Customizing Threading
---------------------

`gnus-show-threads'
     If this variable is `nil', no threading will be done, and all of
     the rest of the variables here will have no effect.  Turning
     threading off will speed group selection up a bit, but it is sure
     to make reading slower and more awkward.

`gnus-fetch-old-headers'
     If non-`nil', Gnus will attempt to build old threads by fetching
     more old headers--headers to articles that are marked as read.  If
     you would like to display as few summary lines as possible, but
     still connect as many loose threads as possible, you should set
     this variable to `some' or a number.  If you set it to a number,
     no more than that number of extra old headers will be fetched.  In
     either case, fetching old headers only works if the backend you
     are using carries overview files--this would normally be `nntp',
     `nnspool' and `nnml'.  Also remember that if the root of the
     thread has been expired by the server, there's not much Gnus can
     do about that.

`gnus-build-sparse-threads'
     Fetching old headers can be slow.  A low-rent similar effect can be
     gotten by setting this variable to `some'.  Gnus will then look at
     the complete `References' headers of all articles and try to string
     articles that belong in the same thread together.  This will leave
     "gaps" in the threading display where Gnus guesses that an article
     is missing from the thread.  (These gaps appear like normal summary
     lines.  If you select a gap, Gnus will try to fetch the article in
     question.)  If this variable is `t', Gnus will display all these
     "gaps" without regard for whether they are useful for completing
     the thread or not.  Finally, if this variable is `more', Gnus
     won't cut off sparse leaf nodes that don't lead anywhere.  This
     variable is `nil' by default.

`gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit'
     Loose threads are gathered by comparing subjects of articles.  If
     this variable is `nil', Gnus requires an exact match between the
     subjects of the loose threads before gathering them into one big
     super-thread.  This might be too strict a requirement, what with
     the presence of stupid newsreaders that chop off long subjects
     lines.  If you think so, set this variable to, say, 20 to require
     that only the first 20 characters of the subjects have to match.
     If you set this variable to a really low number, you'll find that
     Gnus will gather everything in sight into one thread, which isn't
     very helpful.

     If you set this variable to the special value `fuzzy', Gnus will
     use a fuzzy string comparison algorithm on the subjects.

`gnus-simplify-subject-fuzzy-regexp'
     This can either be a regular expression or list of regular
     expressions that match strings that will be removed from subjects
     if fuzzy subject simplification is used.

`gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes'
     If you set `gnus-summary-gather-subject-limit' to something as low
     as 10, you might consider setting this variable to something
     sensible:

          (setq gnus-simplify-ignored-prefixes
                (concat
                 "\\`\\[?\\("
                 (mapconcat 'identity
                            '("looking"
                               "wanted" "followup" "summary\\( of\\)?"
                               "help" "query" "problem" "question"
                               "answer" "reference" "announce"
                               "How can I" "How to" "Comparison of"
                               ;; ...
                               )
                            "\\|")
                            "\\)\\s *\\("
                            (mapconcat 'identity
                                       '("for" "for reference" "with" "about")
                                       "\\|")
                            "\\)?\\]?:?[ \t]*"))

     All words that match this regexp will be removed before comparing
     two subjects.

`gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject'
     Since loose thread gathering is done on subjects only, that might
     lead to many false hits, especially with certain common subjects
     like `' and `(none)'.  To make the situation slightly better, you
     can use the regexp `gnus-summary-gather-exclude-subject' to say
     what subjects should be excluded from the gathering process.  The
     default is `^ *$\\|^(none)$'.

`gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function'
     Gnus gathers threads by looking at `Subject' headers.  This means
     that totally unrelated articles may end up in the same "thread",
     which is confusing.  An alternate approach is to look at all the
     `Message-ID's in all the `References' headers to find matches.
     This will ensure that no gathered threads ever includes unrelated
     articles, but it's also means that people who have posted with
     broken newsreaders won't be gathered properly.  The choice is
     yours--plague or cholera:

    `gnus-gather-threads-by-subject'
          This function is the default gathering function and looks at
          `Subject's exclusively.

    `gnus-gather-threads-by-references'
          This function looks at `References' headers exclusively.

     If you want to test gathering by `References', you could say
     something like:

          (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
                'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)

`gnus-summary-make-false-root'
     If non-`nil', Gnus will gather all loose subtrees into one big tree
     and create a dummy root at the top.  (Wait a minute.  Root at the
     top?  Yup.)  Loose subtrees occur when the real root has expired,
     or you've read or killed the root in a previous session.

     When there is no real root of a thread, Gnus will have to fudge
     something.  This variable says what fudging method Gnus should use.
     There are four possible values:

    `adopt'
          Gnus will make the first of the orphaned articles the parent.
          This parent will adopt all the other articles.  The adopted
          articles will be marked as such by pointy brackets (`<>')
          instead of the standard square brackets (`[]').  This is the
          default method.

    `dummy'
          Gnus will create a dummy summary line that will pretend to be
          the parent.  This dummy line does not correspond to any real
          article, so selecting it will just select the first real
          article after the dummy article.
          `gnus-summary-dummy-line-format' is used to specify the
          format of the dummy roots.  It accepts only one format spec:
          `S', which is the subject of the article.  *Note Formatting
          Variables::.

    `empty'
          Gnus won't actually make any article the parent, but simply
          leave the subject field of all orphans except the first
          empty.  (Actually, it will use `gnus-summary-same-subject' as
          the subject (see Summary Buffer Format.).)

    `none'
          Don't make any article parent at all.  Just gather the
          threads and display them after one another.

    `nil'
          Don't gather loose threads.

`gnus-thread-hide-subtree'
     If non-`nil', all threads will be hidden when the summary buffer is
     generated.

`gnus-thread-hide-killed'
     if you kill a thread and this variable is non-`nil', the subtree
     will be hidden.

`gnus-thread-ignore-subject'
     Sometimes somebody changes the subject in the middle of a thread.
     If this variable is non-`nil', the subject change is ignored.  If
     it is `nil', which is the default, a change in the subject will
     result in a new thread.

`gnus-thread-indent-level'
     This is a number that says how much each sub-thread should be
     indented.  The default is `4'.