8.1.1 What is nnir?

nnir is a Gnus interface to a number of tools for searching through mail and news repositories. Different backends (like nnimap and nntp) work with different tools (called engines in nnir lingo), but all use the same basic search interface.

The nnimap and gmane search engines should work with no configuration. Other engines require a local index that needs to be created and maintained outside of Gnus.