This is ../info/gnus, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from gnus.texi.

START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Gnus: (gnus).         The newsreader 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: Saving Articles,  Next: Decoding Articles,  Prev: Article Backlog,  Up: The Summary Buffer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

`gnus-summary-save-in-folder'
     Save the article to an MH folder using `rcvstore' from the MH
     library.  Uses the function in the `gnus-folder-save-name' variable
     to get a file name to save the article in.  The default is
     `gnus-folder-save-name', but you can also use
     `gnus-Folder-save-name', which creates capitalized names.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

   Here's an example function to clean up file names somewhat.  If you
have lots of mail groups called things like `nnml:mail.whatever', you
may want to chop off the beginning of these group names before creating
the file name to save to.  The following will do just that:

     (defun my-save-name (group)
       (when (string-match "^nnml:mail." group)
         (substring group (match-end 0))))
     
     (setq gnus-split-methods
           '((gnus-article-archive-name)
             (my-save-name)))

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

* Menu:

* Uuencoded Articles::    Uudecode articles.
* Shell Archives::        Unshar articles.
* PostScript Files::      Split PostScript.
* Other Files::           Plain save and binhex.
* Decoding Variables::    Variables for a happy decoding.
* Viewing Files::         You want to look at the result of the decoding?

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

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

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

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


File: gnus,  Node: Uuencoded Articles,  Next: Shell Archives,  Up: Decoding Articles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Shell Archives
--------------

   Shell archives ("shar files") used to be a popular way to distribute
sources, but it isn't used all that much today.  In any case, we have
some commands to deal with these:

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

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

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

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


File: gnus,  Node: PostScript Files,  Next: Other Files,  Prev: Shell Archives,  Up: Decoding Articles

PostScript Files
----------------

`X p'
     Unpack the current PostScript series (`gnus-uu-decode-postscript').

`X P'
     Unpack and save the current PostScript series
     (`gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save').

`X v p'
     View the current PostScript series
     (`gnus-uu-decode-postscript-view').

`X v P'
     View and save the current PostScript series
     (`gnus-uu-decode-postscript-and-save-view').


File: gnus,  Node: Other Files,  Next: Decoding Variables,  Prev: PostScript Files,  Up: Decoding Articles

Other Files
-----------

`X o'
     Save the current series (`gnus-uu-decode-save').

`X b'
     Unbinhex the current series (`gnus-uu-decode-binhex').  This
     doesn't really work yet.


File: gnus,  Node: Decoding Variables,  Next: Viewing Files,  Prev: Other Files,  Up: Decoding Articles

Decoding Variables
------------------

   Adjective, not verb.

* Menu:

* Rule Variables::          Variables that say how a file is to be viewed.
* Other Decode Variables::  Other decode variables.
* Uuencoding and Posting::  Variables for customizing uuencoding.


File: gnus,  Node: Rule Variables,  Next: Other Decode Variables,  Up: Decoding Variables

Rule Variables
..............

   Gnus uses "rule variables" to decide how to view a file.  All these
variables are of the form

           (list '(regexp1 command2)
                 '(regexp2 command2)
                 ...)

`gnus-uu-user-view-rules'
     This variable is consulted first when viewing files.  If you wish
     to use, for instance, `sox' to convert an `.au' sound file, you
     could say something like:
          (setq gnus-uu-user-view-rules
                (list '(\"\\\\.au$\" \"sox %s -t .aiff > /dev/audio\")))

`gnus-uu-user-view-rules-end'
     This variable is consulted if Gnus couldn't make any matches from
     the user and default view rules.

`gnus-uu-user-archive-rules'
     This variable can be used to say what commands should be used to
     unpack archives.


File: gnus,  Node: Other Decode Variables,  Next: Uuencoding and Posting,  Prev: Rule Variables,  Up: Decoding Variables

Other Decode Variables
......................

`gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions'
     All functions in this list will be called right after each file
     has been successfully decoded--so that you can move or view files
     right away, and don't have to wait for all files to be decoded
     before you can do anything.  Ready-made functions you can put in
     this list are:

    `gnus-uu-grab-view'
          View the file.

    `gnus-uu-grab-move'
          Move the file (if you're using a saving function.)

`gnus-uu-be-dangerous'
     Specifies what to do if unusual situations arise during decoding.
     If `nil', be as conservative as possible.  If `t', ignore things
     that didn't work, and overwrite existing files.  Otherwise, ask
     each time.

`gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-name'
     Files with name matching this regular expression won't be viewed.

`gnus-uu-ignore-files-by-type'
     Files with a MIME type matching this variable won't be viewed.
     Note that Gnus tries to guess what type the file is based on the
     name.  `gnus-uu' is not a MIME package (yet), so this is slightly
     kludgey.

`gnus-uu-tmp-dir'
     Where `gnus-uu' does its work.

`gnus-uu-do-not-unpack-archives'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' won't peek inside archives looking
     for files to display.

`gnus-uu-view-and-save'
     Non-`nil' means that the user will always be asked to save a file
     after viewing it.

`gnus-uu-ignore-default-view-rules'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' will ignore the default viewing
     rules.

`gnus-uu-ignore-default-archive-rules'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' will ignore the default archive
     unpacking commands.

`gnus-uu-kill-carriage-return'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' will strip all carriage returns
     from articles.

`gnus-uu-unmark-articles-not-decoded'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' will mark unsuccessfully decoded
     articles as unread.

`gnus-uu-correct-stripped-uucode'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' will _try_ to fix uuencoded files
     that have had trailing spaces deleted.

`gnus-uu-pre-uudecode-hook'
     Hook run before sending a message to `uudecode'.

`gnus-uu-view-with-metamail'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' will ignore the viewing commands
     defined by the rule variables and just fudge a MIME content type
     based on the file name.  The result will be fed to `metamail' for
     viewing.

`gnus-uu-save-in-digest'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu', when asked to save without
     decoding, will save in digests.  If this variable is `nil',
     `gnus-uu' will just save everything in a file without any
     embellishments.  The digesting almost conforms to RFC1153--no easy
     way to specify any meaningful volume and issue numbers were found,
     so I simply dropped them.


File: gnus,  Node: Uuencoding and Posting,  Prev: Other Decode Variables,  Up: Decoding Variables

Uuencoding and Posting
......................

`gnus-uu-post-include-before-composing'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' will ask for a file to encode
     before you compose the article.  If this variable is `t', you can
     either include an encoded file with `C-c C-i' or have one included
     for you when you post the article.

`gnus-uu-post-length'
     Maximum length of an article.  The encoded file will be split into
     how many articles it takes to post the entire file.

`gnus-uu-post-threaded'
     Non-`nil' means that `gnus-uu' will post the encoded file in a
     thread.  This may not be smart, as no other decoder I have seen is
     able to follow threads when collecting uuencoded articles.  (Well,
     I have seen one package that does that--`gnus-uu', but somehow, I
     don't think that counts...) Default is `nil'.

`gnus-uu-post-separate-description'
     Non-`nil' means that the description will be posted in a separate
     article.  The first article will typically be numbered (0/x).  If
     this variable is `nil', the description the user enters will be
     included at the beginning of the first article, which will be
     numbered (1/x).  Default is `t'.


File: gnus,  Node: Viewing Files,  Prev: Decoding Variables,  Up: Decoding Articles

Viewing Files
-------------

   After decoding, if the file is some sort of archive, Gnus will
attempt to unpack the archive and see if any of the files in the
archive can be viewed.  For instance, if you have a gzipped tar file
`pics.tar.gz' containing the files `pic1.jpg' and `pic2.gif', Gnus will
uncompress and de-tar the main file, and then view the two pictures.
This unpacking process is recursive, so if the archive contains archives
of archives, it'll all be unpacked.

   Finally, Gnus will normally insert a "pseudo-article" for each
extracted file into the summary buffer.  If you go to these "articles",
you will be prompted for a command to run (usually Gnus will make a
suggestion), and then the command will be run.

   If `gnus-view-pseudo-asynchronously' is `nil', Emacs will wait until
the viewing is done before proceeding.

   If `gnus-view-pseudos' is `automatic', Gnus will not insert the
pseudo-articles into the summary buffer, but view them immediately.  If
this variable is `not-confirm', the user won't even be asked for a
confirmation before viewing is done.

   If `gnus-view-pseudos-separately' is non-`nil', one pseudo-article
will be created for each file to be viewed.  If `nil', all files that
use the same viewing command will be given as a list of parameters to
that command.

   If `gnus-insert-pseudo-articles' is non-`nil', insert
pseudo-articles when decoding.  It is `t' by default.

   So; there you are, reading your _pseudo-articles_ in your _virtual
newsgroup_ from the _virtual server_; and you think: Why isn't anything
real anymore? How did we get here?


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

Article Treatment
=================

   Reading through this huge manual, you may have quite forgotten that
the object of newsreaders is to actually, like, read what people have
written.  Reading articles.  Unfortunately, people are quite bad at
writing, so there are tons of functions and variables to make reading
these articles easier.

* Menu:

* Article Highlighting::    You want to make the article look like fruit salad.
* Article Fontisizing::     Making emphasized text look nice.
* Article Hiding::          You also want to make certain info go away.
* Article Washing::         Lots of way-neat functions to make life better.
* Article Buttons::         Click on URLs, Message-IDs, addresses and the like.
* Article Date::            Grumble, UT!
* Article Signature::       What is a signature?


File: gnus,  Node: Article Highlighting,  Next: Article Fontisizing,  Up: Article Treatment

Article Highlighting
--------------------

   Not only do you want your article buffer to look like fruit salad,
but you want it to look like technicolor fruit salad.

`W H a'
     Do much highlighting of the current article
     (`gnus-article-highlight').  This function highlights header, cited
     text, the signature, and adds buttons to the body and the head.

     Most users would prefer using `gnus-article-maybe-highlight' in
     `gnus-article-display-hook' (*note Customizing Articles::) instead.
     This is a bit less agressive--it highlights only the headers, the
     signature and adds buttons.

`W H h'
     Highlight the headers (`gnus-article-highlight-headers').  The
     highlighting will be done according to the `gnus-header-face-alist'
     variable, which is a list where each element has the form `(REGEXP
     NAME CONTENT)'.  REGEXP is a regular expression for matching the
     header, NAME is the face used for highlighting the header name
     (*note Faces and Fonts::) and CONTENT is the face for highlighting
     the header value.  The first match made will be used.  Note that
     REGEXP shouldn't have `^' prepended--Gnus will add one.

`W H c'
     Highlight cited text (`gnus-article-highlight-citation').

     Some variables to customize the citation highlights:

    `gnus-cite-parse-max-size'
          If the article size if bigger than this variable (which is
          25000 by default), no citation highlighting will be performed.

    `gnus-cite-prefix-regexp'
          Regexp matching the longest possible citation prefix on a
          line.

    `gnus-cite-max-prefix'
          Maximum possible length for a citation prefix (default 20).

    `gnus-cite-face-list'
          List of faces used for highlighting citations (*note Faces
          and Fonts::).  When there are citations from multiple
          articles in the same message, Gnus will try to give each
          citation from each article its own face.  This should make it
          easier to see who wrote what.

    `gnus-supercite-regexp'
          Regexp matching normal Supercite attribution lines.

    `gnus-supercite-secondary-regexp'
          Regexp matching mangled Supercite attribution lines.

    `gnus-cite-minimum-match-count'
          Minimum number of identical prefixes we have to see before we
          believe that it's a citation.

    `gnus-cite-attribution-prefix'
          Regexp matching the beginning of an attribution line.

    `gnus-cite-attribution-suffix'
          Regexp matching the end of an attribution line.

    `gnus-cite-attribution-face'
          Face used for attribution lines.  It is merged with the face
          for the cited text belonging to the attribution.

`W H s'
     Highlight the signature (`gnus-article-highlight-signature').
     Everything after `gnus-signature-separator' (*note Article
     Signature::) in an article will be considered a signature and will
     be highlighted with `gnus-signature-face', which is `italic' by
     default.

   *Note Customizing Articles::, for how to highlight articles
automatically.


File: gnus,  Node: Article Fontisizing,  Next: Article Hiding,  Prev: Article Highlighting,  Up: Article Treatment

Article Fontisizing
-------------------

   People commonly add emphasis to words in news articles by writing
things like `_this_' or `*this*'.  Gnus can make this look nicer by
running the article through the `W e' (`gnus-article-emphasize')
command.

   How the emphasis is computed is controlled by the
`gnus-emphasis-alist' variable.  This is an alist where the first
element is a regular expression to be matched.  The second is a number
that says what regular expression grouping is used to find the entire
emphasized word.  The third is a number that says what regexp grouping
should be displayed and highlighted.  (The text between these two
groupings will be hidden.)  The fourth is the face used for
highlighting.

     (setq gnus-article-emphasis
           '(("_\\(\\w+\\)_" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-underline)
             ("\\*\\(\\w+\\)\\*" 0 1 gnus-emphasis-bold)))

   By default, there are seven rules, and they use the following faces:
`gnus-emphasis-bold', `gnus-emphasis-italic',
`gnus-emphasis-underline', `gnus-emphasis-bold-italic',
`gnus-emphasis-underline-italic', `gnus-emphasis-underline-bold', and
`gnus-emphasis-underline-bold-italic'.

   If you want to change these faces, you can either use `M-x
customize', or you can use `copy-face'.  For instance, if you want to
make `gnus-emphasis-italic' use a red face instead, you could say
something like:

     (copy-face 'red 'gnus-emphasis-italic)

   *Note Customizing Articles::, for how to fontize articles
automatically.


File: gnus,  Node: Article Hiding,  Next: Article Washing,  Prev: Article Fontisizing,  Up: Article Treatment

Article Hiding
--------------

   Or rather, hiding certain things in each article.  There usually is
much too much cruft in most articles.

`W W a'
     Do quite a lot of hiding on the article buffer
     (`gnus-article-hide').  In particular, this function will hide
     headers, PGP, cited text and the signature.

`W W h'
     Hide headers (`gnus-article-hide-headers').  *Note Hiding
     Headers::.

`W W b'
     Hide headers that aren't particularly interesting
     (`gnus-article-hide-boring-headers').  *Note Hiding Headers::.

`W W s'
     Hide signature (`gnus-article-hide-signature').  *Note Article
     Signature::.

`W W p'
     Hide PGP signatures (`gnus-article-hide-pgp').  The
     `gnus-article-hide-pgp-hook' hook will be run after a PGP
     signature has been hidden.

`W W P'
     Hide PEM (privacy enhanced messages) cruft
     (`gnus-article-hide-pem').

`W W c'
     Hide citation (`gnus-article-hide-citation').  Some variables for
     customizing the hiding:

    `gnus-cited-opened-text-button-line-format'
    `gnus-cited-closed-text-button-line-format'
          Gnus adds buttons to show where the cited text has been
          hidden, and to allow toggle hiding the text.  The format of
          the variable is specified by these format-like variable
          (*note Formatting Variables::).  These specs are valid:

         `b'
               Starting point of the hidden text.

         `e'
               Ending point of the hidden text.

         `l'
               Number of characters in the hidden region.

         `n'
               Number of lines of hidden text.

    `gnus-cited-lines-visible'
          The number of lines at the beginning of the cited text to
          leave shown.

`W W C-c'
     Hide citation (`gnus-article-hide-citation-maybe') depending on the
     following two variables:

    `gnus-cite-hide-percentage'
          If the cited text is of a bigger percentage than this
          variable (default 50), hide the cited text.

    `gnus-cite-hide-absolute'
          The cited text must have at least this length (default 10)
          before it is hidden.

`W W C'
     Hide cited text in articles that aren't roots
     (`gnus-article-hide-citation-in-followups').  This isn't very
     useful as an interactive command, but might be a handy function to
     stick in `gnus-article-display-hook' (*note Customizing
     Articles::).

   All these "hiding" commands are toggles, but if you give a negative
prefix to these commands, they will show what they have previously
hidden.  If you give a positive prefix, they will always hide.

   Also *note Article Highlighting:: for further variables for citation
customization.

   *Note Customizing Articles::, for how to hide article elements
automatically.


File: gnus,  Node: Article Washing,  Next: Article Buttons,  Prev: Article Hiding,  Up: Article Treatment

Article Washing
---------------

   We call this "article washing" for a really good reason.  Namely, the
`A' key was taken, so we had to use the `W' key instead.

   "Washing" is defined by us as "changing something from something to
something else", but normally results in something looking better.
Cleaner, perhaps.

`W l'
     Remove page breaks from the current article
     (`gnus-summary-stop-page-breaking').  *Note Misc Article::, for
     page delimiters.

`W r'
     Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article buffer
     (`gnus-summary-caesar-message').  Unreadable articles that tell
     you to read them with Caesar rotate or rot13.  (Typically
     offensive jokes and such.)

     It's commonly called "rot13" because each letter is rotated 13
     positions in the alphabet, e. g. `B' (letter #2) -> `O' (letter
     #15).  It is sometimes referred to as "Caesar rotate" because
     Caesar is rumored to have employed this form of, uh, somewhat weak
     encryption.

`W t'
     Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
     (`gnus-summary-toggle-header').

`W v'
     Toggle whether to display all headers in the article buffer
     permanently (`gnus-summary-verbose-header').

`W m'
     Toggle whether to run the article through MIME before displaying
     (`gnus-summary-toggle-mime').

`W o'
     Treat overstrike (`gnus-article-treat-overstrike').

`W d'
     Treat M******** sm*rtq**t*s (`gnus-article-treat-dumbquotes').

`W w'
     Do word wrap (`gnus-article-fill-cited-article').  If you use this
     function in `gnus-article-display-hook', it should be run fairly
     late and certainly after any highlighting.

     You can give the command a numerical prefix to specify the width
     to use when filling.

`W c'
     Remove CR (i. e., `^M's on the end of the lines)
     (`gnus-article-remove-cr').

`W q'
     Treat quoted-printable (`gnus-article-de-quoted-unreadable').
     Quoted-Printable is one common MIME encoding employed when sending
     non-ASCII (i. e., 8-bit) articles.  It typically makes strings like
     `déjà vu' look like `d=E9j=E0 vu', which doesn't look very
     readable to me.

`W f'
     Look for and display any X-Face headers
     (`gnus-article-display-x-face').  The command executed by this
     function is given by the `gnus-article-x-face-command' variable.
     If this variable is a string, this string will be executed in a
     sub-shell.  If it is a function, this function will be called with
     the face as the argument.  If the `gnus-article-x-face-too-ugly'
     (which is a regexp) matches the `From' header, the face will not
     be shown.  The default action under Emacs is to fork off an `xv'
     to view the face; under XEmacs the default action is to display
     the face before the `From' header.  (It's nicer if XEmacs has been
     compiled with X-Face support--that will make display somewhat
     faster.  If there's no native X-Face support, Gnus will try to
     convert the `X-Face' header using external programs from the
     `pbmplus' package and friends.)  If you want to have this function
     in the display hook, it should probably come last.

`W b'
     Add clickable buttons to the article (`gnus-article-add-buttons').
     *Note Article Buttons::.

`W B'
     Add clickable buttons to the article headers
     (`gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head').

`W E l'
     Remove all blank lines from the beginning of the article
     (`gnus-article-strip-leading-blank-lines').

`W E m'
     Replace all blank lines with empty lines and then all multiple
     empty lines with a single empty line.
     (`gnus-article-strip-multiple-blank-lines').

`W E t'
     Remove all blank lines at the end of the article
     (`gnus-article-remove-trailing-blank-lines').

`W E a'
     Do all the three commands above (`gnus-article-strip-blank-lines').

`W E A'
     Remove all blank lines (`gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines').

`W E s'
     Remove all white space from the beginning of all lines of the
     article body (`gnus-article-strip-leading-space').

   *Note Customizing Articles::, for how to wash articles automatically.


File: gnus,  Node: Article Buttons,  Next: Article Date,  Prev: Article Washing,  Up: Article Treatment

Article Buttons
---------------

   People often include references to other stuff in articles, and it
would be nice if Gnus could just fetch whatever it is that people talk
about with the minimum of fuzz when you hit `RET' or use the middle
mouse button on these references.

   Gnus adds "buttons" to certain standard references by default:
Well-formed URLs, mail addresses and Message-IDs.  This is controlled by
two variables, one that handles article bodies and one that handles
article heads:

`gnus-button-alist'
     This is an alist where each entry has this form:

          (REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)

    REGEXP
          All text that match this regular expression will be
          considered an external reference.  Here's a typical regexp
          that matches embedded URLs: `<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>'.

    BUTTON-PAR
          Gnus has to know which parts of the matches is to be
          highlighted.  This is a number that says what sub-expression
          of the regexp is to be highlighted.  If you want it all
          highlighted, you use 0 here.

    USE-P
          This form will be `eval'ed, and if the result is non-`nil',
          this is considered a match.  This is useful if you want extra
          sifting to avoid false matches.

    FUNCTION
          This function will be called when you click on this button.

    DATA-PAR
          As with BUTTON-PAR, this is a sub-expression number, but this
          one says which part of the match is to be sent as data to
          FUNCTION.

     So the full entry for buttonizing URLs is then

          ("<URL:\\([^\n\r>]*\\)>" 0 t gnus-button-url 1)

`gnus-header-button-alist'
     This is just like the other alist, except that it is applied to the
     article head only, and that each entry has an additional element
     that is used to say what headers to apply the buttonize coding to:

          (HEADER REGEXP BUTTON-PAR USE-P FUNCTION DATA-PAR)

     HEADER is a regular expression.

`gnus-button-url-regexp'
     A regular expression that matches embedded URLs.  It is used in the
     default values of the variables above.

`gnus-article-button-face'
     Face used on buttons.

`gnus-article-mouse-face'
     Face used when the mouse cursor is over a button.

   *Note Customizing Articles::, for how to buttonize articles
automatically.


File: gnus,  Node: Article Date,  Next: Article Signature,  Prev: Article Buttons,  Up: Article Treatment

Article Date
------------

   The date is most likely generated in some obscure timezone you've
never heard of, so it's quite nice to be able to find out what the time
was when the article was sent.

`W T u'
     Display the date in UT (aka. GMT, aka ZULU)
     (`gnus-article-date-ut').

`W T i'
     Display the date in international format, aka. ISO 8601
     (`gnus-article-date-iso8601').

`W T l'
     Display the date in the local timezone (`gnus-article-date-local').

`W T s'
     Display the date using a user-defined format
     (`gnus-article-date-user').  The format is specified by the
     `gnus-article-time-format' variable, and is a string that's passed
     to `format-time-string'.  See the documentation of that variable
     for a list of possible format specs.

`W T e'
     Say how much time has elapsed between the article was posted and
     now (`gnus-article-date-lapsed').  If you want to have this line
     updated continually, you can put

          (gnus-start-date-timer)

     in your `.gnus.el' file, or you can run it off of some hook.  If
     you want to stop the timer, you can use the `gnus-stop-date-timer'
     command.

`W T o'
     Display the original date (`gnus-article-date-original').  This can
     be useful if you normally use some other conversion function and
     are worried that it might be doing something totally wrong.  Say,
     claiming that the article was posted in 1854.  Although something
     like that is _totally_ impossible.  Don't you trust me? *titter*

   *Note Customizing Articles::, for how to display the date in your
preferred format automatically.


File: gnus,  Node: Article Signature,  Prev: Article Date,  Up: Article Treatment

Article Signature
-----------------

   Each article is divided into two parts--the head and the body.  The
body can be divided into a signature part and a text part.  The variable
that says what is to be considered a signature is
`gnus-signature-separator'.  This is normally the standard `^-- $' as
mandated by son-of-RFC 1036.  However, many people use non-standard
signature separators, so this variable can also be a list of regular
expressions to be tested, one by one.  (Searches are done from the end
of the body towards the beginning.)  One likely value is:

     (setq gnus-signature-separator
           '("^-- $"         ; The standard
             "^-- *$"        ; A common mangling
             "^-------*$"    ; Many people just use a looong
                             ; line of dashes.  Shame!
             "^ *--------*$" ; Double-shame!
             "^________*$"   ; Underscores are also popular
             "^========*$")) ; Pervert!

   The more permissive you are, the more likely it is that you'll get
false positives.

   `gnus-signature-limit' provides a limit to what is considered a
signature.

  1. If it is an integer, no signature may be longer (in characters)
     than that integer.

  2. If it is a floating point number, no signature may be longer (in
     lines) than that number.

  3. If it is a function, the function will be called without any
     parameters, and if it returns `nil', there is no signature in the
     buffer.

  4. If it is a string, it will be used as a regexp.  If it matches,
     the text in question is not a signature.

   This variable can also be a list where the elements may be of the
types listed above.  Here's an example:

     (setq gnus-signature-limit
           '(200.0 "^---*Forwarded article"))

   This means that if there are more than 200 lines after the signature
separator, or the text after the signature separator is matched by the
regular expression `^---*Forwarded article', then it isn't a signature
after all.


File: gnus,  Node: Article Commands,  Next: Summary Sorting,  Prev: Article Treatment,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Article Commands
================

`A P'
     Generate and print a PostScript image of the article buffer
     (`gnus-summary-print-article').  `gnus-ps-print-hook' will be run
     just before printing the buffer.


File: gnus,  Node: Summary Sorting,  Next: Finding the Parent,  Prev: Article Commands,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Summary Sorting
===============

   You can have the summary buffer sorted in various ways, even though I
can't really see why you'd want that.

`C-c C-s C-n'
     Sort by article number (`gnus-summary-sort-by-number').

`C-c C-s C-a'
     Sort by author (`gnus-summary-sort-by-author').

`C-c C-s C-s'
     Sort by subject (`gnus-summary-sort-by-subject').

`C-c C-s C-d'
     Sort by date (`gnus-summary-sort-by-date').

`C-c C-s C-l'
     Sort by lines (`gnus-summary-sort-by-lines').

`C-c C-s C-i'
     Sort by score (`gnus-summary-sort-by-score').

   These functions will work both when you use threading and when you
don't use threading.  In the latter case, all summary lines will be
sorted, line by line.  In the former case, sorting will be done on a
root-by-root basis, which might not be what you were looking for.  To
toggle whether to use threading, type `T T' (*note Thread Commands::).


File: gnus,  Node: Finding the Parent,  Next: Alternative Approaches,  Prev: Summary Sorting,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Finding the Parent
==================

`^'
     If you'd like to read the parent of the current article, and it is
     not displayed in the summary buffer, you might still be able to.
     That is, if the current group is fetched by NNTP, the parent
     hasn't expired and the `References' in the current article are not
     mangled, you can just press `^' or `A r'
     (`gnus-summary-refer-parent-article').  If everything goes well,
     you'll get the parent.  If the parent is already displayed in the
     summary buffer, point will just move to this article.

     If given a positive numerical prefix, fetch that many articles
     back into the ancestry.  If given a negative numerical prefix,
     fetch just that ancestor.  So if you say `3 ^', Gnus will fetch
     the parent, the grandparent and the grandgrandparent of the
     current article.  If you say `-3 ^', Gnus will only fetch the
     grandgrandparent of the current article.

`A R (Summary)'
     Fetch all articles mentioned in the `References' header of the
     article (`gnus-summary-refer-references').

`A T (Summary)'
     Display the full thread where the current article appears
     (`gnus-summary-refer-thread').  This command has to fetch all the
     headers in the current group to work, so it usually takes a while.
     If you do it often, you may consider setting
     `gnus-fetch-old-headers' to `invisible' (*note Filling In
     Threads::).  This won't have any visible effects normally, but
     it'll make this command work a whole lot faster.  Of course, it'll
     make group entry somewhat slow.

     The `gnus-refer-thread-limit' variable says how many old (i. e.,
     articles before the first displayed in the current group) headers
     to fetch when doing this command.  The default is 200.  If `t', all
     the available headers will be fetched.  This variable can be
     overridden by giving the `A T' command a numerical prefix.

`M-^ (Summary)'
     You can also ask the NNTP server for an arbitrary article, no
     matter what group it belongs to.  `M-^'
     (`gnus-summary-refer-article') will ask you for a `Message-ID',
     which is one of those long, hard-to-read thingies that look
     something like `<38o6up$6f2@hymir.ifi.uio.no>'.  You have to get
     it all exactly right.  No fuzzy searches, I'm afraid.

   The current select method will be used when fetching by `Message-ID'
from non-news select method, but you can override this by giving this
command a prefix.

   If the group you are reading is located on a backend that does not
support fetching by `Message-ID' very well (like `nnspool'), you can
set `gnus-refer-article-method' to an NNTP method.  It would, perhaps,
be best if the NNTP server you consult is the one updating the spool
you are reading from, but that's not really necessary.

   Most of the mail backends support fetching by `Message-ID', but do
not do a particularly excellent job at it.  That is, `nnmbox' and
`nnbabyl' are able to locate articles from any groups, while `nnml' and
`nnfolder' are only able to locate articles that have been posted to
the current group.  (Anything else would be too time consuming.)
`nnmh' does not support this at all.


File: gnus,  Node: Alternative Approaches,  Next: Tree Display,  Prev: Finding the Parent,  Up: The Summary Buffer

Alternative Approaches
======================

   Different people like to read news using different methods.  This
being Gnus, we offer a small selection of minor modes for the summary
buffers.

* Menu:

* Pick and Read::               First mark articles and then read them.
* Binary Groups::               Auto-decode all articles.


File: gnus,  Node: Pick and Read,  Next: Binary Groups,  Up: Alternative Approaches

Pick and Read
-------------

   Some newsreaders (like `nn' and, uhm, `Netnews' on VM/CMS) use a
two-phased reading interface.  The user first marks in a summary buffer
the articles she wants to read.  Then she starts reading the articles
with just an article buffer displayed.

   Gnus provides a summary buffer minor mode that allows
this--`gnus-pick-mode'.  This basically means that a few process mark
commands become one-keystroke commands to allow easy marking, and it
provides one additional command for switching to the summary buffer.

   Here are the available keystrokes when using pick mode:

`.'
     Pick the article or thread on the current line
     (`gnus-pick-article-or-thread').  If the variable
     `gnus-thread-hide-subtree' is true, then this key selects the
     entire thread when used at the first article of the thread.
     Otherwise, it selects just the article. If given a numerical
     prefix, go to that thread or article and pick it.  (The line
     number is normally displayed at the beginning of the summary pick
     lines.)

`SPACE'
     Scroll the summary buffer up one page (`gnus-pick-next-page').  If
     at the end of the buffer, start reading the picked articles.

`u'
     Unpick the thread or article
     (`gnus-pick-unmark-article-or-thread').  If the variable
     `gnus-thread-hide-subtree' is true, then this key unpicks the
     thread if used at the first article of the thread.  Otherwise it
     unpicks just the article.  You can give this key a numerical
     prefix to unpick the thread or article at that line.

`RET'
     Start reading the picked articles (`gnus-pick-start-reading').  If
     given a prefix, mark all unpicked articles as read first.  If
     `gnus-pick-display-summary' is non-`nil', the summary buffer will
     still be visible when you are reading.

   All the normal summary mode commands are still available in the
pick-mode, with the exception of `u'.  However `!' is available which
is mapped to the same function `gnus-summary-tick-article-forward'.

   If this sounds like a good idea to you, you could say:

     (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)

   `gnus-pick-mode-hook' is run in pick minor mode buffers.

   If `gnus-mark-unpicked-articles-as-read' is non-`nil', mark all
unpicked articles as read.  The default is `nil'.

   The summary line format in pick mode is slightly different from the
standard format.  At the beginning of each line the line number is
displayed.  The pick mode line format is controlled by the
`gnus-summary-pick-line-format' variable (*note Formatting
Variables::).  It accepts the same format specs that
`gnus-summary-line-format' does (*note Summary Buffer Lines::).


File: gnus,  Node: Binary Groups,  Prev: Pick and Read,  Up: Alternative Approaches

Binary Groups
-------------

   If you spend much time in binary groups, you may grow tired of
hitting `X u', `n', `RET' all the time.  `M-x gnus-binary-mode' is a
minor mode for summary buffers that makes all ordinary Gnus article
selection functions uudecode series of articles and display the result
instead of just displaying the articles the normal way.

   The only way, in fact, to see the actual articles is the `g'
command, when you have turned on this mode (`gnus-binary-show-article').

   `gnus-binary-mode-hook' is called in binary minor mode buffers.

