Re: What is happening in agentized groups?

[ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu>]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

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

[...]

> This is getting confusing...  
>    These are marked Undownloaded and have the `@' on them.
>    For example, my current gnu.emacs.gnus, if openned with C-u
>    while unplugged begins with:
>
> 1@  31-Dec [   0: Gnus Agent          ] [Undownloaded article 48094]
>
>    [...] snipped 1200+ just like it with consequtive numbers up to:
>
> 1@  31-Dec [   0: Gnus Agent          ] [Undownloaded article 49318]
>
>    Then I have the messages beginning:
> 20O  30-Jan [  25: A. L. Meyers  ] back to the ... 49319
>    up to:
>  1R  25-Feb         [  40: Shankar Rao ... 50077
>
> None of the first group are on the server.  The lowest number on
> the server is 48323
>
> I don't really follow the formula you listed, and haven't for probably
> 2 yrs or more.  I do the fetching in batch mode with cron.  Which kind
> of follows the formula I guess.  It has worked fine until recently.
> Possibly since the patch you mention, not sure.

If 48094 does not come from the server, check whether this number is
from ~/News/cache/active or ~/News/agent/nntp/SERVER/agent.lib/active.


>> If you enter a group unplugged without step 2, some articles are shown
>> as "Undownloaded article ???" in the summary buffer, because the NOV
>
> What situation would allow a user to enter without step 2?

Suppose that the network is down after you type 'g'. The NOVs of some
new articles aren't downloaded. But you still want to read some old
downloaded articles in the group.  Of course, you don't want to mark
those new articles as read because you didn't read them.

> Apparently I am missing step 2 in gnus view of things.  But this was
> not happening until those `Undownloaded' entries started showing up.

They didn't show up, so you may not notice the problem.

[...]

> Lars fixed that in version 91 I believe (or close) and since then gnus
> knows about the agent articles even if not on the server.  Maybe
> something in that mechanism will help?

It is different. In the case you mentioned, nnagent has got the NOV of
those articles. But in the case we are discussing, nnagent didn't get
the NOV of the articles.

> Or even if it is necessary to poll the server, and find out which are
> not available, seems it would be better than just continuing to show
> the Undownloaded summary lines until hell freezes over.

OK. I'll make an assumption that articles with numbers smaller than
the first one Agent knows don't exist on the server.  However, this
assumption doesn't hold for all cases. For example, quimby is covered
by Gnus Agent. Some articles are expired on Agent, but they are still
on quimby.  Anyway, we don't care old articles when unplugged.

The patch is submitted.

ShengHuo