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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: Web Searches,  Next: Mail-To-News Gateways,  Prev: SOUP,  Up: Other Sources

Web Searches
------------

   It's, like, too neat to search the Usenet for articles that match a
string, but it, like, totally *sucks*, like, totally, to use one of
those, like, Web browsers, and you, like, have to, rilly, like, look at
the commercials, so, like, with Gnus you can do *rad*, rilly, searches
without having to use a browser.

   The `nnweb' backend allows an easy interface to the mighty search
engine.  You create an `nnweb' group, enter a search pattern, and then
enter the group and read the articles like you would any normal group.
The `G w' command in the group buffer (*note Foreign Groups::.) will do
this in an easy-to-use fashion.

   `nnweb' groups don't really lend themselves to being solid
groups--they have a very fleeting idea of article numbers.  In fact,
each time you enter an `nnweb' group (not even changing the search
pattern), you are likely to get the articles ordered in a different
manner.  Not even using duplicate suppression (`Duplicate Suppression')
will help, since `nnweb' doesn't even know the `Message-ID' of the
articles before reading them using some search engines (DejaNews, for
instance).  The only possible way to keep track of which articles
you've read is by scoring on the `Date' header--mark all articles that
were posted before the last date you read the group as read.

   If the search engine changes its output substantially, `nnweb' won't
be able to parse it and will fail.  One could hardly fault the Web
providers if they were to do this--their *raison d'être* is to make
money off of advertisements, not to provide services to the community.
Since `nnweb' washes the ads off all the articles, one might think that
the providers might be somewhat miffed.  We'll see.

   You must have the `url' and `w3' package installed to be able to use
`nnweb'.

   Virtual server variables:

`nnweb-type'
     What search engine type is being used.  The currently supported
     types are `dejanews', `altavista' and `reference'.

`nnweb-search'
     The search string to feed to the search engine.

`nnweb-max-hits'
     Advisory maximum number of hits per search to display.  The
     default is 100.

`nnweb-type-definition'
     Type-to-definition alist.  This alist says what `nnweb' should do
     with the various search engine types.  The following elements must
     be present:

    `article'
          Function to decode the article and provide something that Gnus
          understands.

    `map'
          Function to create an article number to message header and
          URL alist.

    `search'
          Function to send the search string to the search engine.

    `address'
          The address the aforementioned function should send the
          search string to.

    `id'
          Format string URL to fetch an article by `Message-ID'.


File: gnus,  Node: Mail-To-News Gateways,  Prev: Web Searches,  Up: Other Sources

Mail-To-News Gateways
---------------------

   If your local `nntp' server doesn't allow posting, for some reason
or other, you can post using one of the numerous mail-to-news gateways.
The `nngateway' backend provides the interface.

   Note that you can't read anything from this backend--it can only be
used to post with.

   Server variables:

`nngateway-address'
     This is the address of the mail-to-news gateway.

`nngateway-header-transformation'
     News headers have often have to be transformed in some odd way or
     other for the mail-to-news gateway to accept it.  This variable
     says what transformation should be called, and defaults to
     `nngateway-simple-header-transformation'.  The function is called
     narrowed to the headers to be transformed and with one
     parameter--the gateway address.

     This default function just inserts a new `To' header based on the
     `Newsgroups' header and the gateway address--an article with this
     `Newsgroups' header:

          Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs

     will get this `From' header inserted:

          To: alt-religion-emacs@GATEWAY

   So, to use this, simply say something like:

     (setq gnus-post-method '(nngateway "GATEWAY.ADDRESS"))


File: gnus,  Node: Combined Groups,  Prev: Other Sources,  Up: Select Methods

Combined Groups
===============

   Gnus allows combining a mixture of all the other group types into
bigger groups.

* Menu:

* Virtual Groups::     Combining articles from many groups.
* Kibozed Groups::     Looking through parts of the newsfeed for articles.


File: gnus,  Node: Virtual Groups,  Next: Kibozed Groups,  Up: Combined Groups

Virtual Groups
--------------

   An "nnvirtual group" is really nothing more than a collection of
other groups.

   For instance, if you are tired of reading many small group, you can
put them all in one big group, and then grow tired of reading one big,
unwieldy group.  The joys of computing!

   You specify `nnvirtual' as the method.  The address should be a
regexp to match component groups.

   All marks in the virtual group will stick to the articles in the
component groups.  So if you tick an article in a virtual group, the
article will also be ticked in the component group from whence it came.
(And vice versa--marks from the component groups will also be shown in
the virtual group.)

   Here's an example `nnvirtual' method that collects all Andrea Dworkin
newsgroups into one, big, happy newsgroup:

     (nnvirtual "^alt\\.fan\\.andrea-dworkin$\\|^rec\\.dworkin.*")

   The component groups can be native or foreign; everything should work
smoothly, but if your computer explodes, it was probably my fault.

   Collecting the same group from several servers might actually be a
good idea if users have set the Distribution header to limit
distribution.  If you would like to read `soc.motss' both from a server
in Japan and a server in Norway, you could use the following as the
group regexp:

     "^nntp+some.server.jp:soc.motss$\\|^nntp+some.server.no:soc.motss$"

   This should work kinda smoothly--all articles from both groups should
end up in this one, and there should be no duplicates.  Threading (and
the rest) will still work as usual, but there might be problems with the
sequence of articles.  Sorting on date might be an option here (*note
Selecting a Group::..

   One limitation, however--all groups that are included in a virtual
group has to be alive (i.e., subscribed or unsubscribed).  Killed or
zombie groups can't be component groups for `nnvirtual' groups.

   If the `nnvirtual-always-rescan' is non-`nil', `nnvirtual' will
always scan groups for unread articles when entering a virtual group.
If this variable is `nil' (which is the default) and you read articles
in a component group after the virtual group has been activated, the
read articles from the component group will show up when you enter the
virtual group.  You'll also see this effect if you have two virtual
groups that contain the same component group.  If that's the case, you
should set this variable to `t'.  Or you can just tap `M-g' on the
virtual group every time before you enter it--it'll have much the same
effect.


File: gnus,  Node: Kibozed Groups,  Prev: Virtual Groups,  Up: Combined Groups

Kibozed Groups
--------------

   "Kibozing" is defined by OED as "grepping through (parts of) the
news feed".  `nnkiboze' is a backend that will do this for you.  Oh
joy!  Now you can grind any NNTP server down to a halt with useless
requests!  Oh happiness!

   To create a kibozed group, use the `G k' command in the group buffer.

   The address field of the `nnkiboze' method is, as with `nnvirtual',
a regexp to match groups to be "included" in the `nnkiboze' group.
There most similarities between `nnkiboze' and `nnvirtual' ends.

   In addition to this regexp detailing component groups, an `nnkiboze'
group must have a score file to say what articles that are to be
included in the group (*note Scoring::.).

   You must run `M-x nnkiboze-generate-groups' after creating the
`nnkiboze' groups you want to have.  This command will take time.  Lots
of time.  Oodles and oodles of time.  Gnus has to fetch the headers from
all the articles in all the components groups and run them through the
scoring process to determine if there are any articles in the groups
that are to be part of the `nnkiboze' groups.

   Please limit the number of component groups by using restrictive
regexps.  Otherwise your sysadmin may become annoyed with you, and the
NNTP site may throw you off and never let you back in again.  Stranger
things have happened.

   `nnkiboze' component groups do not have to be alive--they can be
dead, and they can be foreign.  No restrictions.

   The generation of an `nnkiboze' group means writing two files in
`nnkiboze-directory', which is `~/News/' by default.  One contains the
NOV header lines for all the articles in the group, and the other is an
additional `.newsrc' file to store information on what groups that have
been searched through to find component articles.

   Articles that are marked as read in the `nnkiboze' group will have
their NOV lines removed from the NOV file.


File: gnus,  Node: Scoring,  Next: Various,  Prev: Select Methods,  Up: Top

Scoring
*******

   Other people use "kill files", but we here at Gnus Towers like
scoring better than killing, so we'd rather switch than fight.  They do
something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
attention!

   All articles have a default score (`gnus-summary-default-score'),
which is 0 by default.  This score may be raised or lowered either
interactively or by score files.  Articles that have a score lower than
`gnus-summary-mark-below' are marked as read.

   Gnus will read any "score files" that apply to the current group
before generating the summary buffer.

   There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
entries based on the current article.  You can, for instance, ask Gnus
to lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.

   There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries.  Any entries that are
temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.

* Menu:

* Summary Score Commands::   Adding score entries for the current group.
* Group Score Commands::     General score commands.
* Score Variables::          Customize your scoring.  (My, what terminology).
* Score File Format::        What a score file may contain.
* Score File Editing::       You can edit score files by hand as well.
* Adaptive Scoring::         Big Sister Gnus knows what you read.
* Home Score File::          How to say where new score entries are to go.
* Followups To Yourself::    Having Gnus notice when people answer you.
* Scoring Tips::             How to score effectively.
* Reverse Scoring::          That problem child of old is not problem.
* Global Score Files::       Earth-spanning, ear-splitting score files.
* Kill Files::               They are still here, but they can be ignored.
* Converting Kill Files::    Translating kill files to score files.
* GroupLens::                Getting predictions on what you like to read.
* Advanced Scoring::         Using logical expressions to build score rules.
* Score Decays::             It can be useful to let scores wither away.


File: gnus,  Node: Summary Score Commands,  Next: Group Score Commands,  Up: Scoring

Summary Score Commands
======================

   The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify
real score files.  That would be too inefficient.  Gnus maintains a
cache of previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
"current score file alist".  The score commands simply insert entries
into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.

   The current score file is by default the group's local score file,
even if no such score file actually exists.  To insert score commands
into some other score file (e.g. `all.SCORE'), you must first make this
score file the current one.

   General score commands that don't actually change the score file:

`V s'
     Set the score of the current article (`gnus-summary-set-score').

`V S'
     Display the score of the current article
     (`gnus-summary-current-score').

`V t'
     Display all score rules that have been used on the current article
     (`gnus-score-find-trace').

`V R'
     Run the current summary through the scoring process
     (`gnus-summary-rescore').  This might be useful if you're playing
     around with your score files behind Gnus' back and want to see the
     effect you're having.

`V a'
     Add a new score entry, and allow specifying all elements
     (`gnus-summary-score-entry').

`V c'
     Make a different score file the current
     (`gnus-score-change-score-file').

`V e'
     Edit the current score file (`gnus-score-edit-current-scores').
     You will be popped into a `gnus-score-mode' buffer (*note Score
     File Editing::.).

`V f'
     Edit a score file and make this score file the current one
     (`gnus-score-edit-file').

`V F'
     Flush the score cache (`gnus-score-flush-cache').  This is useful
     after editing score files.

`V C'
     Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner
     (`gnus-score-customize').

`I C-i'
     Increase the score of the current article
     (`gnus-summary-raise-score').

`L C-l'
     Lower the score of the current article
     (`gnus-summary-lower-score').

   The rest of these commands modify the local score file.

`V m'
     Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this
     as read (`gnus-score-set-mark-below').

`V x'
     Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file
     to expunge all articles below this score
     (`gnus-score-set-expunge-below').

   The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very
regular pattern, so there's no need to list all the commands.
(Hundreds of them.)

  1. The first key is either `I' (upper-case `i') for increasing the
     score or `L' for lowering the score.

  2. The second key says what header you want to score on.  The
     following keys are available:
    `a'
          Score on the author name.

    `s'
          Score on the subject line.

    `x'
          Score on the Xref line--i.e., the cross-posting line.

    `t'
          Score on thread--the References line.

    `d'
          Score on the date.

    `l'
          Score on the number of lines.

    `i'
          Score on the Message-ID.

    `f'
          Score on followups.

    `b'
          Score on the body.

    `h'
          Score on the head.

  3. The third key is the match type.  Which match types are legal
     depends on what headers you are scoring on.

    `strings'

         `e'
               Exact matching.

         `s'
               Substring matching.

         `f'
               Fuzzy matching (*note Fuzzy Matching::.).

         `r'
               Regexp matching

    `date'

         `b'
               Before date.

         `a'
               At date.

         `n'
               This date.

    `number'

         `<'
               Less than number.

         `='
               Equal to number.

         `>'
               Greater than number.

  4. The fourth and final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e.,
     expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score
     entry, or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to
     the score file.
    `t'
          Temporary score entry.

    `p'
          Permanent score entry.

    `i'
          Immediately scoring.


   So, let's say you want to increase the score on the current author
with exact matching permanently: `I a e p'.  If you want to lower the
score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a
temporary score entry: `L s s t'.  Pretty easy.

   To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts.  If you
use a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use
defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes.  The defaults are
"substring" and "temporary".  So `I A' is the same as `I a s t', and `I
a R' is the same as `I a r t'.

   The `gnus-score-mimic-keymap' says whether these commands will
pretend they are keymaps or not.


File: gnus,  Node: Group Score Commands,  Next: Score Variables,  Prev: Summary Score Commands,  Up: Scoring

Group Score Commands
====================

   There aren't many of these as yet, I'm afraid.

`W f'
     Gnus maintains a cache of score alists to avoid having to reload
     them all the time.  This command will flush the cache
     (`gnus-score-flush-cache').


File: gnus,  Node: Score Variables,  Next: Score File Format,  Prev: Group Score Commands,  Up: Scoring

Score Variables
===============

`gnus-use-scoring'
     If `nil', Gnus will not check for score files, and will not, in
     general, do any score-related work.  This is `t' by default.

`gnus-kill-killed'
     If this variable is `nil', Gnus will never apply score files to
     articles that have already been through the kill process.  While
     this may save you lots of time, it also means that if you apply a
     kill file to a group, and then change the kill file and want to
     run it over you group again to kill more articles, it won't work.
     You have to set this variable to `t' to do that.  (It is `t' by
     default.)

`gnus-kill-files-directory'
     All kill and score files will be stored in this directory, which is
     initialized from the `SAVEDIR' environment variable by default.
     This is `~/News/' by default.

`gnus-score-file-suffix'
     Suffix to add to the group name to arrive at the score file name
     (`SCORE' by default.)

`gnus-score-uncacheable-files'
     All score files are normally cached to avoid excessive re-loading
     of score files.  However, if this might make you Emacs grow big and
     bloated, so this regexp can be used to weed out score files that
     are unlikely to be needed again.  It would be a bad idea to deny
     caching of `all.SCORE', while it might be a good idea to not cache
     `comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc.ADAPT'.  In fact, this
     variable is `ADAPT$' by default, so no adaptive score files will
     be cached.

`gnus-save-score'
     If you have really complicated score files, and do lots of batch
     scoring, then you might set this variable to `t'.  This will make
     Gnus save the scores into the `.newsrc.eld' file.

`gnus-score-interactive-default-score'
     Score used by all the interactive raise/lower commands to
     raise/lower score with.  Default is 1000, which may seem
     excessive, but this is to ensure that the adaptive scoring scheme
     gets enough room to play with.  We don't want the small changes
     from the adaptive scoring to overwrite manually entered data.

`gnus-summary-default-score'
     Default score of an article, which is 0 by default.

`gnus-summary-expunge-below'
     Don't display the summary lines of articles that have scores lower
     than this variable.  This is `nil' by default, which means that no
     articles will be hidden.

`gnus-score-over-mark'
     Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score over the
     default.  Default is `+'.

`gnus-score-below-mark'
     Mark (in the third column) used for articles with a score below the
     default.  Default is `-'.

`gnus-score-find-score-files-function'
     Function used to find score files for the current group.  This
     function is called with the name of the group as the argument.

     Predefined functions available are:
    `gnus-score-find-single'
          Only apply the group's own score file.

    `gnus-score-find-bnews'
          Apply all score files that match, using bnews syntax.  This
          is the default.  If the current group is `gnu.emacs.gnus',
          for instance, `all.emacs.all.SCORE', `not.alt.all.SCORE' and
          `gnu.all.SCORE' would all apply.  In short, the instances of
          `all' in the score file names are translated into `.*', and
          then a regexp match is done.

          This means that if you have some score entries that you want
          to apply to all groups, then you put those entries in the
          `all.SCORE' file.

          The score files are applied in a semi-random order, although
          Gnus will try to apply the more general score files before
          the more specific score files.  It does this by looking at
          the number of elements in the score file names--discarding
          the `all' elements.

    `gnus-score-find-hierarchical'
          Apply all score files from all the parent groups.  This means
          that you can't have score files like `all.SCORE', but you can
          have `SCORE', `comp.SCORE' and `comp.emacs.SCORE'.

     This variable can also be a list of functions.  In that case, all
     these functions will be called, and all the returned lists of
     score files will be applied.  These functions can also return
     lists of score alists directly.  In that case, the functions that
     return these non-file score alists should probably be placed
     before the "real" score file functions, to ensure that the last
     score file returned is the local score file.  Phu.

`gnus-score-expiry-days'
     This variable says how many days should pass before an unused
     score file entry is expired.  If this variable is `nil', no score
     file entries are expired.  It's 7 by default.

`gnus-update-score-entry-dates'
     If this variable is non-`nil', matching score entries will have
     their dates updated.  (This is how Gnus controls expiry--all
     non-matching entries will become too old while matching entries
     will stay fresh and young.)  However, if you set this variable to
     `nil', even matching entries will grow old and will have to face
     that oh-so grim reaper.

`gnus-score-after-write-file-function'
     Function called with the name of the score file just written.


File: gnus,  Node: Score File Format,  Next: Score File Editing,  Prev: Score Variables,  Up: Scoring

Score File Format
=================

   A score file is an `emacs-lisp' file that normally contains just a
single form.  Casual users are not expected to edit these files;
everything can be changed from the summary buffer.

   Anyway, if you'd like to dig into it yourself, here's an example:

     (("from"
       ("Lars Ingebrigtsen" -10000)
       ("Per Abrahamsen")
       ("larsi\\|lmi" -50000 nil R))
      ("subject"
       ("Ding is Badd" nil 728373))
      ("xref"
       ("alt.politics" -1000 728372 s))
      ("lines"
       (2 -100 nil <))
      (mark 0)
      (expunge -1000)
      (mark-and-expunge -10)
      (read-only nil)
      (orphan -10)
      (adapt t)
      (files "/hom/larsi/News/gnu.SCORE")
      (exclude-files "all.SCORE")
      (local (gnus-newsgroup-auto-expire t)
             (gnus-summary-make-false-root 'empty))
      (eval (ding)))

   This example demonstrates absolutely everything about a score file.

   Even though this looks much like lisp code, nothing here is actually
`eval'ed.  The lisp reader is used to read this form, though, so it has
to be legal syntactically, if not semantically.

   Six keys are supported by this alist:

`STRING'
     If the key is a string, it is the name of the header to perform the
     match on.  Scoring can only be performed on these eight headers:
     `From', `Subject', `References', `Message-ID', `Xref', `Lines',
     `Chars' and `Date'.  In addition to these headers, there are three
     strings to tell Gnus to fetch the entire article and do the match
     on larger parts of the article: `Body' will perform the match on
     the body of the article, `Head' will perform the match on the head
     of the article, and `All' will perform the match on the entire
     article.  Note that using any of these last three keys will slow
     down group entry *considerably*.  The final "header" you can score
     on is `Followup'.  These score entries will result in new score
     entries being added for all follow-ups to articles that matches
     these score entries.

     Following this key is a arbitrary number of score entries, where
     each score entry has one to four elements.
       1. The first element is the "match element".  On most headers
          this will be a string, but on the Lines and Chars headers,
          this must be an integer.

       2. If the second element is present, it should be a number--the
          "score element".  This number should be an integer in the
          neginf to posinf interval.  This number is added to the score
          of the article if the match is successful.  If this element
          is not present, the `gnus-score-interactive-default-score'
          number will be used instead.  This is 1000 by default.

       3. If the third element is present, it should be a number--the
          "date element".  This date says when the last time this score
          entry matched, which provides a mechanism for expiring the
          score entries.  It this element is not present, the score
          entry is permanent.  The date is represented by the number of
          days since December 31, 1 BCE.

       4. If the fourth element is present, it should be a symbol--the
          "type element".  This element specifies what function should
          be used to see whether this score entry matches the article.
          What match types that can be used depends on what header you
          wish to perform the match on.
         "From, Subject, References, Xref, Message-ID"
               For most header types, there are the `r' and `R'
               (regexp), as well as `s' and `S' (substring) types, and
               `e' and `E' (exact match), and `w' (word match) types.
               If this element is not present, Gnus will assume that
               substring matching should be used.  `R', `S', and `E'
               differ from the others in that the matches will be done
               in a case-sensitive manner.  All these one-letter types
               are really just abbreviations for the `regexp',
               `string', `exact', and `word' types, which you can use
               instead, if you feel like.

         "Lines, Chars"
               These two headers use different match types: `<', `>',
               `=', `>=' and `<='.  When matching on `Lines', be
               careful because some backends (like `nndir') do not
               generate `Lines' header, so every article ends up being
               marked as having 0 lines.  This can lead to strange
               results if you happen to lower score of the articles
               with few lines.

         "Date"
               For the Date header we have three kinda silly match
               types: `before', `at' and `after'.  I can't really
               imagine this ever being useful, but, like, it would feel
               kinda silly not to provide this function.  Just in case.
               You never know.  Better safe than sorry.  Once burnt,
               twice shy.  Don't judge a book by its cover.  Never not
               have sex on a first date.  (I have been told that at
               least one person, and I quote, "found this function
               indispensable", however.)

               A more useful match type is `regexp'.  With it, you can
               match the date string using a regular expression.  The
               date is normalized to ISO8601 compact format
               first--`YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS'.  If you want to match all
               articles that have been posted on April 1st in every
               year, you could use `....0401.........' as a match
               string, for instance.  (Note that the date is kept in
               its original time zone, so this will match articles that
               were posted when it was April 1st where the article was
               posted from.  Time zones are such wholesome fun for the
               whole family, eh?)

         "Head, Body, All"
               These three match keys use the same match types as the
               `From' (etc) header uses.

         "Followup"
               This match key is somewhat special, in that it will
               match the `From' header, and affect the score of not
               only the matching articles, but also all followups to
               the matching articles.  This allows you e.g. increase
               the score of followups to your own articles, or decrease
               the score of followups to the articles of some known
               trouble-maker.  Uses the same match types as the `From'
               header uses.

         "Thread"
               This match key works along the same lines as the
               `Followup' match key.  If you say that you want to score
               on a (sub-)thread that is started by an article with a
               `Message-ID' X, then you add a `thread' match.  This
               will add a new `thread' match for each article that has
               X in its `References' header.  (These new `thread'
               matches will use the `Message-ID's of these matching
               articles.)  This will ensure that you can raise/lower
               the score of an entire thread, even though some articles
               in the thread may not have complete `References'
               headers.  Note that using this may lead to
               undeterministic scores of the articles in the thread.

`mark'
     The value of this entry should be a number.  Any articles with a
     score lower than this number will be marked as read.

`expunge'
     The value of this entry should be a number.  Any articles with a
     score lower than this number will be removed from the summary
     buffer.

`mark-and-expunge'
     The value of this entry should be a number.  Any articles with a
     score lower than this number will be marked as read and removed
     from the summary buffer.

`thread-mark-and-expunge'
     The value of this entry should be a number.  All articles that
     belong to a thread that has a total score below this number will
     be marked as read and removed from the summary buffer.
     `gnus-thread-score-function' says how to compute the total score
     for a thread.

`files'
     The value of this entry should be any number of file names.  These
     files are assumed to be score files as well, and will be loaded
     the same way this one was.

`exclude-files'
     The clue of this entry should be any number of files.  These files
     will not be loaded, even though they would normally be so, for
     some reason or other.

`eval'
     The value of this entry will be `eval'el.  This element will be
     ignored when handling global score files.

`read-only'
     Read-only score files will not be updated or saved.  Global score
     files should feature this atom (*note Global Score Files::.).

`orphan'
     The value of this entry should be a number.  Articles that do not
     have parents will get this number added to their scores.  Imagine
     you follow some high-volume newsgroup, like `comp.lang.c'.  Most
     likely you will only follow a few of the threads, also want to see
     any new threads.

     You can do this with the following two score file entries:

                  (orphan -500)
                  (mark-and-expunge -100)

     When you enter the group the first time, you will only see the new
     threads.  You then raise the score of the threads that you find
     interesting (with `I T' or `I S'), and ignore (`C y') the rest.
     Next time you enter the group, you will see new articles in the
     interesting threads, plus any new threads.

     I.e.--the orphan score atom is for high-volume groups where there
     exist a few interesting threads which can't be found automatically
     by ordinary scoring rules.

`adapt'
     This entry controls the adaptive scoring.  If it is `t', the
     default adaptive scoring rules will be used.  If it is `ignore', no
     adaptive scoring will be performed on this group.  If it is a
     list, this list will be used as the adaptive scoring rules.  If it
     isn't present, or is something other than `t' or `ignore', the
     default adaptive scoring rules will be used.  If you want to use
     adaptive scoring on most groups, you'd set
     `gnus-use-adaptive-scoring' to `t', and insert an `(adapt ignore)'
     in the groups where you do not want adaptive scoring.  If you only
     want adaptive scoring in a few groups, you'd set
     `gnus-use-adaptive-scoring' to `nil', and insert `(adapt t)' in
     the score files of the groups where you want it.

`adapt-file'
     All adaptive score entries will go to the file named by this
     entry.  It will also be applied when entering the group.  This
     atom might be handy if you want to adapt on several groups at
     once, using the same adaptive file for a number of groups.

`local'
     The value of this entry should be a list of `(VAR VALUE)' pairs.
     Each VAR will be made buffer-local to the current summary buffer,
     and set to the value specified.  This is a convenient, if somewhat
     strange, way of setting variables in some groups if you don't like
     hooks much.


File: gnus,  Node: Score File Editing,  Next: Adaptive Scoring,  Prev: Score File Format,  Up: Scoring

Score File Editing
==================

   You normally enter all scoring commands from the summary buffer, but
you might feel the urge to edit them by hand as well, so we've supplied
you with a mode for that.

   It's simply a slightly customized `emacs-lisp' mode, with these
additional commands:

`C-c C-c'
     Save the changes you have made and return to the summary buffer
     (`gnus-score-edit-done').

`C-c C-d'
     Insert the current date in numerical format
     (`gnus-score-edit-insert-date').  This is really the day number, if
     you were wondering.

`C-c C-p'
     The adaptive score files are saved in an unformatted fashion.  If
     you intend to read one of these files, you want to "pretty print"
     it first.  This command (`gnus-score-pretty-print') does that for
     you.

   Type `M-x gnus-score-mode' to use this mode.

   `gnus-score-menu-hook' is run in score mode buffers.

   In the summary buffer you can use commands like `V f' and `V e' to
begin editing score files.


File: gnus,  Node: Adaptive Scoring,  Next: Home Score File,  Prev: Score File Editing,  Up: Scoring

Adaptive Scoring
================

   If all this scoring is getting you down, Gnus has a way of making it
all happen automatically--as if by magic.  Or rather, as if by
artificial stupidity, to be precise.

   When you read an article, or mark an article as read, or kill an
article, you leave marks behind.  On exit from the group, Gnus can sniff
these marks and add score elements depending on what marks it finds.
You turn on this ability by setting `gnus-use-adaptive-scoring' to `t'
or `(line)'.  If you want score adaptively on separate words appearing
in the subjects, you should set this variable to `(word)'.  If you want
to use both adaptive methods, set this variable to `(word line)'.

   To give you complete control over the scoring process, you can
customize the `gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist' variable.  For
instance, it might look something like this:

     (defvar gnus-default-adaptive-score-alist
       '((gnus-unread-mark)
         (gnus-ticked-mark (from 4))
         (gnus-dormant-mark (from 5))
         (gnus-del-mark (from -4) (subject -1))
         (gnus-read-mark (from 4) (subject 2))
         (gnus-expirable-mark (from -1) (subject -1))
         (gnus-killed-mark (from -1) (subject -3))
         (gnus-kill-file-mark)
         (gnus-ancient-mark)
         (gnus-low-score-mark)
         (gnus-catchup-mark (from -1) (subject -1))))

   As you see, each element in this alist has a mark as a key (either a
variable name or a "real" mark--a character).  Following this key is a
arbitrary number of header/score pairs.  If there are no header/score
pairs following the key, no adaptive scoring will be done on articles
that have that key as the article mark.  For instance, articles with
`gnus-unread-mark' in the example above will not get adaptive score
entries.

   Each article can have only one mark, so just a single of these rules
will be applied to each article.

   To take `gnus-del-mark' as an example--this alist says that all
articles that have that mark (i.e., are marked with `D') will have a
score entry added to lower based on the `From' header by -4, and
lowered by `Subject' by -1.  Change this to fit your prejudices.

   If you have marked 10 articles with the same subject with
`gnus-del-mark', the rule for that mark will be applied ten times.
That means that that subject will get a score of ten times -1, which
should be, unless I'm much mistaken, -10.

   If you have auto-expirable (mail) groups (*note Expiring Mail::.),
all the read articles will be marked with the `E' mark.  This'll
probably make adaptive scoring slightly impossible, so auto-expiring and
adaptive scoring doesn't really mix very well.

   The headers you can score on are `from', `subject', `message-id',
`references', `xref', `lines', `chars' and `date'.  In addition, you
can score on `followup', which will create an adaptive score entry that
matches on the `References' header using the `Message-ID' of the
current article, thereby matching the following thread.

   You can also score on `thread', which will try to score all articles
that appear in a thread.  `thread' matches uses a `Message-ID' to match
on the `References' header of the article.  If the match is made, the
`Message-ID' of the article is added to the `thread' rule.  (Think
about it.  I'd recommend two aspirins afterwards.)

   If you use this scheme, you should set the score file atom `mark' to
something small--like -300, perhaps, to avoid having small random
changes result in articles getting marked as read.

   After using adaptive scoring for a week or so, Gnus should start to
become properly trained and enhance the authors you like best, and kill
the authors you like least, without you having to say so explicitly.

   You can control what groups the adaptive scoring is to be performed
on by using the score files (*note Score File Format::.).  This will
also let you use different rules in different groups.

   The adaptive score entries will be put into a file where the name is
the group name with `gnus-adaptive-file-suffix' appended.  The default
is `ADAPT'.

   When doing adaptive scoring, substring or fuzzy matching would
probably give you the best results in most cases.  However, if the
header one matches is short, the possibility for false positives is
great, so if the length of the match is less than
`gnus-score-exact-adapt-limit', exact matching will be used.  If this
variable is `nil', exact matching will always be used to avoid this
problem.

   As mentioned above, you can adapt either on individual words or
entire headers.  If you adapt on words, the
`gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist' variable says what score each
instance of a word should add given a mark.

     (setq gnus-default-adaptive-word-score-alist
           `((,gnus-read-mark . 30)
             (,gnus-catchup-mark . -10)
             (,gnus-killed-mark . -20)
             (,gnus-del-mark . -15)))

   This is the default value.  If you have adaption on words enabled,
every word that appears in subjects of articles that are marked with
`gnus-read-mark' will result in a score rule that increase the score
with 30 points.

   Words that appear in the `gnus-default-ignored-adaptive-words' list
will be ignored.  If you wish to add more words to be ignored, use the
`gnus-ignored-adaptive-words' list instead.

   When the scoring is done, `gnus-adaptive-word-syntax-table' is the
syntax table in effect.  It is similar to the standard syntax table, but
it considers numbers to be non-word-constituent characters.

   After using this scheme for a while, it might be nice to write a
`gnus-psychoanalyze-user' command to go through the rules and see what
words you like and what words you don't like.  Or perhaps not.

   Note that the adaptive word scoring thing is highly experimental and
is likely to change in the future.  Initial impressions seem to indicate
that it's totally useless as it stands.  Some more work (involving more
rigorous statistical methods) will have to be done to make this useful.


File: gnus,  Node: Home Score File,  Next: Followups To Yourself,  Prev: Adaptive Scoring,  Up: Scoring

Home Score File
===============

   The score file where new score file entries will go is called the
"home score file".  This is normally (and by default) the score file
for the group itself.  For instance, the home score file for
`gnu.emacs.gnus' is `gnu.emacs.gnus.SCORE'.

   However, this may not be what you want.  It is often convenient to
share a common home score file among many groups--all `emacs' groups
could perhaps use the same home score file.

   The variable that controls this is `gnus-home-score-file'.  It can
be:

  1. A string.  Then this file will be used as the home score file for
     all groups.

  2. A function. The result of this function will be used as the home
     score file.  The function will be called with the name of the
     group as the parameter.

  3. A list.  The elements in this list can be:

       1. (REGEXP FILE-NAME).  If the REGEXP matches the group name,
          the FILE-NAME will will be used as the home score file.

       2. A function. If the function returns non-nil, the result will
          be used as the home score file.

       3. A string.  Use the string as the home score file.

     The list will be traversed from the beginning towards the end
     looking for matches.


   So, if you want to use just a single score file, you could say:

     (setq gnus-home-score-file
           "my-total-score-file.SCORE")

   If you want to use `gnu.SCORE' for all `gnu' groups and `rec.SCORE'
for all `rec' groups (and so on), you can say:

     (setq gnus-home-score-file
           'gnus-hierarchial-home-score-file)

   This is a ready-made function provided for your convenience.

   If you want to have one score file for the `emacs' groups and
another for the `comp' groups, while letting all other groups use their
own home score files:

     (setq gnus-home-score-file
           ;; All groups that match the regexp "\\.emacs"
           '("\\.emacs" "emacs.SCORE")
           ;; All the comp groups in one score file
            ("^comp" "comp.SCORE"))

   `gnus-home-adapt-file' works exactly the same way as
`gnus-home-score-file', but says what the home adaptive score file is
instead.  All new adaptive file entries will go into the file specified
by this variable, and the same syntax is allowed.

   In addition to using `gnus-home-score-file' and
`gnus-home-adapt-file', you can also use group parameters (*note Group
Parameters::.) and topic parameters (*note Topic Parameters::.) to
achieve much the same.  Group and topic parameters take precedence over
this variable.


File: gnus,  Node: Followups To Yourself,  Next: Scoring Tips,  Prev: Home Score File,  Up: Scoring

Followups To Yourself
=====================

   Gnus offers two commands for picking out the `Message-ID' header in
the current buffer.  Gnus will then add a score rule that scores using
this `Message-ID' on the `References' header of other articles.  This
will, in effect, increase the score of all articles that respond to the
article in the current buffer.  Quite useful if you want to easily note
when people answer what you've said.

`gnus-score-followup-article'
     This will add a score to articles that directly follow up your own
     article.

`gnus-score-followup-thread'
     This will add a score to all articles that appear in a thread
     "below" your own article.

   These two functions are both primarily meant to be used in hooks like
`message-sent-hook'.

   If you look closely at your own `Message-ID', you'll notice that the
first two or three characters are always the same.  Here's two of mine:

     <x6u3u47icf.fsf@eyesore.no>
     <x6sp9o7ibw.fsf@eyesore.no>

   So "my" ident on this machine is `x6'.  This can be exploited--the
following rule will raise the score on all followups to myself:

     ("references"
      ("<x6[0-9a-z]+\\.fsf@.*eyesore.no>" 1000 nil r))

   Whether it's the first two or first three characters that are "yours"
is system-dependent.


File: gnus,  Node: Scoring Tips,  Next: Reverse Scoring,  Prev: Followups To Yourself,  Up: Scoring

Scoring Tips
============

"Crossposts"
     If you want to lower the score of crossposts, the line to match on
     is the `Xref' header.
          ("xref" (" talk.politics.misc:" -1000))

"Multiple crossposts"
     If you want to lower the score of articles that have been
     crossposted to more than, say, 3 groups:
          ("xref" ("[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+ +[^:\n]+:[0-9]+" -1000 nil r))

"Matching on the body"
     This is generally not a very good idea--it takes a very long time.
     Gnus actually has to fetch each individual article from the
     server.  But you might want to anyway, I guess.  Even though there
     are three match keys (`Head', `Body' and `All'), you should choose
     one and stick with it in each score file.  If you use any two,
     each article will be fetched *twice*.  If you want to match a bit
     on the `Head' and a bit on the `Body', just use `All' for all the
     matches.

"Marking as read"
     You will probably want to mark articles that has a score below a
     certain number as read.  This is most easily achieved by putting
     the following in your `all.SCORE' file:
          ((mark -100))
     You may also consider doing something similar with `expunge'.

"Negated character classes"
     If you say stuff like `[^abcd]*', you may get unexpected results.
     That will match newlines, which might lead to, well, The Unknown.
     Say `[^abcd\n]*' instead.


File: gnus,  Node: Reverse Scoring,  Next: Global Score Files,  Prev: Scoring Tips,  Up: Scoring

Reverse Scoring
===============

   If you want to keep just articles that have `Sex with Emacs' in the
subject header, and expunge all other articles, you could put something
like this in your score file:

     (("subject"
       ("Sex with Emacs" 2))
      (mark 1)
      (expunge 1))

   So, you raise all articles that match `Sex with Emacs' and mark the
rest as read, and expunge them to boot.


File: gnus,  Node: Global Score Files,  Next: Kill Files,  Prev: Reverse Scoring,  Up: Scoring

Global Score Files
==================

   Sure, other newsreaders have "global kill files".  These are usually
nothing more than a single kill file that applies to all groups, stored
in the user's home directory.  Bah!  Puny, weak newsreaders!

   What I'm talking about here are Global Score Files.  Score files from
all over the world, from users everywhere, uniting all nations in one
big, happy score file union!  Ange-score!  New and untested!

   All you have to do to use other people's score files is to set the
`gnus-global-score-files' variable.  One entry for each score file, or
each score file directory.  Gnus will decide by itself what score files
are applicable to which group.

   Say you want to use the score file
`/ftp@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE' and all score
files in the `/ftp@ftp.some-where:/pub/score' directory:

     (setq gnus-global-score-files
           '("/ftp@ftp.gnus.org:/pub/larsi/ding/score/soc.motss.SCORE"
             "/ftp@ftp.some-where:/pub/score/"))

   Simple, eh?  Directory names must end with a `/'.  These directories
are typically scanned only once during each Gnus session.  If you feel
the need to manually re-scan the remote directories, you can use the
`gnus-score-search-global-directories' command.

   Note that, at present, using this option will slow down group entry
somewhat.  (That is--a lot.)

   If you want to start maintaining score files for other people to use,
just put your score file up for anonymous ftp and announce it to the
world.  Become a retro-moderator!  Participate in the retro-moderator
wars sure to ensue, where retro-moderators battle it out for the
sympathy of the people, luring them to use their score files on false
premises!  Yay!  The net is saved!

   Here are some tips for the would-be retro-moderator, off the top of
my head:

   * Articles that are heavily crossposted are probably junk.

   * To lower a single inappropriate article, lower by `Message-ID'.

   * Particularly brilliant authors can be raised on a permanent basis.

   * Authors that repeatedly post off-charter for the group can safely
     be lowered out of existence.

   * Set the `mark' and `expunge' atoms to obliterate the nastiest
     articles completely.

   * Use expiring score entries to keep the size of the file down.  You
     should probably have a long expiry period, though, as some sites
     keep old articles for a long time.

   ... I wonder whether other newsreaders will support global score
files in the future.  *Snicker*.  Yup, any day now, newsreaders like
Blue Wave, xrn and 1stReader are bound to implement scoring.  Should we
start holding our breath yet?

