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##### 6.8.2.1 Diary Summary Line Format

Displaying diary messages in standard summary line format (usually something like ‘`From Joe: Subject`’) is pretty useless. Most of the time, you're the one who wrote the message, and you mostly want to see the event's date.

`gnus-diary` provides two supplemental user formats to be used in summary line formats. `D` corresponds to a formatted time string for the next occurrence of the event (e.g. “Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00”), while `d` corresponds to an approximative remaining time until the next occurrence of the event (e.g. “in 6 months, 1 week”).

For example, here's how Joe's birthday is displayed in my `nndiary+diary:birthdays` summary buffer (note that the message is expirable, but will never be deleted, as it specifies a periodic event):

            E  Sat, Sep 22 01, 12:00: Joe's birthday (in 6 months, 1 week)

In order to get something like the above, you would normally add the following line to your diary groups'parameters:

         (gnus-summary-line-format "%U%R%z %uD: %(%s%) (%ud)\n")

However, `gnus-diary` does it automatically (see Diary Group Parameters). You can however customize the provided summary line format with the following user options:

— Variable: gnus-diary-summary-line-format

> Defines the summary line format used for diary groups (see Summary Buffer Lines). `gnus-diary` uses it to automatically update the diary groups'parameters.

— Variable: gnus-diary-time-format

> Defines the format to display dates in diary summary buffers. This is used by the `D` user format. See the docstring for details.

— Variable: gnus-diary-delay-format-function

> Defines the format function to use for displaying delays (remaining times) in diary summary buffers. This is used by the `d` user format. There are currently built-in functions for English and French; you can also define your own. See the docstring for details.