How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Dilip]

The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to gmane.emacs.gnus.general as well.

Hi gnus!

Gnus saves the state of reading into ~gnus-newsrc-alist~ as in elisp
data form.

When I read all messages from a group, I would expect the data form to
shrink or minimize, but I still see long form of data for that group.
Note: By read everything, for old messages I run ~gnus-topic-catchup-articles~ (=c=) on group buffer

Eg:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(setq gnus-newsrc-alist
      '( ("nntp+news.gmane.io:gmane.comp.gnu.guix.user" 3 ((1 . 18968))
          ((unexist) (seen (1 . 18968))) "nntp:news.gmane.io") ))
#+end_src
^ I'd expect this form to show that all have been read from 1-18968.

But actually it saves data in session wise based on what were read.
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(setq gnus-newsrc-alist
      '( ("nntp+news.gmane.io:gmane.comp.gnu.guix.user" 3 ((1 . 18968))
          ((unexist) (seen (18957 . 18968) (18937 . 18944) (18912 . 18920) ........)) "nntp:news.gmane.io") ))
#+end_src
^ But it looks this way. Which create very long lines.

May I know the significance of this form? Why can't it be simple?

After searching up a bit, I notice that =gnus-topic-alist= and =gnus-topic-topology= and be easily maintained manually by config.

So may I get some tips to maintain newsrc file clean and in version control. As I do want to sync with phone (android emacs app) to read as well.
Basically I'm expecting to want that =gnus-newsrc-alist= (hash-table) to be simple in a way that only reports
#+begin_src text
("news...." 3 ((1 . 100)) ((unexist) (seen (1 . 10))))
#+end_src

and not splits of =(1 . 2) (3 . 4) (5 . 10)= for very long lines.

Thank you for taking time to read this.
-- 
Best,
Dilip

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Bob Newell]

Aloha,

This topic interests me as well and I also could use some
tips as .newsrc.eld grows to be very very large after some time
and I don't know a way of cleaning it out other than risky
manual edits.

As to coordinating with other computers, tablets and phones, I
sync .newsrc.eld across devices (with an rsync service and
appropriate scripts).

But I would really like to know how to safely prune
.newsrc.eld.  Maybe something already exists that I'm simply
not aware of?

Mahalo one and all

-- 
Bob Newell
Honolulu, Hawai`i

- Via GNU-Linux/Emacs/Gnus/BBDB

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Björn Bidar]

Bob Newell <bobnewell@bobnewell.net> writes:

> As to coordinating with other computers, tablets and phones, I
> sync .newsrc.eld across devices (with an rsync service and
> appropriate scripts).

Personally I just have a Gnus demon timer to save newsrc, sync with
Nextcloud and the close whenever I'm done on that machine.

If I forget that I can just take over the file on another machine as
Gnus notices if another program has touched the file and stops saving.
When I then return to the machine I quit without saving in that Gnus and
then start Gnus again.

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Dilip]

> Personally I just have a Gnus demon timer to save newsrc, sync with
> Nextcloud and the close whenever I'm done on that machine.
It has become an habit to hit 's' to save after I read, Just like 'C-x
C-s'
I will also try to make demon timer.

Also I would like to update on the saved data;
> ("news...." 3 ((1 . 100)) ((unexist) (seen (1 . 10))))

I observed that this actually is as expected is simple, like
'... (seen (1 . 10))...'

But for some group, it misses some points as in;
'... (seen (1 . 2) (4 . 6))...'

^ As you see here, 3 is missing/break. In some groups I happened to
notice that 3 is updated or duplicate of 2 or 4 (adjacent article)

Now to restate, I'd like to know why this break in article sequence
although I have read it?

Thank you for considering this!

-- 
Best,
Dilip

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Andreas Schwab]

On Okt 27 2024, Dilip wrote:

> Now to restate, I'd like to know why this break in article sequence
> although I have read it?

Did you?  Does that article actually exist?

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 7578 EB47 D4E5 4D69 2510  2552 DF73 E780 A9DA AEC1
"And now for something completely different."

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Andreas Schwab]

On Okt 27 2024, Dilip wrote:

> But you can see 20, 26… post exist,

But the server never advertises them.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 7578 EB47 D4E5 4D69 2510  2552 DF73 E780 A9DA AEC1
"And now for something completely different."

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Björn Bidar]

Dilip <idlip@protonmail.com> writes:

>> Personally I just have a Gnus demon timer to save newsrc, sync with
>> Nextcloud and the close whenever I'm done on that machine.
> It has become an habit to hit 's' to save after I read, Just like 'C-x
> C-s'
> I will also try to make demon timer.

Here's what I do:
(defun gnus-demon-scan-news-2 ()
  (when gnus-plugged
    (let ((win (current-window-configuration))
          (gnus-read-active-file nil)
          (gnus-check-new-newsgroups nil)
          (gnus-verbose 2)
          (gnus-verbose-backends 5))
      (unwind-protect
          (save-window-excursion
            (when (gnus-alive-p)
              (with-current-buffer gnus-group-buffer
                (gnus-group-get-new-news gnus-activate-level))))
        (set-window-configuration win)))))

(defun save-gnus-newsrc ()
  (if (and (fboundp 'gnus-group-exit)
           (gnus-alive-p))
      (with-current-buffer (get-buffer "*Group*")
        (gnus-save-newsrc-file))))


(setopt gnus-demon-handlers '((gnus-demon-scan-mail 120 60)
                              (gnus-demon-close-connections nil 3)
                              (save-gnus-newsrc nil 1)
                              (gnus-demon-scan-news-2 60 nil)))


The rest of my config is here below:
https://github.com/Thaodan/emacs.d/blob/master/init.org

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[James Thomas]

Dilip wrote:

> The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
> that has been posted to gmane.emacs.gnus.general as well.
>
> Hi gnus!
>
> Gnus saves the state of reading into ~gnus-newsrc-alist~ as in elisp
> data form.
>
> When I read all messages from a group, I would expect the data form to
> shrink or minimize, but I still see long form of data for that group.
> Note: By read everything, for old messages I run
> ~gnus-topic-catchup-articles~ (=c=) on group buffer
>
> Eg:
>
> #+begin_src emacs-lisp
> (setq gnus-newsrc-alist
>       '( ("nntp+news.gmane.io:gmane.comp.gnu.guix.user" 3 ((1 . 18968))
>           ((unexist) (seen (1 . 18968))) "nntp:news.gmane.io") ))
> #+end_src
>
> ^ I'd expect this form to show that all have been read from 1-18968.
>
> But actually it saves data in session wise based on what were read.
>
> #+begin_src emacs-lisp
> (setq gnus-newsrc-alist
>       '( ("nntp+news.gmane.io:gmane.comp.gnu.guix.user" 3 ((1 . 18968))
>           ((unexist) (seen (18957 . 18968) (18937 . 18944) (18912 . 18920) ........)) "nntp:news.gmane.io") ))
> #+end_src
>
> ^ But it looks this way. Which create very long lines.
>
> May I know the significance of this form? Why can't it be simple?
>
> After searching up a bit, I notice that =gnus-topic-alist= and
> =gnus-topic-topology= and be easily maintained manually by config.
>
> So may I get some tips to maintain newsrc file clean and in version
> control. As I do want to sync with phone (android emacs app) to read
> as well.
> Basically I'm expecting to want that =gnus-newsrc-alist= (hash-table)
> to be simple in a way that only reports
>
> #+begin_src text
> ("news...." 3 ((1 . 100)) ((unexist) (seen (1 . 10))))
> #+end_src
>
> and not splits of =(1 . 2) (3 . 4) (5 . 10)= for very long lines.

Simple: add a -request-compact-group back-end function for nntp. :-)

> Thank you for taking time to read this.

No problem.

Regards,
James

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Dilip]

> Simple: add a -request-compact-group back-end function for nntp. :-)

That should have been the solution, unfortunately the nntp backend does
not support it i guess.
Even the manual says its only supported by nnml.

>  ‘G z’
>  
>       Compact the group under point (‘gnus-group-compact-group’).
>       Currently implemented only in nnml (*note Mail Spool::).  This
>       removes gaps between article numbers, hence getting a correct total
>       article count.

Although, thanks for the input.
-- 
Best,
Dilip

Re: How to maintain newsrc.eld clean and tidy

[Dilip]

> The rest of my config is here below:
> https://github.com/Thaodan/emacs.d/blob/master/init.org

Thank you for sharing dotfiles. This will help me find something new ;)

-- 
Best,
Dilip