Starting Up
The First Time
The gnus-select-method variable says where Gnus should look for
news. This variable should be a list where the first element says
how and the second element says where. This method is your
native method. All groups not fetched with this method are
foreign groups.
For instance, if the `news.somewhere.edu' NNTP server is where
you want to get your daily dosage of news from, you'd say:
(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.somewhere.edu"))
If you want to read directly from the local spool, say:
(setq gnus-select-method '(nnspool ""))
If you can use a local spool, you probably should, as it will almost certainly be much faster.
If this variable is not set, Gnus will take a look at the
NNTPSERVER environment variable. If that variable isn't set,
Gnus will see whether gnus-nntpserver-file
(`/etc/nntpserver' by default) has any opinions on the matter. If
that fails as well, Gnus will try to use the machine running Emacs as an NNTP server. That's a long shot, though.
If gnus-nntp-server is set, this variable will override
gnus-select-method. You should therefore set
gnus-nntp-server to nil, which is what it is by default.
You can also make Gnus prompt you interactively for the name of an
NNTP server. If you give a non-numerical prefix to gnus
(i.e., C-u M-x gnus), Gnus will let you choose between the servers
in the gnus-secondary-servers list (if any). You can also just
type in the name of any server you feel like visiting.
However, if you use one NNTP server regularly and are just
interested in a couple of groups from a different server, you would be
better served by using the B command in the group buffer. It will
let you have a look at what groups are available, and you can subscribe
to any of the groups you want to. This also makes `.newsrc'
maintenance much tidier. See Foreign Groups.
A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
gnus-secondary-select-methods variable. The select methods
listed in this variable are in many ways just as native as the
gnus-select-method server. They will also be queried for active
files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
groups are.
For instance, if you use the nnmbox backend to read your mail, you
would typically set this variable to
(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnmbox "")))
Starting Up
The First Time