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This is Info file ../info/gnus.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68 from the input file gnus.texi. 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.info, 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 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? File: gnus.info, Node: Kill Files, Next: Converting Kill Files, Prev: Global Score Files, Up: Scoring Kill Files ========== Gnus still supports those pesky old kill files. In fact, the kill file entries can now be expiring, which is something I wrote before Daniel Quinlan thought of doing score files, so I've left the code in there. In short, kill processing is a lot slower (and I do mean *a lot*) than score processing, so it might be a good idea to rewrite your kill files into score files. Anyway, a kill file is a normal `emacs-lisp' file. You can put any forms into this file, which means that you can use kill files as some sort of primitive hook function to be run on group entry, even though that isn't a very good idea. Normal kill files look like this: (gnus-kill "From" "Lars Ingebrigtsen") (gnus-kill "Subject" "ding") (gnus-expunge "X") This will mark every article written by me as read, and remove the marked articles from the summary buffer. Very useful, you'll agree. Other programs use a totally different kill file syntax. If Gnus encounters what looks like a `rn' kill file, it will take a stab at interpreting it. Two summary functions for editing a GNUS kill file: `M-k' Edit this group's kill file (`gnus-summary-edit-local-kill'). `M-K' Edit the general kill file (`gnus-summary-edit-global-kill'). Two group mode functions for editing the kill files: `M-k' Edit this group's kill file (`gnus-group-edit-local-kill'). `M-K' Edit the general kill file (`gnus-group-edit-global-kill'). Kill file variables: `gnus-kill-file-name' A kill file for the group `soc.motss' is normally called `soc.motss.KILL'. The suffix appended to the group name to get this file name is detailed by the `gnus-kill-file-name' variable. The "global" kill file (not in the score file sense of "global", of course) is just called `KILL'. `gnus-kill-save-kill-file' If this variable is non-`nil', Gnus will save the kill file after processing, which is necessary if you use expiring kills. `gnus-apply-kill-hook' A hook called to apply kill files to a group. It is `(gnus-apply-kill-file)' by default. If you want to ignore the kill file if you have a score file for the same group, you can set this hook to `(gnus-apply-kill-file-unless-scored)'. If you don't want kill files to be processed, you should set this variable to `nil'. `gnus-kill-file-mode-hook' A hook called in kill-file mode buffers. File: gnus.info, Node: Converting Kill Files, Next: GroupLens, Prev: Kill Files, Up: Scoring Converting Kill Files ===================== If you have loads of old kill files, you may want to convert them into score files. If they are "regular", you can use the `gnus-kill-to-score.el' package; if not, you'll have to do it by hand. The kill to score conversion package isn't included in Gnus by default. You can fetch it from `http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-other/gnus-kill-to-score'. If your old kill files are very complex--if they contain more non-`gnus-kill' forms than not, you'll have to convert them by hand. Or just let them be as they are. Gnus will still use them as before. File: gnus.info, Node: GroupLens, Next: Advanced Scoring, Prev: Converting Kill Files, Up: Scoring GroupLens ========= GroupLens is a collaborative filtering system that helps you work together with other people to find the quality news articles out of the huge volume of news articles generated every day. To accomplish this the GroupLens system combines your opinions about articles you have already read with the opinions of others who have done likewise and gives you a personalized prediction for each unread news article. Think of GroupLens as a matchmaker. GroupLens watches how you rate articles, and finds other people that rate articles the same way. Once it has found some people you agree with it tells you, in the form of a prediction, what they thought of the article. You can use this prediction to help you decide whether or not you want to read the article. * Menu: * Using GroupLens:: How to make Gnus use GroupLens. * Rating Articles:: Letting GroupLens know how you rate articles. * Displaying Predictions:: Displaying predictions given by GroupLens. * GroupLens Variables:: Customizing GroupLens. File: gnus.info, Node: Using GroupLens, Next: Rating Articles, Up: GroupLens Using GroupLens --------------- To use GroupLens you must register a pseudonym with your local Better Bit Bureau (BBB). `http://www.cs.umn.edu/Research/GroupLens/bbb.html' is the only better bit in town at the moment. Once you have registered you'll need to set a couple of variables. `gnus-use-grouplens' Setting this variable to a non-`nil' value will make Gnus hook into all the relevant GroupLens functions. `grouplens-pseudonym' This variable should be set to the pseudonym you got when registering with the Better Bit Bureau. `grouplens-newsgroups' A list of groups that you want to get GroupLens predictions for. That's the minimum of what you need to get up and running with GroupLens. Once you've registered, GroupLens will start giving you scores for articles based on the average of what other people think. But, to get the real benefit of GroupLens you need to start rating articles yourself. Then the scores GroupLens gives you will be personalized for you, based on how the people you usually agree with have already rated. File: gnus.info, Node: Rating Articles, Next: Displaying Predictions, Prev: Using GroupLens, Up: GroupLens Rating Articles --------------- In GroupLens, an article is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, inclusive. Where 1 means something like this article is a waste of bandwidth and 5 means that the article was really good. The basic question to ask yourself is, "on a scale from 1 to 5 would I like to see more articles like this one?" There are four ways to enter a rating for an article in GroupLens. `r' This function will prompt you for a rating on a scale of one to five. `k' This function will prompt you for a rating, and rate all the articles in the thread. This is really useful for some of those long running giant threads in rec.humor. The next two commands, `n' and `,' take a numerical prefix to be the score of the article you're reading. `1-5 n' Rate the article and go to the next unread article. `1-5 ,' Rate the article and go to the next unread article with the highest score. If you want to give the current article a score of 4 and then go to the next article, just type `4 n'. File: gnus.info, Node: Displaying Predictions, Next: GroupLens Variables, Prev: Rating Articles, Up: GroupLens Displaying Predictions ---------------------- GroupLens makes a prediction for you about how much you will like a news article. The predictions from GroupLens are on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. You can use the predictions from GroupLens in one of three ways controlled by the variable `gnus-grouplens-override-scoring'. There are three ways to display predictions in grouplens. You may choose to have the GroupLens scores contribute to, or override the regular gnus scoring mechanism. override is the default; however, some people prefer to see the Gnus scores plus the grouplens scores. To get the separate scoring behavior you need to set `gnus-grouplens-override-scoring' to `'separate'. To have the GroupLens predictions combined with the grouplens scores set it to `'override' and to combine the scores set `gnus-grouplens-override-scoring' to `'combine'. When you use the combine option you will also want to set the values for `grouplens-prediction-offset' and `grouplens-score-scale-factor'. In either case, GroupLens gives you a few choices for how you would like to see your predictions displayed. The display of predictions is controlled by the `grouplens-prediction-display' variable. The following are legal values for that variable. `prediction-spot' The higher the prediction, the further to the right an `*' is displayed. `confidence-interval' A numeric confidence interval. `prediction-bar' The higher the prediction, the longer the bar. `confidence-bar' Numerical confidence. `confidence-spot' The spot gets bigger with more confidence. `prediction-num' Plain-old numeric value. `confidence-plus-minus' Prediction +/- confidence. File: gnus.info, Node: GroupLens Variables, Prev: Displaying Predictions, Up: GroupLens GroupLens Variables ------------------- `gnus-summary-grouplens-line-format' The summary line format used in GroupLens-enhanced summary buffers. It accepts the same specs as the normal summary line format (*note Summary Buffer Lines::.). The default is `%U%R%z%l%I%(%[%4L: %-20,20n%]%) %s\n'. `grouplens-bbb-host' Host running the bbbd server. `grouplens.cs.umn.edu' is the default. `grouplens-bbb-port' Port of the host running the bbbd server. The default is 9000. `grouplens-score-offset' Offset the prediction by this value. In other words, subtract the prediction value by this number to arrive at the effective score. The default is 0. `grouplens-score-scale-factor' This variable allows the user to magnify the effect of GroupLens scores. The scale factor is applied after the offset. The default is 1. File: gnus.info, Node: Advanced Scoring, Next: Score Decays, Prev: GroupLens, Up: Scoring Advanced Scoring ================ Scoring on Subjects and From headers is nice enough, but what if you're really interested in what a person has to say only when she's talking about a particular subject? Or what if you really don't want to read what person A has to say when she's following up to person B, but want to read what she says when she's following up to person C? By using advanced scoring rules you may create arbitrarily complex scoring patterns. * Menu: * Advanced Scoring Syntax:: A definition. * Advanced Scoring Examples:: What they look like. * Advanced Scoring Tips:: Getting the most out of it. File: gnus.info, Node: Advanced Scoring Syntax, Next: Advanced Scoring Examples, Up: Advanced Scoring Advanced Scoring Syntax ----------------------- Ordinary scoring rules have a string as the first element in the rule. Advanced scoring rules have a list as the first element. The second element is the score to be applied if the first element evaluated to a non-`nil' value. These lists may consist of three logical operators, one redirection operator, and various match operators. Logical operators: `&' `and' This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds one that evaluates to `false', and then it'll stop. If all arguments evaluate to `true' values, then this operator will return `true'. `|' `or' This logical operator will evaluate each of its arguments until it finds one that evaluates to `true'. If no arguments are `true', then this operator will return `false'. `!' `not' `¼' This logical operator only takes a single argument. It returns the logical negation of the value of its argument. There is an "indirection operator" that will make its arguments apply to the ancestors of the current article being scored. For instance, `1-' will make score rules apply to the parent of the current article. `2-' will make score rules apply to the grandparent of the current article. Alternatively, you can write `^^', where the number of `^'s (carets) says how far back into the ancestry you want to go. Finally, we have the match operators. These are the ones that do the real work. Match operators are header name strings followed by a match and a match type. A typical match operator looks like `("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen" s)'. The header names are the same as when using simple scoring, and the match types are also the same. File: gnus.info, Node: Advanced Scoring Examples, Next: Advanced Scoring Tips, Prev: Advanced Scoring Syntax, Up: Advanced Scoring Advanced Scoring Examples ------------------------- Let's say you want to increase the score of articles written by Lars when he's talking about Gnus: ((& ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen") ("subject" "Gnus")) 1000) Quite simple, huh? When he writes long articles, he sometimes has something nice to say: ((& ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen") (| ("subject" "Gnus") ("lines" 100 >))) 1000) However, when he responds to things written by Reig Eigil Logge, you really don't want to read what he's written: ((& ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen") (1- ("from" "Reig Eigir Logge"))) -100000) Everybody that follows up Redmondo when he writes about disappearing socks should have their scores raised, but only when they talk about white socks. However, when Lars talks about socks, it's usually not very interesting: ((& (1- (& ("from" "redmondo@.*no" r) ("body" "disappearing.*socks" t))) (! ("from" "Lars Ingebrigtsen")) ("body" "white.*socks")) 1000) The possibilities are endless. File: gnus.info, Node: Advanced Scoring Tips, Prev: Advanced Scoring Examples, Up: Advanced Scoring Advanced Scoring Tips --------------------- The `&' and `|' logical operators do short-circuit logic. That is, they stop processing their arguments when it's clear what the result of the operation will be. For instance, if one of the arguments of an `&' evaluates to `false', there's no point in evaluating the rest of the arguments. This means that you should put slow matches (`body', `header') last and quick matches (`from', `subject') first. The indirection arguments (`1-' and so on) will make their arguments work on previous generations of the thread. If you say something like: ... (1- (1- ("from" "lars"))) ... Then that means "score on the from header of the grandparent of the current article". An indirection is quite fast, but it's better to say: (1- (& ("from" "Lars") ("subject" "Gnus"))) than it is to say: (& (1- ("from" "Lars")) (1- ("subject" "Gnus"))) File: gnus.info, Node: Score Decays, Prev: Advanced Scoring, Up: Scoring Score Decays ============ You may find that your scores have a tendency to grow without bounds, especially if you're using adaptive scoring. If scores get too big, they lose all meaning--they simply max out and it's difficult to use them in any sensible way. Gnus provides a mechanism for decaying scores to help with this problem. When score files are loaded and `gnus-decay-scores' is non-`nil', Gnus will run the score files through the decaying mechanism thereby lowering the scores of all non-permanent score rules. The decay itself if performed by the `gnus-score-decay-function' function, which is `gnus-decay-score' by default. Here's the definition of that function: (defun gnus-decay-score (score) "Decay SCORE according to `gnus-score-decay-constant' and `gnus-score-decay-scale'." (floor (- score (* (if (< score 0) 1 -1) (min (abs score) (max gnus-score-decay-constant (* (abs score) gnus-score-decay-scale))))))) `gnus-score-decay-constant' is 3 by default and `gnus-score-decay-scale' is 0.05. This should cause the following: 1. Scores between -3 and 3 will be set to 0 when this function is called. 2. Scores with magnitudes between 3 and 60 will be shrunk by 3. 3. Scores with magnitudes greater than 60 will be shrunk by 5% of the score. If you don't like this decay function, write your own. It is called with the score to be decayed as its only parameter, and it should return the new score, which should be an integer. Gnus will try to decay scores once a day. If you haven't run Gnus for four days, Gnus will decay the scores four times, for instance. File: gnus.info, Node: Various, Next: The End, Prev: Scoring, Up: Top Various ******* * Menu: * Process/Prefix:: A convention used by many treatment commands. * Interactive:: Making Gnus ask you many questions. * Formatting Variables:: You can specify what buffers should look like. * Windows Configuration:: Configuring the Gnus buffer windows. * Compilation:: How to speed Gnus up. * Mode Lines:: Displaying information in the mode lines. * Highlighting and Menus:: Making buffers look all nice and cozy. * Buttons:: Get tendonitis in ten easy steps! * Daemons:: Gnus can do things behind your back. * NoCeM:: How to avoid spam and other fatty foods. * Undo:: Some actions can be undone. * Moderation:: What to do if you're a moderator. * XEmacs Enhancements:: There are more pictures and stuff under XEmacs. * Fuzzy Matching:: What's the big fuzz? * Thwarting Email Spam:: A how-to on avoiding unsolited commercial email. * Various Various:: Things that are really various. File: gnus.info, Node: Process/Prefix, Next: Interactive, Up: Various Process/Prefix ============== Many functions, among them functions for moving, decoding and saving articles, use what is known as the "Process/Prefix convention". This is a method for figuring out what articles the user wants the command to be performed on. It goes like this: If the numeric prefix is N, perform the operation on the next N articles, starting with the current one. If the numeric prefix is negative, perform the operation on the previous N articles, starting with the current one. If `transient-mark-mode' in non-`nil' and the region is active, all articles in the region will be worked upon. If there is no numeric prefix, but some articles are marked with the process mark, perform the operation on the articles marked with the process mark. If there is neither a numeric prefix nor any articles marked with the process mark, just perform the operation on the current article. Quite simple, really, but it needs to be made clear so that surprises are avoided. Commands that react to the process mark will push the current list of process marked articles onto a stack and will then clear all process marked articles. You can restore the previous configuration with the `M P y' command (*note Setting Process Marks::.). One thing that seems to shock & horrify lots of people is that, for instance, `3 d' does exactly the same as `d' `d' `d'. Since each `d' (which marks the current article as read) by default goes to the next unread article after marking, this means that `3 d' will mark the next three unread articles as read, no matter what the summary buffer looks like. Set `gnus-summary-goto-unread' to `nil' for a more straightforward action. File: gnus.info, Node: Interactive, Next: Formatting Variables, Prev: Process/Prefix, Up: Various Interactive =========== `gnus-novice-user' If this variable is non-`nil', you are either a newcomer to the World of Usenet, or you are very cautious, which is a nice thing to be, really. You will be given questions of the type "Are you sure you want to do this?" before doing anything dangerous. This is `t' by default. `gnus-expert-user' If this variable is non-`nil', you will never ever be asked any questions by Gnus. It will simply assume you know what you're doing, no matter how strange. `gnus-interactive-catchup' Require confirmation before catching up a group if non-`nil'. It is `t' by default. `gnus-interactive-exit' Require confirmation before exiting Gnus. This variable is `t' by default. File: gnus.info, Node: Formatting Variables, Next: Windows Configuration, Prev: Interactive, Up: Various Formatting Variables ==================== Throughout this manual you've probably noticed lots of variables called things like `gnus-group-line-format' and `gnus-summary-mode-line-format'. These control how Gnus is to output lines in the various buffers. There's quite a lot of them. Fortunately, they all use the same syntax, so there's not that much to be annoyed by. Here's an example format spec (from the group buffer): `%M%S%5y: %(%g%)\n'. We see that it is indeed extremely ugly, and that there are lots of percentages everywhere. * Menu: * Formatting Basics:: A formatting variable is basically a format string. * Advanced Formatting:: Modifying output in various ways. * User-Defined Specs:: Having Gnus call your own functions. * Formatting Fonts:: Making the formatting look colorful and nice. Currently Gnus uses the following formatting variables: `gnus-group-line-format', `gnus-summary-line-format', `gnus-server-line-format', `gnus-topic-line-format', `gnus-group-mode-line-format', `gnus-summary-mode-line-format', `gnus-article-mode-line-format', `gnus-server-mode-line-format', and `gnus-summary-pick-line-format'. All these format variables can also be arbitrary elisp forms. In that case, they will be `eval'ed to insert the required lines. Gnus includes a command to help you while creating your own format specs. `M-x gnus-update-format' will `eval' the current form, update the spec in question and pop you to a buffer where you can examine the resulting lisp code to be run to generate the line. File: gnus.info, Node: Formatting Basics, Next: Advanced Formatting, Up: Formatting Variables Formatting Basics ----------------- Each `%' element will be replaced by some string or other when the buffer in question is generated. `%5y' means "insert the `y' spec, and pad with spaces to get a 5-character field". As with normal C and Emacs Lisp formatting strings, the numerical modifier between the `%' and the formatting type character will "pad" the output so that it is always at least that long. `%5y' will make the field always (at least) five characters wide by padding with spaces to the left. If you say `%-5y', it will pad to the right instead. You may also wish to limit the length of the field to protect against particularly wide values. For that you can say `%4,6y', which means that the field will never be more than 6 characters wide and never less than 4 characters wide. File: gnus.info, Node: Advanced Formatting, Next: User-Defined Specs, Prev: Formatting Basics, Up: Formatting Variables Advanced Formatting ------------------- It is frequently useful to post-process the fields in some way. Padding, limiting, cutting off parts and suppressing certain values can be achieved by using "tilde modifiers". A typical tilde spec might look like `%~(cut 3)~(ignore "0")y'. These are the legal modifiers: `pad' `pad-left' Pad the field to the left with spaces until it reaches the required length. `pad-right' Pad the field to the right with spaces until it reaches the required length. `max' `max-left' Cut off characters from the left until it reaches the specified length. `max-right' Cut off characters from the right until it reaches the specified length. `cut' `cut-left' Cut off the specified number of characters from the left. `cut-right' Cut off the specified number of characters from the right. `ignore' Return an empty string if the field is equal to the specified value. `form' Use the specified form as the field value when the `@' spec is used. Let's take an example. The `%o' spec in the summary mode lines will return a date in compact ISO8601 format--`19960809T230410'. This is quite a mouthful, so we want to shave off the century number and the time, leaving us with a six-character date. That would be `%~(cut-left 2)~(max-right 6)~(pad 6)o'. (Cutting is done before maxing, and we need the padding to ensure that the date is never less than 6 characters to make it look nice in columns.) Ignoring is done first; then cutting; then maxing; and then as the very last operation, padding. If you use lots of these advanced thingies, you'll find that Gnus gets quite slow. This can be helped enormously by running `M-x gnus-compile' when you are satisfied with the look of your lines. *Note Compilation::. File: gnus.info, Node: User-Defined Specs, Next: Formatting Fonts, Prev: Advanced Formatting, Up: Formatting Variables User-Defined Specs ------------------ All the specs allow for inserting user defined specifiers--`u'. The next character in the format string should be a letter. Gnus will call the function `gnus-user-format-function-'`X', where `X' is the letter following `%u'. The function will be passed a single parameter--what the parameter means depends on what buffer it's being called from. The function should return a string, which will be inserted into the buffer just like information from any other specifier. This function may also be called with dummy values, so it should protect against that. You can also use tilde modifiers (*note Advanced Formatting::. to achieve much the same without defining new functions. Here's an example: `%~(form (count-lines (point-min) (point)))@'. The form given here will be evaluated to yield the current line number, and then inserted. File: gnus.info, Node: Formatting Fonts, Prev: User-Defined Specs, Up: Formatting Variables Formatting Fonts ---------------- There are specs for highlighting, and these are shared by all the format variables. Text inside the `%(' and `%)' specifiers will get the special `mouse-face' property set, which means that it will be highlighted (with `gnus-mouse-face') when you put the mouse pointer over it. Text inside the `%[' and `%]' specifiers will have their normal faces set using `gnus-face-0', which is `bold' by default. If you say `%1[', you'll get `gnus-face-1' instead, and so on. Create as many faces as you wish. The same goes for the `mouse-face' specs--you can say `%3(hello%)' to have `hello' mouse-highlighted with `gnus-mouse-face-3'. Here's an alternative recipe for the group buffer: ;; Create three face types. (setq gnus-face-1 'bold) (setq gnus-face-3 'italic) ;; We want the article count to be in ;; a bold and green face. So we create ;; a new face called `my-green-bold'. (copy-face 'bold 'my-green-bold) ;; Set the color. (set-face-foreground 'my-green-bold "ForestGreen") (setq gnus-face-2 'my-green-bold) ;; Set the new & fancy format. (setq gnus-group-line-format "%M%S%3{%5y%}%2[:%] %(%1{%g%}%)\n") I'm sure you'll be able to use this scheme to create totally unreadable and extremely vulgar displays. Have fun! Note that the `%(' specs (and friends) do not make any sense on the mode-line variables. File: gnus.info, Node: Windows Configuration, Next: Compilation, Prev: Formatting Variables, Up: Various Windows Configuration ===================== No, there's nothing here about X, so be quiet. If `gnus-use-full-window' non-`nil', Gnus will delete all other windows and occupy the entire Emacs screen by itself. It is `t' by default. `gnus-buffer-configuration' describes how much space each Gnus buffer should be given. Here's an excerpt of this variable: ((group (vertical 1.0 (group 1.0 point) (if gnus-carpal (group-carpal 4)))) (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point) (article 1.0)))) This is an alist. The "key" is a symbol that names some action or other. For instance, when displaying the group buffer, the window configuration function will use `group' as the key. A full list of possible names is listed below. The "value" (i.e., the "split") says how much space each buffer should occupy. To take the `article' split as an example - (article (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point) (article 1.0))) This "split" says that the summary buffer should occupy 25% of upper half of the screen, and that it is placed over the article buffer. As you may have noticed, 100% + 25% is actually 125% (yup, I saw y'all reaching for that calculator there). However, the special number `1.0' is used to signal that this buffer should soak up all the rest of the space available after the rest of the buffers have taken whatever they need. There should be only one buffer with the `1.0' size spec per split. Point will be put in the buffer that has the optional third element `point'. Here's a more complicated example: (article (vertical 1.0 (group 4) (summary 0.25 point) (if gnus-carpal (summary-carpal 4)) (article 1.0))) If the size spec is an integer instead of a floating point number, then that number will be used to say how many lines a buffer should occupy, not a percentage. If the "split" looks like something that can be `eval'ed (to be precise--if the `car' of the split is a function or a subr), this split will be `eval'ed. If the result is non-`nil', it will be used as a split. This means that there will be three buffers if `gnus-carpal' is `nil', and four buffers if `gnus-carpal' is non-`nil'. Not complicated enough for you? Well, try this on for size: (article (horizontal 1.0 (vertical 0.5 (group 1.0) (gnus-carpal 4)) (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point) (summary-carpal 4) (article 1.0)))) Whoops. Two buffers with the mystery 100% tag. And what's that `horizontal' thingie? If the first element in one of the split is `horizontal', Gnus will split the window horizontally, giving you two windows side-by-side. Inside each of these strips you may carry on all you like in the normal fashion. The number following `horizontal' says what percentage of the screen is to be given to this strip. For each split, there *must* be one element that has the 100% tag. The splitting is never accurate, and this buffer will eat any leftover lines from the splits. To be slightly more formal, here's a definition of what a legal split may look like: split = frame | horizontal | vertical | buffer | form frame = "(frame " size *split ")" horizontal = "(horizontal " size *split ")" vertical = "(vertical " size *split ")" buffer = "(" buffer-name " " size *[ "point" ] ")" size = number | frame-params buffer-name = group | article | summary ... The limitations are that the `frame' split can only appear as the top-level split. FORM should be an Emacs Lisp form that should return a valid split. We see that each split is fully recursive, and may contain any number of `vertical' and `horizontal' splits. Finding the right sizes can be a bit complicated. No window may be less than `gnus-window-min-height' (default 1) characters high, and all windows must be at least `gnus-window-min-width' (default 1) characters wide. Gnus will try to enforce this before applying the splits. If you want to use the normal Emacs window width/height limit, you can just set these two variables to `nil'. If you're not familiar with Emacs terminology, `horizontal' and `vertical' splits may work the opposite way of what you'd expect. Windows inside a `horizontal' split are shown side-by-side, and windows within a `vertical' split are shown above each other. If you want to experiment with window placement, a good tip is to call `gnus-configure-frame' directly with a split. This is the function that does all the real work when splitting buffers. Below is a pretty nonsensical configuration with 5 windows; two for the group buffer and three for the article buffer. (I said it was nonsensical.) If you `eval' the statement below, you can get an idea of how that would look straight away, without going through the normal Gnus channels. Play with it until you're satisfied, and then use `gnus-add-configuration' to add your new creation to the buffer configuration list. (gnus-configure-frame '(horizontal 1.0 (vertical 10 (group 1.0) (article 0.3 point)) (vertical 1.0 (article 1.0) (horizontal 4 (group 1.0) (article 10))))) You might want to have several frames as well. No prob--just use the `frame' split: (gnus-configure-frame '(frame 1.0 (vertical 1.0 (summary 0.25 point) (article 1.0)) (vertical ((height . 5) (width . 15) (user-position . t) (left . -1) (top . 1)) (picon 1.0)))) This split will result in the familiar summary/article window configuration in the first (or "main") frame, while a small additional frame will be created where picons will be shown. As you can see, instead of the normal `1.0' top-level spec, each additional split should have a frame parameter alist as the size spec. *Note Frame Parameters: (elisp)Frame Parameters. Under XEmacs, a frame property list will be accepted, too--for instance, `(height 5 width 15 left -1 top 1)' is such a plist. Here's a list of all possible keys for `gnus-buffer-configuration': `group', `summary', `article', `server', `browse', `message', `pick', `info', `summary-faq', `edit-group', `edit-server', `edit-score', `post', `reply', `forward', `reply-yank', `mail-bounce', `draft', `pipe', `bug', `compose-bounce', and `score-trace'. Note that the `message' key is used for both `gnus-group-mail' and `gnus-summary-mail-other-window'. If it is desirable to distinguish between the two, something like this might be used: (message (horizontal 1.0 (vertical 1.0 (message 1.0 point)) (vertical 0.24 (if (buffer-live-p gnus-summary-buffer) '(summary 0.5)) (group 1.0))))) Since the `gnus-buffer-configuration' variable is so long and complicated, there's a function you can use to ease changing the config of a single setting: `gnus-add-configuration'. If, for instance, you want to change the `article' setting, you could say: (gnus-add-configuration '(article (vertical 1.0 (group 4) (summary .25 point) (article 1.0)))) You'd typically stick these `gnus-add-configuration' calls in your `.gnus.el' file or in some startup hook--they should be run after Gnus has been loaded. If all windows mentioned in the configuration are already visible, Gnus won't change the window configuration. If you always want to force the "right" window configuration, you can set `gnus-always-force-window-configuration' to non-`nil'. File: gnus.info, Node: Compilation, Next: Mode Lines, Prev: Windows Configuration, Up: Various Compilation =========== Remember all those line format specification variables? `gnus-summary-line-format', `gnus-group-line-format', and so on. Now, Gnus will of course heed whatever these variables are, but, unfortunately, changing them will mean a quite significant slow-down. (The default values of these variables have byte-compiled functions associated with them, while the user-generated versions do not, of course.) To help with this, you can run `M-x gnus-compile' after you've fiddled around with the variables and feel that you're (kind of) satisfied. This will result in the new specs being byte-compiled, and you'll get top speed again. Gnus will save these compiled specs in the `.newsrc.eld' file. (User-defined functions aren't compiled by this function, though--you should compile them yourself by sticking them into the `.gnus.el' file and byte-compiling that file.) File: gnus.info, Node: Mode Lines, Next: Highlighting and Menus, Prev: Compilation, Up: Various Mode Lines ========== `gnus-updated-mode-lines' says what buffers should keep their mode lines updated. It is a list of symbols. Supported symbols include `group', `article', `summary', `server', `browse', and `tree'. If the corresponding symbol is present, Gnus will keep that mode line updated with information that may be pertinent. If this variable is `nil', screen refresh may be quicker. By default, Gnus displays information on the current article in the mode lines of the summary and article buffers. The information Gnus wishes to display (e.g. the subject of the article) is often longer than the mode lines, and therefore have to be cut off at some point. The `gnus-mode-non-string-length' variable says how long the other elements on the line is (i.e., the non-info part). If you put additional elements on the mode line (e.g. a clock), you should modify this variable: (add-hook 'display-time-hook (lambda () (setq gnus-mode-non-string-length (+ 21 (if line-number-mode 5 0) (if column-number-mode 4 0) (length display-time-string))))) If this variable is `nil' (which is the default), the mode line strings won't be chopped off, and they won't be padded either. Note that the default is unlikely to be desirable, as even the percentage complete in the buffer may be crowded off the mode line; the user should configure this variable appropriately for her configuration. File: gnus.info, Node: Highlighting and Menus, Next: Buttons, Prev: Mode Lines, Up: Various Highlighting and Menus ====================== The `gnus-visual' variable controls most of the Gnus-prettifying aspects. If `nil', Gnus won't attempt to create menus or use fancy colors or fonts. This will also inhibit loading the `gnus-vis.el' file. This variable can be a list of visual properties that are enabled. The following elements are legal, and are all included by default: `group-highlight' Do highlights in the group buffer. `summary-highlight' Do highlights in the summary buffer. `article-highlight' Do highlights in the article buffer. `highlight' Turn on highlighting in all buffers. `group-menu' Create menus in the group buffer. `summary-menu' Create menus in the summary buffers. `article-menu' Create menus in the article buffer. `browse-menu' Create menus in the browse buffer. `server-menu' Create menus in the server buffer. `score-menu' Create menus in the score buffers. `menu' Create menus in all buffers. So if you only want highlighting in the article buffer and menus in all buffers, you could say something like: (setq gnus-visual '(article-highlight menu)) If you want highlighting only and no menus whatsoever, you'd say: (setq gnus-visual '(highlight)) If `gnus-visual' is `t', highlighting and menus will be used in all Gnus buffers. Other general variables that influence the look of all buffers include: `gnus-mouse-face' This is the face (i.e., font) used for mouse highlighting in Gnus. No mouse highlights will be done if `gnus-visual' is `nil'. There are hooks associated with the creation of all the different menus: `gnus-article-menu-hook' Hook called after creating the article mode menu. `gnus-group-menu-hook' Hook called after creating the group mode menu. `gnus-summary-menu-hook' Hook called after creating the summary mode menu. `gnus-server-menu-hook' Hook called after creating the server mode menu. `gnus-browse-menu-hook' Hook called after creating the browse mode menu. `gnus-score-menu-hook' Hook called after creating the score mode menu. File: gnus.info, Node: Buttons, Next: Daemons, Prev: Highlighting and Menus, Up: Various Buttons ======= Those new-fangled "mouse" contraptions is very popular with the young, hep kids who don't want to learn the proper way to do things these days. Why, I remember way back in the summer of '89, when I was using Emacs on a Tops 20 system. Three hundred users on one single machine, and every user was running Simula compilers. Bah! Right. Well, you can make Gnus display bufferfuls of buttons you can click to do anything by setting `gnus-carpal' to `t'. Pretty simple, really. Tell the chiropractor I sent you. `gnus-carpal-mode-hook' Hook run in all carpal mode buffers. `gnus-carpal-button-face' Face used on buttons. `gnus-carpal-header-face' Face used on carpal buffer headers. `gnus-carpal-group-buffer-buttons' Buttons in the group buffer. `gnus-carpal-summary-buffer-buttons' Buttons in the summary buffer. `gnus-carpal-server-buffer-buttons' Buttons in the server buffer. `gnus-carpal-browse-buffer-buttons' Buttons in the browse buffer. All the `buttons' variables are lists. The elements in these list are either cons cells where the `car' contains a text to be displayed and the `cdr' contains a function symbol, or a simple string. File: gnus.info, Node: Daemons, Next: NoCeM, Prev: Buttons, Up: Various Daemons ======= Gnus, being larger than any program ever written (allegedly), does lots of strange stuff that you may wish to have done while you're not present. For instance, you may want it to check for new mail once in a while. Or you may want it to close down all connections to all servers when you leave Emacs idle. And stuff like that. Gnus will let you do stuff like that by defining various "handlers". Each handler consists of three elements: A FUNCTION, a TIME, and an IDLE parameter. Here's an example of a handler that closes connections when Emacs has been idle for thirty minutes: (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 30) Here's a handler that scans for PGP headers every hour when Emacs is idle: (gnus-demon-scan-pgp 60 t) This TIME parameter and than IDLE parameter work together in a strange, but wonderful fashion. Basically, if IDLE is `nil', then the function will be called every TIME minutes. If IDLE is `t', then the function will be called after TIME minutes only if Emacs is idle. So if Emacs is never idle, the function will never be called. But once Emacs goes idle, the function will be called every TIME minutes. If IDLE is a number and TIME is a number, the function will be called every TIME minutes only when Emacs has been idle for IDLE minutes. If IDLE is a number and TIME is `nil', the function will be called once every time Emacs has been idle for IDLE minutes. And if TIME is a string, it should look like `07:31', and the function will then be called once every day somewhere near that time. Modified by the IDLE parameter, of course. (When I say "minute" here, I really mean `gnus-demon-timestep' seconds. This is 60 by default. If you change that variable, all the timings in the handlers will be affected.) To set the whole thing in motion, though, you have to set `gnus-use-demon' to `t'. So, if you want to add a handler, you could put something like this in your `.gnus' file: (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-close-connections 30 t) Some ready-made functions to do this have been created: `gnus-demon-add-nocem', `gnus-demon-add-disconnection', `gnus-demon-add-scan-timestamps', `gnus-demon-add-rescan', and `gnus-demon-add-scanmail'. Just put those functions in your `.gnus' if you want those abilities. If you add handlers to `gnus-demon-handlers' directly, you should run `gnus-demon-init' to make the changes take hold. To cancel all daemons, you can use the `gnus-demon-cancel' function. Note that adding daemons can be pretty naughty if you overdo it. Adding functions that scan all news and mail from all servers every two seconds is a sure-fire way of getting booted off any respectable system. So behave.