@c \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-@c Uncomment 1st line before texing this file alone.@c %**start of header@c Copyright (C) 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.@c@c Do not modify this file, it was generated from gnus-faq.xml, available from@c <URL:http://my.gnus.org/FAQ/>.@c@setfilename gnus-faq.info@settitle Frequently Asked Questions@c %**end of header@c@node Frequently Asked Questions@section Frequently Asked Questions@menu* FAQ - Changes:: * FAQ - Introduction:: About Gnus and this FAQ.* FAQ 1 - Installation FAQ:: Installation of Gnus.* FAQ 2 - Startup / Group buffer:: Start up questions and the first buffer Gnus shows you.* FAQ 3 - Getting Messages:: Making Gnus read your mail and news.* FAQ 4 - Reading messages:: How to efficiently read messages.* FAQ 5 - Composing messages:: Composing mails or Usenet postings.* FAQ 6 - Old messages:: Importing, archiving, searching and deleting messages.* FAQ 7 - Gnus in a dial-up environment:: Reading mail and news while offline.* FAQ 8 - Getting help:: When this FAQ isn't enough.* FAQ 9 - Tuning Gnus:: How to make Gnus faster.* FAQ - Glossary:: Terms used in the FAQ explained.@end menu@subheading AbstractThis is the new Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list.If you have a Web browser, the official hypertext version is at@uref{http://my.gnus.org/FAQ/},the Docbook source is available from@uref{http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnus/, http://sourceforge.net}.Please submit features and suggestions to the @email{faq-discuss@@my.gnus.org, FAQ discussion list}.The list is protected against junk mail with@uref{http://smarden.org/qconfirm/index.html, qconfirm}. Asa subscriber, your submissions will automatically pass. You canalso subscribe to the list by sending a blank email to@email{faq-discuss-subscribe@@my.gnus.org, faq-discuss-subscribe@@my.gnus.org}and @uref{http://mail1.kens.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-browse?command=monthbythread%26list=faq-discuss, browsethe archive}.@node FAQ - Changes@subheading Changes@itemize @bullet@itemUpdated FAQ to reflect release of Gnus 5.10 and start ofNo Gnus development.@end itemize@node FAQ - Introduction@subheading IntroductionThis is the Gnus Frequently Asked Questions list.Gnus is a Usenet Newsreader and Electronic Mail User Agent implementedas a part of Emacs. It's been around in some form for almost a decadenow, and has been distributed as a standard part of Emacs for much ofthat time. Gnus 5 is the latest (and greatest) incarnation. Theoriginal version was called GNUS, and was written by Masanobu UMEDA.When autumn crept up in '94, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen grew bored anddecided to rewrite Gnus.Its biggest strength is the fact that it is extremelycustomizable. It is somewhat intimidating at first glance, butmost of the complexity can be ignored until you're ready to takeadvantage of it. If you receive a reasonable volume of e-mail(you're on various mailing lists), or you would like to readhigh-volume mailing lists but cannot keep up with them, or readhigh volume newsgroups or are just bored, then Gnus is what youwant.This FAQ was maintained by Justin Sheehy until March 2002. Hewould like to thank Steve Baur and Per Abrahamsen for doing a wonderfuljob with this FAQ before him. We would like to do the same - thanks,Justin!If you have a Web browser, the official hypertext version is at:@uref{http://my.gnus.org/FAQ/}.This version is much nicer than the unofficial hypertextversions that are archived at Utrecht, Oxford, Smart Pages, OhioState, and other FAQ archives. See the resources question belowif you want information on obtaining it in another format.The information contained here was compiled with the assistanceof the Gnus development mailing list, and any errors ormisprints are the my.gnus.org team's fault, sorry.@node FAQ 1 - Installation FAQ@subsection Installation FAQ@menu* [1.1]:: What is the latest version of Gnus?* [1.2]:: What's new in 5.10?* [1.3]:: Where and how to get Gnus?* [1.4]:: What to do with the tarball now?* [1.5]:: I sometimes read references to No Gnus and Oort Gnus, what are those?* [1.6]:: Which version of Emacs do I need?* [1.7]:: How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?@end menu@node [1.1]@subsubheading Question 1.1What is the latest version of Gnus?@subsubheading AnswerJingle please: Gnus 5.10 is released, get it while it'shot! As well as the step in version number is rathersmall, Gnus 5.10 has tons of new features which youshouldn't miss. The current release (5.10.6) should be atleast as stable as the latest release of the 5.8 series.@node [1.2]@subsubheading Question 1.2What's new in 5.10?@subsubheading AnswerFirst of all, you should have a look into the fileGNUS-NEWS in the toplevel directory of the Gnus tarball,there the most important changes are listed. Here's ashort list of the changes I find especiallyimportant/interesting:@itemize @bullet@itemMajor rewrite of the Gnus agent, Gnus agent is nowactive by default.@itemMany new article washing functions for dealing withugly formatted articles.@itemAnti Spam features.@itemMessage-utils now included in Gnus.@itemNew format specifiers for summary lines, e.g. %B fora complex trn-style thread tree.@end itemize@node [1.3]@subsubheading Question 1.3Where and how to get Gnus?@subsubheading AnswerThe latest released version of Gnus isn't included inEmacs 21, therefor you should get the Gnus tarball from@uref{http://www.gnus.org/dist/gnus.tar.gz}or via anonymous FTP from @uref{ftp://ftp.gnus.org/pub/gnus/gnus.tar.gz}.If you use XEmacs instead of Emacs you can use XEmacs'package system instead.@node [1.4]@subsubheading Question 1.4What to do with the tarball now?@subsubheading AnswerUntar it via @samp{tar xvzf gnus.tar.gz} and do the common @samp{./configure; make; make install} circle.(under MS-Windows either get the Cygwin environment from@uref{http://www.cygwin.com}which allows you to do what's described above or unpack thetarball with some packer (e.g. Winace from@uref{http://www.winace.com})and use the batch-file make.bat included in the tarball to installGnus.) If you don't want to (or aren't allowed to) install Gnussystem-wide, you can install it in your home directory and add thefollowing lines to your ~/.xemacs/init.el or ~/.emacs:@example(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/gnus/lisp")(if (featurep 'xemacs) (add-to-list 'Info-directory-list "/path/to/gnus/texi/") (add-to-list 'Info-default-directory-list "/path/to/gnus/texi/"))@end example@noindentMake sure that you don't have any Gnus related stuffbefore this line, on MS Windows use something like"C:/path/to/lisp" (yes, "/").@node [1.5]@subsubheading Question 1.5I sometimes read references to No Gnus and Oort Gnus,what are those?@subsubheading AnswerOort Gnus was the name of the development version ofGnus, which became Gnus 5.10 in autumn 2003. No Gnus isthe name of the current development version which willonce become Gnus 5.12 or Gnus 6. (If you're wondering whynot 5.11, the odd version numbers are normally used forthe Gnus versions bundled with Emacs)@node [1.6]@subsubheading Question 1.6Which version of Emacs do I need?@subsubheading AnswerGnus 5.10 requires an Emacs version that is greaterthan or equal to Emacs 20.7 or XEmacs 21.1. Thedevelopment versions of Gnus (aka No Gnus) require Emacs21 or XEmacs 21.4.@node [1.7]@subsubheading Question 1.7How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?@subsubheading AnswerYou can't use the same copy of Gnus in both as the Lispfiles are byte-compiled to a format which is differentdepending on which Emacs did the compilation. Get one copyof Gnus for Emacs and one for XEmacs.@node FAQ 2 - Startup / Group buffer@subsection Startup / Group buffer@menu* [2.1]:: Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-save file exists. Do you want to read it?", what does this mean and how to prevent it?* [2.2]:: Gnus doesn't remember which groups I'm subscribed to, what's this?* [2.3]:: How to change the format of the lines in Group buffer?* [2.4]:: My group buffer becomes a bit crowded, is there a way to sort my groups into categories so I can easier browse through them?* [2.5]:: How to manually sort the groups in Group buffer? How to sort the groups in a topic?@end menu@node [2.1]@subsubheading Question 2.1Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-savefile exists. Do you want to read it?", what does this meanand how to prevent it?@subsubheading AnswerThis message means that the last time you used Gnus, itwasn't properly exited and therefor couldn't write itsinformations to disk (e.g. which messages you read), youare now asked if you want to restore those informationsfrom the auto-save file.To prevent this message make sure you exit Gnusvia @samp{q} in group buffer instead ofjust killing Emacs.@node [2.2]@subsubheading Question 2.2Gnus doesn't remember which groups I'm subscribed to,what's this?@subsubheading AnswerYou get the message described in the q/a pair above whilestarting Gnus, right? It's an other symptom for the sameproblem, so read the answer above.@node [2.3]@subsubheading Question 2.3How to change the format of the lines in Group buffer?@subsubheading AnswerYou've got to tweak the value of the variablegnus-group-line-format. See the manual node "Group LineSpecification" for information on how to do this. Anexample for this (guess from whose .gnus :-)):@example(setq gnus-group-line-format "%P%M%S[%5t]%5y : %(%g%)\n")@end example@noindent@node [2.4]@subsubheading Question 2.4My group buffer becomes a bit crowded, is there a way tosort my groups into categories so I can easier browsethrough them?@subsubheading AnswerGnus offers the topic mode, it allows you to sort yourgroups in, well, topics, e.g. all groups dealing withLinux under the topic linux, all dealing with music underthe topic music and all dealing with scottish music underthe topic scottish which is a subtopic of music.To enter topic mode, just hit t while in Group buffer. Nowyou can use @samp{T n} to create a topicat point and @samp{T m} to move a group toa specific topic. For more commands see the manual or themenu. You might want to include the %P specifier at thebeginning of your gnus-group-line-format variable to havethe groups nicely indented.@node [2.5]@subsubheading Question 2.5How to manually sort the groups in Group buffer? How tosort the groups in a topic?@subsubheading AnswerMove point over the group you want to move andhit @samp{C-k}, now move point to theplace where you want the group to be andhit @samp{C-y}.@node FAQ 3 - Getting Messages@subsection Getting Messages@menu* [3.1]:: I just installed Gnus, started it via @samp{M-x gnus} but it only says "nntp (news) open error", what to do?* [3.2]:: I'm working under Windows and have no idea what ~/.gnus.el means.* [3.3]:: My news server requires authentication, how to store user name and password on disk?* [3.4]:: Gnus seems to start up OK, but I can't find out how to subscribe to a group.* [3.5]:: Gnus doesn't show all groups / Gnus says I'm not allowed to post on this server as well as I am, what's that?* [3.6]:: I want Gnus to fetch news from several servers, is this possible?* [3.7]:: And how about local spool files?* [3.8]:: OK, reading news works now, but I want to be able to read my mail with Gnus, too. How to do it?* [3.9]:: And what about IMAP?* [3.10]:: At the office we use one of those MS Exchange servers, can I use Gnus to read my mail from it?* [3.11]:: Can I tell Gnus not to delete the mails on the server it retrieves via POP3?@end menu@node [3.1]@subsubheading Question 3.1I just installed Gnus, started it via @samp{M-x gnus} but it only says "nntp (news) open error", what to do?@subsubheading AnswerYou've got to tell Gnus where to fetch the news from. Readthe documentation for information on how to do this. As afirst start, put those lines in ~/.gnus.el:@example(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.yourprovider.net"))(setq user-mail-address "you@@yourprovider.net")(setq user-full-name "Your Name")@end example@noindent@node [3.2]@subsubheading Question 3.2I'm working under Windows and have no idea what ~/.gnus.el means.@subsubheading AnswerThe ~/ means the home directory where Gnus and Emacs lookfor the configuration files. However, you don't reallyneed to know what this means, it suffices that Emacs knowswhat it means :-) You can type @samp{C-x C-f ~/.gnus.el RET } (yes, with the forward slash, even on Windows), andEmacs will open the right file for you. (It will mostlikely be new, and thus empty.)However, I'd discourage you from doing so, since thedirectory Emacs chooses will most certainly not be whatyou want, so let's do it the correct way. The first thing you've got to do is tocreate a suitable directory (no blanks in directory nameplease) e.g. c:\myhome. Then you must set the environmentvariable HOME to this directory. To do this under Win9xor Me include the line@exampleSET HOME=C:\myhome@end example@noindentin your autoexec.bat and reboot. Under NT, 2000 and XP,hit Winkey+Pause/Break to enter system options (if itdoesn't work, go to Control Panel -> System). There you'llfind the possibility to set environment variables, createa new one with name HOME and value C:\myhome, a reboot isnot necessary.Now to create ~/.gnus.el, say@samp{C-x C-f ~/.gnus.el RET C-x C-s}.in Emacs.@node [3.3]@subsubheading Question 3.3My news server requires authentication, how to storeuser name and password on disk?@subsubheading AnswerCreate a file ~/.authinfo which includes for each server a line like this@examplemachine news.yourprovider.net login YourUserName password YourPassword@end example@noindent.Make sure that the file isn't readable to others if youwork on a OS which is capable of doing so. (Under Unixsay @examplechmod 600 ~/.authinfo@end example@noindentin a shell.)@node [3.4]@subsubheading Question 3.4Gnus seems to start up OK, but I can't find out how tosubscribe to a group.@subsubheading AnswerIf you know the name of the group say @samp{Uname.of.group RET} in group buffer (use thetab-completion Luke). Otherwise hit ^ in group buffer,this brings you to the server buffer. Now place point (thecursor) over the server which carries the group you want,hit @samp{RET}, move point to the groupyou want to subscribe to and say @samp{u}to subscribe to it.@node [3.5]@subsubheading Question 3.5Gnus doesn't show all groups / Gnus says I'm not allowed topost on this server as well as I am, what's that?@subsubheading AnswerSome providers allow restricted anonymous access and fullaccess only after authorization. To make Gnus send authinfoto those servers append @exampleforce yes@end example@noindentto the line for those servers in ~/.authinfo.@node [3.6]@subsubheading Question 3.6I want Gnus to fetch news from several servers, is this possible?@subsubheading AnswerOf course. You can specify more sources for articles in thevariable gnus-secondary-select-methods. Add something likethis in ~/.gnus.el:@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 3.7And how about local spool files?@subsubheading AnswerNo problem, this is just one more select method callednnspool, so you want this:@example(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnspool ""))@end example@noindentOr this if you don't want an NNTP Server as primary news source:@example(setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))@end example@noindentGnus will look for the spool file in /usr/spool/news, if youwant 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@noindentThis sets the spool directory for this server only.You might have to specify more stuff like the program usedto post articles, see the Gnus manual on how to do this.@node [3.8]@subsubheading Question 3.8OK, reading news works now, but I want to be able to read my mailwith Gnus, too. How to do it?@subsubheading AnswerThat's a bit harder since there are many possible sourcesfor mail, many possible ways for storing mail and manydifferent ways for sending mail. The most common cases arethese: 1: You want to read your mail from a pop3 server andsend them directly to a SMTP Server 2: Some program likefetchmail retrieves your mail and stores it on disk fromwhere Gnus shall read it. Outgoing mail is sent bySendmail, Postfix or some other MTA. Sometimes, you evenneed a combination of the above cases.However, the first thing to do is to tell Gnus in which wayit should store the mail, in Gnus terminology which back endto use. Gnus supports many different back ends, the mostcommonly used one is nnml. It stores every mail in one fileand is therefor quite fast. However you might prefer a onefile per group approach if your file system has problems withmany small files, the nnfolder back end is then probably thechoice for you. To use nnml add the following to ~/.gnus.el:@example(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnml ""))@end example@noindentAs you might have guessed, if you want nnfolder, it's@example(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnfolder ""))@end example@noindentNow we need to tell Gnus, where to get it's mail from. Ifit'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@noindentMake sure ~/.gnus.el isn't readable to others if you storeyour password there. If you want to read your mail from atraditional 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@noindentIf it's a Maildir, with one file per message as used bypostfix, 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@noindentAnd finally if you want to read your mail from several filesin one directory, for example because procmail already split yourmail, it's@example(eval-after-load "mail-source" '(add-to-list 'mail-sources '(directory :path "/path/to/procmail-dir/" :suffix ".prcml")))@end example@noindentWhere :suffix ".prcml" tells Gnus only to use files with thesuffix .prcml.OK, now you only need to tell Gnus how to send mail. If youwant to send mail via sendmail (or whichever MTA is playingthe role of sendmail on your system), you don't need to doanything. However, if you want to send your mail to anSMTP 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 3.9And what about IMAP?@subsubheading AnswerThere are two ways of using IMAP with Gnus. The first one isto use IMAP like POP3, that means Gnus fetches the mail fromthe IMAP server and stores it on disk. If you want to dothis (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@noindentYou might have to tweak the values for stream and/orauthentification, see the Gnus manual node "Mail SourceSpecifiers" for possible values.If you want to use IMAP the way it's intended, you've got tofollow a different approach. You've got to add the nnimapback end to your select method and give the informationabout 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@noindentAgain, you might have to specify how to authenticate to theserver if Gnus can't guess the correct way, see the ManualNode "IMAP" for detailed information.@node [3.10]@subsubheading Question 3.10At the office we use one of those MS Exchange servers, can I useGnus to read my mail from it?@subsubheading AnswerOffer your administrator a pair of new running shoes foractivating IMAP on the server and follow the instructionsabove.@node [3.11]@subsubheading Question 3.11Can I tell Gnus not to delete the mails on the server itretrieves via POP3?@subsubheading AnswerFirst of all, that's not the way POP3 is intended to work,if you have the possibility, you should use the IMAPProtocol if you want your messages to stay on theserver. Nevertheless there might be situations where youneed the feature, but sadly Gnus itself has no predefinedfunctionality to do so.However this is Gnus county so there are possibilities toachieve what you want. The easiest way is to get an externalprogram which retrieves copies of the mail and stores themon disk, so Gnus can read it from there. On Unix systems youcould use e.g. fetchmail for this, on MS Windows you can useHamster, an excellent local news and mail server.The other solution would be, to replace the method Gnususes to get mail from POP3 servers by one which is capableof leaving the mail on the server. If you use XEmacs, getthe package mail-lib, it includes an enhanced pop3.el,look in the file, there's documentation on how to tellGnus to use it and not to delete the retrieved mail. ForGNU Emacs look for the file epop3.el which can do the same(If you know the home of this file, please send me ane-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 doit.@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 4.1When I enter a group, all read messages are gone. How to view them again?@subsubheading AnswerIf 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@noindentin ~/.gnus.el to load enough old articles to prevent teared threads, replace 'some with t to loadall 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 5.8.8If 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 threadthe message you're just reading belongs to, @samp{A T} is your friend.@node [4.2]@subsubheading Question 4.2How to tell Gnus to show an important message every time Ienter a group, even when it's read?@subsubheading AnswerYou can tick important messages. To do this hit@samp{u} while point is in summary bufferover the message. When you want to remove the mark, hiteither @samp{d} (this deletes the tickmark and set's unread mark) or @samp{M c}(which deletes all marks for the message).@node [4.3]@subsubheading Question 4.3How to view the headers of a message?@subsubheading AnswerSay @samp{t} to show all headers, one more@samp{t} hides them again.@node [4.4]@subsubheading Question 4.4How to view the raw unformatted message?@subsubheading AnswerSay @samp{C-u g} to show the raw message@samp{g} returns to normal view.@node [4.5]@subsubheading Question 4.5How can I change the headers Gnus displays by default atthe top of the article buffer?@subsubheading AnswerThe variable gnus-visible-headers controls which headersare shown, its value is a regular expression, header lineswhich match it are shown. So if you want author, subject,date, and if the header exists, Followup-To and MUA / NUAsay 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 4.6I'd like Gnus NOT to render HTML-mails but show me thetext part if it's available. How to do it?@subsubheading AnswerSay@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@noindentin ~/.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@noindenttoo.@node [4.7]@subsubheading Question 4.7Can I use some other browser than w3 to render my HTML-mails?@subsubheading AnswerOnly if you use Gnus 5.10 or younger. In this case you've got thechoice between w3, w3m, links, lynx and html2text, whichone is used can be specified in the variablemm-text-html-renderer, so if you want links to render yourmail say@example(setq mm-text-html-renderer 'links)@end example@noindent@node [4.8]@subsubheading Question 4.8Is there anything I can do to make poorly formatted mailsmore readable?@subsubheading AnswerGnus offers you several functions to "wash" incoming mail, you canfind them if you browse through the menu, itemArticle->Washing. The most interesting ones are probably "Wraplong lines" (@samp{W w}), "Decode ROT13"(@samp{W r}) and "Outlook Deuglify" which repairsthe 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 forother deuglifications). Outlook deuglify is only available sinceGnus 5.10.@node [4.9]@subsubheading Question 4.9Is there a way to automatically ignore posts by specificauthors or with specific words in the subject? And can Ihighlight more interesting ones in some way?@subsubheading AnswerYou want Scoring. Scoring means, that you define ruleswhich assign each message an integer value. Depending onthe value the message is highlighted in summary buffer (ifit's high, say +2000) or automatically marked read (if thevalue is low, say -800) or some other action happens.There are basically three ways of setting up rules which assignthe scoring-value to messages. The first and easiest way is to setup rules based on the article you are just reading. Say you'rereading a message by a guy who always writes nonsense and you wantto 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 shallbe. Hit @samp{?} twice to see all possibilities,we want @samp{a} which means the author (the fromheader). 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 afterwardseverything but the name to score down all authors with the givenname no matter which email address is used. Now you need to tellGnus when to apply the rule and how long it should last, hit e.g.@samp{p} to apply the rule now and let it lastforever. 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{Vf} in summary buffer. Then you are asked for the nameof the score file, it's name.of.group.SCORE for rules valid inonly one group or all.Score for rules valid in all groups. See theGnus manual for the exact syntax, basically it's one big listwhose elements are lists again. the first element of those listsis 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 thematching. If you find me very interesting, you could e.g. add thefollowing 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@noindentThis would add 999 to the score of messages written by meand 500 to the score of messages which are a (possiblyindirect) answer to a message written by me. Of coursenobody with a sane mind would do this :-)The third alternative is adaptive scoring. This means Gnuswatches you and tries to find out what you findinteresting and what annoying and sets up ruleswhich reflect this. Adaptive scoring can be a huge helpwhen reading high traffic groups. If you want to activateadaptive scoring say@example(setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring t)@end example@noindentin ~/.gnus.el.@node [4.10]@subsubheading Question 4.10How can I disable threading in some (e.g. mail-) groups, orset other variables specific for some groups?@subsubheading AnswerWhile in group buffer move point over the group and hit@samp{G c}, this opens a buffer where youcan set options for the group. At the bottom of the bufferyou'll find an item that allows you to set variableslocally for the group. To disable threading entergnus-show-threads as name of variable and nil asvalue. Hit button done at the top of the buffer whenyou're ready.@node [4.11]@subsubheading Question 4.11Can I highlight messages written by me and follow-ups tothose?@subsubheading AnswerStop those "Can I ..." questions, the answer is always yesin Gnus Country :-). It's a three step process: First wemake faces (specifications of how summary-line shall looklike) for those postings, then we'll give them somespecial score and finally we'll tell Gnus to use the newfaces. 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 4.12The number of total messages in a group which Gnusdisplays in group buffer is by far to high, especially inmail groups. Is this a bug?@subsubheading AnswerNo, that's a matter of design of Gnus, fixing this wouldmean reimplementation of major parts of Gnus'back ends. Gnus thinks "highest-article-number -lowest-article-number = total-number-of-articles". Thisworks OK for Usenet groups, but if you delete and movemany messages in mail groups, this fails. To cure thesymptom, enter the group via @samp{C-u RET} (this makes Gnus get all messages), thenhit @samp{M P b} to mark all messages andthen say @samp{B m name.of.group} to moveall messages to the group they have been in before, theyget new message numbers in this process and the count isright again (until you delete and move your mail to othergroups again).@node [4.13]@subsubheading Question 4.13I don't like the layout of summary and article buffer, howto change it? Perhaps even a three pane display?@subsubheading AnswerYou can control the windows configuration by calling thefunction gnus-add-configuration. The syntax is a bitcomplicated 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 remainingspace"):@example(gnus-add-configuration '(article (vertical 1.0 (summary .35 point) (article 1.0))))@end example@noindentA three pane layout, Group buffer on the left, summarybuffer 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 4.14I don't like the way the Summary buffer looks, how to tweak it?@subsubheading AnswerYou've got to play around with the variablegnus-summary-line-format. It's value is a string ofsymbols which stand for things like author, date, subjectetc. A list of the available specifiers can be found in themanual node "Summary Buffer Lines" and the often forgottennode "Formatting Variables" and it's sub-nodes. Thereyou'll find useful things like positioning the cursor andtabulators which allow you a summary in table form, butsadly 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 whichgives you a date where the details are dependent of thearticles 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@noindentresulting 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 4.15How to split incoming mails in several groups?@subsubheading AnswerGnus offers two possibilities for splitting mail, the easynnmail-split-methods and the more powerful Fancy MailSplitting. I'll only talk about the first one, refer tothe manual, node "Fancy Mail Splitting" for the latter.The value of nnmail-split-methods is a list, each elementis a list which stands for a splitting rule. Each rule hasthe form "group where matching articles should go to","regular expression which has to be matched", the firstrule which matches wins. The last rule must always be ageneral rule (regular expression .*) which denotes wherearticles should go which don't match any other rule. Ifthe folder doesn't exist yet, it will be created as soonas an article lands there. By default the mail will besend 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@noindentin ~/.gnus.el.An example might be better than thousand words, so here'smy nnmail-split-methods. Note that I send duplicates in aspecial group and that the default group is spam, since Ifilter all mails out which are from some list I'msubscribed to or which are addressed directly to mebefore. Those rules kill about 80% of the Spam whichreaches me (Email addresses are changed to prevent spammersfrom using them):@example(setq nnmail-split-methods '(("duplicates" "^Gnus-Warning:.*duplicate") ("XEmacs-NT" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@xemacs.bla.*") ("Gnus-Tut" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@socha.bla.*") ("tcsh" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@mx.gw.bla.*") ("BAfH" "^\\(To:\\|CC:\\).*localpart@@.*uni-muenchen.bla.*") ("Hamster-src" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*hamster-sourcen@@yahoogroups.\\(de\\|com\\).*") ("Tagesschau" "^From: tagesschau <localpart@@www.tagesschau.bla>$") ("Replies" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*localpart@@Frank-Schmitt.bla.*") ("EK" "^From:.*\\(localpart@@privateprovider.bla\\|localpart@@workplace.bla\\).*") ("Spam" "^Content-Type:.*\\(ks_c_5601-1987\\|EUC-KR\\|big5\\|iso-2022-jp\\).*") ("Spam" "^Subject:.*\\(This really work\\|XINGA\\|ADV:\\|XXX\\|adult\\|sex\\).*") ("Spam" "^Subject:.*\\(\=\?ks_c_5601-1987\?\\|\=\?euc-kr\?\\|\=\?big5\?\\).*") ("Spam" "^X-Mailer:\\(.*BulkMailer.*\\|.*MIME::Lite.*\\|\\)") ("Spam" "^X-Mailer:\\(.*CyberCreek Avalanche\\|.*http\:\/\/GetResponse\.com\\)") ("Spam" "^From:.*\\(verizon\.net\\|prontomail\.com\\|money\\|ConsumerDirect\\).*") ("Spam" "^Delivered-To: GMX delivery to spamtrap@@gmx.bla$") ("Spam" "^Received: from link2buy.com") ("Spam" "^CC: .*azzrael@@t-online.bla") ("Spam" "^X-Mailer-Version: 1.50 BETA") ("Uni" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*localpart@@uni-koblenz.bla.*") ("Inbox" "^\\(CC:\\|To:\\).*\\(my\ name\\|address@@one.bla\\|adress@@two.bla\\)") ("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 5.1What are the basic commands I need to know for sending mail and postings?@subsubheading AnswerTo start composing a new mail hit @samp{m}either in Group or Summary buffer, for a posting, it'seither @samp{a} in Group buffer andfilling the Newsgroups header manuallyor @samp{a} in the Summary buffer of thegroup where the posting shall be send to. Replying by mailis@samp{r} if you don't want to cite theauthor, or import the cited text manually and@samp{R} to cite the text of the originalmessage. 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 followsthis line--", enter the text below the line. When readyhit @samp{C-c C-c}, to send the message,if you want to finish it later hit @samp{C-cC-d} to save it in the drafts group, where youcan start editing it again by saying @samp{De}.@node [5.2]@subsubheading Question 5.2How to enable automatic word-wrap when composing messages?@subsubheading AnswerSay@example(add-hook 'message-mode-hook (lambda () (setq fill-column 72) (turn-on-auto-fill)))@end example@noindentin ~/.gnus.el. You can reformat a paragraph by hitting@samp{M-q} (as usual)@node [5.3]@subsubheading Question 5.3How to set stuff like From, Organization, Reply-To, signature...?@subsubheading AnswerThere are other ways, but you should use posting stylesfor this. (See below why).This example should make the syntax clear:@example(setq gnus-posting-styles '((".*" (name "Frank Schmitt") (address "me@@there.bla") (organization "Hamme net, kren mer och nimmi") (signature-file "~/.signature") ("X-SampleHeader" "foobar") (eval (setq some-variable "Foo bar")))))@end example@noindentThe ".*" means that this settings are the default ones(see below), valid values for the first element of thefollowing lists are signature, signature-file,organization, address, name or body. The attribute namecan also be a string. In that case, this will be used asa header name, and the value will be inserted in theheaders of the article; if the value is `nil', the headername will be removed. You can also say (eval (foo bar)),then the function foo will be evaluated with argument barand the result will be thrown away.@node [5.4]@subsubheading Question 5.4Can I set things like From, Signature etc group based on the group I post too?@subsubheading AnswerThat's the strength of posting styles. Before, we used ".*"to set the default for all groups. You can use a regexplike "^gmane" and the following settings are only appliedto postings you send to the gmane hierarchy, use".*binaries" instead and they will be applied to postingssend to groups containing the string binaries in theirname etc.You can instead of specifying a regexp specify a functionwhich is evaluated, only if it returns true, thecorresponding settings take effect. Two interestingcandidates for this are message-news-p which returns t ifthe current Group is a newsgroup and the correspondingmessage-mail-p.Note that all forms that match are applied, that means inthe example below, when I post togmane.mail.spam.spamassassin.general, the settings under".*" are applied and the settings under message-news-p andthose under "^gmane" and those under"^gmane\\.mail\\.spam\\.spamassassin\\.general$". Becauseof this put general settings at the top and specific onesat the bottom.@example(setq gnus-posting-styles '((".*" ;;default (name "Frank Schmitt") (organization "Hamme net, kren mer och nimmi") (signature-file "~/.signature") ) ((message-news-p) ;;Usenet news? (address "mySpamTrap@@Frank-Schmitt.bla") ("Reply-To" "hereRealRepliesOnlyPlease@@Frank-Schmitt.bla") ) ((message-mail-p) ;;mail? (address "usedForMails@@Frank-Schmitt.bla") ) ("^gmane" ;;this is mail, too in fact (address "usedForMails@@Frank-Schmitt.net") ("Reply-To" nil) ) ("^gmane.mail.spam.spamassassin.general$" (eval (setq mail-envelope-from "Azzrael@@rz-online.de")) (address "Azzrael@@rz-online.de")) ))@end example@noindent@node [5.5]@subsubheading Question 5.5Is there a spell-checker? Perhaps even on-the-fly spell-checking?@subsubheading AnswerYou can use ispell.el to spell-check stuff in Emacs. So thefirst 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@noindentin 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@noindentIn 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 5.6Can I set the dictionary based on the group I'm posting to?@subsubheading AnswerYes, 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@noindentin ~/.gnus.el. Change "^de\\." and "deutsch8" to somethingthat suits your needs.@node [5.7]@subsubheading Question 5.7Is there some kind of address-book, so I needn't rememberall those email addresses?@subsubheading AnswerThere's an very basic solution for this, mail aliases.You can store your mail addresses in a ~/.mailrc file using a simplealias syntax:@examplealias al "Al <al@@english-heritage.bla>"@end example@noindentThen typing your alias (followed by a space or punctuationcharacter) on a To: or Cc: line in the message buffer willcause Gnus to insert the full address for you. See thenode "Mail Aliases" in Message (not Gnus) manual fordetails.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@noindentNow 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.bla" "Your.other@@mail.there.bla")));;cycling while completing email addresses(setq bbdb-complete-name-allow-cycling t);;No popup-buffers(setq bbdb-use-pop-up nil)@end example@noindentNow you should be ready to go. Say @samp{M-x bbdb RETRET} to open a bbdb buffer showing allentries. Say @samp{c} to create a newentry, @samp{b} to search your BBDB and@samp{C-o} to add a new field to anentry. If you want to add a sender to the BBDB you canalso just hit `:' on the posting in the summary buffer andyou are done. When you now compose a new mail,hit @samp{TAB} to cycle through knowrecipients.@node [5.8]@subsubheading Question 5.8Sometimes I see little images at the top of articlebuffer. What's that and how can I send one with mypostings, too?@subsubheading AnswerThose images are called X-Faces. They are 48*48 pixel b/wpictures, encoded in a header line. If you want to includeone in your posts, you've got to convert some image to aX-Face. So fire up some image manipulation program (sayGimp), open the image you want to include, cut out therelevant part, reduce color depth to 1 bit, resize to48*48 and save as bitmap. Now you should get the compfacepackage from @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu:/pub/faces/, this site}.and create the actual X-face by saying@examplecat file.xbm | xbm2ikon | compface > file.facecat file.face | sed 's/\\/\\\\/g;s/\"/\\\"/g;' > file.face.quoted@end example@noindentIf 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 "~/.xemacs/xface") (buffer-string)))@end example@noindentin ~/.gnus.el.@node [5.9]@subsubheading Question 5.9Sometimes I accidentally hit r instead of f innewsgroups. Can Gnus warn me, when I'm replying by mail innewsgroups?@subsubheading AnswerPut this in ~/.gnus.el:@example(setq gnus-confirm-mail-reply-to-news t)@end example@noindentif you already use Gnus 5.10, if you still use 5.8.8 or5.9 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 5.10How to tell Gnus not to generate a sender header?@subsubheading AnswerSince 5.10 Gnus doesn't generate a sender header bydefault. 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 5.11I want Gnus to locally store copies of my send mail andnews, how to do it?@subsubheading AnswerYou must set the variable gnus-message-archive-group to dothis. You can set it to a string giving the name of thegroup where the copies shall go or like in the examplebelow use a function which is evaluated and which returnsthe 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 5.12People tell me my Message-IDs are not correct, whyaren't they and how to fix it?@subsubheading AnswerThe message-ID is an unique identifier for messages yousend. To make it unique, Gnus need to know which machinename to put after the "@@". If the name of the machinewhere Gnus is running isn't suitable (it probably isn'tat most private machines) you can tell Gnus what to useby saying:@example(setq message-user-fqdn "yourmachine.yourdomain.tld")@end example@noindentin ~/.gnus.el. If you use Gnus 5.9 or ealier, you can use thisinstead (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@noindentIf you have no idea what to insert for"yourmachine.yourdomain.tld", you've got severalchoices. You can either ask your provider if he allowsyou to use something likeyourUserName.userfqdn.provider.net, or you can usesomethingUnique.yourdomain.tld if you own the domainyourdomain.tld, or you can register at a service whichgives private users a FQDN for free, e.g. @uref{http://www.stura.tu-freiberg.de/~dlx/addfqdn.html}.(Sorry but this website is in German, if you know of anEnglish one offering the same, drop me a note).Finally you can tell Gnus not to generate a Message-IDfor 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@noindentyou 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 properMessage-IDs, too, so test if your Mail Server behavescorrectly 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 6.1How to import my old mail into Gnus?@subsubheading AnswerThe easiest way is to tell your old mail program toexport the messages in mbox format. Most Unix mailersare able to do this, if you come from the MS Windowsworld, you may find tools at@uref{http://mbx2mbox.sourceforge.net/}.Now you've got to import this mbox file into Gnus. To dothis, create a nndoc group based on the mbox file bysaying @samp{G f /path/file.mbox RET} inGroup buffer. You now have read-only access to yourmail. If you want to import the messages to your normalGnus mail groups hierarchy, enter the nndoc group you'vejust created by saying @samp{C-u RET}(thus making sure all messages are retrieved), mark allmessages by saying @samp{M P b} andeither copy them to the desired group by saying@samp{B c name.of.group RET} or send themthrough nnmail-split-methods (respool them) by saying@samp{B r}.@node [6.2]@subsubheading Question 6.2How to archive interesting messages?@subsubheading AnswerIf you stumble across an interesting message, say ingnu.emacs.gnus and want to archive it there are severalsolutions. The first and easiest is to save it to a fileby saying @samp{O f}. However, wouldn'tit be much more convenient to have more direct access tothe archived message from Gnus? If you say yes, put thissnippet 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' goesto `nnml:1.List-gnus-ding'.Use process marks or mark a region in the summary buffer to archivemore 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@noindentYou can now say @samp{M-xmy-archive-article} in summary buffer toarchive the article under the cursor in a nnmlgroup. (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@noindentthen you only have to set either the tick or the dormantmark for articles you want to keep, setting the readmark will remove them from cache.@node [6.3]@subsubheading Question 6.3How to search for a specific message?@subsubheading AnswerThere are several ways for this, too. For a posting froma 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 displaythe raw message, look for the message-id, and say@samp{M-^ the@@message.id RET} in asummary buffer.Since Gnus 5.10 there's also a Gnus interface forgroups.google.com which you can call with@samp{G W}) in group buffer.Another idea which works for both mail and news groupsis to enter the group where the message you aresearching is and use the standard Emacs search@samp{C-s}, it's smart enough to look atarticles in collapsed threads, too. If you want tosearch bodies, too try @samp{M-s}instead. Further on there are thegnus-summary-limit-to-foo functions, which can help you,too.Of course you can also use grep to search through yourlocal mail, but this is both slow for big archives andinconvenient since you are not displaying the found mailin Gnus. Here comes nnir into action. Nnir is a front endto search engines like swish-e or swish++ andothers. You index your mail with one of those searchengines and with the help of nnir you can search troughthe indexed mail and generate a temporary group with allmessages which met your search criteria. If this soundcool 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 6.4How to get rid of old unwanted mail?@subsubheading AnswerYou can of course just mark the mail you don't needanymore by saying @samp{#} with pointover the mail and then say @samp{B DEL}to get rid of them forever. You could also instead ofactually deleting them, send them to a junk-group bysaying @samp{B m nnml:trash-bin} whichyou clear from time to time, but both are not the intendedway in Gnus.In Gnus, we let mail expire like news expires on a newsserver. That means you tell Gnus the message isexpirable (you tell Gnus "I don't need this mailanymore") by saying @samp{E} with pointover the mail in summary buffer. Now when you leave thegroup, Gnus looks at all messages which you marked asexpirable before and if they are old enough (default isolder than a week) they are deleted.@node [6.5]@subsubheading Question 6.5I want that all read messages are expired (at least insome groups). How to do it?@subsubheading AnswerIf you want all read messages to be expired (e.g. inmailing lists where there's an online archive), you'vegot two choices: auto-expire andtotal-expire. Auto-expire means, that every articlewhich has no marks set and is selected for reading ismarked as expirable, Gnus hits @samp{E}for you every time you read a message. Total-expirefollows a slightly different approach, here all articlewhere the read mark is set are expirable.To activate auto-expire, include auto-expire in theGroup parameters for the group. (Hit @samp{Gc} in summary buffer with point over thegroup to change group parameters). For total-expire addtotal-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 withAdaptive Scoring, so if you want to use this feature,you should use total-expire.If you want a message to be excluded from expiration ina group where total or auto expire is active, set eithertick (hit @samp{u}) or dormant mark (hit@samp{u}), when you use auto-expire, youcan also set the read mark (hit@samp{d}).@node [6.6]@subsubheading Question 6.6I don't want expiration to delete my mails but to move themto another group.@subsubheading AnswerSay 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-targeton a per group basis see the question "How can I disablethreading in some (e.g. mail-) groups, or set othervariables 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 7.1I don't have a permanent connection to the net, how canI minimize the time I've got to be connected?@subsubheading AnswerYou've got basically two options: Either you use theGnus Agent (see below) for this, or you can installprograms which fetch your news and mail to your localdisk and Gnus reads the stuff from your localmachine.If you want to follow the second approach, you need aprogram which fetches news and offers them to Gnus, aprogram which does the same for mail and a program whichreceives the mail you write from Gnus and sends themwhen 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 newsserver like @uref{http://www.isc.org/products/INN/, inn}. Then you want to fetch your Mail, popular choicesare @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 andGnus to read it from there. Last but not least the mailsending 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 fetchesyour mail and news from remote servers and offers themto Gnus (or any other mail and/or news reader) via nntprespectively POP3 or IMAP. It also includes a smtpserver for receiving mails from Gnus.@node [7.2]@subsubheading Question 7.2So what was this thing about the Agent?@subsubheading AnswerThe Gnus agent is part of Gnus, it allows you to fetchmail and news and store them on disk for reading themlater when you're offline. It kind of mimics offlinenewsreaders like e.g. Forte Agent. If you want to usethe Agent place the following in ~/.gnus.el if you arestill using 5.8.8 or 5.9 (it's the default since 5.10):@example(setq gnus-agent t)@end example@noindentNow you've got to select the servers whose groups can bestored locally. To do this, open the server buffer(that is press @samp{^} while in thegroup buffer). Now select a server by moving point tothe line naming that server. Finally, agentize theserver by typing @samp{J a}. If youmake a mistake, or change your mind, you can undo thisaction by typing @samp{J r}. Whenyou're done, type 'q' to return to the group buffer.Now the next time you enter a group on a agentizedserver, the headers will be stored on disk and read fromthere the next time you enter the group.@node [7.3]@subsubheading Question 7.3I want to store article bodies on disk, too. How to do it?@subsubheading AnswerYou can tell the agent to automatically fetch the bodiesof articles which fulfill certain predicates, this isdone in a special buffer which can be reached bysaying @samp{J c} in groupbuffer. Please refer to the documentation forinformation which predicates are possible and howexactly to do it.Further on you can tell the agent manually whicharticles to store on disk. There are two ways to dothis: Number one: In the summary buffer, process mark aset of articles that shall be stored in the agent bysaying @samp{#} with point over thearticle and then type @samp{J s}. Theother possibility is to set, again in the summarybuffer, downloadable (%) marks for the articles youwant by typing @samp{@@} with point overthe article and then typing @samp{J u}.What's the difference? Well, process marks are erased assoon as you exit the summary buffer while downloadablemarks are permanent. You can actually set downloadablemarks in several groups then use fetch session ('J s' inthe GROUP buffer) to fetch all of those articles. Theonly downside is that fetch session also fetches all ofthe headers for every selected group on an agentizedserver. Depending on the volume of headers, the initialfetch session could take hours.@node [7.4]@subsubheading Question 7.4How to tell Gnus not to try to send mails / postingswhile I'm offline?@subsubheading AnswerAll you've got to do is to tell Gnus when you are online(plugged) and when you are offline (unplugged), the restworks automatically. You can toggle plugged/unpluggedstate by saying @samp{J j} in groupbuffer. To start Gnus unplugged say @samp{M-xgnus-unplugged} instead of@samp{M-x gnus}. Note that for this towork, 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 8.1How to find information and help inside Emacs?@subsubheading AnswerThe first stop should be the Gnus manual (Say@samp{C-h i d m Gnus RET} to start theGnus manual, then walk through the menus or do afull-text search with @samp{s}). Thenthere are the general Emacs help commands starting withC-h, type @samp{C-h ? ?} to get a listof all available help commands and their meaning. Finally@samp{M-x apropos-command} lets yousearch through all available functions and @samp{M-xapropos} searches the bound variables.@node [8.2]@subsubheading Question 8.2I can't find anything in the Gnus manual about X(e.g. attachments, PGP, MIME...), is it not documented?@subsubheading AnswerThere's not only the Gnus manual but also the manualsfor message, emacs-mime, sieve and pgg. Those packagesare distributed with Gnus and used by Gnus but aren'treally part of core Gnus, so they are documented indifferent info files, you should have a look in thosemanuals, too.@node [8.3]@subsubheading Question 8.3Which websites should I know?@subsubheading AnswerThe 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 (notreally finished) tutorial and this FAQ.Tell me about other sites which are interesting.@node [8.4]@subsubheading Question 8.4Which mailing lists and newsgroups are there?@subsubheading AnswerThere's the newsgroup gnu.emacs.gnus (pull it frome.g. news.gnus.org) which deals with general questions and theding mailing list (ding@@gnus.org) dealing with development ofGnus. You can read the ding list via NNTP, too under the namegmane.emacs.gnus.general from news.gmane.org.If you want to stay in the big8,news.software.newssreaders is also read by some Gnususers (but chances for qualified help are much better inthe above groups) and if you speak German, there'sde.comm.software.gnus.@node [8.5]@subsubheading Question 8.5Where to report bugs?@subsubheading AnswerSay @samp{M-x gnus-bug}, this will starta message to the @email{bugs@@gnus.org, gnus bug mailing list}including information about your environment which makeit easier to help you.@node [8.6]@subsubheading Question 8.6I need real-time help, where to find it?@subsubheading AnswerPoint your IRC client to irc.my.gnus.org channel#mygnus. Don't be afraid if people there speak German,they are willing and capable of switching toEnglish when people from outside Germany enter.@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 9.1Starting Gnus is really slow, how to speed it up?@subsubheading AnswerThe reason for this could be the way Gnus reads it'sactive file, see the node "The Active File" in the Gnusmanual 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.elRET} to do it). Finally, if you have requirestatements in your .gnus, you could replace them witheval-after-load, which loads the stuff not at startuptime, 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@noindentthen as soon as you start Gnus, message.el is loaded. Ifyou replace it with@example(eval-after-load "message" '(add-to-list 'message-syntax-checks '(sender . disabled)))@end example@noindentit's loaded when it's needed.@node [9.2]@subsubheading Question 9.2How to speed up the process of entering a group?@subsubheading AnswerA speed killer is setting the variablegnus-fetch-old-headers to anything different from nil,so don't do this if speed is an issue. To speed upbuilding of summary say@example(gnus-compile)@end example@noindentat the bottom of your ~/.gnus.el, this will make gnusbyte-compile things likegnus-summary-line-format. then you could increase the value of gc-cons-thresholdby saying something like@example(setq gc-cons-threshold 3500000)@end example@noindentin ~/.emacs. If you don't care about width of CJKcharacters or use Gnus 5.10 or younger together with arecent GNU Emacs, you should say@example(setq gnus-use-correct-string-widths nil)@end example@noindentin ~/.gnus.el (thanks to Jesper harder for the lasttwo suggestions). Finally if you are still using 5.8.8or 5.9 and experience speed problems with summarybuffer generation, you definitely should update to5.10 since there quite some work on improving it hasbeen done.@node [9.3]@subsubheading Question 9.3Sending mail becomes slower and slower, what's up?@subsubheading AnswerThe reason could be that you told Gnus to archive themessages you wrote by settinggnus-message-archive-group. Try to use a nnml groupinstead of an archive group, this should bring you backto normal speed.@node FAQ - Glossary@subsection Glossary@table @dfn@item ~/.gnus.elWhen the term ~/.gnus.el is used it just means your Gnusconfiguration file. You might as well call it ~/.gnus orspecify another name.@item Back EndIn Gnus terminology a back end is a virtual server, a layerbetween core Gnus and the real NNTP-, POP3-, IMAP- orwhatever-server which offers Gnus a standardized interfaceto functions like "get message", "get Headers" etc.@item EmacsWhen the term Emacs is used in this FAQ, it means either GNUEmacs or XEmacs.@item MessageIn this FAQ message means a either a mail or a posting to aUsenet Newsgroup or to some other fancy back end, no matterof which kind it is.@item MUAMUA is an acronym for Mail User Agent, it's the program youuse to read and write e-mails.@item NUANUA is an acronym for News User Agent, it's the program youuse to read and write Usenet news.@end table@ignorearch-tag: 64dc5692-edb4-4848-a965-7aa0181acbb8@end ignore