diff --git a/doc/misc/gnus.texi b/doc/misc/gnus.texi index 2f4bc0cbf8..9ee7a8c1df 100644 --- a/doc/misc/gnus.texi +++ b/doc/misc/gnus.texi @@ -402,6 +402,7 @@ Top @end iftex @menu +* Don't Panic:: Your first 20 minutes with Gnus. * Starting Up:: Finding news can be a pain. * Group Buffer:: Selecting, subscribing and killing groups. * Summary Buffer:: Reading, saving and posting articles. @@ -432,6 +433,13 @@ Top @detailmenu --- The Detailed Node Listing --- +Don't Panic + +* Servers Groups and Articles:: What Gnus is made of. +* How to Get Mail:: Where does mail come from? +* How to View Mail:: How do I see it? +* How to Send Mail:: How do I send it? + Starting Gnus * Finding the News:: Choosing a method for getting news. @@ -947,6 +955,158 @@ Top @end detailmenu @end menu +@node Don't Panic +@chapter Don't Panic + +Welcome, gentle user, to the Gnus newsreader and email client! Gnus +is unlike most clients, in part because of its endless +configurability, in part because of its historical origins. Gnus is +now a fully-featured email client, but it began life as a Usenet-style +newsreader, and its DNA is still newsreader DNA. Thus it behaves a +little differently than most mail clients. + +The typical assumptions of a newsreader are: + +@enumerate +@item +The server offers a potentially enormous number of newsgroups on a +variety of subjects. The user may only be interested in some of those +groups, and more interested in some than others. +@item +Many groups see a high volume of articles, and the user won't want to +read all of them. Mechanisms are needed for foregrounding interesting +articles, and backgrounding uninteresting articles. +@item +Once a group has been scanned and dealt with by the user, it's +unlikely to be of further interest until new articles come in. +@end enumerate + +These assumptions lead to certain default Gnus behaviors: + +@enumerate +@item +Not all interesting groups are equally interesting, thus groups have +varying degrees of ``subscribedness'', with different behavior +depending on ``how subscribed'' a group is. +@item +There are many commands and tools for scoring and sorting articles, +or otherwise sweeping them under the rug. +@item +Gnus will only show you groups with unread or ticked articles; +groups with no new articles are hidden. +@item +When entering a group, only unread or ticked articles are shown, +all other articles are hidden. +@end enumerate + +If this seems draconian, think of it as Automatic Inbox Zero. This is +the way Gnus works by default. It is possible to make it work more +like an email client (always showing read groups and read articles), +but that takes some effort on the part of the user. + +The brief introduction below should be enough to get you off the +ground. + +@menu +* Servers Groups and Articles:: What Gnus is made of. +* How to Get Mail:: Where does mail come from? +* How to View Mail:: How do I see it? +* How to Send Mail:: How do I send it? +@end menu + +@node Servers Groups and Articles +@section Servers, Groups, and Articles + +The fundamental building blocks of Gnus are servers, groups, and +articles. Servers can be local or remote. They maintain a list of +groups, and those groups contain articles. Because Gnus presents a +unified interface to a wide variety of servers, the vocabulary doesn't +always quite line up (see @pxref{FAQ - Glossary} for a more complete +glossary). Thus a local maildir is referred to as a ``server'' the +same as a Usenet or IMAP server is; ``group'' might mean an NNTP +group, IMAP folder, or local mail directory; and an ``article'' might +elsewhere be known as a message or an email. Gnus employs unified +terms for all these things. + +Servers fall into two general categories: ``news-like'', meaning that +the articles are part of a public archive and can't be manipulated by +the user; and ``mail-like'', meaning that the articles are owned by +the user, who can freely edit them, move them around, and delete +them. + +For news-like servers, which typically offer hundreds or thousands of +groups, it's important to be able to subscribe to a subset of those +groups. For mail-like servers, the user is generally automatically +subscribed to all groups (though IMAP, for example, also allows +selective subscription). To change group subscription, enter the +Server buffer (with @kbd{^}), press @kbd{@key{RET}} the server in +question, and toggle subscription to individual groups using @kbd{u}. + +A Gnus installation is basically just a list of one or more servers, +plus the user's subscribed groups from those servers, plus articles in +those groups. + +Servers can be added and configured in two places: in the user's +gnus.el startup file, using the @code{gnus-select-method} and +@code{gnus-secondary-select-methods} options, or within Gnus itself +using interactive commands in the Server buffer. See @pxref{Finding +the News} for details. + + +@node How to Get Mail +@section How to Get Mail + +New mail has to come from somewhere. Some servers, such as NNTP or +IMAP, are themselves responsible for fetching newly-arrived articles. +Others, such as maildir or mbox servers, only store articles and don't +fetch them from anywhere. + +In the second case, Gnus provides for @code{mail sources}: places +where new mail is fetched from. A mail source might be a local spool, +or a remote POP server, or some other source of incoming articles. +Mail sources are usually configured globally, but can be specified +per-group (see @pxref{Mail Sources} for more information). + +The @kbd{g} key is used to update Gnus and fetch new mail. Servers +that fetch their own mail will do so; additionally, all the mail +sources will be scanned for new mail. That incoming mail will then be +split into local servers according to the users splitting rules (see +@pxref{Splitting Mail}). + +@node How to View Mail +@section How to View Mail + +By default, Gnus's Group buffer only displays groups with unread +articles. It is always possible to display all the groups temporarily +with @kbd{L}, and to configure Gnus to always display some groups (see +@pxref{Listing Groups}). The @kbd{j} key will prompt for a group name +and jump to it, displaying it if it was hidden. + +Press @kbd{@key{RET}} on a group to enter it: by default Gnus will +only show unread and ticked articles. It's possible to see +already-read mail, either by giving a prefix argument to +@kbd{@key{RET}} before entering the group, or by pressing @kbd{/ o} +once the group is open. + +Articles can be opened and scrolled using @kbd{@key{RET}} and/or +@kbd{@key{SPC}}, and @kbd{n} will select the next article. + +@node How to Send Mail +@section How to Send Mail + +When sending messages, too, Gnus makes a distinction between news-like +and mail-like behavior. News servers handle delivery themselves, and +no additional configuration is necessary. Begin composing a news +article using the @kbd{a} key in the Group buffer, or @kbd{F} if +you're in a group and replying to an article. + +Mail message composition starts with @kbd{m} in the Group buffer, or +@kbd{R} if you're replying to an existing message. Because mail is +sent with SMTP, which is an entirely separate process from the +mail-reading servers, it must also be configured separately, with the +option @code{message-send-mail-function} @xref{Mail Variables, ,Mail +Variables,message,Message manual}. + @node Starting Up @chapter Starting Gnus @cindex starting up