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##### 6.2.1.4 NNTP marks

Gnus stores marks (see Marking Articles) for NNTP servers in marks files. A marks file records what marks you have set in a group and each file is specific to the corresponding server. Marks files are stored in `~/News/marks` (`nntp-marks-directory`) under a classic hierarchy resembling that of a news server, for example marks for the group ‘`gmane.discuss`’ on the news.gmane.org server will be stored in the file `~/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/.marks`.

Marks files are useful because you can copy the `~/News/marks` directory (using rsync, scp or whatever) to another Gnus installation, and it will realize what articles you have read and marked. The data in `~/News/marks` has priority over the same data in `~/.newsrc.eld`.

Note that marks files are very much server-specific: Gnus remembers the article numbers so if you don't use the same servers on both installations things are most likely to break (most NNTP servers do not use the same article numbers as any other server). However, if you use servers A, B, C on one installation and servers A, D, E on the other, you can sync the marks files for A and then you'll get synchronization for that server between the two installations.

Using NNTP marks can possibly incur a performance penalty so if Gnus feels sluggish, try setting the `nntp-marks-is-evil` variable to `t`. Marks will then be stored in `~/.newsrc.eld`.

Related variables:

`nntp-marks-is-evil`
  If non-`nil`, this back end will ignore any marks files. The default is `nil`.
`nntp-marks-directory`
  The directory where marks for nntp groups will be stored.