miscellaneous Gnus questions

miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Joe Wells]

Hi, folks,

Here are some miscellaneous Gnus questions:

1. What keys/command do I use to re-scan all groups from a particular
   server?  (For example, I want to rescan all of my nnml groups without
   rescanning any nntp or nndir groups.)  I know there are commands to (1)
   re-scan all groups on a particular level and (2) re-scan a particular
   group (does this ever affect other groups?), but that is not what I
   want.

2. What is the difference between gnus-subscribe-alphabetically and
   gnus-subscribe-hierarchically?  I have read the documentation and
   looked at the source code yet clarity eludes me.

3. How do I arrange for articles to be marked as expirable from a score
   file without affecting the treatment of articles by ordinary reading?

4. How do I arrange for score-file changes to be specified by a score
   file?  What I want to do is completely wipe out all trace of the
   existence of a particular person.  So not only do I want to kill all of
   his articles, but I want to kill any followups to his articles, to the
   nth generation.  The way I envision this happening is that a score file
   entry would match the "from" field for this person and then add a new
   SCORE file entry for the "message-id" field of the current article.

   But the only action a score file entry that matches on the "from" field
   can take is to raise or lower the score of the current article.

5. For mail groups, the "%R" format spec for gnus-group-line-format counts
   all messages that have ever existed in the group, including those which
   have been destroyed by the "B DEL" command.  The information it uses
   seems to come from the active file.  Is there some way to get an
   accurate count of the *existing* read messages from the "%R" format
   spec?

6. In the summary buffer, what is difference between "M P b" and "M P a"?
   They seem to do the same thing and the documentation strings (from "C-h
   k") are not enlightening.

-- 
Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

jbw@cs.bu.edu (Joe Wells) writes:

> 1. What keys/command do I use to re-scan all groups from a particular
>    server?  (For example, I want to rescan all of my nnml groups without
>    rescanning any nntp or nndir groups.)  I know there are commands to (1)
>    re-scan all groups on a particular level and (2) re-scan a particular
>    group (does this ever affect other groups?), but that is not what I
>    want.

There is no command to re-scan a particular server.
`(gnus-request-scan SERVER)' will do that for you.  Perhaps there
should be a command as well?

> 2. What is the difference between gnus-subscribe-alphabetically and
>    gnus-subscribe-hierarchically?  I have read the documentation and
>    looked at the source code yet clarity eludes me.

You and me both.  This is definitely a function that has survived
unscathed from GNUS 4.1:

(defun gnus-subscribe-hierarchically (newgroup)
  "Subscribe new NEWSGROUP and insert it in hierarchical newsgroup order."
  ;; Basic ideas by mike-w@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Mike Williams)
  (save-excursion
    (set-buffer (find-file-noselect gnus-current-startup-file))
    (let ((groupkey newgroup)
	  before)
      (while (and (not before) groupkey)
	(goto-char (point-min))
	(let ((groupkey-re
	       (concat "^\\(" (regexp-quote groupkey) ".*\\)[!:]")))
	  (while (and (re-search-forward groupkey-re nil t)
		      (progn
			(setq before (match-string 1))
			(string< before newgroup)))))
	;; Remove tail of newsgroup name (eg. a.b.c -> a.b)
	(setq groupkey
	      (if (string-match "^\\(.*\\)\\.[^.]+$" groupkey)
		  (substring groupkey (match-beginning 1) (match-end 1)))))
      (gnus-subscribe-newsgroup newgroup before))))

Uhm.  What does it do?

> 3. How do I arrange for articles to be marked as expirable from a score
>    file without affecting the treatment of articles by ordinary reading?

You can't do that.

> 4. How do I arrange for score-file changes to be specified by a score
>    file?  What I want to do is completely wipe out all trace of the
>    existence of a particular person.

Score on "followup".

> 5. For mail groups, the "%R" format spec for gnus-group-line-format counts
>    all messages that have ever existed in the group, including those which
>    have been destroyed by the "B DEL" command.  The information it uses
>    seems to come from the active file.  Is there some way to get an
>    accurate count of the *existing* read messages from the "%R" format
>    spec?

Nope.  This is on the Red Gnus todo list, though.

> 6. In the summary buffer, what is difference between "M P b" and "M P a"?
>    They seem to do the same thing and the documentation strings (from "C-h
>    k") are not enlightening.

`M P a' marks all articles in "series" order while `M P b' marks all
articles in the order they appear in the buffer.

-- 
  "Yes.  The journey through the human heart 
     would have to wait until some other time."

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Per Abrahamsen]

>>>>> "JW" == Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu> writes:

JW> Hi, folks,

JW> Here are some miscellaneous Gnus questions:

JW> 3. How do I arrange for articles to be marked as expirable from a score
JW>    file without affecting the treatment of articles by ordinary reading?

You can't.

JW> 4. [ ... ] The way I envision this happening is that a score file
JW>    entry would match the "from" field for this person and then add a new
JW>    SCORE file entry for the "message-id" field of the current article.
JW>    [ ... ]

Use `L f' to lower the score of followups to a specific author.

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Jack Vinson]

>>>>> "LMI" == Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no> writes:

>> 2. What is the difference between gnus-subscribe-alphabetically and
>> gnus-subscribe-hierarchically?  I have read the documentation and
>> looked at the source code yet clarity eludes me.

LMI> You and me both.  This is definitely a function that has survived
LMI> unscathed from GNUS 4.1:

I assume this is supposed to subscribe to groups by their hierarchy.  :-)
As in put all "alt.rec" groups together.  It probably ends up having the
same effect as subscribing alphabetically, though, since an alpha grouping
will do the same thing.  If there is any difference, it might order the
overall ("alt", "comp", etc.) groups differently.


>> 6. In the summary buffer, what is difference between "M P b" and "M P a"?
>> They seem to do the same thing and the documentation strings (from "C-h
>> k") are not enlightening.

LMI> `M P a' marks all articles in "series" order while `M P b' marks all
LMI> articles in the order they appear in the buffer.

A "series" being a group of numbered articles (as in the binaries groups)?
Could a series also be a group of articles with the same subject?

-- 
Jack Vinson                       jvinson@cheux.ecs.umass.edu
Sunderland, MA                    <http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~vinson/home.html>
Q. "Is a cat's urinary tract health important?"  A. "Yes, very."
     - Purina Cat Chow Special Formula Commercial

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Jack Vinson <jvinson@cheux.ecs.umass.edu> writes:

> LMI> `M P a' marks all articles in "series" order while `M P b' marks all
> LMI> articles in the order they appear in the buffer.
> 
> A "series" being a group of numbered articles (as in the binaries groups)?

Yup.

> Could a series also be a group of articles with the same subject?

I think that would also be considered a series most of the time. 

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@ifi.uio.no * Lars Ingebrigtsen

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Joe Wells]

  Lars> There is no command to re-scan a particular server.
  Lars> `(gnus-request-scan SERVER)' will do that for you.  Perhaps there
  Lars> should be a command as well?

I think there should be a keybinding for this.  Checking for new mail is
quick, while checking for new news is slow.  Since the "g" command
combines these two, this unnecessarily slows down checking for new mail.

Perhaps it is enough to make gnus-request-scan interactive and give it a
keybinding.

-- 
Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Colin Rafferty]

"Joe" == Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu> writes:
"Lars" == You Know Who <ynw@you.know.where> writes:

Lars> There is no command to re-scan a particular server.
Lars> `(gnus-request-scan SERVER)' will do that for you.  Perhaps there
Lars> should be a command as well?

Joe> I think there should be a keybinding for this.  Checking for new mail is
Joe> quick, while checking for new news is slow.  Since the "g" command
Joe> combines these two, this unnecessarily slows down checking for new mail.

The only problem with calling `gnus-request-scan' directly is that it
does not update the *Group* buffer.  I use nnml.  Below is my solution.
If someone wants to make this a little more general (mh, etc.), be my
guest.  I have already sent in my papers.

(defun gnus-group-get-new-nnml ()
  "Get new mail only."
  (interactive)
  (let ((gnus-group-new-mail-list nil)
	(nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
	 (cons '(lambda ()
		  (setq gnus-group-new-mail-list
			(union gnus-group-new-mail-list
			       (mapcar 'car group-art))))
	       nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook)))
    (nnml-request-scan)
    (let ((gnus-group-marked (mapcar '(lambda (group)
					(concat "nnml:" group))
				     gnus-group-new-mail-list)))
      (gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group))
    (when gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
      (gnus-group-next-unread-group 1 t))
    (gnus-summary-position-point)
    (gnus-group-list-groups)
    gnus-group-new-mail-list))

-- 
Colin

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Hallvard B Furuseth]

> This is definitely a function that has survived unscathed from GNUS
> 4.1:
> 
> (defun gnus-subscribe-hierarchically (newgroup)
>   ...)
> 
> Uhm.  What does it do?

Apparently it finds a newsgroup in .newsrc with as many components as
possible matching the initial components of NEWSGROUP.  If there are
several groups with equally many initial components, NEWSGROUP is
inserted before the first group which sorts after NEWSGROUP.  I think.
Except that if that's what it's supposed to do, it doesn't work because
it doesn't require the final component to be followed by ".", "!" or ":"
in .newsrc.  I think.  I think it should be searching for something like
this instead (unchecked).  I think.
  
  (concat "^\\(" (regexp-quote groupkey) "\\(\\.[^ \n\r\t]*\\)?\\)[!:]")


No, I don't really think.   It's too late.  G'night.

Regards,

Hallvard

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu> writes:

>   Lars> There is no command to re-scan a particular server.
>   Lars> `(gnus-request-scan SERVER)' will do that for you.  Perhaps there
>   Lars> should be a command as well?
> 
> I think there should be a keybinding for this.  Checking for new mail is
> quick, while checking for new news is slow.  Since the "g" command
> combines these two, this unnecessarily slows down checking for new mail.

I've now added a command for this in the server buffer.

-- 
  "Yes.  The journey through the human heart 
     would have to wait until some other time."

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Roger Williams]

Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu> writes:
>   Lars> There is no command to re-scan a particular server.
>   Lars> `(gnus-request-scan SERVER)' will do that for you.  Perhaps there
>   Lars> should be a command as well?

> I think there should be a keybinding for this.  Checking for new mail is
> quick, while checking for new news is slow.  Since the "g" command
> combines these two, this unnecessarily slows down checking for new mail.

Well, you can always do something like this:

(defun gnus-group-get-new-nnml ()
  "Get new mail only."
  (interactive)
  (let ((gnus-group-new-mail-list nil)
	(nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook
	 (cons '(lambda ()
		  (setq gnus-group-new-mail-list
			(union gnus-group-new-mail-list
			       (mapcar 'car group-art))))
	       nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook)))
    (nnml-request-scan)
    (let ((gnus-group-marked (mapcar '(lambda (group)
					(concat "nnml:" group))
				     gnus-group-new-mail-list)))
      (gnus-group-get-new-news-this-group))
    (when gnus-goto-next-group-when-activating
      (gnus-group-next-unread-group 1 t))
    (gnus-summary-position-point)
    (gnus-group-list-groups)
    gnus-group-new-mail-list))
(define-key gnus-group-mode-map "\C-cg" 'gnus-group-get-new-nnml)

-- 
Roger Williams                         finger me for my PGP public key
Coelacanth Engineering        consulting & turnkey product development
Middleborough, MA           wireless * DSP-based instrumentation * ATE
tel +1 508 947-8049 * fax +1 508 947-9118 * http://www.coelacanth.com/

Re: miscellaneous Gnus questions

[Roger Williams]

>>>>> "Me, Myself, & I" == Roger Williams <roger@coelacanth.com> writes:

  > Well, you can always do something like this:

  > (defun gnus-group-get-new-nnml ()
  > [...]

Umm, I should have pointed out that this function was written by Colin
Rafferty (and posted here, I think; only it's expired in my ding nnml
group).  I simply snarfed it out of my .gnus.el, along with the key
definition with which I'd pressed it into immediate service.

My apologies; and thanks, Colin.

-- 
Roger Williams                         finger me for my PGP public key
Coelacanth Engineering        consulting & turnkey product development
Middleborough, MA           wireless * DSP-based instrumentation * ATE
tel +1 508 947-8049 * fax +1 508 947-9118 * http://www.coelacanth.com/