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* Gnus: (gnus).		The news reader Gnus.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.

   Copyright (C) 1995,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms
of a permission notice identical to this one.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions.


File: gnus,  Node: Summary Post Commands,  Prev: Summary Mail Commands,  Up: Reply Followup and Post

Summary Post Commands
---------------------

   Commands for posting a news article:

`S p'
`a'
     Post an article to the current group (`gnus-summary-post-news').

`S f'
`f'
     Post a followup to the current article (`gnus-summary-followup').

`S F'
`F'
     Post a followup to the current article and include the original
     message (`gnus-summary-followup-with-original').   This command
     uses the process/prefix convention.

`S n'
     Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got
     the message through mail (`gnus-summary-followup-to-mail').

`S n'
     Post a followup to the current article via news, even if you got
     the message through mail and include the original message
     (`gnus-summary-followup-to-mail-with-original').  This command uses
     the process/prefix convention.

`S o p'
     Forward the current article to a newsgroup
     (`gnus-summary-post-forward').  If given a prefix, include the full
     headers of the forwarded article.

`S O p'
     Digest the current series and forward the result to a newsgroup
     (`gnus-uu-digest-mail-forward').

`S u'
     Uuencode a file, split it into parts, and post it as a series
     (`gnus-uu-post-news'). (*note Uuencoding and Posting::.).


File: gnus,  Node: Canceling and Superseding,  Next: Marking Articles,  Prev: Reply Followup and Post,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Canceling Articles
==================

   Have you ever written something, and then decided that you really,
really, really wish you hadn't posted that?

   Well, you can't cancel mail, but you can cancel posts.

   Find the article you wish to cancel (you can only cancel your own
articles, so don't try any funny stuff).  Then press `C' or `S c'
(`gnus-summary-cancel-article').  Your article will be
canceled--machines all over the world will be deleting your article.

   Be aware, however, that not all sites honor cancels, so your article
may live on here and there, while most sites will delete the article in
question.

   If you discover that you have made some mistakes and want to do some
corrections, you can post a "superseding" article that will replace
your original article.

   Go to the original article and press `S s'
(`gnus-summary-supersede-article').  You will be put in a buffer where
you can edit the article all you want before sending it off the usual
way.

   The same goes for superseding as for canceling, only more so: Some
sites do not honor superseding.  On those sites, it will appear that you
have posted almost the same article twice.

   If you have just posted the article, and change your mind right away,
there is a trick you can use to cancel/supersede the article without
waiting for the article to appear on your site first.  You simply return
to the post buffer (which is called `*sent ...*').  There you will find
the article you just posted, with all the headers intact.  Change the
`Message-ID' header to a `Cancel' or `Supersedes' header by
substituting one of those words for the word `Message-ID'.  Then just
press `C-c C-c' to send the article as you would do normally.  The
previous article will be canceled/superseded.

   Just remember, kids: There is no 'c' in 'supersede'.


File: gnus,  Node: Marking Articles,  Next: Limiting,  Prev: Canceling and Superseding,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Marking Articles
================

   There are several marks you can set on an article.

   You have marks that decide the "readedness" (whoo, neato-keano
neologism ohoy!) of the article.  Alphabetic marks generally mean
"read", while non-alphabetic characters generally mean "unread".

   In addition, you also have marks that do not affect readedness.

* Menu:

* Unread Articles::      Marks for unread articles.
* Read Articles::        Marks for read articles.
* Other Marks::          Marks that do not affect readedness.

   There's a plethora of commands for manipulating these marks:

* Menu:

* Setting Marks::           How to set and remove marks.
* Setting Process Marks::   How to mark articles for later processing.


File: gnus,  Node: Unread Articles,  Next: Read Articles,  Up: Marking Articles

Unread Articles
---------------

   The following marks mark articles as (kinda) unread, in one form or
other.

`!'
     Marked as ticked (`gnus-ticked-mark').

     "Ticked articles" are articles that will remain visible always.  If
     you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put
     off reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd
     typically tick it.  However, articles can be expired, so if you
     want to keep an article forever, you'll have to make it persistent
     (*note Persistent Articles::.).

`?'
     Marked as dormant (`gnus-dormant-mark').

     "Dormant articles" will only appear in the summary buffer if there
     are followups to it.

`SPACE'
     Markes as unread (`gnus-unread-mark').

     "Unread articles" are articles that haven't been read at all yet.


File: gnus,  Node: Read Articles,  Next: Other Marks,  Prev: Unread Articles,  Up: Marking Articles

Read Articles
-------------

   All the following marks mark articles as read.

`r'
     These are articles that the user has marked as read with the `d'
     command manually, more or less (`gnus-del-mark').

`R'
     Articles that have actually been read (`gnus-read-mark').

`O'
     Articles that were marked as read in previous sessions and are now
     "old" (`gnus-ancient-mark').

`K'
     Marked as killed (`gnus-killed-mark').

`X'
     Marked as killed by kill files (`gnus-kill-file-mark').

`Y'
     Marked as read by having a too low score (`gnus-low-score-mark').

`C'
     Marked as read by a catchup (`gnus-catchup-mark').

`G'
     Canceled article (`gnus-canceled-mark')

`F'
     SOUPed article (`gnus-souped-mark').  *Note SOUP::.

`Q'
     Sparsely reffed article (`gnus-sparse-mark').  *Note Customizing
     Threading::.

`M'
     Article marked as read by duplicate suppression
     (`gnus-duplicated-mark').  *Note Duplicate Suppression::.

   All these marks just mean that the article is marked as read, really.
They are interpreted differently when doing adaptive scoring, though.

   One more special mark, though:

`E'
     Marked as expirable (`gnus-expirable-mark').

     Marking articles as "expirable" (or have them marked as such
     automatically) doesn't make much sense in normal groups--a user
     doesn't control the expiring of news articles, but in mail groups,
     for instance, articles that are marked as "expirable" can be
     deleted by Gnus at any time.


File: gnus,  Node: Other Marks,  Next: Setting Marks,  Prev: Read Articles,  Up: Marking Articles

Other Marks
-----------

   There are some marks that have nothing to do with whether the
article is read or not.

   * You can set a bookmark in the current article.  Say you are
     reading a long thesis on cats' urinary tracts, and have to go home
     for dinner before you've finished reading the thesis.  You can
     then set a bookmark in the article, and Gnus will jump to this
     bookmark the next time it encounters the article.  *Note Setting
     Marks::

   * All articles that you have replied to or made a followup to (i.e.,
     have answered) will be marked with an `A' in the second column
     (`gnus-replied-mark').

   * Articles that are stored in the article cache will be marked with
     an `*' in the second column (`gnus-cached-mark').

   * Articles that are "saved" (in some manner or other; not necessarily
     religiously) are marked with an `S' in the second column
     (`gnus-saved-mark'.

   * It the `%e' spec is used, the presence of threads or not will be
     marked with `gnus-not-empty-thread-mark' and
     `gnus-empty-thread-mark' in the third column, respectively.

   * Finally we have the "process mark" (`gnus-process-mark'.  A
     variety of commands react to the presence of the process mark.  For
     instance, `X u' (`gnus-uu-decode-uu') will uudecode and view all
     articles that have been marked with the process mark.  Articles
     marked with the process mark have a `#' in the second column.

   You might have noticed that most of these "non-readedness" marks
appear in the second column by default.  So if you have a cached, saved,
replied article that you have process-marked, what will that look like?

   Nothing much.  The precedence rules go as follows: process -> cache
-> replied -> saved.  So if the article is in the cache and is replied,
you'll only see the cache mark and not the replied mark.


File: gnus,  Node: Setting Marks,  Next: Setting Process Marks,  Prev: Other Marks,  Up: Marking Articles

Setting Marks
-------------

   All the marking commands understand the numeric prefix.

`M t'
`!'
     Tick the current article (`gnus-summary-tick-article-forward').

`M ?'
`?'
     Mark the current article as dormant
     (`gnus-summary-mark-as-dormant').

`M d'
`d'
     Mark the current article as read
     (`gnus-summary-mark-as-read-forward').

`D'
     Mark the current article as read and move point to the previous
     line (`gnus-summary-mark-as-read-backward').

`M k'
`k'
     Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as
     read, and then select the next unread article
     (`gnus-summary-kill-same-subject-and-select').

`M K'
`C-k'
     Mark all articles that have the same subject as the current one as
     read (`gnus-summary-kill-same-subject').

`M C'
     Mark all unread articles as read (`gnus-summary-catchup').

`M C-c'
     Mark all articles in the group as read--even the ticked and dormant
     articles (`gnus-summary-catchup-all').

`M H'
     Catchup the current group to point
     (`gnus-summary-catchup-to-here').

`C-w'
     Mark all articles between point and mark as read
     (`gnus-summary-mark-region-as-read').

`M V k'
     Kill all articles with scores below the default score (or below the
     numeric prefix) (`gnus-summary-kill-below').

`M c'
`M-u'
     Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
     (`gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward').

`M e'
`E'
     Mark the current article as expirable
     (`gnus-summary-mark-as-expirable').

`M b'
     Set a bookmark in the current article
     (`gnus-summary-set-bookmark').

`M B'
     Remove the bookmark from the current article
     (`gnus-summary-remove-bookmark').

`M V c'
     Clear all marks from articles with scores over the default score
     (or over the numeric prefix) (`gnus-summary-clear-above').

`M V u'
     Tick all articles with scores over the default score (or over the
     numeric prefix) (`gnus-summary-tick-above').

`M V m'
     Prompt for a mark, and mark all articles with scores over the
     default score (or over the numeric prefix) with this mark
     (`gnus-summary-clear-above').

   The `gnus-summary-goto-unread' variable controls what action should
be taken after setting a mark.  If non-`nil', point will move to the
next/previous unread article.  If `nil', point will just move one line
up or down.  As a special case, if this variable is `never', all the
marking commands as well as other commands (like `SPACE') will move to
the next article, whether it is unread or not.  The default is `t'.


File: gnus,  Node: Setting Process Marks,  Prev: Setting Marks,  Up: Marking Articles

Setting Process Marks
---------------------

`M P p'
`#'
     Mark the current article with the process mark
     (`gnus-summary-mark-as-processable').

`M P u'
`M-#'
     Remove the process mark, if any, from the current article
     (`gnus-summary-unmark-as-processable').

`M P U'
     Remove the process mark from all articles
     (`gnus-summary-unmark-all-processable').

`M P i'
     Invert the list of process marked articles
     (`gnus-uu-invert-processable').

`M P R'
     Mark articles by a regular expression (`gnus-uu-mark-by-regexp').

`M P r'
     Mark articles in region (`gnus-uu-mark-region').

`M P t'
     Mark all articles in the current (sub)thread
     (`gnus-uu-mark-thread').

`M P T'
     Unmark all articles in the current (sub)thread
     (`gnus-uu-unmark-thread').

`M P v'
     Mark all articles that have a score above the prefix argument
     (`gnus-uu-mark-over').

`M P s'
     Mark all articles in the current series (`gnus-uu-mark-series').

`M P S'
     Mark all series that have already had some articles marked
     (`gnus-uu-mark-sparse').

`M P a'
     Mark all articles in series order (`gnus-uu-mark-series').

`M P b'
     Mark all articles in the buffer in the order they appear
     (`gnus-uu-mark-buffer').

`M P k'
     Push the current process mark set onto the stack and unmark all
     articles (`gnus-summary-kill-process-mark').

`M P y'
     Pop the previous process mark set from the stack and restore it
     (`gnus-summary-yank-process-mark').

`M P w'
     Push the current process mark set onto the stack
     (`gnus-summary-save-process-mark').


File: gnus,  Node: Limiting,  Next: Threading,  Prev: Marking Articles,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Limiting
========

   It can be convenient to limit the summary buffer to just show some
subset of the articles currently in the group.  The effect most limit
commands have is to remove a few (or many) articles from the summary
buffer.

`/ /'
`/ s'
     Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some subject
     (`gnus-summary-limit-to-subject').

`/ a'
     Limit the summary buffer to articles that match some author
     (`gnus-summary-limit-to-author').

`/ u'
`x'
     Limit the summary buffer to articles that are not marked as read
     (`gnus-summary-limit-to-unread').  If given a prefix, limit the
     buffer to articles that are strictly unread.  This means that
     ticked and dormant articles will also be excluded.

`/ m'
     Ask for a mark and then limit to all articles that have not been
     marked with that mark (`gnus-summary-limit-to-marks').

`/ t'
     Ask for a number and then limit the summary buffer to articles
     that are older than (or equal to) that number of days
     (`gnus-summary-limit-to-marks').  If given a prefix, limit to
     articles that are younger than that number of days.

`/ n'
     Limit the summary buffer to the current article
     (`gnus-summary-limit-to-articles').  Uses the process/prefix
     convention (*note Process/Prefix::.).

`/ w'
     Pop the previous limit off the stack and restore it
     (`gnus-summary-pop-limit').  If given a prefix, pop all limits off
     the stack.

`/ v'
     Limit the summary buffer to articles that have a score at or above
     some score (`gnus-summary-limit-to-score').

`/ E'
`M S'
     Display all expunged articles
     (`gnus-summary-limit-include-expunged').

`/ D'
     Display all dormant articles
     (`gnus-summary-limit-include-dormant').

`/ d'
     Hide all dormant articles (`gnus-summary-limit-exclude-dormant').

`/ c'
     Hide all dormant articles that have no children
     (`gnus-summary-limit-exclude-childless-dormant').

`/ C'
     Mark all excluded unread articles as read
     (`gnus-summary-limit-mark-excluded-as-read').   If given a prefix,
     also mark excluded ticked and dormant articles as read.


File: gnus,  Node: Threading,  Next: Sorting,  Prev: Limiting,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Threading
=========

   Gnus threads articles by default.  "To thread" is to put responses
to articles directly after the articles they respond to--in a
hierarchical fashion.

* Menu:

* Customizing Threading::     Variables you can change to affect the threading.
* Thread Commands::           Thread based commands in the summary buffer.


File: gnus,  Node: Customizing Threading,  Next: Thread Commands,  Up: Threading

Customizing Threading
---------------------

`gnus-show-threads'
     If this variable is `nil', no threading will be done, and all of
     the rest of the variables here will have no effect.  Turning
     threading off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure
     to make reading slower and more awkward.

`gnus-fetch-old-headers'
     If non-`nil', Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
     more old headers--headers to articles that are marked as read.  If
     you would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but
     still connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set
     this variable to `some' or a number.  If you set it to a number,
     no more than that number of extra old headers will be fetched.  In
     either case, fetching old headers only works if the backend you
     are using carries overview files--this would normally be `nntp',
     `nnspool' and `nnml'.  Also remember that if the root of the
     thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can
     do about that.

`gnus-build-sparse-threads'
     Fetching old headers can be slow.  A low-rent similar effect can be
     gotten by setting this variable to `some'.  Gnus will then look at
     the complete `References' headers of all articles and try to string
     articles that belong in the same thread together.  This will leave
     "gaps" in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
     is missing from the thread.  (These gaps appear like normal summary
     lines.  If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
     question.)  If this variable is `t', Gnus will display all these
     "gaps" without regard for whether they are useful for completing
     the thread or not.  Finally, if this variable is `more', Gnus
     won't cut off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere.  This
     variable is `nil' by default.

`gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit'
     Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles.  If
     this variable is `nil', Gnus requires an exact match between the
     subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
     super-thread.  This might be too strict a requirement, what with
     the presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subjects
     lines.  If you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require
     that only the first 20 characters of the subjects have to match.
     If you set this variable to a really low number, you'll find that
     Gnus will gather everything in sight into one thread, which isn't
     very helpful.

     If you set this variable to the special value `fuzzy', Gnus will
     use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects (*note
     Fuzzy Matching::.).

`gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp'
     This can either be a regular expression or list of regular
     expressions that match strings that will be removed from subjects
     if fuzzy subject simplification is used.

`gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes'
     If you set `gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit' to something as low
     as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something
     sensible:

          (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
                (concat
                 "\\`\\[?\\("
                 (mapconcat
                  'identity
                  '("looking"
                    "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
                    "help" "query" "problem" "question"
                    "answer" "reference" "announce"
                    "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
                    ;; ...
                    )
                  "\\|")
                 "\\)\\s *\\("
                 (mapconcat 'identity
                            '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
                            "\\|")
                 "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))

     All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing
     two subjects.

`gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject'
     Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might
     lead to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects
     like `' and `(none)'.  To make the situation slightly better, you
     can use the regexp `gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject' to say
     what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.  The
     default is `^ *$\\|^(none)$'.

`gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function'
     Gnus gathers threads by looking at `Subject' headers.  This means
     that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same "thread",
     which is confusing.  An alternate approach is to look at all the
     `Message-ID's in all the `References' headers to find matches.
     This will ensure that no gathered threads ever includes unrelated
     articles, but it's also means that people who have posted with
     broken newsreaders won't be gathered properly.  The choice is
     yours--plague or cholera:

    `gnus-gather-threads-by-subject'
          This function is the default gathering function and looks at
          `Subject's exclusively.

    `gnus-gather-threads-by-references'
          This function looks at `References' headers exclusively.

     If you want to test gathering by `References', you could say
     something like:

          (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
                'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)

`gnus-summary-make-false-root'
     If non-`nil', Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
     and create a dummy root at the top.  (Wait a minute.  Root at the
     top?  Yup.)  Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired,
     or you've read or killed the root in a previous session.

     When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
     something.  This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
     There are four possible values:

    `adopt'
          Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent.
          This parent will adopt all the other articles.  The adopted
          articles will be marked as such by pointy brackets (`<>')
          instead of the standard square brackets (`[]').  This is the
          default method.

    `dummy'
          Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be
          the parent.  This dummy line does not correspond to any real
          article, so selecting it will just select the first real
          article after the dummy article.
          `gnus-summary-dummy-line-format' is used to specify the
          format of the dummy roots.  It accepts only one format spec:
          `S', which is the subject of the article.  *Note Formatting
          Variables::.

    `empty'
          Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply
          leave the subject field of all orphans except the first
          empty.  (Actually, it will use `gnus-summary-same-subject' as
          the subject (*note Summary Buffer Format::.).)

    `none'
          Don't make any article parent at all.  Just gather the
          threads and display them after one another.

    `nil'
          Don't gather loose threads.

`gnus-thread-hide-subtree'
     If non-`nil', all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
     generated.

`gnus-thread-expunge-below'
     All threads that have a total score (as defined by
     `gnus-thread-score-function') less than this number will be
     expunged.  This variable is `nil' by default, which means that no
     threads are expunged.

`gnus-thread-hide-killed'
     if you kill a thread and this variable is non-`nil', the subtree
     will be hidden.

`gnus-thread-ignore-subject'
     Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread.
     If this variable is non-`nil', the subject change is ignored.  If
     it is `nil', which is the default, a change in the subject will
     result in a new thread.

`gnus-thread-indent-level'
     This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be
     indented.  The default is 4.

`gnus-parse-headers-hook'
     Hook run before parsing any headers.  The default value is
     `(gnus-decode-rfc1522)', which means that QPized headers will be
     slightly decoded in a hackish way.  This is likely to change in the
     future when Gnus becomes MIMEified.


File: gnus,  Node: Thread Commands,  Prev: Customizing Threading,  Up: Threading

Thread Commands
---------------

`T k'
`M-C-k'
     Mark all articles in the current (sub-)thread as read
     (`gnus-summary-kill-thread').  If the prefix argument is positive,
     remove all marks instead.  If the prefix argument is negative, tick
     articles instead.

`T l'
`M-C-l'
     Lower the score of the current (sub-)thread
     (`gnus-summary-lower-thread').

`T i'
     Increase the score of the current (sub-)thread
     (`gnus-summary-raise-thread').

`T #'
     Set the process mark on the current (sub-)thread
     (`gnus-uu-mark-thread').

`T M-#'
     Remove the process mark from the current (sub-)thread
     (`gnus-uu-unmark-thread').

`T T'
     Toggle threading (`gnus-summary-toggle-threads').

`T s'
     Expose the (sub-)thread hidden under the current article, if any
     (`gnus-summary-show-thread').

`T h'
     Hide the current (sub-)thread (`gnus-summary-hide-thread').

`T S'
     Expose all hidden threads (`gnus-summary-show-all-threads').

`T H'
     Hide all threads (`gnus-summary-hide-all-threads').

`T t'
     Re-thread the thread the current article is part of
     (`gnus-summary-rethread-current').  This works even when the
     summary buffer is otherwise unthreaded.

`T ^'
     Make the current article the child of the marked (or previous)
     article (`gnus-summary-reparent-thread'.

   The following commands are thread movement commands.  They all
understand the numeric prefix.

`T n'
     Go to the next thread (`gnus-summary-next-thread').

`T p'
     Go to the previous thread (`gnus-summary-prev-thread').

`T d'
     Descend the thread (`gnus-summary-down-thread').

`T u'
     Ascend the thread (`gnus-summary-up-thread').

`T o'
     Go to the top of the thread (`gnus-summary-top-thread').

   If you ignore subject while threading, you'll naturally end up with
threads that have several different subjects in them.  If you then issue
a command like `T k' (`gnus-summary-kill-thread') you might not wish to
kill the entire thread, but just those parts of the thread that have
the same subject as the current article.  If you like this idea, you
can fiddle with `gnus-thread-operation-ignore-subject'.  If is is
non-`nil' (which it is by default), subjects will be ignored when doing
thread commands.  If this variable is `nil', articles in the same
thread with different subjects will not be included in the operation in
question.  If this variable is `fuzzy', only articles that have
subjects that are fuzzily equal will be included (*note Fuzzy
Matching::.).


File: gnus,  Node: Sorting,  Next: Asynchronous Fetching,  Prev: Threading,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Sorting
=======

   If you are using a threaded summary display, you can sort the
threads by setting `gnus-thread-sort-functions', which is a list of
functions.  By default, sorting is done on article numbers.  Ready-made
sorting predicate functions include `gnus-thread-sort-by-number',
`gnus-thread-sort-by-author', `gnus-thread-sort-by-subject',
`gnus-thread-sort-by-date', `gnus-thread-sort-by-score', and
`gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score'.

   Each function takes two threads and return non-`nil' if the first
thread should be sorted before the other.  Note that sorting really is
normally done by looking only at the roots of each thread.  If you use
more than one function, the primary sort key should be the last function
in the list.  You should probably always include
`gnus-thread-sort-by-number' in the list of sorting
functions--preferably first.  This will ensure that threads that are
equal with respect to the other sort criteria will be displayed in
ascending article order.

   If you would like to sort by score, then by subject, and finally by
number, you could do something like:

     (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
           '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number
             gnus-thread-sort-by-subject
             gnus-thread-sort-by-total-score))

   The threads that have highest score will be displayed first in the
summary buffer.  When threads have the same score, they will be sorted
alphabetically.  The threads that have the same score and the same
subject will be sorted by number, which is (normally) the sequence in
which the articles arrived.

   If you want to sort by score and then reverse arrival order, you
could say something like:

     (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
           '((lambda (t1 t2)
               (not (gnus-thread-sort-by-number t1 t2)))
             gnus-thread-sort-by-score))

   The function in the `gnus-thread-score-function' variable (default
`+') is used for calculating the total score of a thread.  Useful
functions might be `max', `min', or squared means, or whatever tickles
your fancy.

   If you are using an unthreaded display for some strange reason or
other, you have to fiddle with the `gnus-article-sort-functions'
variable.  It is very similar to the `gnus-thread-sort-functions',
except that is uses slightly different functions for article
comparison.  Available sorting predicate functions are
`gnus-article-sort-by-number', `gnus-article-sort-by-author',
`gnus-article-sort-by-subject', `gnus-article-sort-by-date', and
`gnus-article-sort-by-score'.

   If you want to sort an unthreaded summary display by subject, you
could say something like:

     (setq gnus-article-sort-functions
           '(gnus-article-sort-by-number
             gnus-article-sort-by-subject))


File: gnus,  Node: Asynchronous Fetching,  Next: Article Caching,  Prev: Sorting,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Asynchronous Article Fetching
=============================

   If you read your news from an NNTP server that's far away, the
network latencies may make reading articles a chore.  You have to wait
for a while after pressing `n' to go to the next article before the
article appears.  Why can't Gnus just go ahead and fetch the article
while you are reading the previous one?  Why not, indeed.

   First, some caveats.  There are some pitfalls to using asynchronous
article fetching, especially the way Gnus does it.

   Let's say you are reading article 1, which is short, and article 2 is
quite long, and you are not interested in reading that.  Gnus does not
know this, so it goes ahead and fetches article 2.  You decide to read
article 3, but since Gnus is in the process of fetching article 2, the
connection is blocked.

   To avoid these situations, Gnus will open two (count 'em two)
connections to the server.  Some people may think this isn't a very nice
thing to do, but I don't see any real alternatives.  Setting up that
extra connection takes some time, so Gnus startup will be slower.

   Gnus will fetch more articles than you will read.  This will mean
that the link between your machine and the NNTP server will become more
loaded than if you didn't use article pre-fetch.  The server itself will
also become more loaded--both with the extra article requests, and the
extra connection.

   Ok, so now you know that you shouldn't really use this thing...
unless you really want to.

   Here's how:  Set `gnus-asynchronous' to `t'.  The rest should happen
automatically.

   You can control how many articles that are to be pre-fetched by
setting `gnus-use-article-prefetch'.  This is 30 by default, which means
that when you read an article in the group, the backend will pre-fetch
the next 30 articles.  If this variable is `t', the backend will
pre-fetch all the articles that it can without bound.  If it is `nil',
no pre-fetching will be made.

   There are probably some articles that you don't want to
pre-fetch--read articles, for instance.  Which articles to pre-fetch is
controlled by the `gnus-async-prefetch-article-p' variable.  This
function should return non-`nil' when the article in question is to be
pre-fetched.  The default is `gnus-async-read-p', which returns `nil'
on read articles.  The function is called with an article data
structure as the only parameter.

   If, for instance, you wish to pre-fetch only unread articles that are
shorter than 100 lines, you could say something like:

     (defun my-async-short-unread-p (data)
       "Return non-nil for short, unread articles."
       (and (gnus-data-unread-p data)
            (< (mail-header-lines (gnus-data-header data))
               100)))
     
     (setq gnus-async-prefetch-article-p 'my-async-short-unread-p)

   These functions will be called many, many times, so they should
preferrably be short and sweet to avoid slowing down Gnus too much.
It's also probably a good idea to byte-compile things like this.

   Articles have to be removed from the asynch buffer sooner or later.
The `gnus-prefetched-article-deletion-strategy' says when to remove
articles.  This is a list that may contain the following elements:

`read'
     Remove articles when they are read.

`exit'
     Remove articles when exiting the group.

   The default value is `(read exit)'.

   If `gnus-use-header-prefetch' is non-`nil', prefetch articles from
the next group.


File: gnus,  Node: Article Caching,  Next: Persistent Articles,  Prev: Asynchronous Fetching,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Article Caching
===============

   If you have an *extremely* slow NNTP connection, you may consider
turning article caching on.  Each article will then be stored locally
under your home directory.  As you may surmise, this could potentially
use *huge* amounts of disk space, as well as eat up all your inodes so
fast it will make your head swim.  In vodka.

   Used carefully, though, it could be just an easier way to save
articles.

   To turn caching on, set `gnus-use-cache' to `t'.  By default, all
articles that are ticked or marked as dormant will then be copied over
to your local cache (`gnus-cache-directory').  Whether this cache is
flat or hierarchal is controlled by the `gnus-use-long-file-name'
variable, as usual.

   When re-select a ticked or dormant article, it will be fetched from
the cache instead of from the server.  As articles in your cache will
never expire, this might serve as a method of saving articles while
still keeping them where they belong.  Just mark all articles you want
to save as dormant, and don't worry.

   When an article is marked as read, is it removed from the cache.

   The entering/removal of articles from the cache is controlled by the
`gnus-cache-enter-articles' and `gnus-cache-remove-articles' variables.
Both are lists of symbols.  The first is `(ticked dormant)' by
default, meaning that ticked and dormant articles will be put in the
cache.  The latter is `(read)' by default, meaning that articles that
are marked as read are removed from the cache.  Possibly symbols in
these two lists are `ticked', `dormant', `unread' and `read'.

   So where does the massive article-fetching and storing come into the
picture?  The `gnus-jog-cache' command will go through all subscribed
newsgroups, request all unread articles, and store them in the cache.
You should only ever, ever ever ever, use this command if 1) your
connection to the NNTP server is really, really, really slow and 2) you
have a really, really, really huge disk.  Seriously.

   It is likely that you do not want caching on some groups.  For
instance, if your `nnml' mail is located under your home directory, it
makes no sense to cache it somewhere else under your home directory.
Unless you feel that it's neat to use twice as much space.  To limit
the caching, you could set the `gnus-uncacheable-groups' regexp to
`^nnml', for instance.  This variable is `nil' by default.

   The cache stores information on what articles it contains in its
active file (`gnus-cache-active-file').  If this file (or any other
parts of the cache) becomes all messed up for some reason or other, Gnus
offers two functions that will try to set things right.  `M-x
gnus-cache-generate-nov-databases' will (re)build all the NOV files,
and `gnus-cache-generate-active' will (re)generate the active file.


File: gnus,  Node: Persistent Articles,  Next: Article Backlog,  Prev: Article Caching,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Persistent Articles
===================

   Closely related to article caching, we have "persistent articles".
In fact, it's just a different way of looking at caching, and much more
useful in my opinion.

   Say you're reading a newsgroup, and you happen on to some valuable
gem that you want to keep and treasure forever.  You'd normally just
save it (using one of the many saving commands) in some file.  The
problem with that is that it's just, well, yucky.  Ideally you'd prefer
just having the article remain in the group where you found it forever;
untouched by the expiry going on at the news server.

   This is what a "persistent article" is--an article that just won't
be deleted.  It's implemented using the normal cache functions, but you
use two explicit commands for managing persistent articles:

`*'
     Make the current article persistent (`gnus-cache-enter-article').

`M-*'
     Remove the current article from the persistent articles
     (`gnus-cache-remove-article').  This will normally delete the
     article.

   Both these commands understand the process/prefix convention.

   To avoid having all ticked articles (and stuff) entered into the
cache, you should set `gnus-use-cache' to `passive' if you're just
interested in persistent articles:

     (setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)


File: gnus,  Node: Article Backlog,  Next: Saving Articles,  Prev: Persistent Articles,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Article Backlog
===============

   If you have a slow connection, but the idea of using caching seems
unappealing to you (and it is, really), you can help the situation some
by switching on the "backlog".  This is where Gnus will buffer already
read articles so that it doesn't have to re-fetch articles you've
already read.  This only helps if you are in the habit of re-selecting
articles you've recently read, of course.  If you never do that,
turning the backlog on will slow Gnus down a little bit, and increase
memory usage some.

   If you set `gnus-keep-backlog' to a number N, Gnus will store at
most N old articles in a buffer for later re-fetching.  If this
variable is non-`nil' and is not a number, Gnus will store *all* read
articles, which means that your Emacs will grow without bound before
exploding and taking your machine down with you.  I put that in there
just to keep y'all on your toes.

   This variable is `nil' by default.


File: gnus,  Node: Saving Articles,  Next: Decoding Articles,  Prev: Article Backlog,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Saving Articles
===============

   Gnus can save articles in a number of ways.  Below is the
documentation for saving articles in a fairly straight-forward fashion
(i.e., little processing of the article is done before it is saved).
For a different approach (uudecoding, unsharing) you should use
`gnus-uu' (*note Decoding Articles::.).

   If `gnus-save-all-headers' is non-`nil', Gnus will not delete
unwanted headers before saving the article.

   If the preceding variable is `nil', all headers that match the
`gnus-saved-headers' regexp will be kept, while the rest will be
deleted before saving.

`O o'
`o'
     Save the current article using the default article saver
     (`gnus-summary-save-article').

`O m'
     Save the current article in mail format
     (`gnus-summary-save-article-mail').

`O r'
     Save the current article in rmail format
     (`gnus-summary-save-article-rmail').

`O f'
     Save the current article in plain file format
     (`gnus-summary-save-article-file').

`O F'
     Write the current article in plain file format, overwriting any
     previous file contents (`gnus-summary-write-article-file').

`O b'
     Save the current article body in plain file format
     (`gnus-summary-save-article-body-file').

`O h'
     Save the current article in mh folder format
     (`gnus-summary-save-article-folder').

`O v'
     Save the current article in a VM folder
     (`gnus-summary-save-article-vm').

`O p'
     Save the current article in a pipe.  Uhm, like, what I mean
     is--Pipe the current article to a process
     (`gnus-summary-pipe-output').

   All these commands use the process/prefix convention (*note
Process/Prefix::.).  If you save bunches of articles using these
functions, you might get tired of being prompted for files to save each
and every article in.  The prompting action is controlled by the
`gnus-prompt-before-saving' variable, which is `always' by default,
giving you that excessive prompting action you know and loathe.  If you
set this variable to `t' instead, you'll be prompted just once for each
series of articles you save.  If you like to really have Gnus do all
your thinking for you, you can even set this variable to `nil', which
means that you will never be prompted for files to save articles in.
Gnus will simply save all the articles in the default files.

   You can customize the `gnus-default-article-saver' variable to make
Gnus do what you want it to.  You can use any of the four ready-made
functions below, or you can create your own.

`gnus-summary-save-in-rmail'
     This is the default format, "babyl".  Uses the function in the
     `gnus-rmail-save-name' variable to get a file name to save the
     article in.  The default is `gnus-plain-save-name'.

`gnus-summary-save-in-mail'
     Save in a Unix mail (mbox) file.  Uses the function in the
     `gnus-mail-save-name' variable to get a file name to save the
     article in.  The default is `gnus-plain-save-name'.

`gnus-summary-save-in-file'
     Append the article straight to an ordinary file.  Uses the
     function in the `gnus-file-save-name' variable to get a file name
     to save the article in.  The default is `gnus-numeric-save-name'.

`gnus-summary-save-body-in-file'
     Append the article body to an ordinary file.  Uses the function in
     the `gnus-file-save-name' variable to get a file name to save the
     article in.  The default is `gnus-numeric-save-name'.

`gnus-summary-save-in-folder'
     Save the article to an MH folder using `rcvstore' from the MH
     library.  Uses the function in the `gnus-folder-save-name' variable
     to get a file name to save the article in.  The default is
     `gnus-folder-save-name', but you can also use
     `gnus-Folder-save-name'.  The former creates capitalized names, and
     the latter does not.

`gnus-summary-save-in-vm'
     Save the article in a VM folder.  You have to have the VM mail
     reader to use this setting.

   All of these functions, except for the last one, will save the
article in the `gnus-article-save-directory', which is initialized from
the `SAVEDIR' environment variable.  This is `~/News/' by default.

   As you can see above, the functions use different functions to find a
suitable name of a file to save the article in.  Below is a list of
available functions that generate names:

`gnus-Numeric-save-name'
     File names like `~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin/45'.

`gnus-numeric-save-name'
     File names like `~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin/45'.

`gnus-Plain-save-name'
     File names like `~/News/Alt.andrea-dworkin'.

`gnus-plain-save-name'
     File names like `~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin'.

   You can have Gnus suggest where to save articles by plonking a
regexp into the `gnus-split-methods' alist.  For instance, if you would
like to save articles related to Gnus in the file `gnus-stuff', and
articles related to VM in `vm-stuff', you could set this variable to
something like:

     (("^Subject:.*gnus\\|^Newsgroups:.*gnus" "gnus-stuff")
      ("^Subject:.*vm\\|^Xref:.*vm" "vm-stuff")
      (my-choosing-function "../other-dir/my-stuff")
      ((equal gnus-newsgroup-name "mail.misc") "mail-stuff"))

   We see that this is a list where each element is a list that has two
elements--the "match" and the "file".  The match can either be a string
(in which case it is used as a regexp to match on the article head); it
can be a symbol (which will be called as a function with the group name
as a parameter); or it can be a list (which will be `eval'ed).  If any
of these actions have a non-`nil' result, the "file" will be used as a
default prompt.  In addition, the result of the operation itself will
be used if the function or form called returns a string or a list of
strings.

   You basically end up with a list of file names that might be used
when saving the current article.  (All "matches" will be used.)  You
will then be prompted for what you really want to use as a name, with
file name completion over the results from applying this variable.

   This variable is `((gnus-article-archive-name))' by default, which
means that Gnus will look at the articles it saves for an
`Archive-name' line and use that as a suggestion for the file name.

   Finally, you have the `gnus-use-long-file-name' variable.  If it is
`nil', all the preceding functions will replace all periods (`.') in
the group names with slashes (`/')--which means that the functions will
generate hierarchies of directories instead of having all the files in
the toplevel directory (`~/News/alt/andrea-dworkin' instead of
`~/News/alt.andrea-dworkin'.)  This variable is `t' by default on most
systems.  However, for historical reasons, this is `nil' on Xenix and
usg-unix-v machines by default.

   This function also affects kill and score file names.  If this
variable is a list, and the list contains the element `not-score', long
file names will not be used for score files, if it contains the element
`not-save', long file names will not be used for saving, and if it
contains the element `not-kill', long file names will not be used for
kill files.

   If you'd like to save articles in a hierarchy that looks something
like a spool, you could

     (setq gnus-use-long-file-name '(not-save)) ; to get a hierarchy
     (setq gnus-default-article-save 'gnus-summary-save-in-file) ; no encoding

   Then just save with `o'.  You'd then read this hierarchy with
ephemeral `nneething' groups--`G D' in the group buffer, and the
toplevel directory as the argument (`~/News/').  Then just walk around
to the groups/directories with `nneething'.


File: gnus,  Node: Decoding Articles,  Next: Article Treatment,  Prev: Saving Articles,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Decoding Articles
=================

   Sometime users post articles (or series of articles) that have been
encoded in some way or other.  Gnus can decode them for you.

* Menu:

* Uuencoded Articles::    Uudecode articles.
* Shared Articles::       Unshar articles.
* PostScript Files::      Split PostScript.
* Decoding Variables::    Variables for a happy decoding.
* Viewing Files::         You want to look at the result of the decoding?

   All these functions use the process/prefix convention (*note
Process/Prefix::.) for finding out what articles to work on, with the
extension that a "single article" means "a single series".  Gnus can
find out by itself what articles belong to a series, decode all the
articles and unpack/view/save the resulting file(s).

   Gnus guesses what articles are in the series according to the
following simplish rule: The subjects must be (nearly) identical,
except for the last two numbers of the line.  (Spaces are largely
ignored, however.)

   For example: If you choose a subject called `cat.gif (2/3)', Gnus
will find all the articles that match the regexp `^cat.gif
([0-9]+/[0-9]+).*$'.

   Subjects that are nonstandard, like `cat.gif (2/3) Part 6 of a
series', will not be properly recognized by any of the automatic viewing
commands, and you have to mark the articles manually with `#'.


File: gnus,  Node: Uuencoded Articles,  Next: Shared Articles,  Up: Decoding Articles

Uuencoded Articles
------------------

`X u'
     Uudecodes the current series (`gnus-uu-decode-uu').

`X U'
     Uudecodes and saves the current series
     (`gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save').

`X v u'
     Uudecodes and views the current series (`gnus-uu-decode-uu-view').

`X v U'
     Uudecodes, views and saves the current series
     (`gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save-view').

   Remember that these all react to the presence of articles marked with
the process mark.  If, for instance, you'd like to decode and save an
entire newsgroup, you'd typically do `M P a' (`gnus-uu-mark-all') and
then `X U' (`gnus-uu-decode-uu-and-save').

   All this is very much different from how `gnus-uu' worked with GNUS
4.1, where you had explicit keystrokes for everything under the sun.
This version of `gnus-uu' generally assumes that you mark articles in
some way (*note Setting Process Marks::.) and then press `X u'.

   Note: When trying to decode articles that have names matching
`gnus-uu-notify-files', which is hard-coded to
`[Cc][Ii][Nn][Dd][Yy][0-9]+.\\(gif\\|jpg\\)', `gnus-uu' will
automatically post an article on `comp.unix.wizards' saying that you
have just viewed the file in question.  This feature can't be turned
off.


File: gnus,  Node: Shared Articles,  Next: PostScript Files,  Prev: Uuencoded Articles,  Up: Decoding Articles

Shared Articles
---------------

`X s'
     Unshars the current series (`gnus-uu-decode-unshar').

`X S'
     Unshars and saves the current series
     (`gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save').

`X v s'
     Unshars and views the current series
     (`gnus-uu-decode-unshar-view').

`X v S'
     Unshars, views and saves the current series
     (`gnus-uu-decode-unshar-and-save-view').

