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(gnus)Group Mail Splitting

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Group Mail Splitting
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   If you subscribe to dozens of mailing lists but you don't want to
maintain mail splitting rules manually, group mail splitting is for you.
You just have to set TO-LIST and/or TO-ADDRESS in group parameters or
group customization and set `nnmail-split-methods' to
`gnus-group-split'.  This splitting function will scan all groups for
those parameters and split mail accordingly, i.e., messages posted from
or to the addresses specified in the parameters TO-LIST or TO-ADDRESS
of a mail group will be stored in that group.

   Sometimes, mailing lists have multiple addresses, and you may want
mail splitting to recognize them all: just set the EXTRA-ALIASES group
parameter to the list of additional addresses and it's done.  If you'd
rather use a regular expression, set SPLIT-REGEXP.

   All these parameters in a group will be used to create an
`nnmail-split-fancy' split, in which the FIELD is `any', the VALUE is a
single regular expression that matches TO-LIST, TO-ADDRESS, all of
EXTRA-ALIASES and all matches of SPLIT-REGEXP, and the SPLIT is the
name of the group.  RESTRICTs are also supported: just set the
SPLIT-EXCLUDE parameter to a list of regular expressions.

   If you can't get the right split to be generated using all these
parameters, or you just need something fancier, you can set the
parameter SPLIT-SPEC to an `nnmail-split-fancy' split.  In this case,
all other aforementioned parameters will be ignored by
`gnus-group-split'.  In particular, SPLIT-SPEC may be set to `nil', in
which case the group will be ignored by `gnus-group-split'.

   `gnus-group-split' will do cross-posting on all groups that match,
by defining a single `&' fancy split containing one split for each
group.  If a message doesn't match any split, it will be stored in the
group named in `gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group', unless some
group has SPLIT-SPEC set to `catch-all', in which case that group is
used as the catch-all group.  Even though this variable is often used
just to name a group, it may also be set to an arbitrarily complex
fancy split (after all, a group name is a fancy split), and this may be
useful to split mail that doesn't go to any mailing list to personal
mail folders.  Note that this fancy split is added as the last element
of a `|' split list that also contains a `&' split with the rules
extracted from group parameters.

   It's time for an example.  Assume the following group parameters have
been defined:

     nnml:mail.bar:
     ((to-address . "bar@femail.com")
      (split-regexp . ".*@femail\\.com"))
     nnml:mail.foo:
     ((to-list . "foo@nowhere.gov")
      (extra-aliases "foo@localhost" "foo-redist@home")
      (split-exclude "bugs-foo" "rambling-foo")
      (admin-address . "foo-request@nowhere.gov"))
     nnml:mail.others:
     ((split-spec . catch-all))

   Setting `nnmail-split-methods' to `gnus-group-split' will behave as
if `nnmail-split-fancy' had been selected and variable
`nnmail-split-fancy' had been set as follows:

     (| (& (any "\\(bar@femail\\.com\\|.*@femail\\.com\\)" "mail.bar")
           (any "\\(foo@nowhere\\.gov\\|foo@localhost\\|foo-redist@home\\)"
                - "bugs-foo" - "rambling-foo" "mail.foo"))
        "mail.others")

   If you'd rather not use group splitting for all your mail groups, you
may use it for only some of them, by using `nnmail-split-fancy' splits
like this:

     (: gnus-mlsplt-fancy GROUPS NO-CROSSPOST CATCH-ALL)

   GROUPS may be a regular expression or a list of group names whose
parameters will be scanned to generate the output split.  NO-CROSSPOST
can be used to disable cross-posting; in this case, a single `|' split
will be output.  CATCH-ALL is the fallback fancy split, used like
GNUS-GROUP-SPLIT-DEFAULT-CATCH-ALL-GROUP.  If CATCH-ALL is `nil', or if
SPLIT-REGEXP matches the empty string in any selected group, no
catch-all split will be issued.  Otherwise, if some group has
SPLIT-SPEC set to `catch-all', this group will override the value of
the CATCH-ALL argument.

   Unfortunately, scanning all groups and their parameters can be quite
slow, especially considering that it has to be done for every message.
But don't despair!  The function `gnus-group-split-setup' can be used
to enable `gnus-group-split' in a much more efficient way.  It sets
`nnmail-split-methods' to `nnmail-split-fancy' and sets
`nnmail-split-fancy' to the split produced by `gnus-group-split-fancy'.
Thus, the group parameters are only scanned once, no matter how many
messages are split.

   However, if you change group parameters, you have to update
`nnmail-split-fancy' manually.  You can do it by running
`gnus-group-split-update'.  If you'd rather have it updated
automatically, just tell `gnus-group-split-setup' to do it for you.
For example, add to your `.gnus':

     (gnus-group-split-setup AUTO-UPDATE CATCH-ALL)

   If AUTO-UPDATE is non-`nil', `gnus-group-split-update' will be added
to `nnmail-pre-get-new-mail-hook', so you won't ever have to worry
about updating `nnmail-split-fancy' again.  If you don't omit CATCH-ALL
(it's optional, equivalent to `nil'),
`gnus-group-split-default-catch-all-group' will be set to its value.

   Because you may want to change `nnmail-split-fancy' after it is set
by `gnus-group-split-update', this function will run
`gnus-group-split-updated-hook' just before finishing.