Re: Something fundamental - how nov works

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> I thought I sort of understood nov and how it worked but apparently
> there is a large hole in my understanding.  I had assumed that if nov
> were generated with nnml-generate-nov-databases-1 on a certain group.
>
> That the messages in that group would become visible to gnus even if I
> had copied them there behind gnus back, from the command line. Long
> as they were legal nnml messages.
>
> For example:
> Create nnml group with G m 
>
> Then copy several messages from some other nnml group there, giving
> them arbitrary numbers. (from the command line)
>
> If I run nnml-g-n-d-1 on that group some of the messages become
> visible but not all.  However if I enter the group and press j
> <NUMBER> using numbers of messages that do not appear, they are pulled
> up by there number.  The nov file contains information about them yet
> they are invisible to gnus.
>
> What is at work here?

Did you check if the active file was updated correctly?

> Apparently some stuff is written to messages coming into a group by
> gnus, like the `X-From-Line' thing and maybe `Xref' and `Lines'.
> Not clear if that has to be there and be accurate or not.

Nnml shouldn't care.

> More example:
>
> I've created an nnml group, copied 3 messages there from another nnml
> group (from command line)  I've numbered them 2 4 6.
>
> After running nnml-g-n-db-1 on that group gnus sees two of them 2,4.
>
> No matter what I do 6 isn't visible to gnus.  It is in the nov file
> though.  So apparently some other condition is not being met here.

I assume you are entering the group with C-u RET?

Do you have any `display' group properties on the group?  Perhaps post
the output from `G E' on the group, and `G p' on the topics in which
the group is located.

Perhaps you are better of using nnmh, nnmbox, nnmaildir or similar
instead of nnml if you want to write to the server outside of Gnus
though.  Or write your script in elisp, using Gnus functions to enter
articles into the group.