Go forward to Splitting Mail.
Go up to Getting Mail.

Getting Started Reading Mail
----------------------------

   It's quite easy to use Gnus to read your new mail.  You just plonk
the mail backend of your choice into `gnus-secondary-select-methods',
and things will happen automatically.

   For instance, if you want to use `nnml' (which is a one file per
mail backend), you could put the following in your `.gnus' file:

     (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
           '((nnml "private")))

   Now, the next time you start Gnus, this backend will be queried for
new articles, and it will move all the messages in your spool file to
its directory, which is `~/Mail/' by default.  The new group that will
be created (`mail.misc') will be subscribed, and you can read it like
any other group.

   You will probably want to split the mail into several groups, though:

     (setq nnmail-split-methods
       '(("junk" "^From:.*Lars Ingebrigtsen")
         ("crazy" "^Subject:.*die\\|^Organization:.*flabby")
         ("other" "")))

   This will result in three new mail groups being created:
`nnml:junk', `nnml:crazy', and `nnml:other'.  All the mail that doesn't
fit into the first two groups will be placed in the latter group.

   This should be sufficient for reading mail with Gnus.  You might
want to give the other sections in this part of the manual a perusal,
though, especially see Choosing a Mail Backend. and *note Expiring
Mail::..