gnus-message-archive-method and group aliases Was: Re: [BUG?] kill group state is not saved for nnimap servers.

[egallego@babel.ls.fi.upm.es (Emilio Jesús Gallego Arias)]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:
> egallego@babel.ls.fi.upm.es (Emilio Jesús Gallego Arias) writes:
>
>> No I've set gnus-save-killed-list to t and almost all of the nnimap
>> groups I kill are remembered. But some groups re-appear after killing
>> them.
>>
>> gnus-killed-list doesn't contain those groups.
>
> I'm unable to reproduce this.  If I kill a nnimap group, then
> `gnus-killed-list' contains that group.  In what circumstances doesn't
> this happen?

Those are my relevant settings:

(setq gnus-save-newsrc-file nil)
(setq gnus-read-newsrc-file nil)
(setq gnus-save-killed-list t) ;; Was nil previously
(setq gnus-check-new-newsgroups 'ask-server)
(setq gnus-use-dribble-file nil)
(setq gnus-message-archive-method '(nnimap "babel"))
(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
      '((nnimap "babel"
                (nnimap-address "babel")
                (nnimap-stream ssl))))

I've noticed that in my newsrc.eld file a line is saved

(setq gnus-server-alist '(("archive" nnimap "babel")))

I've been debugging a little bit and found the problem why Group kills
are not saved for one particular server. In short, gnus confuses nnimap
methods.

In gnus-group-change-level this code is never executed:

	(unless (gnus-group-foreign-p group)
	  (if (= level gnus-level-zombie)
	      (push group gnus-zombie-list)
	    (if (= oldlevel gnus-level-killed)
		;; Remove from active hashtb.
		(unintern group gnus-active-hashtb)
	      ;; Don't add it into killed-list if it was killed.
	      (push group gnus-killed-list)))))

So gnus-group-foreign-p returns nil. Shocking. So investigating I found
that

 (gnus-find-method-for-group "nnimap+babel:INBOX") is (nnimap "babel")

But in gnus-secondary-method-p it is compared against a different value:

 (gnus-method-equal '(nnimap "babel") '(nnimap "babel" (nnimap-address "babel.ls.fi.upm.es") (nnimap-stream ssl)))

which of course is nil. I guess the reason (gnus-find-method-for-group
"nnimap+babel:INBOX") return (nnimap "babel") is because of confusion
with the archival server, but I'm not sure.

I had a look into gnus-newsrc-alist, and indeed if I kill a group and
then I subscribe to it the "archive" server is stored in the info of
that group.

Not sure what to do, killing all the groups is a must as they contain
the wrong method, but then after re-subscribing they use the "archive"
method now. That will fix the remember killed groups issues, but seems
incorrect.

BTW, Putting the group manually in gnus-killed-list does nothing.

By the way, this is another part I'm not sure how it works in nnimap
(gnus-group-kill-group):

> 	  (when (numberp (gnus-group-unread group))
> 	    (gnus-request-update-group-status group 'unsubscribe))

(gnus-group-unread group) will always returns nil.

It was removed from the hash in gnus-group-change-level, so before
executing this function gnus-group-unread works.

Some notes:

 - I had (setq gnus-save-killed-list nil) in order to save speed and
   clutter from the newsrc.eld file.

 - Strange that everything used to work with gnus-save-killed-list but
   not now. indeed nntp works in both cases this is the weird thing. Old
   nnimap also worked OK. Why the group must explicitly saved as killed,
   if I didn't subscribe and didn't request new groups don't show it. 

 - I have several imap servers as secondary select methods and gmane as
   primary.

So my point is that in some sense we don't have matching behavior
between nntp and nnimap.

 - nntp: Remembers killed groups with either value of
   gnus-save-killed-list.

 - nnimap: Doesn't remember killed groups with gnus-save-killed-list set
   to nil, fails to remember some when gnus-save-killed-list is set to t.

Regards,
Emilio