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### 6.8 Email Based Diary

This section describes a special mail back end called `nndiary`, and its companion library `gnus-diary`. It is “special” in the sense that it is not meant to be one of the standard alternatives for reading mail with Gnus. See Choosing a Mail Back End for that. Instead, it is used to treat some of your mails in a special way, namely, as event reminders.

Here is a typical scenario:

- You've got a date with Andy Mc Dowell or Bruce Willis (select according to your sexual preference) in one month. You don't want to forget it.
- So you send a “reminder” message (actually, a diary one) to yourself.
- You forget all about it and keep on getting and reading new mail, as usual.
- From time to time, as you type `g' in the group buffer and as the date is getting closer, the message will pop up again to remind you of your appointment, just as if it were new and unread.
- Read your “new” messages, this one included, and start dreaming again of the night you're gonna have.
- Once the date is over (you actually fell asleep just after dinner), the message will be automatically deleted if it is marked as expirable.

The Gnus Diary back end has the ability to handle regular appointments (that wouldn't ever be deleted) as well as punctual ones, operates as a real mail back end and is configurable in many ways. All of this is explained in the sections below.