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(gnus)Washing Mail

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Washing Mail
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   Mailers and list servers are notorious for doing all sorts of really,
really stupid things with mail.  "Hey, RFC 822 doesn't explicitly
prohibit us from adding the string `wE aRe ElItE!!!!!1!!' to the end of
all lines passing through our server, so let's do that!!!!1!"  Yes, but
RFC 822 wasn't designed to be read by morons.  Things that were
considered to be self-evident were not discussed.  So.  Here we are.

   Case in point:  The German version of Microsoft Exchange adds `AW: '
to the subjects of replies instead of `Re: '.  I could pretend to be
shocked and dismayed by this, but I haven't got the energy.  It is to
laugh.

   Gnus provides a plethora of functions for washing articles while
displaying them, but it might be nicer to do the filtering before
storing the mail to disc.  For that purpose, we have three hooks and
various functions that can be put in these hooks.

`nnmail-prepare-incoming-hook'
     This hook is called before doing anything with the mail and is
     meant for grand, sweeping gestures.  It is called in a buffer that
     contains all the new, incoming mail.  Functions to be used include:

    `nnheader-ms-strip-cr'
          Remove trailing carriage returns from each line.  This is
          default on Emacs running on MS machines.

`nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'
     This hook is called narrowed to each header.  It can be used when
     cleaning up the headers.  Functions that can be used include:

    `nnmail-remove-leading-whitespace'
          Clear leading white space that "helpful" listservs have added
          to the headers to make them look nice.  Aaah.

    `nnmail-remove-list-identifiers'
          Some list servers add an identifier--for example, `(idm)'--to
          the beginning of all `Subject' headers.  I'm sure that's nice
          for people who use stone age mail readers.  This function
          will remove strings that match the `nnmail-list-identifiers'
          regexp, which can also be a list of regexp.
          `nnmail-list-identifiers' may not contain `\\(..\\)'.

          For instance, if you want to remove the `(idm)' and the
          `nagnagnag' identifiers:

               (setq nnmail-list-identifiers
                     '("(idm)" "nagnagnag"))

          This can also be done non-destructively with
          `gnus-list-identifiers', Note: Article Hiding.

    `nnmail-remove-tabs'
          Translate all tab characters into space characters.

    `nnmail-fix-eudora-headers'
          Eudora produces broken `References' headers, but OK
          `In-Reply-To' headers.  This function will get rid of the
          `References' headers.

`nnmail-prepare-incoming-message-hook'
     This hook is called narrowed to each message.  Functions to be used
     include:

    `article-de-quoted-unreadable'
          Decode Quoted Readable encoding.