5.3]:: How to set stuff like From, Organization, Reply-To,
|
|
signature...?
|
|
* [5.4]:: Can I set things like From, Signature etc group based on
|
|
the group I post too?
|
|
* [5.5]:: Is there a spell-checker? Perhaps even on-the-fly
|
|
spell-checking?
|
|
* [5.6]:: Can I set the dictionary based on the group I'm posting
|
|
to?
|
|
* [5.7]:: Is there some kind of address-book, so I needn't remember
|
|
all those email addresses?
|
|
* [5.8]:: Sometimes I see little images at the top of article
|
|
buffer. What's that and how can I send one with my postings, too?
|
|
* [5.9]:: Sometimes I accidentally hit r instead of f in newsgroups.
|
|
Can Gnus warn me, when I'm replying by mail in newsgroups?
|
|
* [5.10]:: How to tell Gnus not to generate a sender header?
|
|
* [5.11]:: I want Gnus to locally store copies of my send mail and
|
|
news, how to do it?
|
|
* [5.12]:: People tell me my Message-IDs are not correct, why aren't
|
|
they and how to fix it?
|
|
@end menu
|
|
|
|
@node [5.1]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.1
|
|
|
|
What are the basic commands I need to know for sending mail and postings?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
To start composing a new mail hit @samp{m}
|
|
either in Group or Summary buffer, for a posting, it's
|
|
either @samp{a} in Group buffer and
|
|
filling the Newsgroups header manually
|
|
or @samp{a} in the Summary buffer of the
|
|
group where the posting shall be send to. Replying by mail
|
|
is
|
|
@samp{r} if you don't want to cite the
|
|
author, or import the cited text manually and
|
|
@samp{R} to cite the text of the original
|
|
message. For a follow up to a newsgroup, it's
|
|
@samp{f} and @samp{F}
|
|
(analogously to @samp{r} and
|
|
@samp{R}).
|
|
|
|
Enter new headers above the line saying "--text follows
|
|
this line--", enter the text below the line. When ready
|
|
hit @samp{C-c C-c}, to send the message,
|
|
if you want to finish it later hit @samp{C-c
|
|
C-d} to save it in the drafts group, where you
|
|
can start editing it again by saying @samp{D
|
|
e}.
|
|
|
|
@node [5.2]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.2
|
|
|
|
How to enable automatic word-wrap when composing messages?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Starting from No Gnus, automatic word-wrap is already enabled by
|
|
default, see the variable message-fill-column.
|
|
|
|
For other versions of Gnus, say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(unless (boundp 'message-fill-column)
|
|
(add-hook 'message-mode-hook
|
|
(lambda ()
|
|
(setq fill-column 72)
|
|
(turn-on-auto-fill))))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el.
|
|
|
|
You can reformat a paragraph by hitting @samp{M-q} (as usual).
|
|
|
|
@node [5.3]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.3
|
|
|
|
How to set stuff like From, Organization, Reply-To, signature...?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
There are other ways, but you should use posting styles
|
|
for this. (See below why).
|
|
This example should make the syntax clear:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-posting-styles
|
|
'((".*"
|
|
(name "Frank Schmitt")
|
|
(address "me@@there.invalid")
|
|
(organization "Hamme net, kren mer och nimmi")
|
|
(signature-file "~/.signature")
|
|
("X-SampleHeader" "foobar")
|
|
(eval (setq some-variable "Foo bar")))))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
The ".*" means that this settings are the default ones
|
|
(see below), valid values for the first element of the
|
|
following lists are signature, signature-file,
|
|
organization, address, name or body. The attribute name
|
|
can also be a string. In that case, this will be used as
|
|
a header name, and the value will be inserted in the
|
|
headers of the article; if the value is `nil', the header
|
|
name will be removed. You can also say (eval (foo bar)),
|
|
then the function foo will be evaluated with argument bar
|
|
and the result will be thrown away.
|
|
|
|
@node [5.4]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.4
|
|
|
|
Can I set things like From, Signature etc group based on the group I post too?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
That's the strength of posting styles. Before, we used ".*"
|
|
to set the default for all groups. You can use a regexp
|
|
like "^gmane" and the following settings are only applied
|
|
to postings you send to the gmane hierarchy, use
|
|
".*binaries" instead and they will be applied to postings
|
|
send to groups containing the string binaries in their
|
|
name etc.
|
|
|
|
You can instead of specifying a regexp specify a function
|
|
which is evaluated, only if it returns true, the
|
|
corresponding settings take effect. Two interesting
|
|
candidates for this are message-news-p which returns t if
|
|
the current Group is a newsgroup and the corresponding
|
|
message-mail-p.
|
|
|
|
Note that all forms that match are applied, that means in
|
|
the example below, when I post to
|
|
gmane.mail.spam.spamassassin.general, the settings under
|
|
".*" are applied and the settings under message-news-p and
|
|
those under "^gmane" and those under
|
|
"^gmane\\.mail\\.spam\\.spamassassin\\.general$". Because
|
|
of this put general settings at the top and specific ones
|
|
at the bottom.
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-posting-styles
|
|
'((".*" ;;default
|
|
(name "Frank Schmitt")
|
|
(organization "Hamme net, kren mer och nimmi")
|
|
(signature-file "~/.signature"))
|
|
((message-news-p) ;;Usenet news?
|
|
(address "mySpamTrap@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid")
|
|
(reply-to "hereRealRepliesOnlyPlease@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid"))
|
|
((message-mail-p) ;;mail?
|
|
(address "usedForMails@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid"))
|
|
("^gmane" ;;this is mail, too in fact
|
|
(address "usedForMails@@Frank-Schmitt.invalid")
|
|
(reply-to nil))
|
|
("^gmane\\.mail\\.spam\\.spamassassin\\.general$"
|
|
(eval (set (make-local-variable 'message-sendmail-envelope-from)
|
|
"Azzrael@@rz-online.de")))))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [5.5]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.5
|
|
|
|
Is there a spell-checker? Perhaps even on-the-fly spell-checking?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You can use ispell.el to spell-check stuff in Emacs. So the
|
|
first thing to do is to make sure that you've got either
|
|
@uref{http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/fmg-members/geoff/ispell.html, ispell}
|
|
or @uref{http://aspell.sourceforge.net/, aspell}
|
|
installed and in your Path. Then you need
|
|
@uref{http://www.kdstevens.com/~stevens/ispell-page.html, ispell.el}
|
|
and for on-the-fly spell-checking
|
|
@uref{http://www-sop.inria.fr/mimosa/personnel/Manuel.Serrano/flyspell/flyspell.html, flyspell.el}.
|
|
Ispell.el is shipped with Emacs and available through the XEmacs package system,
|
|
flyspell.el is shipped with Emacs and part of XEmacs text-modes package which is
|
|
available through the package system, so there should be no need to install them
|
|
manually.
|
|
|
|
Ispell.el assumes you use ispell, if you choose aspell say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq ispell-program-name "aspell")
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in your Emacs configuration file.
|
|
|
|
If you want your outgoing messages to be spell-checked, say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
In your ~/.gnus.el, if you prefer on-the-fly spell-checking say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-hook 'message-mode-hook (lambda () (flyspell-mode 1)))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [5.6]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.6
|
|
|
|
Can I set the dictionary based on the group I'm posting to?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Yes, say something like
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(add-hook 'gnus-select-group-hook
|
|
(lambda ()
|
|
(cond
|
|
((string-match
|
|
"^de\\." (gnus-group-real-name gnus-newsgroup-name))
|
|
(ispell-change-dictionary "deutsch8"))
|
|
(t
|
|
(ispell-change-dictionary "english")))))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el. Change "^de\\." and "deutsch8" to something
|
|
that suits your needs.
|
|
|
|
@node [5.7]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.7
|
|
|
|
Is there some kind of address-book, so I needn't remember
|
|
all those email addresses?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
There's an very basic solution for this, mail aliases.
|
|
You can store your mail addresses in a ~/.mailrc file using a simple
|
|
alias syntax:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
alias al "Al <al@@english-heritage.invalid>"
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Then typing your alias (followed by a space or punctuation
|
|
character) on a To: or Cc: line in the message buffer will
|
|
cause Gnus to insert the full address for you. See the
|
|
node "Mail Aliases" in Message (not Gnus) manual for
|
|
details.
|
|
|
|
However, what you really want is the Insidious Big Brother
|
|
Database bbdb. Get it through the XEmacs package system or from
|
|
@uref{http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/, bbdb's homepage}.
|
|
Now place the following in ~/.gnus.el, to activate bbdb for Gnus:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(require 'bbdb)
|
|
(bbdb-initialize 'gnus 'message)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Now you probably want some general bbdb configuration,
|
|
place them in ~/.emacs:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(require 'bbdb)
|
|
;;If you don't live in Northern America, you should disable the
|
|
;;syntax check for telephone numbers by saying
|
|
(setq bbdb-north-american-phone-numbers-p nil)
|
|
;;Tell bbdb about your email address:
|
|
(setq bbdb-user-mail-names
|
|
(regexp-opt '("Your.Email@@here.invalid"
|
|
"Your.other@@mail.there.invalid")))
|
|
;;cycling while completing email addresses
|
|
(setq bbdb-complete-name-allow-cycling t)
|
|
;;No popup-buffers
|
|
(setq bbdb-use-pop-up nil)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Now you should be ready to go. Say @samp{M-x bbdb RET
|
|
RET} to open a bbdb buffer showing all
|
|
entries. Say @samp{c} to create a new
|
|
entry, @samp{b} to search your BBDB and
|
|
@samp{C-o} to add a new field to an
|
|
entry. If you want to add a sender to the BBDB you can
|
|
also just hit `:' on the posting in the summary buffer and
|
|
you are done. When you now compose a new mail,
|
|
hit @samp{TAB} to cycle through know
|
|
recipients.
|
|
|
|
@node [5.8]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.8
|
|
|
|
Sometimes I see little images at the top of article
|
|
buffer. What's that and how can I send one with my
|
|
postings, too?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Those images are called X-Faces. They are 48*48 pixel b/w
|
|
pictures, encoded in a header line. If you want to include
|
|
one in your posts, you've got to convert some image to a
|
|
X-Face. So fire up some image manipulation program (say
|
|
Gimp), open the image you want to include, cut out the
|
|
relevant part, reduce color depth to 1 bit, resize to
|
|
48*48 and save as bitmap. Now you should get the compface
|
|
package from
|
|
@uref{ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu:/pub/faces/, this site}.
|
|
and create the actual X-face by saying
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
cat file.xbm | xbm2ikon | compface > file.face
|
|
cat file.face | sed 's/\\/\\\\/g;s/\"/\\\"/g;' > file.face.quoted
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
If you can't use compface, there's an online X-face converter at
|
|
@uref{http://www.dairiki.org/xface/}.
|
|
If you use MS Windows, you could also use the WinFace program from
|
|
@uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~walterln/winface/}.
|
|
Now you only have to tell Gnus to include the X-face in your postings by saying
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq message-default-headers
|
|
(with-temp-buffer
|
|
(insert "X-Face: ")
|
|
(insert-file-contents "~/.xface")
|
|
(buffer-string)))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el. If you use Gnus 5.10, you can simply add an entry
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(x-face-file "~/.xface")
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
to gnus-posting-styles.
|
|
|
|
@node [5.9]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.9
|
|
|
|
Sometimes I accidentally hit r instead of f in
|
|
newsgroups. Can Gnus warn me, when I'm replying by mail in
|
|
newsgroups?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Put this in ~/.gnus.el:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news t)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
if you already use Gnus 5.10, if you still use 5.8.8 or
|
|
5.9 try this instead:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "gnus-msg"
|
|
'(unless (boundp 'gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news)
|
|
(defadvice gnus-summary-reply (around reply-in-news activate)
|
|
"Request confirmation when replying to news."
|
|
(interactive)
|
|
(when (or (not (gnus-news-group-p gnus-newsgroup-name))
|
|
(y-or-n-p "Really reply by mail to article author? "))
|
|
ad-do-it))))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [5.10]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.10
|
|
|
|
How to tell Gnus not to generate a sender header?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Since 5.10 Gnus doesn't generate a sender header by
|
|
default. For older Gnus' try this in ~/.gnus.el:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "message"
|
|
'(add-to-list 'message-syntax-checks '(sender . disabled)))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [5.11]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.11
|
|
|
|
I want Gnus to locally store copies of my send mail and
|
|
news, how to do it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You must set the variable gnus-message-archive-group to do
|
|
this. You can set it to a string giving the name of the
|
|
group where the copies shall go or like in the example
|
|
below use a function which is evaluated and which returns
|
|
the group to use.
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-message-archive-group
|
|
'((if (message-news-p)
|
|
"nnml:Send-News"
|
|
"nnml:Send-Mail")))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
@node [5.12]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 5.12
|
|
|
|
People tell me my Message-IDs are not correct, why
|
|
aren't they and how to fix it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
The message-ID is an unique identifier for messages you
|
|
send. To make it unique, Gnus need to know which machine
|
|
name to put after the "@@". If the name of the machine
|
|
where Gnus is running isn't suitable (it probably isn't
|
|
at most private machines) you can tell Gnus what to use
|
|
by saying:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq message-user-fqdn "yourmachine.yourdomain.tld")
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el. If you use Gnus 5.9 or earlier, you can use this
|
|
instead (works for newer versions a well):
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "message"
|
|
'(let ((fqdn "yourmachine.yourdomain.tld"));; <-- Edit this!
|
|
(if (boundp 'message-user-fqdn)
|
|
(setq message-user-fqdn fqdn)
|
|
(gnus-message 1 "Redefining `message-make-fqdn'.")
|
|
(defun message-make-fqdn ()
|
|
"Return user's fully qualified domain name."
|
|
fqdn))))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
If you have no idea what to insert for
|
|
"yourmachine.yourdomain.tld", you've got several
|
|
choices. You can either ask your provider if he allows
|
|
you to use something like
|
|
yourUserName.userfqdn.provider.net, or you can use
|
|
somethingUnique.yourdomain.tld if you own the domain
|
|
yourdomain.tld, or you can register at a service which
|
|
gives private users a FQDN for free.
|
|
|
|
Finally you can tell Gnus not to generate a Message-ID
|
|
for News at all (and letting the server do the job) by saying
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq message-required-news-headers
|
|
(remove' Message-ID message-required-news-headers))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
you can also tell Gnus not to generate Message-IDs for mail by saying
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq message-required-mail-headers
|
|
(remove' Message-ID message-required-mail-headers))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
, however some mail servers don't generate proper
|
|
Message-IDs, too, so test if your Mail Server behaves
|
|
correctly by sending yourself a Mail and looking at the Message-ID.
|
|
|
|
@node FAQ 6 - Old messages
|
|
@subsection Old messages
|
|
|
|
@menu
|
|
* [6.1]:: How to import my old mail into Gnus?
|
|
* [6.2]:: How to archive interesting messages?
|
|
* [6.3]:: How to search for a specific message?
|
|
* [6.4]:: How to get rid of old unwanted mail?
|
|
* [6.5]:: I want that all read messages are expired (at least in some
|
|
groups). How to do it?
|
|
* [6.6]:: I don't want expiration to delete my mails but to move them
|
|
to another group.
|
|
@end menu
|
|
|
|
@node [6.1]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 6.1
|
|
|
|
How to import my old mail into Gnus?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
The easiest way is to tell your old mail program to
|
|
export the messages in mbox format. Most Unix mailers
|
|
are able to do this, if you come from the MS Windows
|
|
world, you may find tools at
|
|
@uref{http://mbx2mbox.sourceforge.net/}.
|
|
|
|
Now you've got to import this mbox file into Gnus. To do
|
|
this, create a nndoc group based on the mbox file by
|
|
saying @samp{G f /path/file.mbox RET} in
|
|
Group buffer. You now have read-only access to your
|
|
mail. If you want to import the messages to your normal
|
|
Gnus mail groups hierarchy, enter the nndoc group you've
|
|
just created by saying @samp{C-u RET}
|
|
(thus making sure all messages are retrieved), mark all
|
|
messages by saying @samp{M P b} and
|
|
either copy them to the desired group by saying
|
|
@samp{B c name.of.group RET} or send them
|
|
through nnmail-split-methods (respool them) by saying
|
|
@samp{B r}.
|
|
|
|
@node [6.2]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 6.2
|
|
|
|
How to archive interesting messages?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
If you stumble across an interesting message, say in
|
|
gnu.emacs.gnus and want to archive it there are several
|
|
solutions. The first and easiest is to save it to a file
|
|
by saying @samp{O f}. However, wouldn't
|
|
it be much more convenient to have more direct access to
|
|
the archived message from Gnus? If you say yes, put this
|
|
snippet by Frank Haun <pille3003@@fhaun.de> in
|
|
~/.gnus.el:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(defun my-archive-article (&optional n)
|
|
"Copies one or more article(s) to a corresponding `nnml:' group, e.g.
|
|
`gnus.ding' goes to `nnml:1.gnus.ding'. And `nnml:List-gnus.ding' goes
|
|
to `nnml:1.List-gnus-ding'.
|
|
|
|
Use process marks or mark a region in the summary buffer to archive
|
|
more then one article."
|
|
(interactive "P")
|
|
(let ((archive-name
|
|
(format
|
|
"nnml:1.%s"
|
|
(if (featurep 'xemacs)
|
|
(replace-in-string gnus-newsgroup-name "^.*:" "")
|
|
(replace-regexp-in-string "^.*:" "" gnus-newsgroup-name)))))
|
|
(gnus-summary-copy-article n archive-name)))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
You can now say @samp{M-x
|
|
my-archive-article} in summary buffer to
|
|
archive the article under the cursor in a nnml
|
|
group. (Change nnml to your preferred back end)
|
|
|
|
Of course you can also make sure the cache is enabled by saying
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-use-cache t)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
then you only have to set either the tick or the dormant
|
|
mark for articles you want to keep, setting the read
|
|
mark will remove them from cache.
|
|
|
|
@node [6.3]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 6.3
|
|
|
|
How to search for a specific message?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
There are several ways for this, too. For a posting from
|
|
a Usenet group the easiest solution is probably to ask
|
|
@uref{http://groups.google.com, groups.google.com},
|
|
if you found the posting there, tell Google to display
|
|
the raw message, look for the message-id, and say
|
|
@samp{M-^ the@@message.id RET} in a
|
|
summary buffer.
|
|
Since Gnus 5.10 there's also a Gnus interface for
|
|
groups.google.com which you can call with
|
|
@samp{G W}) in group buffer.
|
|
|
|
Another idea which works for both mail and news groups
|
|
is to enter the group where the message you are
|
|
searching is and use the standard Emacs search
|
|
@samp{C-s}, it's smart enough to look at
|
|
articles in collapsed threads, too. If you want to
|
|
search bodies, too try @samp{M-s}
|
|
instead. Further on there are the
|
|
gnus-summary-limit-to-foo functions, which can help you,
|
|
too.
|
|
|
|
Of course you can also use grep to search through your
|
|
local mail, but this is both slow for big archives and
|
|
inconvenient since you are not displaying the found mail
|
|
in Gnus. Here comes nnir into action. Nnir is a front end
|
|
to search engines like swish-e or swish++ and
|
|
others. You index your mail with one of those search
|
|
engines and with the help of nnir you can search trough
|
|
the indexed mail and generate a temporary group with all
|
|
messages which met your search criteria. If this sound
|
|
cool to you get nnir.el from
|
|
@uref{ftp://ls6-ftp.cs.uni-dortmund.de/pub/src/emacs/}
|
|
or @uref{ftp://ftp.is.informatik.uni-duisburg.de/pub/src/emacs/}.
|
|
Instructions on how to use it are at the top of the file.
|
|
|
|
@node [6.4]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 6.4
|
|
|
|
How to get rid of old unwanted mail?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You can of course just mark the mail you don't need
|
|
anymore by saying @samp{#} with point
|
|
over the mail and then say @samp{B DEL}
|
|
to get rid of them forever. You could also instead of
|
|
actually deleting them, send them to a junk-group by
|
|
saying @samp{B m nnml:trash-bin} which
|
|
you clear from time to time, but both are not the intended
|
|
way in Gnus.
|
|
|
|
In Gnus, we let mail expire like news expires on a news
|
|
server. That means you tell Gnus the message is
|
|
expirable (you tell Gnus "I don't need this mail
|
|
anymore") by saying @samp{E} with point
|
|
over the mail in summary buffer. Now when you leave the
|
|
group, Gnus looks at all messages which you marked as
|
|
expirable before and if they are old enough (default is
|
|
older than a week) they are deleted.
|
|
|
|
@node [6.5]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 6.5
|
|
|
|
I want that all read messages are expired (at least in
|
|
some groups). How to do it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
If you want all read messages to be expired (e.g. in
|
|
mailing lists where there's an online archive), you've
|
|
got two choices: auto-expire and
|
|
total-expire. Auto-expire means, that every article
|
|
which has no marks set and is selected for reading is
|
|
marked as expirable, Gnus hits @samp{E}
|
|
for you every time you read a message. Total-expire
|
|
follows a slightly different approach, here all article
|
|
where the read mark is set are expirable.
|
|
|
|
To activate auto-expire, include auto-expire in the
|
|
Group parameters for the group. (Hit @samp{G
|
|
c} in summary buffer with point over the
|
|
group to change group parameters). For total-expire add
|
|
total-expire to the group-parameters.
|
|
|
|
Which method you choose is merely a matter of taste:
|
|
Auto-expire is faster, but it doesn't play together with
|
|
Adaptive Scoring, so if you want to use this feature,
|
|
you should use total-expire.
|
|
|
|
If you want a message to be excluded from expiration in
|
|
a group where total or auto expire is active, set either
|
|
tick (hit @samp{u}) or dormant mark (hit
|
|
@samp{u}), when you use auto-expire, you
|
|
can also set the read mark (hit
|
|
@samp{d}).
|
|
|
|
@node [6.6]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 6.6
|
|
|
|
I don't want expiration to delete my mails but to move them
|
|
to another group.
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Say something like this in ~/.gnus.el:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq nnmail-expiry-target "nnml:expired")
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
(If you want to change the value of nnmail-expiry-target
|
|
on a per group basis see the question "How can I disable
|
|
threading in some (e.g. mail-) groups, or set other
|
|
variables specific for some groups?")
|
|
|
|
@node FAQ 7 - Gnus in a dial-up environment
|
|
@subsection Gnus in a dial-up environment
|
|
|
|
@menu
|
|
* [7.1]:: I don't have a permanent connection to the net, how can I
|
|
minimize the time I've got to be connected?
|
|
* [7.2]:: So what was this thing about the Agent?
|
|
* [7.3]:: I want to store article bodies on disk, too. How to do it?
|
|
* [7.4]:: How to tell Gnus not to try to send mails / postings while
|
|
I'm offline?
|
|
@end menu
|
|
|
|
@node [7.1]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 7.1
|
|
|
|
I don't have a permanent connection to the net, how can
|
|
I minimize the time I've got to be connected?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You've got basically two options: Either you use the
|
|
Gnus Agent (see below) for this, or you can install
|
|
programs which fetch your news and mail to your local
|
|
disk and Gnus reads the stuff from your local
|
|
machine.
|
|
|
|
If you want to follow the second approach, you need a
|
|
program which fetches news and offers them to Gnus, a
|
|
program which does the same for mail and a program which
|
|
receives the mail you write from Gnus and sends them
|
|
when you're online.
|
|
|
|
Let's talk about Unix systems first: For the news part,
|
|
the easiest solution is a small nntp server like
|
|
@uref{http://www.leafnode.org/, Leafnode} or
|
|
@uref{http://infa.abo.fi/~patrik/sn/, sn},
|
|
of course you can also install a full featured news
|
|
server like
|
|
@uref{http://www.isc.org/products/INN/, inn}.
|
|
Then you want to fetch your Mail, popular choices
|
|
are @uref{http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/, fetchmail}
|
|
and @uref{http://www.qcc.ca/~charlesc/software/getmail-3.0/, getmail}.
|
|
You should tell those to write the mail to your disk and
|
|
Gnus to read it from there. Last but not least the mail
|
|
sending part: This can be done with every MTA like
|
|
@uref{http://www.sendmail.org/, sendmail},
|
|
@uref{http://www.qmail.org/, postfix},
|
|
@uref{http://www.exim.org/, exim} or
|
|
@uref{http://www.qmail.org/, qmail}.
|
|
|
|
On windows boxes I'd vote for
|
|
@uref{http://www.tglsoft.de/, Hamster},
|
|
it's a small freeware, open-source program which fetches
|
|
your mail and news from remote servers and offers them
|
|
to Gnus (or any other mail and/or news reader) via nntp
|
|
respectively POP3 or IMAP. It also includes a smtp
|
|
server for receiving mails from Gnus.
|
|
|
|
@node [7.2]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 7.2
|
|
|
|
So what was this thing about the Agent?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
The Gnus agent is part of Gnus, it allows you to fetch
|
|
mail and news and store them on disk for reading them
|
|
later when you're offline. It kind of mimics offline
|
|
newsreaders like e.g. Forte Agent. If you want to use
|
|
the Agent place the following in ~/.gnus.el if you are
|
|
still using 5.8.8 or 5.9 (it's the default since 5.10):
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-agent t)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
Now you've got to select the servers whose groups can be
|
|
stored locally. To do this, open the server buffer
|
|
(that is press @samp{^} while in the
|
|
group buffer). Now select a server by moving point to
|
|
the line naming that server. Finally, agentize the
|
|
server by typing @samp{J a}. If you
|
|
make a mistake, or change your mind, you can undo this
|
|
action by typing @samp{J r}. When
|
|
you're done, type 'q' to return to the group buffer.
|
|
Now the next time you enter a group on a agentized
|
|
server, the headers will be stored on disk and read from
|
|
there the next time you enter the group.
|
|
|
|
@node [7.3]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 7.3
|
|
|
|
I want to store article bodies on disk, too. How to do it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
You can tell the agent to automatically fetch the bodies
|
|
of articles which fulfill certain predicates, this is
|
|
done in a special buffer which can be reached by
|
|
saying @samp{J c} in group
|
|
buffer. Please refer to the documentation for
|
|
information which predicates are possible and how
|
|
exactly to do it.
|
|
|
|
Further on you can tell the agent manually which
|
|
articles to store on disk. There are two ways to do
|
|
this: Number one: In the summary buffer, process mark a
|
|
set of articles that shall be stored in the agent by
|
|
saying @samp{#} with point over the
|
|
article and then type @samp{J s}. The
|
|
other possibility is to set, again in the summary
|
|
buffer, downloadable (%) marks for the articles you
|
|
want by typing @samp{@@} with point over
|
|
the article and then typing @samp{J u}.
|
|
What's the difference? Well, process marks are erased as
|
|
soon as you exit the summary buffer while downloadable
|
|
marks are permanent. You can actually set downloadable
|
|
marks in several groups then use fetch session ('J s' in
|
|
the GROUP buffer) to fetch all of those articles. The
|
|
only downside is that fetch session also fetches all of
|
|
the headers for every selected group on an agentized
|
|
server. Depending on the volume of headers, the initial
|
|
fetch session could take hours.
|
|
|
|
@node [7.4]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 7.4
|
|
|
|
How to tell Gnus not to try to send mails / postings
|
|
while I'm offline?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
All you've got to do is to tell Gnus when you are online
|
|
(plugged) and when you are offline (unplugged), the rest
|
|
works automatically. You can toggle plugged/unplugged
|
|
state by saying @samp{J j} in group
|
|
buffer. To start Gnus unplugged say @samp{M-x
|
|
gnus-unplugged} instead of
|
|
@samp{M-x gnus}. Note that for this to
|
|
work, the agent must be active.
|
|
|
|
@node FAQ 8 - Getting help
|
|
@subsection Getting help
|
|
|
|
@menu
|
|
* [8.1]:: How to find information and help inside Emacs?
|
|
* [8.2]:: I can't find anything in the Gnus manual about X (e.g.
|
|
attachments, PGP, MIME...), is it not documented?
|
|
* [8.3]:: Which websites should I know?
|
|
* [8.4]:: Which mailing lists and newsgroups are there?
|
|
* [8.5]:: Where to report bugs?
|
|
* [8.6]:: I need real-time help, where to find it?
|
|
@end menu
|
|
|
|
@node [8.1]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 8.1
|
|
|
|
How to find information and help inside Emacs?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
The first stop should be the Gnus manual (Say
|
|
@samp{C-h i d m Gnus RET} to start the
|
|
Gnus manual, then walk through the menus or do a
|
|
full-text search with @samp{s}). Then
|
|
there are the general Emacs help commands starting with
|
|
C-h, type @samp{C-h ? ?} to get a list
|
|
of all available help commands and their meaning. Finally
|
|
@samp{M-x apropos-command} lets you
|
|
search through all available functions and @samp{M-x
|
|
apropos} searches the bound variables.
|
|
|
|
@node [8.2]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 8.2
|
|
|
|
I can't find anything in the Gnus manual about X
|
|
(e.g. attachments, PGP, MIME...), is it not documented?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
There's not only the Gnus manual but also the manuals
|
|
for message, emacs-mime, sieve and pgg. Those packages
|
|
are distributed with Gnus and used by Gnus but aren't
|
|
really part of core Gnus, so they are documented in
|
|
different info files, you should have a look in those
|
|
manuals, too.
|
|
|
|
@node [8.3]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 8.3
|
|
|
|
Which websites should I know?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
The two most important ones are the
|
|
@uref{http://www.gnus.org, official Gnus website}.
|
|
and it's sister site
|
|
@uref{http://my.gnus.org, my.gnus.org (MGO)},
|
|
hosting an archive of lisp snippets, howtos, a (not
|
|
really finished) tutorial and this FAQ.
|
|
|
|
Tell me about other sites which are interesting.
|
|
|
|
@node [8.4]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 8.4
|
|
|
|
Which mailing lists and newsgroups are there?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
There's the newsgroup gnu.emacs.gnus
|
|
(also available as
|
|
@uref{http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.user,
|
|
gmane.emacs.gnus.user})
|
|
which deals with general Gnus questions.
|
|
The ding mailing list (ding@@gnus.org) deals with development of
|
|
Gnus. You can read the ding list via NNTP, too under the name
|
|
@uref{http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general,
|
|
gmane.emacs.gnus.general} from news.gmane.org.
|
|
|
|
If you want to stay in the big8,
|
|
news.software.newssreaders is also read by some Gnus
|
|
users (but chances for qualified help are much better in
|
|
the above groups) and if you speak German, there's
|
|
de.comm.software.gnus.
|
|
|
|
@node [8.5]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 8.5
|
|
|
|
Where to report bugs?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Say @samp{M-x gnus-bug}, this will start
|
|
a message to the
|
|
@email{bugs@@gnus.org, gnus bug mailing list}
|
|
including information about your environment which make
|
|
it easier to help you.
|
|
|
|
@node [8.6]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 8.6
|
|
|
|
I need real-time help, where to find it?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
Point your IRC client to irc.freenode.net, channel #gnus.
|
|
|
|
@node FAQ 9 - Tuning Gnus
|
|
@subsection Tuning Gnus
|
|
|
|
@menu
|
|
* [9.1]:: Starting Gnus is really slow, how to speed it up?
|
|
* [9.2]:: How to speed up the process of entering a group?
|
|
* [9.3]:: Sending mail becomes slower and slower, what's up?
|
|
@end menu
|
|
|
|
@node [9.1]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 9.1
|
|
|
|
Starting Gnus is really slow, how to speed it up?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
The reason for this could be the way Gnus reads it's
|
|
active file, see the node "The Active File" in the Gnus
|
|
manual for things you might try to speed the process up.
|
|
An other idea would be to byte compile your ~/.gnus.el (say
|
|
@samp{M-x byte-compile-file RET ~/.gnus.el
|
|
RET} to do it). Finally, if you have require
|
|
statements in your .gnus, you could replace them with
|
|
eval-after-load, which loads the stuff not at startup
|
|
time, but when it's needed. Say you've got this in your
|
|
~/.gnus.el:
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(require 'message)
|
|
(add-to-list 'message-syntax-checks '(sender . disabled))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
then as soon as you start Gnus, message.el is loaded. If
|
|
you replace it with
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(eval-after-load "message"
|
|
'(add-to-list 'message-syntax-checks '(sender . disabled)))
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
it's loaded when it's needed.
|
|
|
|
@node [9.2]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 9.2
|
|
|
|
How to speed up the process of entering a group?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
A speed killer is setting the variable
|
|
gnus-fetch-old-headers to anything different from nil,
|
|
so don't do this if speed is an issue. To speed up
|
|
building of summary say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(gnus-compile)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
at the bottom of your ~/.gnus.el, this will make gnus
|
|
byte-compile things like
|
|
gnus-summary-line-format.
|
|
then you could increase the value of gc-cons-threshold
|
|
by saying something like
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gc-cons-threshold 3500000)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.emacs. If you don't care about width of CJK
|
|
characters or use Gnus 5.10 or younger together with a
|
|
recent GNU Emacs, you should say
|
|
|
|
@example
|
|
(setq gnus-use-correct-string-widths nil)
|
|
@end example
|
|
@noindent
|
|
|
|
in ~/.gnus.el (thanks to Jesper harder for the last
|
|
two suggestions). Finally if you are still using 5.8.8
|
|
or 5.9 and experience speed problems with summary
|
|
buffer generation, you definitely should update to
|
|
5.10 since there quite some work on improving it has
|
|
been done.
|
|
|
|
@node [9.3]
|
|
@subsubheading Question 9.3
|
|
|
|
Sending mail becomes slower and slower, what's up?
|
|
|
|
@subsubheading Answer
|
|
|
|
The reason could be that you told Gnus to archive the
|
|
messages you wrote by setting
|
|
gnus-message-archive-group. Try to use a nnml group
|
|
instead of an archive group, this should bring you back
|
|
to normal speed.
|
|
|
|
@node FAQ - Glossary
|
|
@subsection Glossary
|
|
|
|
@table @dfn
|
|
|
|
@item ~/.gnus.el
|
|
When the term ~/.gnus.el is used it just means your Gnus
|
|
configuration file. You might as well call it ~/.gnus or
|
|
specify another name.
|
|
|
|
@item Back End
|
|
In Gnus terminology a back end is a virtual server, a layer
|
|
between core Gnus and the real NNTP-, POP3-, IMAP- or
|
|
whatever-server which offers Gnus a standardized interface
|
|
to functions like "get message", "get Headers" etc.
|
|
|
|
@item Emacs
|
|
When the term Emacs is used in this FAQ, it means either GNU
|
|
Emacs or XEmacs.
|
|
|
|
@item Message
|
|
In this FAQ message means a either a mail or a posting to a
|
|
Usenet Newsgroup or to some other fancy back end, no matter
|
|
of which kind it is.
|
|
|
|
@item MUA
|
|
MUA is an acronym for Mail User Agent, it's the program you
|
|
use to read and write e-mails.
|
|
|
|
@item NUA
|
|
NUA is an acronym for News User Agent, it's the program you
|
|
use to read and write Usenet news.
|
|
|
|
@end table
|
|
|
|
@ignore
|
|
arch-tag: 64dc5692-edb4-4848-a965-7aa0181acbb8
|
|
@end ignore
|