Re: Unpleasant catch 22

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Harry <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> On Wed, 23 Sep 2020 16:10:35 -0700, Eric Abrahamsen
> <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> wrote:
>
>>Harry <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>>
>>> I get an error when starting gnus and after it begins mail/news scan
>>> ... it ends in Authorization Rejected.   So apparently a password not
>>> working for on reason or another.  However there is no indication of
>>> which password.  So normally I would start gnus and look in the server
>>> buffer.  However starting gnus results in news scan and the same
>>> Authorization message... Gnus never finishes its startup.
>>>
>>> OK, I thought, I'll start` gnus-no-server' but I'll be darned if that
>>> doesn't go to a news scan too. ( Why would there be a scan if there
>>> are no servers?)
>>>
>>> (And by the way gnus is running with `debug on error' and `debug on
>>> quit' engaged)
>>>
>>> At least the ending  during `gnus-no-server' startup is not about
>>> Authorization but appearantly,  after a very lengthy (more than 15
>>> minutes) I finally hit Ctrl-g.  No Backtrace is generated it simiply
>>> says `quit'
>>>
>>> I guess a couple of things are raised with this behavior but can
>>> someone at least tell me how to get a gnus interface without any
>>> news/mail scanning so I can do other chks?
>>
>>Try `gnus-unplugged'? That might depend on what you've got agentized,
>>though.
>>
>>Let us know what servers you have configured, and which require
>>authorization? And did this problem start after some change? After an
>>Emacs update? Out of the blue?
>>
>
> gnus-unplugged brings the Authorization error too.
>
> You didn't mention if `gnus-no-server' is expected to scan for
> mail/news and if so, what is the point since no servers are supposed
> to be engaged.

I don't really know what's supposed to happen. The docs say that
`gnus-no-server':

will not attempt to contact your primary server—instead, it will just
activate all groups on level 1 and 2. (You should preferably keep no
native groups on those two levels.)

So far as I can tell, calling `gnus-no-server' skips the initial
connection to `gnus-start-news-server' (which only starts
`gnus-select-method'), but then later on connects to it anyway, during
`gnus-get-unread-articles'. Essentially, `gnus-no-server' seems to be
functionally equivalent to starting Gnus normally, but only activating
groups at levels 1 and 2.

One hacky solution to getting a working Gnus might be to shut it down,
and doctor your .newsrc.eld file so that all groups belonging to the
offending server are at level 3 or higher. Of course, for that matter,
if you know what the lowest level is of all the groups belonging to that
server, you could just call `gnus' with a numeric prefix arg of that
level or lower, and Gnus shouldn't attempt to contact the server.


This is separate from the fact that authentication failure of any server
shouldn't hang the whole startup process. Is the bum authentication
information for this server stored in ~/.authinfo{.gpg}? If it is, and
you delete the corresponding line, does Gnus prompt you anew for a
password to use?

Eric