auto-save files, why?

auto-save files, why?

[Stephen Zander]

Just idle curiousity but why would I be regualrly getting the 'auto-save
file exists, do you want to load it?' message?  I've answered no (to
my peril) previously, so now religiously say yes.  I'm just wondering
why it exists at all, instead of being rolled into ~/.newsrc.eld.

BTW, yes, I am exiting gnus cleanly.

-- 
Stephen
---
"Normality is a statistical illusion." -- me

Re: auto-save files, why?

[jari.aalto]

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Subject: Re: auto-save files, why?
Reply-to: jari.aalto@ntc.nokia.com

 98-01-29 Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> list.ding
| >>>>> "SZ" == Stephen Zander <srz@mckesson.com> writes:
|
| SZ> Just idle curiousity but why would I be regualrly getting the 'auto-save
| SZ> file exists, do you want to load it?' message?
|
| Quite simply, you failed to exit Gnus cleanly, then killed your Emacs
| session.

What if I do "s" and exit emacs, is that same as doing "q" in Group
buffer?


jari

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Re: auto-save files, why?

[Hrvoje Niksic]

<jari.aalto@poboxes.com> writes:

>  98-01-29 Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> list.ding
> | >>>>> "SZ" == Stephen Zander <srz@mckesson.com> writes:
> |
> | SZ> Just idle curiousity but why would I be regualrly getting the 'auto-save
> | SZ> file exists, do you want to load it?' message?
> |
> | Quite simply, you failed to exit Gnus cleanly, then killed your Emacs
> | session.
> 
> What if I do "s" and exit emacs, is that same as doing "q" in Group
> buffer?

Yes.  I haven't checked the code, but judging by experience, pressing
`s' and exiting Emacs is considered a clean exit from Gnus.

-- 
Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr> | Student at FER Zagreb, Croatia
--------------------------------+--------------------------------
Idle RAM is the Devil's playground.

Re: auto-save files, why?

[SL Baur]

Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr> writes:

> Yes.  I haven't checked the code, but judging by experience, pressing
> `s' and exiting Emacs is considered a clean exit from Gnus.

It fails to run the `gnus-after-exiting-gnus-hook'.  That makes a
difference for me because I run stuff on both that hook and the
`gnus-startup-hook'.

Re: auto-save files, why?

[Hrvoje Niksic]

Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> writes:

> >>>>> "j" == <jari.aalto@poboxes.com> writes:
> 
> j> | Quite simply, you failed to exit Gnus cleanly, then killed your Emacs
> j> | session.
> 
> j> What if I do "s" and exit emacs, is that same as doing "q" in Group
> j> buffer?
> 
> In short, no.  The dribble buffer is still open.

Does that matter?  I mean, if you don't do any Gnusae operation
between pressing `s' and `C-x C-c', no new stuff will get written to
the dribble buffer.

-- 
Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr> | Student at FER Zagreb, Croatia
--------------------------------+--------------------------------
"A Real Programmer's code can awe with its fiendish brilliance, even
as its crockishness appalls."                     -- the Jargon File

Re: auto-save files, why?

[Hrvoje Niksic]

Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> writes:

> >>>>> "Hrvoje" == Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr> writes:
> 
> Hrvoje> Does that matter?  I mean, if you don't do any Gnusae operation
> Hrvoje> between pressing `s' and `C-x C-c', no new stuff will get written
> Hrvoje> to the dribble buffer.
> 
> Sorry, I meant the newsrc buffer.
> 
> You see, even if that buffer is saved, as long as Gnus is alive that buffer
> is still "open" as far as Emacs is concerned.  If you quit Emacs at that
> point it will update the buffer's associated autosave file and exit.  Next
> time you start Gnus, Emacs will see the autosave file.

Are you sure?  Once you save the buffer, the autosave should be
removed.  If the buffer remains unchanged up to the point when you
press `C-x C-c', everything should work fine.

In fact, I've exited Gnus using `s' followed by `C-x C-c' many times
(for various reasons), and I've never seen the auto-save file being
generated as a result.  But then again, I am not 100% sure what
strategy Gnus uses for autosaving `.newsrc', so I may be missing
something.

-- 
Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr> | Student at FER Zagreb, Croatia
--------------------------------+--------------------------------
"Silence!" cries Freydag. "I did not call thee in for a consultation!" 
"They are my innards! I will not have them misread by a poseur!"

Re: auto-save files, why?

[Karl Kleinpaste]

Hrvoje writes:
>> Are you sure?  Once you save the buffer, the autosave should be removed.

Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> writes:
> But when you exit Emacs, it sees the open buffer.

The idea of an "open buffer" is a semantic null.  A file is opened,
read, and closed.  What matters thereafter is whether the buffer
containing that file's contents changes.

Once modified, and then once the file is saved (so changes have been
sync'd to disc), auto-saving is off, unless the contents of the file
are then modified again.  If no further changes are made, exit from
Emacs without specifically exiting Gnus means no autosave file is
created as Emacs departs this life.

Existence proof: In another XEmacs on another system, running Gnus, I
backed out to *Group*, hit `s' to save current contents, and the `C-x
C-c' to exit XEmacs.  No autosave was created.

Re: auto-save files, why?

[Stephen Zander]

Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> writes:
> You see, even if that buffer is saved, as long as Gnus is alive that buffer
> is still "open" as far as Emacs is concerned.  If you quit Emacs at that
> point it will update the buffer's associated autosave file and exit.  Next
> time you start Gnus, Emacs will see the autosave file.

And this explains my original problem; I was dropping back to the *Group*
buffer but not quiting from there.... thanks for the info!

-- 
Stephen
---
"Normality is a statistical illusion." -- me