Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Lloyd Zusman]

I'm using a very recent version of Oort to access my imap and nntp
servers on a central host.  I have three installations of Oort on three
separate machines, each Oort instance configured identically to point to
the same imap and nntp servers.  I do this because during the course of
a day, I work from each of these three machines.

All this works fine, except for the inconvenient fact that my marks and
"read" statuses are local to each machine.  Therefore, I find myself
re-reading and re-marking messages when I go from machine to machine.

Has anyone invented a procedure for sync-ing marks and article statuses
across multiple versions of gnus?

Yes, I know that I can use rsync or something similar to keep the
appropriate files in sync on the various machines ... once I figure out
which files to sync up and not to sync up (any hints?).  But before I
re-invent the wheel, I'm wondering if someone else has tackled this
problem already, and if perhaps there's some existing software I can use
for this purpose.

Thanks in advance.

-- 
 Lloyd Zusman
 ljz@asfast.com

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Simon Josefsson]

Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:

> I'm using a very recent version of Oort to access my imap and nntp
> servers on a central host.  I have three installations of Oort on three
> separate machines, each Oort instance configured identically to point to
> the same imap and nntp servers.  I do this because during the course of
> a day, I work from each of these three machines.
>
> All this works fine, except for the inconvenient fact that my marks and
> "read" statuses are local to each machine.  Therefore, I find myself
> re-reading and re-marking messages when I go from machine to machine.
>
> Has anyone invented a procedure for sync-ing marks and article statuses
> across multiple versions of gnus?

For IMAP, the server should keep all state, for NNTP you have to sync
.newsrc.eld or similar.  If the IMAP server doesn't support
client-specific flags, Gnus specific flags (e.g., expired and dormant)
won't be synced either.  Read flags should definitely be synced
though.  Does it help to press M-g before entering a group?  Did you
mean they weren't synced in the group buffer (unread article count),
or in the summary buffer?  The former is a known bug, but the latter
should work.

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Lloyd Zusman]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

> Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:
>
>> [ ... ]
>>
>> Has anyone invented a procedure for sync-ing marks and article statuses
>> across multiple versions of gnus?
>
> For IMAP, the server should keep all state, for NNTP you have to sync
> .newsrc.eld or similar.  If the IMAP server doesn't support
> client-specific flags, Gnus specific flags (e.g., expired and dormant)
> won't be synced either.  Read flags should definitely be synced
> though.  Does it help to press M-g before entering a group?  Did you
> mean they weren't synced in the group buffer (unread article count),
> or in the summary buffer?  The former is a known bug, but the latter
> should work.

Yes, I was confused by the unread article count in the group buffer.
The actual read and unread articles indeed show up properly in the
summary buffer.

With regard to the gnus-specific flags (expired, dormant, etc.) and the
nntp state: is it sufficient that I sync `.newsrc.eld', or do I have to
sync other items, as well? ... what about `.newsrc' (without the `.eld'
suffix)?

Thanks for your help.

-- 
 Lloyd Zusman
 ljz@asfast.com

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Simon Josefsson]

Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:

> Yes, I was confused by the unread article count in the group buffer.
> The actual read and unread articles indeed show up properly in the
> summary buffer.

Ok, that's normal.

> With regard to the gnus-specific flags (expired, dormant, etc.) and the
> nntp state: is it sufficient that I sync `.newsrc.eld', or do I have to
> sync other items, as well? ... what about `.newsrc' (without the `.eld'
> suffix)?

.newsrc.eld should be enough, although you might want to be careful
when syncing it as it contains other stuff as well.

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[David S Goldberg]

I use unison <http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/> to keep
(most of) my home directories in sync.  For gnus, I'm pretty sure that
keeping .xemacs/*, .gnus, .newsrc* and .Mail and .News directories in
sync works fine though it may be overkill (I exclude the .News/agent
and its subdirectories to save time, for example).
-- 
Dave Goldberg
david.goldberg6@verizon.net

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Kai Großjohann]

Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:

> Has anyone invented a procedure for sync-ing marks and article statuses
> across multiple versions of gnus?

I used to do that, and ~/News/, ~/Mail/, ~/.nnmail-cache, ~/.newsrc*
are sufficient (with the default filename settings).

But I keep wondering whether there might be another
solution...  Could you log in to a central host and run Gnus from
there?  For running two Gnusae on the same host, M-x gnus-slave RET
is your friend.
-- 
file-error; Data: (Opening input file no such file or directory ~/.signature)

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Lloyd Zusman]

> Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:
>
>> Has anyone invented a procedure for sync-ing marks and article statuses
>> across multiple versions of gnus?
>
> I used to do that, and ~/News/, ~/Mail/, ~/.nnmail-cache, ~/.newsrc*
> are sufficient (with the default filename settings).
>
> But I keep wondering whether there might be another
> solution...  Could you log in to a central host and run Gnus from
> there?  For running two Gnusae on the same host, M-x gnus-slave RET
> is your friend.

No, I can't log in to the central host from the remote machines. :(
All I can do is get remote IMAP, NNTP, rsync, etc. connections.  If I
could log in, then I would have done that, and I wouldn't have needed to
ask this question in the first place. [sigh]


-- 
 Lloyd Zusman
 ljz@asfast.com

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, kai.grossjohann@gmx.net wrote:
> But I keep wondering whether there might be another
> solution...  Could you log in to a central host and run Gnus from
> there?  For running two Gnusae on the same host, M-x gnus-slave RET
> is your friend.

Also gnuserv/gnuclient and screen are very useful in this regard.

Ted

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Niklas Morberg]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, kai.grossjohann@gmx.net wrote:
>> But I keep wondering whether there might be another
>> solution... Could you log in to a central host and run
>> Gnus from there? For running two Gnusae on the same
>> host, M-x gnus-slave RET is your friend.

Interesting. I guess you run two separate emacs processes?
Or is there a way to connect to the first emacs process
without starting a new one?

> Also gnuserv/gnuclient and screen are very useful in this
> regard.

Where can I find more information about this? I looked in
the gnus and emacs info files, but there was no mentioning
of these.

Niklas

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Kai Großjohann]

Niklas Morberg <niklas.morberg@axis.com> writes:

> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
>
>> On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, kai.grossjohann@gmx.net wrote:
>>> But I keep wondering whether there might be another
>>> solution... Could you log in to a central host and run
>>> Gnus from there? For running two Gnusae on the same
>>> host, M-x gnus-slave RET is your friend.
>
> Interesting. I guess you run two separate emacs processes?
> Or is there a way to connect to the first emacs process
> without starting a new one?

With Emacs running under X11, you can install gnuclient and then use
gnudoit to have the first instance execute (make-frame-on-display
...).

XEmacs running under X11 can also create a new frame on a TTY.

>> Also gnuserv/gnuclient and screen are very useful in this
>> regard.
>
> Where can I find more information about this? I looked in
> the gnus and emacs info files, but there was no mentioning
> of these.

Google is your friend.  They are not part of Emacs.  (But they are
included with XEmacs I think.)

-- 
file-error; Data: (Opening input file no such file or directory ~/.signature)

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, kai.grossjohann@gmx.net wrote:
> Google is your friend.  [Gnuserv] are not part of Emacs.  (But they
> are included with XEmacs I think.)

Actually the Google hits were pretty inaccurate.
http://meltin.net/hacks/emacs/ didn't show up when I looked.  The
XEmacs gnuserv packages were also showing up a lot, confusing matters
further.

Ted

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, niklas.morberg@axis.com wrote:
> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
>> Also gnuserv/gnuclient and screen are very useful in this
>> regard.
> 
> Where can I find more information about this? I looked in
> the gnus and emacs info files, but there was no mentioning
> of these.

Screen is a GNU utility, independent of Emacs.  It's very useful;
quick tutorial:

^A^D = detach current screen
screen -r = get back to current screen
screen = start new screen session

You can even forcibly detach a screen from another terminal and attach
it to yours.

You can get Gnuserv for GNU Emacs in

http://meltin.net/hacks/emacs/

it's available in XEmacs by default, I believe.  The GNU Emacs Gnuserv
package is a hack but it works fine for me.

Ted

Re: Keeping multiple imap-and-nntp-based gnusae in sync

[Sean Neakums]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, niklas.morberg@axis.com wrote:
>> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
>>> Also gnuserv/gnuclient and screen are very useful in this
>>> regard.
>> 
>> Where can I find more information about this? I looked in
>> the gnus and emacs info files, but there was no mentioning
>> of these.
>
> Screen is a GNU utility, independent of Emacs.  It's very useful;
> quick tutorial:

Also rather nifty is elscreen, which is a screen-type package for
Emacs.

-- 
Sean Neakums - <sneakums@zork.net>