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8.1 Summary Score Commands

The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify real score files. That would be too inefficient. Gnus maintains a cache of previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the current score file alist. The score commands simply insert entries into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.

The current score file is by default the group’s local score file, even if no such score file actually exists. To insert score commands into some other score file (e.g., all.SCORE), you must first make this score file the current one.

General score commands that don’t actually change the score file:

V s ¶

Set the score of the current article (gnus-summary-set-score).

V S ¶

Display the score of the current article (gnus-summary-current-score).

V t ¶

Display all score rules that have been used on the current article (gnus-score-find-trace). In the *Score Trace* buffer, you may type e to edit score file corresponding to the score rule on current line and f to format (gnus-score-pretty-print) the score file and edit it.

V w ¶

List words used in scoring (gnus-score-find-favorite-words).

V R ¶

Run the current summary through the scoring process (gnus-summary-rescore). This might be useful if you’re playing around with your score files behind Gnus’ back and want to see the effect you’re having.

V c ¶

Make a different score file the current (gnus-score-change-score-file).

V e ¶

Edit the current score file (gnus-score-edit-current-scores). You will be popped into a gnus-score-mode buffer (see Score File Editing).

V f ¶

Edit a score file and make this score file the current one (gnus-score-edit-file).

V F ¶

Flush the score cache (gnus-score-flush-cache). This is useful after editing score files.

V C ¶

Customize a score file in a visually pleasing manner (gnus-score-customize).

The rest of these commands modify the local score file.

V m ¶

Prompt for a score, and mark all articles with a score below this as read (gnus-score-set-mark-below).

V x ¶

Prompt for a score, and add a score rule to the current score file to expunge all articles below this score (gnus-score-set-expunge-below).

The keystrokes for actually making score entries follow a very regular pattern, so there’s no need to list all the commands. (Hundreds of them.)

1. The first key is either I (upper case i) for increasing the score or L for lowering the score.
2. The second key says what header you want to score on. The following keys are available:

   a

   Score on the author name.

   s

   Score on the subject line.

   x

   Score on the Xref line—i.e., the cross-posting line.

   r

   Score on the References line.

   d

   Score on the date.

   l

   Score on the number of lines.

   i

   Score on the Message-ID header.

   e

   Score on an “extra” header, that is, one of those in gnus-extra-headers, if your NNTP server tracks additional header data in overviews.

   f

   Score on followups—this matches the author name, and adds scores to the followups to this author. (Using this key leads to the creation of ADAPT files.)

   b

   Score on the body.

   h

   Score on the head.

   t

   Score on thread. (Using this key leads to the creation of ADAPT files.)

3. The third key is the match type. Which match types are valid depends on what headers you are scoring on.

   strings

   e

   Exact matching.

   s

   Substring matching.

   f

   Fuzzy matching (see Fuzzy Matching).

   r

   Regexp matching.

   date

   b

   Before date.

   a

   After date.

   n

   This date.

   number

   <

   Less than number.

   =

   Equal to number.

   >

   Greater than number.

   body-strings

   These match types are available on the ‘head’ and body “header types”.

   z

   Substring matching.

   p

   Regexp matching.

4. The fourth and usually final key says whether this is a temporary (i.e., expiring) score entry, or a permanent (i.e., non-expiring) score entry, or whether it is to be done immediately, without adding to the score file.

   t

   Temporary score entry.

   p

   Permanent score entry.

   i

   Immediately scoring.

5. If you are scoring on ‘e’ (extra) headers, you will then be prompted for the header name on which you wish to score. This must be a header named in gnus-extra-headers, and ‘TAB’ completion is available.

So, let’s say you want to increase the score on the current author with exact matching permanently: I a e p. If you want to lower the score based on the subject line, using substring matching, and make a temporary score entry: L s s t. Pretty easy.

To make things a bit more complicated, there are shortcuts. If you use a capital letter on either the second or third keys, Gnus will use defaults for the remaining one or two keystrokes. The defaults are “substring” and “temporary”. So I A is the same as I a s t, and I a R is the same as I a r t. (These shortcuts are not available for the body matches.)

These functions take both the numerical prefix and the symbolic prefix (see Symbolic Prefixes). A numerical prefix says how much to lower (or increase) the score of the article. A symbolic prefix of a says to use the all.SCORE file for the command instead of the current score file.

The gnus-score-mimic-keymap says whether these commands will pretend they are keymaps or not.