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diff --git a/content/emacs/elfeed.md b/content/emacs/elfeed.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9bd64e --- /dev/null +++ b/content/emacs/elfeed.md @@ -0,0 +1,127 @@ ++++ +title = "Read RSS with Elfeed" +author = ["Michał Sapka"] +date = 2023-05-19T23:00:00+02:00 +categories = ["emacs"] +draft = false +weight = 3001 +image_dir = "emacs" +image_max_width = 480 +primary_menu = "cool-emacs-ways" +abstract = "Setting up config inside an org file" +aliases = ["/2023/moving-my-rss-reading-to-emacs-with-elfeed/", "/emacs/moving-my-rss-reading-to-emacs-with-elfeed/", "/cool-emacs/elfeed-literate-config/"] +[menu] + [menu.cool-emacs-ways] + weight = 3001 + identifier = "read-rss-with-elfeed" ++++ + +Since Emacs became my shell of choice[^fn:1], I am abandoning more and more dedicated applications in favor of different packages. +As it turns out, Emacs packages are very feature rich. +This time: I moved my RSS reading from newsboat[^fn:2] to elfeed[^fn:3]. + +Elfeed has very simple keybindings: + +- g will refresh the items list +- G will refresh the items list and fetch new items +- r will mark currently selected item is read (remove unread tag)[^4] +- b will open item in the browser + +One huge upside of elfeed compared to newsboat is image support. +Emacs is a GUI application, so all images are present in their glory! + +{{< image class="centered" alt="An Emacs screenshot showing a list using a dark mode" file="elfeed-list.png" >}} +List of articles +{{< /image >}} + +{{< image class="centered" alt="An Emacs screenshot showing Elfeed in a dark mode with a vintage PC case in the middle" file="elfeed-details.png" >}} +Images! +{{< /image >}} + +My setup is near stock. +I have a few dozen feeds that are auto-tagged. +Three essential tags are "important", "news", and "company". +I want to read each "important", then I want to see all normal, and finally I can just skim "news" and "company". +Adding auto-tagging is very simple: just define the tag when defining the RSS feed list: + +```emacs-lisp +("https://rubenerd.com/feed/" blog important) +("https://www.pine64.org/feed/" company) +``` + +Now, each new article will be tagged with matching tags. +Elfeed allows to define of custom faces that will be applied to items matching tag[^fn:4]: + +```emacs-lisp +(defface important-elfeed-entry + '((t :foreground "#f77")) + "Marks an important Elfeed entry." + :group 'elfeed) + +(defface nonimportant-elfeed-entry + '((t :foreground "#C0C0C0")) + "Marks an nonimportant Elfeed entry." + :group 'elfeed) + +(push '(important important-elfeed-entry) + elfeed-search-face-alist) +(push '(company nonimportant-elfeed-entry) + elfeed-search-face-alist) +(push '(news nonimportant-elfeed-entry) + elfeed-search-face-alist) +``` + +Now important items will be dark red, while company & news will be dark gray + +<div class="img-c"> + +No important things to read at this moment. + +</div> + +Elfeed has a few packages expanding its functionality, but I found the default behavior to be exactly right. + + +## Elfeed-org {#elfeed-org} + +One of the packages expanding capabilities of elfeed is elfeed-org[^fn:5]. +It allows configuring the list of feeds with a standard org tree. +Since my config is now also an org file, nothing stops me from adding the list as an org-tree inside my config org-file! I set it up via: + +{{<highlight lisp "linenos=table,linenostart=199,hl_lines=7">}} + +```org +*** elfeed-org + +#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp +(use-package elfeed-org + :ensure t + :config + (setq rmh-elfeed-org-files (list "~/.emacs.d/config.org")) + (elfeed-org)) +#+END_SRC +``` + +Therefore, I am now pointing at the same file to become the data source for elfeed-org as the rest of my config. +Just a few lines down, I start to define my list of subscriptions: + +```org +*** Feeds :elfeed: + +**** Blogs + +***** https://gideonwolfe.com/index.xml :important: +***** https://fabiensanglard.net/rss.xml. :important: + +**** Emacs + +***** https://protesilaos.com/master.xml :important: +``` + +Much more readable! Elfeed-org will ignore the entire outer tree and extract the feeds from leaves under the `:elfeed:` tag. + +[^fn:1]: [Emacs as a Shell](/2023/emacs-as-a-shell/) +[^fn:2]: [Newsboat homepage](https://newsboat.org/) +[^fn:3]: [Elfeed repository on Github](https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed) +[^fn:4]: my elisp-fu not good +[^fn:5]: <https://github.com/remyhonig/elfeed-org> |