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1 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 |
2 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
3 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
4 | Subject: So you want to use the new Gnus | |
5 | Message-ID: <lars-doc1@eyesore.no> | |
6 | ||
7 | Actually, since you are reading this, chances are you are already | |
8 | using the new Gnus. Congratulations. | |
9 | ||
10 | This entire newsgroup you are reading is, in fact, no real newsgroup | |
11 | at all, in the traditional sense. It is an example of one of the | |
12 | "foreign" select methods that Gnus may use. | |
13 | ||
14 | The text you are now reading is stored in the "etc" directory with the | |
15 | rest of the Emacs sources. You are using the "nndoc" backend for | |
16 | accessing it. Scary, isn't it? | |
17 | ||
18 | This isn't the real documentation. `M-x info', `m gnus <RET>' to read | |
19 | that. This "newsgroup" is intended as a kinder, gentler way of getting | |
20 | people started. | |
21 | ||
22 | Gnus is a rewrite of GNUS 4.1, written by Masanobu Umeda. The rewrite | |
23 | was done by moi, yours truly, your humble servant, Lars Magne | |
24 | Ingebrigtsen. If you have a WWW browser, you can investigate to your | |
25 | heart's delight at <URL:http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/larsi.html>. | |
26 | ||
27 | ;; Copyright (C) 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc. | |
28 | ||
29 | ;; Author: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no> | |
30 | ;; Keywords: news | |
31 | ||
32 | ;; This file is part of GNU Emacs. | |
33 | ||
34 | ;; GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify | |
35 | ;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by | |
36 | ;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) | |
37 | ;; any later version. | |
38 | ||
39 | ;; GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, | |
40 | ;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of | |
41 | ;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the | |
42 | ;; GNU General Public License for more details. | |
43 | ||
44 | ;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License | |
45 | ;; along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the | |
46 | ;; Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, | |
47 | ;; Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. | |
48 | ||
49 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
50 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
51 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
52 | Subject: Starting up | |
53 | Message-ID: <lars-doc2@eyesore.no> | |
54 | ||
55 | If you are having problems with Gnus not finding your server, you have | |
56 | to set `gnus-select-method'. A "method" is a way of specifying *how* | |
57 | the news is to be found, and from *where*. | |
58 | ||
59 | Say you want to read news from you local, friendly nntp server | |
177c0ea7 | 60 | "news.my.local.server". |
a7bfd66f DL |
61 | |
62 | (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.my.local.server")) | |
63 | ||
64 | Quite easy, huh? | |
65 | ||
66 | From the news spool: | |
67 | ||
68 | (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool "")) | |
69 | ||
70 | From your mh-e spool: | |
71 | ||
72 | (setq gnus-select-method '(nnmh "")) | |
73 | ||
74 | There's a whole bunch of other methods for reading mail and news, see | |
75 | the "Foreign groups" article for that. | |
76 | ||
77 | ||
78 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
79 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
80 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
81 | Subject: Where are all the groups, then? | |
82 | Message-ID: <lars-doc3@eyesore.no> | |
83 | ||
84 | If this is the first time you have used a newsreader, you won't have a | |
85 | .newsrc file. This means that Gnus will think that all the newsgroups | |
86 | on the server are "new", and kill them all. | |
87 | ||
88 | If you have a .newsrc file, the new groups will be processed with the | |
89 | function in the `gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method' variable, which is | |
90 | `gnus-subscribe-zombies' by default. | |
91 | ||
92 | This means that all the groups have been made into "zombies" - not | |
93 | quite dead, but not exactly alive, either. | |
94 | ||
95 | Jump back to the *Group* buffer, and type `A z' to list all the zombie | |
96 | groups. Look though the list, and subscribe to the groups you want to | |
97 | read by pressing `u' on the one you think look interesting. | |
98 | ||
99 | If all the groups have been killed, type `A k' to list all the killed | |
100 | groups. Subscribe to them the same way. | |
101 | ||
102 | When you are satisfied, press `S z' to kill all the zombie groups. | |
103 | ||
104 | Now you should have a nice list of all groups you are interested in. | |
105 | ||
106 | (If you later want to subscribe to more groups, press `A k' to | |
107 | list all the kill groups, and repeat. You can also type `U' and be | |
108 | prompted for groups to subscribe to.) | |
109 | ||
110 | ||
111 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
112 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
113 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
114 | Subject: I want to read my mail! | |
115 | Message-ID: <lars-doc4@eyesore.no> | |
116 | ||
117 | Yes, Virginia, you can read mail with Gnus. | |
118 | ||
119 | First you have to decide which mail backend you want to use. You have | |
120 | nnml, which is a one-file-one-mail backend, which is quite nice, but | |
121 | apt to make your systems administrator go crazy and come after you | |
122 | with a shotgun. | |
123 | ||
124 | nnmbox uses a Unix mail box to store mail. Nice, but slow. | |
125 | ||
126 | nnmh uses mh-e folders, which is also a one-file-one-mail thingie, but | |
127 | slower than nnml. (It doesn't support NOV files.) | |
128 | ||
129 | So if you want to go with nnmbox, you can simply say: | |
130 | ||
131 | (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox ""))) | |
132 | ||
133 | (The same for the other methods, kind of.) | |
134 | ||
177c0ea7 | 135 | You should also set `nnmail-split-methods' to something sensible: |
a7bfd66f | 136 | |
177c0ea7 | 137 | (setq nnmail-split-methods |
a7bfd66f DL |
138 | '(("mail.junk" "From:.*Lars") |
139 | ("mail.misc ""))) | |
140 | ||
141 | This will put all mail from me in you junk mail group, and the rest in | |
177c0ea7 | 142 | "mail.misc". |
a7bfd66f DL |
143 | |
144 | These groups will be subscribe the same way as the normal groups, so | |
145 | you will probably find them among the zombie groups after you set | |
146 | these variables and re-start Gnus. | |
147 | ||
148 | ||
149 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
150 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
151 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
152 | Subject: Foreign newsgroups | |
153 | Message-ID: <lars-doc5@eyesore.no> | |
154 | ||
177c0ea7 | 155 | These are groups that do not come from `gnus-select-method'. |
a7bfd66f DL |
156 | |
157 | Say you want to read "alt.furniture.couches" from "news.funet.fi". You | |
158 | can then either type `B news.funet.fi <RET>' to browse that server and | |
177c0ea7 | 159 | subscribe to that group, or you can type |
a7bfd66f DL |
160 | `G m alt.furniture.couches<RET>nntp<RET>news.funet.fi<RET>', if you |
161 | like to type a lot. | |
162 | ||
163 | If you want to read a directory as a newsgroup, you can create an | |
164 | nndir group, much the same way. There's a shorthand for that, | |
165 | though. If, for instance, you want to read the (ding) list archives, | |
166 | you could type `G d /ftp <RET>'. | |
167 | ||
168 | There's lots more to know about foreign groups, but you have to read | |
169 | the info pages to find out more. | |
170 | ||
171 | ||
172 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
173 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
174 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
175 | Subject: Low level changes in GNUS, or, Wrong type argument: stringp, nil | |
176 | Message-ID: <lars-doc6@eyesore.no> | |
177 | ||
178 | Gnus really isn't GNUS, even though it looks like it. If you scrape | |
179 | the surface, you'll find that most things have changed. | |
180 | ||
177c0ea7 | 181 | This means that old code that relies on GNUS internals will fail. |
a7bfd66f DL |
182 | |
183 | In particular, `gnus-newsrc-hashtb', `gnus-newsrc-assoc', | |
184 | `gnus-killed-list', the `nntp-header-' macros and the display formats | |
185 | have all changed. If you have some code lying around that depend on | |
186 | these, or change these, you'll have to re-write your code. | |
187 | ||
188 | Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably | |
189 | remove all hilit code from all the Gnus hooks | |
190 | (`gnus-group-prepare-hook', `gnus-summary-prepare-hook' and | |
191 | `gnus-summary-article-hook'). (Well, at the very least the first | |
192 | two.) Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting, | |
193 | which are both faster and more accurated. | |
194 | ||
195 | There is absolutely no chance, whatsoever, of getting Gnus to work | |
196 | with Emacs 18. It won't even work on Emacsen older than Emacs | |
197 | 19.30/XEmacs 19.13. Upgrade your Emacs or die. | |
198 | ||
177c0ea7 | 199 | |
a7bfd66f DL |
200 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 |
201 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
202 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
203 | Subject: How do I re-scan my mail groups? | |
204 | Message-ID: <lars-doc8@eyesore.no> | |
205 | ||
206 | Reading the active file from the nntp server is a drag. | |
207 | ||
208 | Just press `M-g' on the mail groups, and they will be re-scanned. | |
209 | ||
210 | You can also re-scan all the mail groups by putting them on level 1 | |
211 | (`S l 1'), and saying `1 g' to re-scan all level 1 groups. | |
212 | ||
213 | ||
214 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
215 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
216 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
217 | Subject: How do I set up virtual newsgroups? | |
218 | Message-ID: <lars-doc9@eyesore.no> | |
219 | ||
220 | Virtual newsgroups are collections of other newsgroups. Why people | |
221 | want this is beyond me, but here goes: | |
222 | ||
223 | Create the group by saying | |
224 | ||
225 | `M-a my.virtual.newsgroup<RET>nnvirtual<RET>^rec\.aquaria\.*<RET>' | |
226 | ||
227 | This will create the group "nnvirtual:my.virtual.newsgroup", which | |
228 | will collect all articles from all the groups in the "rec.aquaria" | |
177c0ea7 | 229 | hierarchy. |
a7bfd66f DL |
230 | |
231 | If you want to edit the regular expression, just type `M-e' on the | |
232 | group line. | |
233 | ||
234 | Note that all the groups that are part of the virtual group have to be | |
235 | alive. This means that the cannot, absolutely not, be zombie or | |
236 | killed. They can be unsubscribed; that's no problem. | |
237 | ||
238 | You can combine groups from different servers in the same virtual | |
239 | newsgroup, something that may actually be useful. Say you have the | |
240 | group "comp.headers" on the server "news.server.no" and the same group | |
241 | on "news.server.edu". If people have posted articles with Distribution | |
242 | headers that stop propagation of their articles, combining these two | |
243 | newsgroups into one virtual newsgroup should give you a better view of | |
244 | what's going on. | |
245 | ||
246 | One caveat, though: The virtual group article numbers from the first | |
247 | source group (group A) will always be lower than the article numbers | |
248 | from the second (group B). This means that Gnus will believe that | |
249 | articles from group A are older than articles from group B. Threading | |
250 | will lessen these problems, but it might be a good idea to sort the | |
251 | threads over the date of the articles to get a correct feel for the | |
252 | flow of the groups: | |
253 | ||
254 | (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions '(gnus-thread-sort-by-date)) | |
255 | ||
256 | If you only want this in virtual groups, you could say something along | |
257 | the lines of: | |
258 | ||
259 | (setq gnus-select-group-hook | |
260 | (lambda () | |
177c0ea7 | 261 | (if (eq 'nnvirtual (car (gnus-find-method-for-group |
a7bfd66f DL |
262 | gnus-newsgroup-name))) |
263 | (progn | |
264 | (make-local-variable 'gnus-thread-sort-functions) | |
265 | (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions '(gnus-thread-sort-by-date)))))) | |
266 | ||
267 | ||
268 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
269 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
270 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
271 | Subject: Bugs & stuff | |
272 | Message-ID: <lars-doc7@eyesore.no> | |
273 | ||
274 | If you want to report a bug, please type `M-x gnus-bug'. This will | |
275 | give me a precise overview of your Gnus and Emacs version numbers, | |
276 | along with a look at all Gnus variables you have changed. | |
277 | ||
278 | Du not expect a reply back, but your bug should be fixed in the next | |
279 | version. If the bug persists, please re-submit your bug report. | |
280 | ||
281 | When a bug occurs, I need a recipe for how to trigger the bug. You | |
282 | have to tell me exactly what you do to uncover the bug, and you should | |
283 | (setq debug-on-error t) and send me the backtrace along with the bug | |
177c0ea7 | 284 | report. |
a7bfd66f DL |
285 | |
286 | If I am not able to reproduce the bug, I won't be able to fix it. | |
287 | ||
288 | I would, of course, prefer that you locate the bug, fix it, and mail | |
289 | me the patches, but one can't have everything. | |
290 | ||
291 | If you have any questions on usage, the "ding@ifi.uio.no" mailing list | |
292 | is where to post the questions. | |
293 | ||
294 |