This is gnus, produced by makeinfo version 4.5 from gnus.texi.

INFO-DIR-SECTION The Emacs editor and associated tools
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Gnus: (gnus.info).			The newsreader Gnus.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file documents Gnus, the GNU Emacs newsreader.

   Copyright (C) 1995,96,97,98,99,2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being "A GNU
Manual", and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.  A copy of the
license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation
License" in the Emacs manual.

   (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You have freedom to copy and
modify this GNU Manual, like GNU software.  Copies published by the Free
Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development."

   This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
Documentation License.  If you want to distribute this document
separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.


File: gnus,  Node: Gnus Versions,  Next: Other Gnus Versions,  Up: History

Gnus Versions
-------------

   The first "proper" release of Gnus 5 was done in November 1995 when
it was included in the Emacs 19.30 distribution (132 (ding) Gnus
releases plus 15 Gnus 5.0 releases).

   In May 1996 the next Gnus generation (aka. "September Gnus" (after 99
releases)) was released under the name "Gnus 5.2" (40 releases).

   On July 28th 1996 work on Red Gnus was begun, and it was released on
January 25th 1997 (after 84 releases) as "Gnus 5.4" (67 releases).

   On September 13th 1997, Quassia Gnus was started and lasted 37
releases.  If was released as "Gnus 5.6" on March 8th 1998 (46
releases).

   Gnus 5.6 begat Pterodactyl Gnus on August 29th 1998 and was released
as "Gnus 5.8" (after 99 releases and a CVS repository) on December 3rd
1999.

   If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name -
"(ding) Gnus", "September Gnus", "Red Gnus", "Quassia Gnus" - don't
panic.  Don't let it know that you're frightened.  Back away.  Slowly.
Whatever you do, don't run.  Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its
reach.  Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that
instead.


File: gnus,  Node: Other Gnus Versions,  Next: Why?,  Prev: Gnus Versions,  Up: History

Other Gnus Versions
-------------------

   In addition to the versions of Gnus which have had their releases
coordinated by Lars, one major development has been Semi-gnus from
Japan.  It's based on a library called SEMI, which provides MIME
capabilities.

   These Gnusae are based mainly on Gnus 5.6 and Pterodactyl Gnus.
Collectively, they are called "Semi-gnus", and different strains are
called T-gnus, ET-gnus, Nana-gnus and Chaos.  These provide powerful
MIME and multilingualization things, especially important for Japanese
users.


File: gnus,  Node: Why?,  Next: Compatibility,  Prev: Other Gnus Versions,  Up: History

Why?
----

   What's the point of Gnus?

   I want to provide a "rad", "happening", "way cool" and "hep"
newsreader, that lets you do anything you can think of.  That was my
original motivation, but while working on Gnus, it has become clear to
me that this generation of newsreaders really belong in the stone age.
Newsreaders haven't developed much since the infancy of the net.  If the
volume continues to rise with the current rate of increase, all current
newsreaders will be pretty much useless.  How do you deal with
newsgroups that have thousands of new articles each day?  How do you
keep track of millions of people who post?

   Gnus offers no real solutions to these questions, but I would very
much like to see Gnus being used as a testing ground for new methods of
reading and fetching news.  Expanding on UMEDA-san's wise decision to
separate the newsreader from the backends, Gnus now offers a simple
interface for anybody who wants to write new backends for fetching mail
and news from different sources.  I have added hooks for customizations
everywhere I could imagine it being useful.  By doing so, I'm inviting
every one of you to explore and invent.

   May Gnus never be complete.  `C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs' and `C-u
100 M-x all-hail-xemacs'.


File: gnus,  Node: Compatibility,  Next: Conformity,  Prev: Why?,  Up: History

Compatibility
-------------

   Gnus was designed to be fully compatible with GNUS.  Almost all key
bindings have been kept.  More key bindings have been added, of course,
but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.

   Our motto is:

                         In a cloud bones of steel.

   All commands have kept their names.  Some internal functions have
changed their names.

   The `gnus-uu' package has changed drastically.  *Note Decoding
Articles::.

   One major compatibility question is the presence of several summary
buffers.  All variables relevant while reading a group are buffer-local
to the summary buffer they belong in.  Although many important
variables have their values copied into their global counterparts
whenever a command is executed in the summary buffer, this change might
lead to incorrect values being used unless you are careful.

   All code that relies on knowledge of GNUS internals will probably
fail.  To take two examples: Sorting `gnus-newsrc-alist' (or changing
it in any way, as a matter of fact) is strictly verboten.  Gnus
maintains a hash table that points to the entries in this alist (which
speeds up many functions), and changing the alist directly will lead to
peculiar results.

   Old hilit19 code does not work at all.  In fact, you should probably
remove all hilit code from all Gnus hooks (`gnus-group-prepare-hook'
and `gnus-summary-prepare-hook').  Gnus provides various integrated
functions for highlighting.  These are faster and more accurate.  To
make life easier for everybody, Gnus will by default remove all hilit
calls from all hilit hooks.  Uncleanliness!  Away!

   Packages like `expire-kill' will no longer work.  As a matter of
fact, you should probably remove all old GNUS packages (and other code)
when you start using Gnus.  More likely than not, Gnus already does
what you have written code to make GNUS do.  (Snicker.)

   Even though old methods of doing things are still supported, only the
new methods are documented in this manual.  If you detect a new method
of doing something while reading this manual, that does not mean you
have to stop doing it the old way.

   Gnus understands all GNUS startup files.

   Overall, a casual user who hasn't written much code that depends on
GNUS internals should suffer no problems.  If problems occur, please
let me know by issuing that magic command `M-x gnus-bug'.

   If you are in the habit of sending bug reports _very_ often, you may
find the helpful help buffer annoying after a while.  If so, set
`gnus-bug-create-help-buffer' to `nil' to avoid having it pop up at you.


File: gnus,  Node: Conformity,  Next: Emacsen,  Prev: Compatibility,  Up: History

Conformity
----------

   No rebels without a clue here, ma'am.  We conform to all standards
known to (wo)man.  Except for those standards and/or conventions we
disagree with, of course.

*RFC 822*
     There are no known breaches of this standard.

*RFC 1036*
     There are no known breaches of this standard, either.

*Son-of-RFC 1036*
     We do have some breaches to this one.

    _X-Newsreader_
    _User-Agent_
          These are considered to be "vanity headers", while I consider
          them to be consumer information.  After seeing so many badly
          formatted articles coming from `tin' and `Netscape' I know
          not to use either of those for posting articles.  I would not
          have known that if it wasn't for the `X-Newsreader' header.

*USEFOR*
     USEFOR is an IETF working group writing a successor to RFC 1036,
     based on Son-of-RFC 1036.  They have produced a number of drafts
     proposing various changes to the format of news articles.  The
     Gnus towers will look into implementing the changes when the draft
     is accepted as an RFC.


   If you ever notice Gnus acting non-compliant with regards to the
texts mentioned above, don't hesitate to drop a note to Gnus Towers and
let us know.


File: gnus,  Node: Emacsen,  Next: Gnus Development,  Prev: Conformity,  Up: History

Emacsen
-------

   Gnus should work on :

   * Emacs 20.3 and up.

   * XEmacs 20.4 and up.


   This Gnus version will absolutely not work on any Emacsen older than
that.  Not reliably, at least.  Older versions of Gnus may work on older
Emacs versions.

   There are some vague differences between Gnus on the various
platforms--XEmacs features more graphics (a logo and a toolbar)--but
other than that, things should look pretty much the same under all
Emacsen.


File: gnus,  Node: Gnus Development,  Next: Contributors,  Prev: Emacsen,  Up: History

Gnus Development
----------------

   Gnus is developed in a two-phased cycle.  The first phase involves
much discussion on the `ding@gnus.org' mailing list, where people
propose changes and new features, post patches and new backends.  This
phase is called the "alpha" phase, since the Gnusae released in this
phase are "alpha releases", or (perhaps more commonly in other circles)
"snapshots".  During this phase, Gnus is assumed to be unstable and
should not be used by casual users.  Gnus alpha releases have names
like "Red Gnus" and "Quassia Gnus".

   After futzing around for 50-100 alpha releases, Gnus is declared
"frozen", and only bug fixes are applied.  Gnus loses the prefix, and
is called things like "Gnus 5.6.32" instead.  Normal people are
supposed to be able to use these, and these are mostly discussed on the
`gnu.emacs.gnus' newsgroup.

   Some variable defaults differ between alpha Gnusae and released
Gnusae.  In particular, `mail-source-delete-incoming' defaults to `nil'
in alpha Gnusae and `t' in released Gnusae.  This is to prevent lossage
of mail if an alpha release hiccups while handling the mail.

   The division of discussion between the ding mailing list and the Gnus
newsgroup is not purely based on publicity concerns.  It's true that
having people write about the horrible things that an alpha Gnus release
can do (sometimes) in a public forum may scare people off, but more
importantly, talking about new experimental features that have been
introduced may confuse casual users.  New features are frequently
introduced, fiddled with, and judged to be found wanting, and then
either discarded or totally rewritten.  People reading the mailing list
usually keep up with these rapid changes, whille people on the newsgroup
can't be assumed to do so.


File: gnus,  Node: Contributors,  Next: New Features,  Prev: Gnus Development,  Up: History

Contributors
------------

   The new Gnus version couldn't have been done without the help of all
the people on the (ding) mailing list.  Every day for over a year I have
gotten billions of nice bug reports from them, filling me with joy,
every single one of them.  Smooches.  The people on the list have been
tried beyond endurance, what with my "oh, that's a neat idea <type
type>, yup, I'll release it right away <ship off> no wait, that doesn't
work at all <type type>, yup, I'll ship that one off right away <ship
off> no, wait, that absolutely does not work" policy for releases.
Micro$oft--bah.  Amateurs.  I'm _much_ worse.  (Or is that "worser"?
"much worser"?  "worsest"?)

   I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Academy for...
oops, wrong show.

   * Masanobu UMEDA--the writer of the original GNUS.

   * Shenghuo Zhu--uudecode.el, mm-uu.el, rfc1843.el, webmail.el,
     nnwarchive and many, many other things connected with MIME and
     other types of en/decoding, as well as general bug fixing, new
     functionality and stuff.

   * Per Abrahamsen--custom, scoring, highlighting and SOUP code (as
     well as numerous other things).

   * Luis Fernandes--design and graphics.

   * Justin Sheehy-the FAQ maintainer.

   * Erik Naggum--help, ideas, support, code and stuff.

   * Wes Hardaker--`gnus-picon.el' and the manual section on "picons"
     (*note Picons::).

   * Kim-Minh Kaplan--further work on the picon code.

   * Brad Miller--`gnus-gl.el' and the GroupLens manual section (*note
     GroupLens::).

   * Sudish Joseph--innumerable bug fixes.

   * Ilja Weis--`gnus-topic.el'.

   * Steven L. Baur--lots and lots and lots of bugs detections and
     fixes.

   * Vladimir Alexiev--the refcard and reference booklets.

   * Felix Lee & Jamie Zawinski--I stole some pieces from the XGnus
     distribution by Felix Lee and JWZ.

   * Scott Byer--`nnfolder.el' enhancements & rewrite.

   * Peter Mutsaers--orphan article scoring code.

   * Ken Raeburn--POP mail support.

   * Hallvard B Furuseth--various bits and pieces, especially dealing
     with .newsrc files.

   * Brian Edmonds--`gnus-bbdb.el'.

   * David Moore--rewrite of `nnvirtual.el' and many other things.

   * Kevin Davidson--came up with the name "ding", so blame him.

   * François Pinard--many, many interesting and thorough bug reports,
     as well as autoconf support.


   This manual was proof-read by Adrian Aichner, with Ricardo Nassif,
Mark Borges, and Jost Krieger proof-reading parts of the manual.

   The following people have contributed many patches and suggestions:

   Christopher Davis, Andrew Eskilsson, Kai Grossjohann, David Kċgedal,
Richard Pieri, Fabrice Popineau, Daniel Quinlan, Jason L. Tibbitts, III,
and Jack Vinson.

   Also thanks to the following for patches and stuff:

   Jari Aalto, Adrian Aichner, Vladimir Alexiev, Russ Allbery, Peter
Arius, Matt Armstrong, Marc Auslander, Miles Bader, Alexei V. Barantsev,
Frank Bennett, Robert Bihlmeyer, Chris Bone, Mark Borges, Mark Boyns,
Lance A. Brown, Rob Browning, Kees de Bruin, Martin Buchholz, Joe
Buehler, Kevin Buhr, Alastair Burt, Joao Cachopo, Zlatko Calusic,
Massimo Campostrini, Castor, David Charlap, Dan Christensen, Kevin
Christian, Jae-you Chung, James H. Cloos, Jr., Laura Conrad, Michael R.
Cook, Glenn Coombs, Andrew J. Cosgriff, Neil Crellin, Frank D. Cringle,
Geoffrey T. Dairiki, Andre Deparade, Ulrik Dickow, Dave Disser, Rui-Tao
Dong, Joev Dubach, Michael Welsh Duggan, Dave Edmondson, Paul Eggert,
Mark W. Eichin, Karl Eichwalder, Enami Tsugutomo, Michael Ernst, Luc
Van Eycken, Sam Falkner, Nelson Jose dos Santos Ferreira, Sigbjorn
Finne, Sven Fischer, Paul Fisher, Decklin Foster, Gary D. Foster, Paul
Franklin, Guy Geens, Arne Georg Gleditsch, David S. Goldberg,
Michelangelo Grigni, Dale Hagglund, D. Hall, Magnus Hammerin, Kenichi
Handa, Raja R. Harinath, Yoshiki Hayashi, P. E. Jareth Hein, Hisashige
Kenji, Scott Hofmann, Marc Horowitz, Gunnar Horrigmo, Richard Hoskins,
Brad Howes, Miguel de Icaza, François Felix Ingrand, Tatsuya Ichikawa,
Ishikawa Ichiro, Lee Iverson, Iwamuro Motonori, Rajappa Iyer, Andreas
Jaeger, Adam P. Jenkins, Randell Jesup, Fred Johansen, Gareth Jones,
Simon Josefsson, Greg Klanderman, Karl Kleinpaste, Michael Klingbeil,
Peter Skov Knudsen, Shuhei Kobayashi, Petr Konecny, Koseki Yoshinori,
Thor Kristoffersen, Jens Lautenbacher, Martin Larose, Seokchan Lee,
Joerg Lenneis, Carsten Leonhardt, James LewisMoss, Christian Limpach,
Markus Linnala, Dave Love, Mike McEwan, Tonny Madsen, Shlomo Mahlab,
Nat Makarevitch, Istvan Marko, David Martin, Jason R. Mastaler, Gordon
Matzigkeit, Timo Metzemakers, Richard Mlynarik, Lantz Moore, Morioka
Tomohiko, Erik Toubro Nielsen, Hrvoje Niksic, Andy Norman, Fred
Oberhauser, C. R. Oldham, Alexandre Oliva, Ken Olstad, Masaharu Onishi,
Hideki Ono, Ettore Perazzoli, William Perry, Stephen Peters, Jens-Ulrik
Holger Petersen, Ulrich Pfeifer, Matt Pharr, Andy Piper, John McClary
Prevost, Bill Pringlemeir, Mike Pullen, Jim Radford, Colin Rafferty,
Lasse Rasinen, Lars Balker Rasmussen, Joe Reiss, Renaud Rioboo, Roland
B. Roberts, Bart Robinson, Christian von Roques, Markus Rost, Jason
Rumney, Wolfgang Rupprecht, Jay Sachs, Dewey M. Sasser, Conrad
Sauerwald, Loren Schall, Dan Schmidt, Ralph Schleicher, Philippe
Schnoebelen, Andreas Schwab, Randal L. Schwartz, Danny Siu, Matt
Simmons, Paul D. Smith, Jeff Sparkes, Toby Speight, Michael Sperber,
Darren Stalder, Richard Stallman, Greg Stark, Sam Steingold, Paul
Stevenson, Jonas Steverud, Paul Stodghill, Kiyokazu Suto, Kurt Swanson,
Samuel Tardieu, Teddy, Chuck Thompson, Tozawa Akihiko, Philippe Troin,
James Troup, Trung Tran-Duc, Jack Twilley, Aaron M. Ucko, Aki Vehtari,
Didier Verna, Vladimir Volovich, Jan Vroonhof, Stefan Waldherr, Pete
Ware, Barry A. Warsaw, Christoph Wedler, Joe Wells, Lee Willis, Katsumi
Yamaoka and Lloyd Zusman.

   For a full overview of what each person has done, the ChangeLogs
included in the Gnus alpha distributions should give ample reading
(550kB and counting).

   Apologies to everybody that I've forgotten, of which there are many,
I'm sure.

   Gee, that's quite a list of people.  I guess that must mean that
there actually are people who are using Gnus.  Who'd'a thunk it!


File: gnus,  Node: New Features,  Next: Newest Features,  Prev: Contributors,  Up: History

New Features
------------

* Menu:

* ding Gnus::          New things in Gnus 5.0/5.1, the first new Gnus.
* September Gnus::     The Thing Formally Known As Gnus 5.3/5.3.
* Red Gnus::           Third time best---Gnus 5.4/5.5.
* Quassia Gnus::       Two times two is four, or Gnus 5.6/5.7.

   These lists are, of course, just _short_ overviews of the _most_
important new features.  No, really.  There are tons more.  Yes, we
have feeping creaturism in full effect.


File: gnus,  Node: ding Gnus,  Next: September Gnus,  Up: New Features

(ding) Gnus
...........

   New features in Gnus 5.0/5.1:

   * The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like
     variables (*note Group Buffer Format:: and *note Summary Buffer
     Format::).

   * Local spool and several NNTP servers can be used at once (*note
     Select Methods::).

   * You can combine groups into virtual groups (*note Virtual
     Groups::).

   * You can read a number of different mail formats (*note Getting
     Mail::).  All the mail backends implement a convenient mail expiry
     scheme (*note Expiring Mail::).

   * Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have
     lost their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one
     thread) or it can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a
     complete thread (*note Customizing Threading::).

   * Killed groups can be displayed in the group buffer, and you can
     read them as well (*note Listing Groups::).

   * Gnus can do partial group updates--you do not have to retrieve the
     entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups
     (*note The Active File::).

   * Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups (*note
     Group Levels::).

   * You can score articles according to any number of criteria (*note
     Scoring::).  You can even get Gnus to find out how to score
     articles for you (*note Adaptive Scoring::).

   * Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal Emacs
     manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you
     have read if your machine should go down (*note Auto Save::).

   * Gnus now has its own startup file (`.gnus') to avoid cluttering up
     the `.emacs' file.

   * You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and
     perform operations on all the marked items (*note
     Process/Prefix::).

   * You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from the
     results (*note Kibozed Groups::).

   * You can list subsets of groups according to, well, anything (*note
     Listing Groups::).

   * You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
     servers (*note Browse Foreign Server::).

   * Gnus can fetch articles, asynchronously, on a second connection to
     the server (*note Asynchronous Fetching::).

   * You can cache articles locally (*note Article Caching::).

   * The uudecode functions have been expanded and generalized (*note
     Decoding Articles::).

   * You can still post uuencoded articles, which was a little-known
     feature of GNUS' past (*note Uuencoding and Posting::).

   * Fetching parents (and other articles) now actually works without
     glitches (*note Finding the Parent::).

   * Gnus can fetch FAQs and group descriptions (*note Group
     Information::).

   * Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups
     (*note Document Groups::).

   * Articles can be highlighted and customized (*note Customizing
     Articles::).

   * URLs and other external references can be buttonized (*note
     Article Buttons::).

   * You can do lots of strange stuff with the Gnus window & frame
     configuration (*note Windows Configuration::).

   * You can click on buttons instead of using the keyboard (*note
     Buttons::).



File: gnus,  Node: September Gnus,  Next: Red Gnus,  Prev: ding Gnus,  Up: New Features

September Gnus
..............

   New features in Gnus 5.2/5.3:

   * A new message composition mode is used.  All old customization
     variables for `mail-mode', `rnews-reply-mode' and `gnus-msg' are
     now obsolete.

   * Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads--threads where
     missing articles are represented by empty nodes (*note Customizing
     Threading::).

          (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)

   * Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server (*note
     Archived Messages::).

   * Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are referred.

   * Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions (*note GroupLens::).

   * Picons (personal icons) can be displayed under XEmacs (*note
     Picons::).

   * A `trn'-like tree buffer can be displayed (*note Tree Display::).

          (setq gnus-use-trees t)

   * An `nn'-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
     buffers (*note Pick and Read::).

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

   * In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode (*note
     Binary Groups::).

   * Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy (*note Group
     Topics::).

          (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)

   * Gnus can re-send and bounce mail (*note Summary Mail Commands::).

   * Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
     is possible (*note Group Score::).

          (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)

   * Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
     groups of groups (*note Marking Groups::).

   * Caching is possible in virtual groups.

   * `nndoc' now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews
     news batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about
     everything else (*note Document Groups::).

   * Gnus has a new backend (`nnsoup') to create/read SOUP packets
     (*note SOUP::).

   * The Gnus cache is much faster.

   * Groups can be sorted according to many criteria (*note Sorting
     Groups::).

   * New group parameters have been introduced to set list-addresses and
     expiry times (*note Group Parameters::).

   * All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used (*note
     Formatting Fonts::).

   * There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
     process marked articles on the `M P' submap (*note Setting Process
     Marks::).

   * The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
     articles based on a wide range of criteria.  These commands have
     been bound to keys on the `/' submap (*note Limiting::).

   * Articles can be made persistent with the `*' command (*note
     Persistent Articles::).

   * All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.

   * Article headers can be buttonized (*note Article Washing::).

   * All mail backends support fetching articles by `Message-ID'.

   * Duplicate mail can now be treated properly (*note Duplicates::).

   * All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
     buffer (*note Article Keymap::).

   * Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration' (*note Windows
     Configuration::).

   * Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process (*note Daemons::).

   * Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to weed out spam (*note NoCeM::).

          (setq gnus-use-nocem t)

   * Groups can be made permanently visible (*note Listing Groups::).

          (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")

   * Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.

   * Gnus respects the `Mail-Copies-To' header.

   * Threads can be gathered by looking at the `References' header
     (*note Customizing Threading::).

          (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
                'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)

   * Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
     refetching (*note Article Backlog::).

          (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)

   * A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
     buffer to allow easier treatment.

   * Gnus can suggest where to save articles (*note Saving Articles::).

   * Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving (*note
     Saving Articles::).

          (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)

   * `gnus-uu' can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
     articles (*note Other Decode Variables::).

          (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)

   * Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text
     (*note Article Washing::).

   * Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
     cited text to hide is now customizable (*note Article Hiding::).

          (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)

   * Boring headers can be hidden (*note Article Hiding::).

   * Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.

   * Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.



File: gnus,  Node: Red Gnus,  Next: Quassia Gnus,  Prev: September Gnus,  Up: New Features

Red Gnus
........

   New features in Gnus 5.4/5.5:

   * `nntp.el' has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.

   * Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into Gnus
     (*note Asynchronous Fetching::).

   * Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like `and',
     `or', `not', and parent redirection (*note Advanced Scoring::).

   * Article washing status can be displayed in the article mode line
     (*note Misc Article::).

   * `gnus.el' has been split into many smaller files.

   * Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID can be done
     (*note Duplicate Suppression::).

          (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)

   * New variables for specifying what score and adapt files are to be
     considered home score and adapt files (*note Home Score File::)
     have been added.

   * `nndoc' was rewritten to be easily extendable (*note Document
     Server Internals::).

   * Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics (*note
     Topic Parameters::).

   * Article editing has been revamped and is now actually usable.

   * Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions (*note
     Article Signature::).

   * Summary pick mode has been made to look more `nn'-like.  Line
     numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be used to pick
     articles (`Pick and Read').

   * Commands for moving the `.newsrc.eld' from one server to another
     have been added (*note Changing Servers::).

   * There's a way now to specify that "uninteresting" fields be
     suppressed when generating lines in buffers (*note Advanced
     Formatting::).

   * Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with `M-C-_'
     (*note Undo::).

   * Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w' (*note
     Score File Format::).

   * Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis
     (*note Adaptive Scoring::).

          (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))

   * Scores can be decayed (*note Score Decays::).

          (setq gnus-decay-scores t)

   * Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header.  The
     Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first (*note Score
     File Format::).

   * A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
     the native server (*note Changing Servers::).

   * A new command for reading collections of documents (`nndoc' with
     `nnvirtual' on top) has been added--`M-C-d' (*note Really Various
     Summary Commands::).

   * Process mark sets can be pushed and popped (*note Setting Process
     Marks::).

   * A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post even when the
     NNTP server doesn't allow posting (*note Mail-To-News Gateways::).

   * A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
     ("DejaNews", "Alta Vista", "InReference") has been added (*note
     Web Searches::).

   * Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard sorting
     functions, and each topic can be sorted independently (*note Topic
     Sorting::).

   * Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently (`Sorting
     Groups').

   * Cached articles can be pulled into the groups (*note Summary
     Generation Commands::).

   * Score files are now applied in a more reliable order (*note Score
     Variables::).

   * Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated (*note
     Splitting Mail::).

   * More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk from
     incoming mail before saving the mail (*note Washing Mail::).

   * Emphasized text can be properly fontisized:



File: gnus,  Node: Quassia Gnus,  Prev: Red Gnus,  Up: New Features

Quassia Gnus
............

   New features in Gnus 5.6:

   * New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
     added.  A plethora of new commands and modes have been added.  See
     *note Gnus Unplugged:: for the full story.

   *  The `nndraft' backend has returned, but works differently than
     before.  All Message buffers are now also articles in the `nndraft'
     group, which is created automatically.

   * `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
     values.

   *  `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.

   *  A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
     outside the region: `C-c C-v'.

   *  You can now post to component group in `nnvirtual' groups with
     `C-u C-c C-c'.

   *  `nntp-rlogin-program'--new variable to ease customization.

   *  `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
     re-highlighting of the article buffer.

   *  New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers'--`long-to'.

   *  `M-i' symbolic prefix command.  See the section "Symbolic
     Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.

   *  `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
     `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.

   *  `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
     control over simplification.

   *  `A T'--new command for fetching the current thread.

   *  `/ T'--new command for including the current thread in the limit.

   *  `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.

   *  `\\1'-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.

   *  The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.  If you used
     this function in your initialization files, you must rewrite them
     to use `face-spec-set' instead.

   *  Canceling now uses the current select method.  Symbolic prefix
     `a' forces normal posting method.

   *  New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper
     text--`W d'.

   *  For easier debugging of `nntp', you can set
     `nntp-record-commands' to a non-`nil' value.

   *  `nntp' now uses `~/.authinfo', a `.netrc'-like file, for
     controlling where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.

   *  A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
     has been added.

   *  A history of where mails have been split is available.

   *  A new article date command has been added--`article-date-iso8601'.

   *  Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
     `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.

   *  A new function for citing in Message has been
     added--`message-cite-original-without-signature'.

   *  `article-strip-all-blank-lines'--new article command.

   *  A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has been
     added.

   *  A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
     `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.

   *  The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually updated
     by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.

   *  Web listserv archives can be read with the `nnlistserv' backend.

   *  Old dejanews archives can now be read by `nnweb'.


