nntp (news) open error

nntp (news) open error

[Pankaj Jangid]

Earlier, my ~/.gnus file had the following configuration for reading GNU
and Gnus mailing lists. I used the newsgroup.

(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.gmane.io")); news

And I have subscribed the relevant newsgroups.

But now I have commented the above line. And since then I am getting
this error/question on startup.

nntp (news) open error: ‘>>> (error news/nntp nodename nor servname provided, or not known)’.  Continue? (y or n) 

To get rid of this, I removed all the newsgroups from the newsrc file
that I use as gnus-startup-file. But I still get the same error.

Even I went ahead and deleted newsrc file and News directory and
re-created fresh empty directory for news. Then also I am getting the
error.

From where Gnus picks up the news/nntp setting. I tried to edit it from
the server buffer as well where it shows (nntp denied). But there it
says it can be configured from config file.

Re: nntp (news) open error

[Adam Sjøgren]

Pankaj writes:

> From where Gnus picks up the news/nntp setting.

I think it's the default if you haven't configured gnus-select-method.

I guess it dates back to the days where your local university system
administrator would have configured the local network so the default
"just worked".

These days it's less useful.

I think you can avoid the problem, by setting:

    (setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil))

in your configuration.


  Best regards,

    Adam

-- 
 "In summary, everything is terrible."                      Adam Sjøgren
                                                       asjo@koldfront.dk

Re: nntp (news) open error

[Pankaj Jangid]

Adam Sjøgren <asjo@koldfront.dk> writes:

> I think you can avoid the problem, by setting:
>
>     (setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil))
>

This worked.

Re: nntp (news) open error

[Mekeor Melire]

2025-11-04 08:10 asjo@koldfront.dk:

> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil))

Info manual at node (info "(gnus) The Empty Backend") mentions
(setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil "")).  I wonder what effect the
empty string has.

Re: nntp (news) open error

[Pankaj Jangid]

Mekeor Melire <mekeor@posteo.de> writes:

> 2025-11-04 08:10 asjo@koldfront.dk:
>
>> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil))
>
> Info manual at node (info "(gnus) The Empty Backend") mentions
> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnnil "")).  I wonder what effect the
> empty string has.

Thanks for the info. I'll update my init.