8.1.2 Basic Usage

In the group buffer typing G G will search the group on the current line by calling gnus-group-make-nnir-group. This prompts for a query string, creates an ephemeral nnir group containing the articles that match this query, and takes you to a summary buffer showing these articles. Articles may then be read, moved and deleted using the usual commands.

The nnir group made in this way is an ephemeral group, and some changes are not permanent: aside from reading, moving, and deleting, you can’t act on the original article. But there is an alternative: you can warp (i.e., jump) to the original group for the article on the current line with A W, aka gnus-warp-to-article. Even better, the function gnus-summary-refer-thread, bound by default in summary buffers to A T, will first warp to the original group before it works its magic and includes all the articles in the thread. From here you can read, move and delete articles, but also copy them, alter article marks, whatever. Go nuts.

You say you want to search more than just the group on the current line? No problem: just process-mark the groups you want to search. You want even more? Calling for an nnir search with the cursor on a topic heading will search all the groups under that heading.

Still not enough? OK, in the server buffer gnus-group-make-nnir-group (now bound to G) will search all groups from the server on the current line. Too much? Want to ignore certain groups when searching, like spam groups? Just customize nnir-ignored-newsgroups.

One more thing: individual search engines may have special search features. You can access these special features by giving a prefix-arg to gnus-group-make-nnir-group. If you are searching multiple groups with different search engines you will be prompted for the special search features for each engine separately.