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(message)News Headers

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News Headers
============

   `message-required-news-headers' a list of header symbols.  These
headers will either be automatically generated, or, if that's
impossible, they will be prompted for.  The following symbols are valid:

`From'
     This required header will be filled out with the result of the
     `message-make-from' function, which depends on the
     `message-from-style', `user-full-name', `user-mail-address'
     variables.

`Subject'
     This required header will be prompted for if not present already.

`Newsgroups'
     This required header says which newsgroups the article is to be
     posted to.  If it isn't present already, it will be prompted for.

`Organization'
     This optional header will be filled out depending on the
     `message-user-organization' variable.
     `message-user-organization-file' will be used if this variable is
     `t'.  This variable can also be a string (in which case this string
     will be used), or it can be a function (which will be called with
     no parameters and should return a string to be used).

`Lines'
     This optional header will be computed by Message.

`Message-ID'
     This required header will be generated by Message.  A unique ID
     will be created based on the date, time, user name and system
     name.  Message will use `system-name' to determine the name of the
     system.  If this isn't a fully qualified domain name (FQDN),
     Message will use `mail-host-address' as the FQDN of the machine.

`User-Agent'
     This optional header will be filled out according to the
     `message-newsreader' local variable.

`In-Reply-To'
     This optional header is filled out using the `Date' and `From'
     header of the article being replied to.

`Expires'
     This extremely optional header will be inserted according to the
     `message-expires' variable.  It is highly deprecated and shouldn't
     be used unless you know what you're doing.

`Distribution'
     This optional header is filled out according to the
     `message-distribution-function' variable.  It is a deprecated and
     much misunderstood header.

`Path'
     This extremely optional header should probably never be used.
     However, some _very_ old servers require that this header is
     present.  `message-user-path' further controls how this `Path'
     header is to look.  If it is `nil', use the server name as the
     leaf node.  If it is a string, use the string.  If it is neither a
     string nor `nil', use the user name only.  However, it is highly
     unlikely that you should need to fiddle with this variable at all.

   In addition, you can enter conses into this list.  The car of this
cons should be a symbol.  This symbol's name is the name of the header,
and the cdr can either be a string to be entered verbatim as the value
of this header, or it can be a function to be called.  This function
should return a string to be inserted.  For instance, if you want to
insert `Mime-Version: 1.0', you should enter `(Mime-Version . "1.0")'
into the list.  If you want to insert a funny quote, you could enter
something like `(X-Yow . yow)' into the list.  The function `yow' will
then be called without any arguments.

   If the list contains a cons where the car of the cons is `optional',
the cdr of this cons will only be inserted if it is non-`nil'.

   Other variables for customizing outgoing news articles:

`message-syntax-checks'
     Controls what syntax checks should not be performed on outgoing
     posts.  To disable checking of long signatures, for instance, add

          (signature . disabled)

     to this list.

     Valid checks are:

    `subject-cmsg'
          Check the subject for commands.

    `sender'
          Insert a new `Sender' header if the `From' header looks odd.

    `multiple-headers'
          Check for the existence of multiple equal headers.

    `sendsys'
          Check for the existence of version and sendsys commands.

    `message-id'
          Check whether the `Message-ID' looks ok.

    `from'
          Check whether the `From' header seems nice.

    `long-lines'
          Check for too long lines.

    `control-chars'
          Check for invalid characters.

    `size'
          Check for excessive size.

    `new-text'
          Check whether there is any new text in the messages.

    `signature'
          Check the length of the signature.

    `approved'
          Check whether the article has an `Approved' header, which is
          something only moderators should include.

    `empty'
          Check whether the article is empty.

    `invisible-text'
          Check whether there is any invisible text in the buffer.

    `empty-headers'
          Check whether any of the headers are empty.

    `existing-newsgroups'
          Check whether the newsgroups mentioned in the `Newsgroups' and
          `Followup-To' headers exist.

    `valid-newsgroups'
          Check whether the `Newsgroups' and `Followup-to' headers are
          valid syntactically.

    `repeated-newsgroups'
          Check whether the `Newsgroups' and `Followup-to' headers
          contains repeated group names.

    `shorten-followup-to'
          Check whether to add a `Followup-to' header to shorten the
          number of groups to post to.

     All these conditions are checked by default.

`message-ignored-news-headers'
     Regexp of headers to be removed before posting.  The default is
     `^NNTP-Posting-Host:\\|^Xref:\\|^[BGF]cc:\\|^Resent-Fcc:'.

`message-default-news-headers'
     This string is inserted at the end of the headers in all message
     buffers that are initialized as news.