Next: The imap Engine, Up: Setting up nnir

##### 8.1.3.1 Associating Engines

When searching a group, `nnir` needs to know which search engine to use. You can configure a given server to use a particular engine by setting the server variable `nnir-search-engine` to the engine name. For example to use the `namazu` engine to search the server named `home` you can use

         (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
               '((nnml "home"
                  (nnimap-address "localhost")
                  (nnir-search-engine namazu))))

Alternatively you might want to use a particular engine for all servers with a given backend. For example, you might want to use the `imap` engine for all servers using the `nnimap` backend. In this case you can customize the variable `nnir-method-default-engines`. This is an alist of pairs of the form `(backend . engine)`. By default this variable is set to use the `imap` engine for all servers using the `nnimap` backend, and the `gmane` backend for `nntp` servers. (Don't worry, the `gmane` search engine won't actually try to search non-gmane `nntp` servers.) But if you wanted to use `namazu` for all your servers with an `nnimap` backend you could change this to

         '((nnimap . namazu)
           (nntp . gmane))