Question about offline mode

Question about offline mode

[Kai Großjohann]

I never really understood what offline mode actually _is_.  Often the
connection to my IMAP server is down because I forget to (re-)start
the port forwarding.  Then Gnus asks me whether I want to switch the
server to offline mode.  And then it seemingly works well.

I was kind of hoping that offline mode is similar to unplugged mode,
but just for this single server.  Is this supposed to be the case?
So am I supposed to be able to enter groups from offline servers to
see all the articles that the agent has downloaded already?  And when
I try to post an article to the nnimap server that's offline, does
Gnus write to the nndraft:queue group?

When I try enter enter the nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc group when the
server is offline, I get an error message along the lines of "no such
file or directory".  Is this normal?

If offline mode is not supposed to behave like unplugged mode,
wouldn't this be a useful feature?  Is it difficult to do?  Is
somebody willing to do it?

There might be thorny problems such as posting to an nntp server while
Gcc'ing to an nnimap server, and one of them is offline.  Then the
nndraft:queue group has to know which servers are still "to do".  I
wonder if there is a simple solution (such as: if at least one of the
servers is offline, just put the whole article in the queue).

kai
-- 
~/.signature is: umop ap!sdn    (Frank Nobis)

Re: Question about offline mode

[ShengHuo ZHU]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> I was kind of hoping that offline mode is similar to unplugged mode,
> but just for this single server.  Is this supposed to be the case?
> So am I supposed to be able to enter groups from offline servers to
> see all the articles that the agent has downloaded already?

Yes.

> And when I try to post an article to the nnimap server that's
> offline, does Gnus write to the nndraft:queue group?

Yes. Does it work? I never tried it.

> When I try enter enter the nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc group when the
> server is offline, I get an error message along the lines of "no such
> file or directory".  Is this normal?

It is a bug. nnagent should create the directory for you. Could you
post the back trace?

ShengHuo

Re: Question about offline mode

[Kai Großjohann]

ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:

> Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:
>
>> I was kind of hoping that offline mode is similar to unplugged mode,
>> but just for this single server.  Is this supposed to be the case?
>> So am I supposed to be able to enter groups from offline servers to
>> see all the articles that the agent has downloaded already?
>
> Yes.

Very nifty.

>> And when I try to post an article to the nnimap server that's
>> offline, does Gnus write to the nndraft:queue group?
>
> Yes. Does it work? I never tried it.

I never tried it, either.  Hm.  Lessee...  Now the nnimap server is
offline, and this message contains a Gcc header pointing to it.  So
we will see what happens.

>> When I try enter enter the nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc group when the
>> server is offline, I get an error message along the lines of "no such
>> file or directory".  Is this normal?
>
> It is a bug. nnagent should create the directory for you. Could you
> post the back trace?

/----
| Debugger entered--Lisp error: (error "Couldn't request group nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc: Invalid group (no such directory)")
|   signal(error ("Couldn't request group nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc: Invalid group (no such directory)"))
|   error("Couldn't request group %s: %s" "nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc" "Invalid group (no such directory)")
|   (if (gnus-request-group group t) nil (when (equal major-mode ...) (kill-buffer ...)) (error "Couldn't request group %s: %s" group (gnus-status-message group)))
|   (unless (gnus-request-group group t) (when (equal major-mode ...) (kill-buffer ...)) (error "Couldn't request group %s: %s" group (gnus-status-message group)))
|   (let* ((entry ...) (gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates ...) (info ...) articles fetched-articles cached) (unless (gnus-check-server ...) (error "Couldn't open server")) (or (and entry ...) (gnus-activate-group group) (progn ... ...)) (unless (gnus-request-group group t) (when ... ...) (error "Couldn't request group %s: %s" group ...)) (setq gnus-newsgroup-name group gnus-newsgroup-unselected nil gnus-newsgroup-unreads (gnus-list-of-unread-articles group)) (let (...) (setq gnus-newsgroup-display ...)) (gnus-summary-setup-default-charset) (when (gnus-virtual-group-p group) (setq cached gnus-newsgroup-cached)) (setq gnus-newsgroup-unreads (gnus-sorted-ndifference ... gnus-newsgroup-dormant)) (setq gnus-newsgroup-processable nil) (gnus-update-read-articles group gnus-newsgroup-unreads) (when info (gnus-adjust-marked-articles info)) (if (setq articles select-articles) (setq gnus-newsgroup-unselected ...) (setq articles ...)) (cond (... ...) (... nil) (t ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...)))
|   gnus-select-newsgroup("nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc" nil nil)
|   (and new-group (gnus-select-newsgroup group show-all select-articles))
|   (let* ((new-group ...) (quit-config ...) (did-select ...)) (cond (... ... ... ... ... ... ... t) (... ... ... nil) (... ... ... ... ...) (t ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...)))
|   gnus-summary-read-group-1("nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc" nil t nil nil nil)
|   (or (gnus-summary-read-group-1 group show-all no-article kill-buffer no-display select-articles) (setq show-all nil select-articles nil))
|   (let ((gnus-auto-select-next nil)) (or (gnus-summary-read-group-1 group show-all no-article kill-buffer no-display select-articles) (setq show-all nil select-articles nil)))
|   (setq result (let (...) (or ... ...)))
|   (null (setq result (let ... ...)))
|   (and group (null (setq result ...)) (eq gnus-auto-select-next (quote quietly)))
|   (while (and group (null ...) (eq gnus-auto-select-next ...)) (set-buffer gnus-group-buffer) (when backward (gnus-group-prev-unread-group 2)) (if (not ...) (setq group ...) (setq group nil)))
|   (let (result) (while (and group ... ...) (set-buffer gnus-group-buffer) (when backward ...) (if ... ... ...)) result)
|   gnus-summary-read-group("nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc" nil t nil nil nil nil)
|   gnus-group-read-group(nil t)
|   gnus-group-select-group(nil)
|   gnus-topic-select-group(nil)
|   call-interactively(gnus-topic-select-group)
\----


kai
-- 
~/.signature is: umop ap!sdn    (Frank Nobis)

Re: Question about offline mode

[Kai Großjohann]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:
>
>> Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:
>>
>>> And when I try to post an article to the nnimap server that's
>>> offline, does Gnus write to the nndraft:queue group?
>>
>> Yes. Does it work? I never tried it.
>
> I never tried it, either.  Hm.  Lessee...  Now the nnimap server is
> offline, and this message contains a Gcc header pointing to it.  So
> we will see what happens.

It seems the message just went to the bit bucket.  It didn't show up
in the group pointed to by Gcc, and it didn't show up in
nndraft:queue, either.

kai
-- 
~/.signature is: umop ap!sdn    (Frank Nobis)

Re: Question about offline mode

[Kai Großjohann]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> It seems the message just went to the bit bucket.  It didn't show up
> in the group pointed to by Gcc, and it didn't show up in
> nndraft:queue, either.

It didn't go to the bit bucket.  I just restarted Emacs and I got a
new group nnml:INBOX.misc.  Note that the Gcc was directed towards
nnimap+dtm:INBOX.misc, a different server.  I never had INBOX in the
name of an nnml group before.

kai
-- 
~/.signature is: umop ap!sdn    (Frank Nobis)