Installation FAQ

Gnus Manual. Node: Installation FAQ

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10.7.1: Installation

Q1.1 What is the latest version of Gnus?
The latest (and greatest) version is 5.0.10. You might also run across something called September Gnus. September Gnus is the alpha version of the next major release of Gnus. It is currently not stable enough to run unless you are prepared to debug lisp.
Q1.2 Where do I get Gnus?
Any of the following locations:
- `ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/emacs/gnus/gnus.tar.gz'
- `ftp://ftp.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/'
- `gopher://gopher.pilgrim.umass.edu/11/pub/misc/ding/'
- `ftp://aphrodite.nectar.cs.cmu.edu/pub/ding-gnus/'
- `ftp://ftp.solace.mh.se:/pub/gnu/elisp/'
Q1.3 Which version of Emacs do I need?
At least GNU Emacs 19.28, or XEmacs 19.12 is recommended. GNU Emacs 19.25 has been reported to work under certain circumstances, but it doesn't officially work on it. 19.27 has also been reported to work. Gnus has been reported to work under OS/2 as well as Unix.
Q1.4 Where is timezone.el?
Upgrade to XEmacs 19.13. In earlier versions of XEmacs this file was placed with Gnus 4.1.3, but that has been corrected.
Q1.5 When I run Gnus on XEmacs 19.13 I get weird error messages.
You're running an old version of Gnus. Upgrade to at least version 5.0.4.
Q1.6 How do I unsubscribe from the Mailing List?
Send an e-mail message to `ding-request@ifi.uio.no' with the magic word unsubscribe somewhere in it, and you will be removed.

If you are reading the digest version of the list, send an e-mail message to
`ding-rn-digests-d-request@moe.shore.net' with unsubscribe as the subject and you will be removed.
Q1.7 How do I run Gnus on both Emacs and XEmacs?
The basic answer is to byte-compile under XEmacs, and then you can run under either Emacsen. There is, however, a potential version problem with easymenu.el with Gnu Emacs prior to 19.29.

Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes :
The internal easymenu.el interface changed between 19.28 and 19.29 in order to make it possible to create byte compiled files that can be shared between Gnu Emacs and XEmacs. The change is upward compatible, but not downward compatible. This gives the following compatibility table:
```
Compiled with:  | Can be used with:
----------------+--------------------------------------
19.28           | 19.28         19.29
19.29           |               19.29           XEmacs
XEmacs          |               19.29           XEmacs
```
If you have Gnu Emacs 19.28 or earlier, or XEmacs 19.12 or earlier, get a recent version of auc-menu.el from `ftp://ftp.iesd.auc.dk/pub/emacs-lisp/auc-menu.el', and install it under the name easymenu.el somewhere early in your load path.
Q1.8 What resources are available?
There is the newsgroup Gnu.emacs.gnus. Discussion of Gnus 5.x is now taking place there. There is also a mailing list, send mail to `ding-request@ifi.uio.no' with the magic word subscribe somewhere in it.

NOTE: the traffic on this list is heavy so you may not want to be on it (unless you use Gnus as your mailer reader, that is). The mailing list is mainly for developers and testers.

Gnus has a home World Wide Web page at
`http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding.html'.

Gnus has a write up in the X Windows Applications FAQ at
`http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/xapps/Q-III.html'.

The Gnus manual is also available on the World Wide Web. The canonical source is in Norway at
`http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larsi/ding-manual/gnus_toc.html'.

There are three mirrors in the United States:
1. `http://www.miranova.com/gnus-man/'
2. `http://www.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/manual/gnus_toc.html'
3. `http://www.rtd.com/~woo/gnus/'
PostScript copies of the Gnus Reference card are available from
`ftp://ftp.cs.ualberta.ca/pub/oolog/gnus/'. They are mirrored at
`ftp://ftp.pilgrim.umass.edu/pub/misc/ding/refcard/' in the United States. And
`ftp://marvin.fkphy.uni-duesseldorf.de/pub/gnus/' in Germany.

An online version of the Gnus FAQ is available at
`http://www.miranova.com/~steve/gnus-faq.html'. Off-line formats are also available:
ASCII: `ftp://ftp.miranova.com/pub/gnus/gnus-faq'
PostScript: `ftp://ftp.miranova.com/pub/gnus/gnus-faq.ps'.
Q1.9 Gnus hangs on connecting to NNTP server
I am running XEmacs on SunOS and Gnus prints a message about Connecting to NNTP server and then just hangs.

Ben Wing <wing@netcom.com> writes :
I wonder if you're hitting the infamous libresolv problem. The basic problem is that under SunOS you can compile either with DNS or NIS name lookup libraries but not both. Try substituting the IP address and see if that works; if so, you need to download the sources and recompile.
Q1.10 Mailcrypt 3.4 doesn't work
This problem is verified to still exist in Gnus 5.0.9 and MailCrypt 3.4. The answer comes from Peter Arius <arius@immd2.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>.

I found out that mailcrypt uses gnus-eval-in-buffer-window, which is a macro. It seems as if you have compiled mailcrypt with plain old GNUS in load path, and the XEmacs byte compiler has inserted that macro definition into `mc-toplev.elc'. The solution is to recompile `mc-toplev.el' with Gnus 5 in load-path, and it works fine.

Steve Baur <steve@miranova.com> adds :
The problem also manifests itself if neither GNUS 4 nor Gnus 5 is in the load-path.
Q1.11 What other packages work with Gnus?
- Mailcrypt.
  Mailcrypt is an Emacs interface to PGP. It works, it installs without hassle, and integrates very easily. Mailcrypt can be obtained from
  `ftp://cag.lcs.mit.edu/pub/patl/mailcrypt-3.4.tar.gz'.
- Tiny Mime.
  Tiny Mime is an Emacs MUA interface to MIME. Installation is a two-step process unlike most other packages, so you should be prepared to move the byte-compiled code somewhere. There are currently two versions of this package available. It can be obtained from
  `ftp://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/GNU/elisp/'. Be sure to apply the supplied patch. It works with Gnus through version 5.0.9. In order for all dependencies to work correctly the load sequence is as follows:
```
  (load "tm-setup")
  (load "gnus")
  (load "mime-compose")
```
  NOTE: Loading the package disables citation highlighting by default. To get the old behavior back, use the M-t command.

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