nnimap and sticky cache

nnimap and sticky cache

[David Abrahams]

I'm using nnimap and continually have the problem that there appears to
be some data that Gnus remembers across sessions, often incorrectly.
Old articles that have since been deleted through other clients still
show up in the summary (bad) but sometimes "turn black" (show up as
deleted) when I try to read them (also bad).  The latest problem is that
I've added 'Message-ID to gnus-extra-headers, but `/-x
Message-ID<RET>xxxxx' turns up nothing, even though I have a message
containing xxxxx in its Message-ID header.  I've had this sort of
problem for years!

Can someone please help me understand how to deal with this issue?
Thanks very much in advance.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: nnimap and sticky cache

[Tassilo Horn]

David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

Hi David,

> Old articles that have since been deleted through other clients still
> show up in the summary (bad) but sometimes "turn black" (show up as
> deleted) when I try to read them (also bad).  The latest problem is
> that I've added 'Message-ID to gnus-extra-headers, but `/-x
> Message-ID<RET>xxxxx' turns up nothing, even though I have a message
> containing xxxxx in its Message-ID header.  I've had this sort of
> problem for years!

Do you use the agent for you imap server?  (^ in *Group* to enter the
server buffer, and look out for "agent" in the nnimap lines.)  The agent
doesn't play too well with backends that support article movement /
deletion, especially if you use it in parallel to other clients.

This problem (phantom articles, duplicates and such things) also bit me
with my agentized imap account whenever I've used the web interface.
Since then I don't use the agent for imap, but instead use a local
dovecot imap server that I sync with my imap accounts using offlineIMAP.
This setup has proven to be very nice.  It's very quick since all mail
is local and all changes are propagated back and forth by offlineIMAP.

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: nnimap and sticky cache

[David Abrahams]

on Tue Mar 24 2009, Tassilo Horn <tassilo-AT-member.fsf.org> wrote:

> David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
>
> Hi David,
>
>> Old articles that have since been deleted through other clients still
>> show up in the summary (bad) but sometimes "turn black" (show up as
>> deleted) when I try to read them (also bad).  The latest problem is
>> that I've added 'Message-ID to gnus-extra-headers, but `/-x
>> Message-ID<RET>xxxxx' turns up nothing, even though I have a message
>> containing xxxxx in its Message-ID header.  I've had this sort of
>> problem for years!
>
> Do you use the agent for you imap server?  

Yup.  But even if I turn the agent off I still see this problem.

> (^ in *Group* to enter the
> server buffer, and look out for "agent" in the nnimap lines.)  
>
> The agent doesn't play too well with backends that support article
> movement / deletion, especially if you use it in parallel to other
> clients.
>
> This problem (phantom articles, duplicates and such things) also bit me
> with my agentized imap account whenever I've used the web interface.
> Since then I don't use the agent for imap, but instead use a local
> dovecot imap server that I sync with my imap accounts using offlineIMAP.
> This setup has proven to be very nice.  It's very quick since all mail
> is local and all changes are propagated back and forth by offlineIMAP.

I guess that's where I'm headed next.  Every laptop becomes a server in
the end... :(

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: nnimap and sticky cache

[Tassilo Horn]

David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

Hi David,

>>> Old articles that have since been deleted through other clients
>>> still show up in the summary (bad) but sometimes "turn black" (show
>>> up as deleted) when I try to read them (also bad).  The latest
>>> problem is that I've added 'Message-ID to gnus-extra-headers, but
>>> `/-x Message-ID<RET>xxxxx' turns up nothing, even though I have a
>>> message containing xxxxx in its Message-ID header.  I've had this
>>> sort of problem for years!
>>
>> Do you use the agent for you imap server?
>
> Yup.  But even if I turn the agent off I still see this problem.

Hm, that wasn't the case for me.  I guess that's because somewhere
there're still cached references to phantom articles...  Maybe deleting
~/News/agent/nnimap/ helps, although that shouldn't be used with
disabled agent anyway.  Or maybe some entries in ~/.newsrc.eld?

>> This problem (phantom articles, duplicates and such things) also bit
>> me with my agentized imap account whenever I've used the web
>> interface.  Since then I don't use the agent for imap, but instead
>> use a local dovecot imap server that I sync with my imap accounts
>> using offlineIMAP.  This setup has proven to be very nice.  It's very
>> quick since all mail is local and all changes are propagated back and
>> forth by offlineIMAP.
>
> I guess that's where I'm headed next.  Every laptop becomes a server
> in the end... :(

Yes, but at least it has some added value, e.g. access to your mail gets
much faster.  And dovecot is very lightweight and quite easy to
configure.  Feel free to drop me a mail for my sample setup.

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: nnimap and sticky cache

[David Engster]

David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
> on Tue Mar 24 2009, Tassilo Horn <tassilo-AT-member.fsf.org> wrote:
>
>> David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
>>
>> Hi David,
>>
>>> Old articles that have since been deleted through other clients still
>>> show up in the summary (bad) but sometimes "turn black" (show up as
>>> deleted) when I try to read them (also bad).  The latest problem is
>>> that I've added 'Message-ID to gnus-extra-headers, but `/-x
>>> Message-ID<RET>xxxxx' turns up nothing, even though I have a message
>>> containing xxxxx in its Message-ID header.  I've had this sort of
>>> problem for years!
>>
>> Do you use the agent for you imap server?  
>
> Yup.  But even if I turn the agent off I still see this problem.

As Tassilo already said, turn the agent off and delete the agent files
still in ~/News/agent. Next, you could try to set the server variable
nnimap-nov-is-evil for your nnimap server definition and also delete all
overview files for the server (usually
~/News/overview/nnimap/SERVER). (I think all of this is safe to do, but
better keep a backup when deleting stuff from ~/News).

-David

Re: nnimap and sticky cache

[David Abrahams]

on Wed Mar 25 2009, David Engster <deng-AT-randomsample.de> wrote:

> David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
>> on Tue Mar 24 2009, Tassilo Horn <tassilo-AT-member.fsf.org> wrote:
>>
>>> David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
>>>
>>> Hi David,
>>>
>>>> Old articles that have since been deleted through other clients still
>>>> show up in the summary (bad) but sometimes "turn black" (show up as
>>>> deleted) when I try to read them (also bad).  The latest problem is
>>>> that I've added 'Message-ID to gnus-extra-headers, but `/-x
>>>> Message-ID<RET>xxxxx' turns up nothing, even though I have a message
>>>> containing xxxxx in its Message-ID header.  I've had this sort of
>>>> problem for years!
>>>
>>> Do you use the agent for you imap server?  
>>
>> Yup.  But even if I turn the agent off I still see this problem.
>
> As Tassilo already said, turn the agent off and delete the agent files
> still in ~/News/agent. Next, you could try to set the server variable
> nnimap-nov-is-evil for your nnimap server definition and also delete all
> overview files for the server (usually
> ~/News/overview/nnimap/SERVER). (I think all of this is safe to do, but
> better keep a backup when deleting stuff from ~/News).

OK, did all that.  Unfortunately nothing I do seems to make it possible
for Gnus to limit to a particular regexp in the Message-Id field.  What
am I missing?

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: nnimap and sticky cache

[Tassilo Horn]

David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

Hi David,

>>>> Do you use the agent for you imap server?
>>>
>>> Yup.  But even if I turn the agent off I still see this problem.
>>
>> As Tassilo already said, turn the agent off and delete the agent
>> files still in ~/News/agent. Next, you could try to set the server
>> variable nnimap-nov-is-evil for your nnimap server definition and
>> also delete all overview files for the server (usually
>> ~/News/overview/nnimap/SERVER). (I think all of this is safe to do,
>> but better keep a backup when deleting stuff from ~/News).
>
> OK, did all that.  Unfortunately nothing I do seems to make it
> possible for Gnus to limit to a particular regexp in the Message-Id
> field.  What am I missing?

How is that related to phantom articles and the agent?

Anyway, you should be able to limit to the message-id using `/ h
Message-Id: <regexp>'.

Bye,
Tassilo
-- 
Chuck Norris uses tabasco sauce instead of visine. 

gnus-extra-headers and gnus-summary-limit-to-extra (was: nnimap and sticky cache)?

[David Abrahams]

on Sun Mar 29 2009, Tassilo Horn <tassilo-AT-member.fsf.org> wrote:

> David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
>
> Hi David,
>
>>>>> Do you use the agent for you imap server?
>>>>
>>>> Yup.  But even if I turn the agent off I still see this problem.
>>>
>>> As Tassilo already said, turn the agent off and delete the agent
>>> files still in ~/News/agent. Next, you could try to set the server
>>> variable nnimap-nov-is-evil for your nnimap server definition and
>>> also delete all overview files for the server (usually
>>> ~/News/overview/nnimap/SERVER). (I think all of this is safe to do,
>>> but better keep a backup when deleting stuff from ~/News).
>>
>> OK, did all that.  Unfortunately nothing I do seems to make it
>> possible for Gnus to limit to a particular regexp in the Message-Id
>> field.  What am I missing?
>
> How is that related to phantom articles and the agent?

Well, it's not.  I merely thought that was the problem, i.e. I assumed
Gnus didn't have a cache of that field.

> Anyway, you should be able to limit to the message-id using `/ h
> Message-Id: <regexp>'.

Cool, thanks.  But why doesn't this work with gnus-extra-headers?

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: gnus-extra-headers and gnus-summary-limit-to-extra

[Tassilo Horn]

David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

Hi David,

>> Anyway, you should be able to limit to the message-id using `/ h
>> Message-Id: <regexp>'.
>
> Cool, thanks.  But why doesn't this work with gnus-extra-headers?

You can limit to headers in `gnus-extra-headers' using `/ x'.  This will
give you a completion prompt for the available extra headers, too.

Bye,
Tassilo