From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/68559 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Engster Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: gnus-secondary-select-methods: what's the point? Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 00:52:02 +0200 Message-ID: <8763fnbhpp.fsf@engster.org> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1243378397 32555 80.91.229.12 (26 May 2009 22:53:17 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 22:53:17 +0000 (UTC) To: ding@gnus.org Original-X-From: ding-owner+M16990@lists.math.uh.edu Wed May 27 00:53:13 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: ding-account@gmane.org Original-Received: from util0.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.18]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1M95WC-0005xZ-Pa for ding-account@gmane.org; Wed, 27 May 2009 00:53:13 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu) by util0.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1M95VP-0001tu-MF; Tue, 26 May 2009 17:52:23 -0500 Original-Received: from mx2.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.33]) by util0.math.uh.edu with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1M95VN-0001tg-05 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Tue, 26 May 2009 17:52:21 -0500 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.231.51]) by mx2.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1M95VG-0002Hz-Rk for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Tue, 26 May 2009 17:52:20 -0500 Original-Received: from m61s02.vlinux.de ([83.151.21.164]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 1M95Vk-00040l-00 for ; Wed, 27 May 2009 00:52:44 +0200 Original-Received: from dslc-082-082-177-108.pools.arcor-ip.net ([82.82.177.108] helo=void) by m61s02.vlinux.de with esmtpsa (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1M95VB-0000y8-8L for ding@gnus.org; Wed, 27 May 2009 00:52:09 +0200 In-Reply-To: (David Abrahams's message of "Tue, 26 May 2009 15:25:43 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110011 (No Gnus v0.11) Emacs/23.0.93 (gnu/linux) Mail-Copies-To: never Mail-Followup-To: ding@gnus.org X-Spam-Score: -2.6 (--) List-ID: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:68559 Archived-At: David Abrahams writes: > I'm trying to figure out what the point is of setting up > gnus-secondary-select-methods. I can go into my *Servers* buffer and > add servers that will persist across sessions without ever changing it. > So what does it really do? There isn't much difference between secondary and foreign groups. My guess would be that native, secondary and foreign groups more or less evolved historically, but I might be wrong. Regarding gnus-secondary-select-methods, you probably already found the following remark in the docs: ,---- | A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the | `gnus-secondary-select-methods' variable. The select methods listed in | this variable are in many ways just as native as the | `gnus-select-method' server. They will also be queried for active | files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that | appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native | groups are. `---- In a nutshell, I see the following differences: * native method: doesn't have a prefix and will be ignored if you start through gnus-no-server (only for groups with level >2). * secondary methods: do have a prefix, will not be ignored by gnus-no-server (?). * foreign methods: won't be queried for new groups on startup. Server vanishes if you unsubscribe from all its groups. Otherwise, it's more or less a matter of taste. Some people like to have their full configuration in .gnus, and not in .newsrc.eld, since the latter isn't meant to be edited by hand. -David