From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/40658 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Harry Putnam Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: maildir - whats the skinny? Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2001 20:08:52 -0800 Sender: owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu Message-ID: References: <878zcltaod.fsf@squeaker.lickey.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035176175 2110 80.91.224.250 (21 Oct 2002 04:56:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 04:56:15 +0000 (UTC) Return-Path: Original-Received: (qmail 11548 invoked from network); 3 Dec 2001 04:21:19 -0000 Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu (mail@129.7.128.13) by mastaler.com with SMTP; 3 Dec 2001 04:21:19 -0000 Original-Received: from sina.hpc.uh.edu ([129.7.128.10] ident=lists) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 16AkbI-0005Iz-00; Sun, 02 Dec 2001 22:21:04 -0600 Original-Received: by sina.hpc.uh.edu (TLB v0.09a (1.20 tibbs 1996/10/09 22:03:07)); Sun, 02 Dec 2001 22:20:48 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: from sclp3.sclp.com (qmailr@sclp3.sclp.com [209.196.61.66]) by sina.hpc.uh.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id WAA21348 for ; Sun, 2 Dec 2001 22:20:34 -0600 (CST) Original-Received: (qmail 11528 invoked by alias); 3 Dec 2001 04:20:44 -0000 Original-Received: (qmail 11523 invoked from network); 3 Dec 2001 04:20:43 -0000 Original-Received: from smtp.newsguy.com (HELO newsguy.com) (209.155.56.71) by gnus.org with SMTP; 3 Dec 2001 04:20:43 -0000 Original-Received: from reader.local.lan (adsl-66.51.210.228.dslextreme.com [66.51.210.228]) by newsguy.com (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id UAA23884 for ; Sun, 2 Dec 2001 20:20:16 -0800 (PST) Original-Received: (from reader@localhost) by reader.local.lan (8.11.6/8.11.6) id fB34KFw09570; Sun, 2 Dec 2001 20:20:15 -0800 X-Authentication-Warning: reader.local.lan: reader set sender to reader@newsguy.com using -f Original-To: ding@gnus.org In-Reply-To: <878zcltaod.fsf@squeaker.lickey.com> ("Matt Armstrong"'s message of "Sun, 02 Dec 2001 17:22:10 -0700") User-Agent: Gnus/5.090004 (Oort Gnus v0.04) Emacs/21.1 (i586-pc-linux-gnu) Original-Lines: 94 Precedence: list X-Majordomo: 1.94.jlt7 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:40658 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:40658 "Matt Armstrong" writes: > Harry Putnam writes: > >> If I have procmail writing to maildir and creating directories as >> needed, then writing the numbered messages under that directory. Do I >> need to tell gnus about teh subdirectory? > > I believe the answer is yes -- I think it'd be a new mail source of > type "maildir". Looks like it. So this may not be a good technique for what I'm doing. Although it probably wouldn't be that hard to scan the directory on the fly with a function hooked into mail collection some how, and use that info to generate a dynamic list to pass to gnus collection tools. May not be worth all that. And I don't know how to do it anyway. [...] > The only way I know of for Gnus to automatically discover new groups > based on procmail output is with the "directory" style mail-source. I > have this in my .gnus: [...] Yeah, that is the cannonical way. And I've used it for some time so am familiar with it. > But this expects unix mbox files with a .spool suffix to be in that > dir, not maildirs. The mbox technique was my first thought. And I have that working now. I had sought to avoid some other pitfalls I ran into by staying clear of mbox format. But looks like it may not be possible. So figuring a way to fix the pitfalls is next. Here is the problem briefly. I'm funneling an nntp feed directly into formail/procmail and writing mbox files based on the newsgroup name plus a local prefix and suffix, for other purposes. It allows a direct conversion of news to mail, and gnus promptly writes them to nnml groups thus exposing news to all the functions and cool techniques that can be applied to mail. One pitfall I've run into is that NNTP output is not all that clean. It is supposed to be in a certain format: That is, messages begin with `Path: ' header and end with a dot on a line by itself, then a blank line (I think), That is mostly what comes down the wire, but some are different and have the Path header after several other headers or the like. Some have no blank line. `formail' is able to discern the `Path: ' header but gets confused when it isn't the lead header. Sometimes writing several messges from one nntp message. A case in point is the faq posted for the newsreader nn. It doesn't start with Path: but it does have lots of short sections. Each beginning with what `formail' thinks are more message headers. consequently it writes several dozen 5 and 6 line messages from that one nntp message. So far I've just coralled those misfits into there own NO_PATH group. Probably just ignore it. But I think there may be some other stuff that will turn up like messages from mail to news converters where some mailling list is converted to news and piped onto usenet. I may have to abandon the `formail' part of my filter and write my own awk scripting that can deal with messages regardless of how they begin. Maybe by dealing only with the dot on a line by itself to invoke the action needed to write the message to my spool directory. That isn't a very hard task I don't think, and would still allow procmail to do the heavy work, locking and so forth. so that may allow me to use the normal procmail proceedure with gnus. Currently I have: nntpserver_output =>|formail procmail => spool/mboxfiles \ =>gnus =>nnml So I may try it like: nntpserver_output =>|scripting|procmail => spool/mboxfiles \ =>gnus =>nnml And then get some kind of smooth working technique for posting from those nnml groups. At that point I will say goodbye to gnus-agent. Nifty as the agent is it has never been fully integrated into gnus. And has always had some semi-major irritations. I think I will enjoy having full functionallity on news this way.