Re: random questions mostly about Gnus configuration variables

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no>]

Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu> writes:

> 1.  The doc string ("C-h v") of gnus-fetch-old-headers is unclear.  The
>     doc string seems to imply that Gnus will scan the "references" headers
>     of the articles and then request the headers of the referred articles.
>     But in fact, setting this variable non-nil seems to make Gnus blindly
>     fetch all of the headers in the newsgroup.  What really happens?

It fetches all the headers in the newsgroups and then goes through the
References headers.  That's an implementation detail, though.

> 2.  What is gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes used by?  The doc string is
>     unclear.

It's used whenever Gnus does fuzzy simplification.

> 3.  The doc string of gnus-build-sparse-threads is unclear.  What does
>     this really do?  What are the "gaps" to which the doc string refers?

See the manual for details.

> 5.  How do gnus-auto-subscribed-groups, gnus-options-subscribe, and
>     gnus-options-not-subscribe interact?

I think this is covered at length in the manual.

> 6.  What is the difference between nil and 'some for
>     gnus-read-active-file?

As is this.

> 7.  Why did I see the message "Loading hexl" while Gnus was fetching
>     headers for a group?  What does Gnus use "hexl" for?

To translate QP encoded text.

> 9.  What are the interactions between the to-address, to-group, and
>     to-list parameters of a group?  What happens if you set more than one
>     of them?  What is the difference between to-address and to-list?

And this is also covered in the manual, I think.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@ifi.uio.no * Lars Ingebrigtsen