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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 | ||
ba318903 | 27 | ;; Copyright (C) 1995, 2001-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
a7bfd66f DL |
28 | |
29 | ;; Author: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no> | |
30 | ;; Keywords: news | |
31 | ||
32 | ;; This file is part of GNU Emacs. | |
33 | ||
ab73e885 | 34 | ;; GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify |
a7bfd66f | 35 | ;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by |
ab73e885 GM |
36 | ;; the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or |
37 | ;; (at your option) any later version. | |
a7bfd66f DL |
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 | |
ab73e885 | 45 | ;; along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. |
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46 | |
47 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
48 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
49 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
50 | Subject: Starting up | |
51 | Message-ID: <lars-doc2@eyesore.no> | |
52 | ||
53 | If you are having problems with Gnus not finding your server, you have | |
54 | to set `gnus-select-method'. A "method" is a way of specifying *how* | |
55 | the news is to be found, and from *where*. | |
56 | ||
57 | Say you want to read news from you local, friendly nntp server | |
177c0ea7 | 58 | "news.my.local.server". |
a7bfd66f DL |
59 | |
60 | (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.my.local.server")) | |
61 | ||
62 | Quite easy, huh? | |
63 | ||
64 | From the news spool: | |
65 | ||
66 | (setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool "")) | |
67 | ||
68 | From your mh-e spool: | |
69 | ||
70 | (setq gnus-select-method '(nnmh "")) | |
71 | ||
72 | There's a whole bunch of other methods for reading mail and news, see | |
73 | the "Foreign groups" article for that. | |
74 | ||
75 | ||
76 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
77 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
78 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
79 | Subject: Where are all the groups, then? | |
80 | Message-ID: <lars-doc3@eyesore.no> | |
81 | ||
82 | If this is the first time you have used a newsreader, you won't have a | |
83 | .newsrc file. This means that Gnus will think that all the newsgroups | |
84 | on the server are "new", and kill them all. | |
85 | ||
86 | If you have a .newsrc file, the new groups will be processed with the | |
87 | function in the `gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-method' variable, which is | |
88 | `gnus-subscribe-zombies' by default. | |
89 | ||
90 | This means that all the groups have been made into "zombies" - not | |
91 | quite dead, but not exactly alive, either. | |
92 | ||
93 | Jump back to the *Group* buffer, and type `A z' to list all the zombie | |
94 | groups. Look though the list, and subscribe to the groups you want to | |
95 | read by pressing `u' on the one you think look interesting. | |
96 | ||
97 | If all the groups have been killed, type `A k' to list all the killed | |
98 | groups. Subscribe to them the same way. | |
99 | ||
100 | When you are satisfied, press `S z' to kill all the zombie groups. | |
101 | ||
102 | Now you should have a nice list of all groups you are interested in. | |
103 | ||
104 | (If you later want to subscribe to more groups, press `A k' to | |
105 | list all the kill groups, and repeat. You can also type `U' and be | |
106 | prompted for groups to subscribe to.) | |
107 | ||
108 | ||
109 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
110 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
111 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
112 | Subject: I want to read my mail! | |
113 | Message-ID: <lars-doc4@eyesore.no> | |
114 | ||
115 | Yes, Virginia, you can read mail with Gnus. | |
116 | ||
117 | First you have to decide which mail backend you want to use. You have | |
118 | nnml, which is a one-file-one-mail backend, which is quite nice, but | |
119 | apt to make your systems administrator go crazy and come after you | |
120 | with a shotgun. | |
121 | ||
122 | nnmbox uses a Unix mail box to store mail. Nice, but slow. | |
123 | ||
124 | nnmh uses mh-e folders, which is also a one-file-one-mail thingie, but | |
125 | slower than nnml. (It doesn't support NOV files.) | |
126 | ||
127 | So if you want to go with nnmbox, you can simply say: | |
128 | ||
129 | (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox ""))) | |
130 | ||
131 | (The same for the other methods, kind of.) | |
132 | ||
177c0ea7 | 133 | You should also set `nnmail-split-methods' to something sensible: |
a7bfd66f | 134 | |
177c0ea7 | 135 | (setq nnmail-split-methods |
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136 | '(("mail.junk" "From:.*Lars") |
137 | ("mail.misc ""))) | |
138 | ||
139 | This will put all mail from me in you junk mail group, and the rest in | |
177c0ea7 | 140 | "mail.misc". |
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141 | |
142 | These groups will be subscribe the same way as the normal groups, so | |
143 | you will probably find them among the zombie groups after you set | |
144 | these variables and re-start Gnus. | |
145 | ||
146 | ||
147 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
148 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
149 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
150 | Subject: Foreign newsgroups | |
151 | Message-ID: <lars-doc5@eyesore.no> | |
152 | ||
177c0ea7 | 153 | These are groups that do not come from `gnus-select-method'. |
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154 | |
155 | Say you want to read "alt.furniture.couches" from "news.funet.fi". You | |
156 | can then either type `B news.funet.fi <RET>' to browse that server and | |
177c0ea7 | 157 | subscribe to that group, or you can type |
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158 | `G m alt.furniture.couches<RET>nntp<RET>news.funet.fi<RET>', if you |
159 | like to type a lot. | |
160 | ||
161 | If you want to read a directory as a newsgroup, you can create an | |
162 | nndir group, much the same way. There's a shorthand for that, | |
163 | though. If, for instance, you want to read the (ding) list archives, | |
164 | you could type `G d /ftp <RET>'. | |
165 | ||
166 | There's lots more to know about foreign groups, but you have to read | |
167 | the info pages to find out more. | |
168 | ||
169 | ||
170 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
171 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
172 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
173 | Subject: Low level changes in GNUS, or, Wrong type argument: stringp, nil | |
174 | Message-ID: <lars-doc6@eyesore.no> | |
175 | ||
176 | Gnus really isn't GNUS, even though it looks like it. If you scrape | |
177 | the surface, you'll find that most things have changed. | |
178 | ||
177c0ea7 | 179 | This means that old code that relies on GNUS internals will fail. |
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180 | |
181 | In particular, `gnus-newsrc-hashtb', `gnus-newsrc-assoc', | |
182 | `gnus-killed-list', the `nntp-header-' macros and the display formats | |
183 | have all changed. If you have some code lying around that depend on | |
184 | these, or change these, you'll have to re-write your code. | |
185 | ||
186 | Old hilit19 code does not work at all. In fact, you should probably | |
187 | remove all hilit code from all the Gnus hooks | |
188 | (`gnus-group-prepare-hook', `gnus-summary-prepare-hook' and | |
189 | `gnus-summary-article-hook'). (Well, at the very least the first | |
190 | two.) Gnus provides various integrated functions for highlighting, | |
91af3942 | 191 | which are both faster and more accurate. |
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192 | |
193 | There is absolutely no chance, whatsoever, of getting Gnus to work | |
194 | with Emacs 18. It won't even work on Emacsen older than Emacs | |
195 | 19.30/XEmacs 19.13. Upgrade your Emacs or die. | |
196 | ||
177c0ea7 | 197 | |
a7bfd66f DL |
198 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 |
199 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
200 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
201 | Subject: How do I re-scan my mail groups? | |
202 | Message-ID: <lars-doc8@eyesore.no> | |
203 | ||
204 | Reading the active file from the nntp server is a drag. | |
205 | ||
206 | Just press `M-g' on the mail groups, and they will be re-scanned. | |
207 | ||
208 | You can also re-scan all the mail groups by putting them on level 1 | |
209 | (`S l 1'), and saying `1 g' to re-scan all level 1 groups. | |
210 | ||
211 | ||
212 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
213 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
214 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
215 | Subject: How do I set up virtual newsgroups? | |
216 | Message-ID: <lars-doc9@eyesore.no> | |
217 | ||
218 | Virtual newsgroups are collections of other newsgroups. Why people | |
219 | want this is beyond me, but here goes: | |
220 | ||
221 | Create the group by saying | |
222 | ||
ba0226dd | 223 | `G m my.virtual.newsgroup<RET>nnvirtual<RET>^rec\.aquaria\.*<RET>' |
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224 | |
225 | This will create the group "nnvirtual:my.virtual.newsgroup", which | |
226 | will collect all articles from all the groups in the "rec.aquaria" | |
177c0ea7 | 227 | hierarchy. |
a7bfd66f DL |
228 | |
229 | If you want to edit the regular expression, just type `M-e' on the | |
230 | group line. | |
231 | ||
232 | Note that all the groups that are part of the virtual group have to be | |
233 | alive. This means that the cannot, absolutely not, be zombie or | |
234 | killed. They can be unsubscribed; that's no problem. | |
235 | ||
236 | You can combine groups from different servers in the same virtual | |
237 | newsgroup, something that may actually be useful. Say you have the | |
238 | group "comp.headers" on the server "news.server.no" and the same group | |
239 | on "news.server.edu". If people have posted articles with Distribution | |
240 | headers that stop propagation of their articles, combining these two | |
241 | newsgroups into one virtual newsgroup should give you a better view of | |
242 | what's going on. | |
243 | ||
244 | One caveat, though: The virtual group article numbers from the first | |
245 | source group (group A) will always be lower than the article numbers | |
246 | from the second (group B). This means that Gnus will believe that | |
247 | articles from group A are older than articles from group B. Threading | |
248 | will lessen these problems, but it might be a good idea to sort the | |
249 | threads over the date of the articles to get a correct feel for the | |
250 | flow of the groups: | |
251 | ||
252 | (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions '(gnus-thread-sort-by-date)) | |
253 | ||
254 | If you only want this in virtual groups, you could say something along | |
255 | the lines of: | |
256 | ||
257 | (setq gnus-select-group-hook | |
258 | (lambda () | |
177c0ea7 | 259 | (if (eq 'nnvirtual (car (gnus-find-method-for-group |
a7bfd66f DL |
260 | gnus-newsgroup-name))) |
261 | (progn | |
262 | (make-local-variable 'gnus-thread-sort-functions) | |
263 | (setq gnus-thread-sort-functions '(gnus-thread-sort-by-date)))))) | |
264 | ||
265 | ||
266 | From lars Thu Feb 23 23:20:38 1995 | |
267 | From: larsi@ifi.uio.no (ding) | |
268 | Date: Fri Feb 24 13:40:45 1995 | |
269 | Subject: Bugs & stuff | |
270 | Message-ID: <lars-doc7@eyesore.no> | |
271 | ||
272 | If you want to report a bug, please type `M-x gnus-bug'. This will | |
273 | give me a precise overview of your Gnus and Emacs version numbers, | |
274 | along with a look at all Gnus variables you have changed. | |
275 | ||
4e2b87d8 | 276 | Do not expect a reply back, but your bug should be fixed in the next |
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277 | version. If the bug persists, please re-submit your bug report. |
278 | ||
279 | When a bug occurs, I need a recipe for how to trigger the bug. You | |
280 | have to tell me exactly what you do to uncover the bug, and you should | |
281 | (setq debug-on-error t) and send me the backtrace along with the bug | |
177c0ea7 | 282 | report. |
a7bfd66f DL |
283 | |
284 | If I am not able to reproduce the bug, I won't be able to fix it. | |
285 | ||
286 | I would, of course, prefer that you locate the bug, fix it, and mail | |
287 | me the patches, but one can't have everything. | |
288 | ||
289 | If you have any questions on usage, the "ding@ifi.uio.no" mailing list | |
290 | is where to post the questions. |