2.16.4 Topic Topology

So, let's have a look at an example group buffer:

     Gnus
       Emacs -- I wuw it!
          3: comp.emacs
          2: alt.religion.emacs
         Naughty Emacs
          452: alt.sex.emacs
            0: comp.talk.emacs.recovery
       Misc
          8: comp.binaries.fractals
         13: comp.sources.unix

So, here we have one top-level topic (‘Gnus’), two topics under that, and one sub-topic under one of the sub-topics. (There is always just one (1) top-level topic). This topology can be expressed as follows:

     (("Gnus" visible)
      (("Emacs -- I wuw it!" visible)
       (("Naughty Emacs" visible)))
      (("Misc" visible)))

This is in fact how the variable gnus-topic-topology would look for the display above. That variable is saved in the .newsrc.eld file, and shouldn't be messed with manually—unless you really want to. Since this variable is read from the .newsrc.eld file, setting it in any other startup files will have no effect.

This topology shows what topics are sub-topics of what topics (right), and which topics are visible. Two settings are currently allowed—visible and invisible.