One single function for marking articles?

One single function for marking articles?

[Lloyd Zusman]

In an offline discussion between Kai Großjohann and myself, something
came up which I thought might be worth asking in the mailing list:

I'm looking for a single gnus function which looks more or less like
this:

  (gnus-generic-mark-article SERVER GROUP ARTICLE MARK)

It would put the specified MARK on the specified ARTICLE within the
specified GROUP on the specified back-end SERVER.  It would be
buffer-safe and thread-safe in the sense that it could be called from
within any gnus buffer and any context, and it would set the specified
mark without disturbing its current buffer or any of its context.

I haven't found anything like this within all the gnus functions I've
dug through, although it's quite possible that I could have missed
something.

The reason I want this is because I have a procedure that runs
asynchronously which, among other things, marks various articles in
various ways.  I'd like this asynchronous procedure to run properly
even if I'm interactivly using gnus in a different summary buffer than
the one which my asynchronous process is operating on.

An alternative use for this hypothetical function would be for my
asynchronous procedure to append calls of the function to the dribble
file, so that they could do their jobs the next time gnus processes
that file.  In this case, the function wouldn't need to be thread-safe
and buffer-safe.  The current info that gets written into the dribble
file that performs this sort of thing is so complex that I wouldn't
want to try to generate it myself ... my news and email are too
important to lose if I screw up!

Any thoughts or ideas?  Any hope that such a function already exists?

Thanks in advance.

-- 
 Lloyd Zusman
 ljz@asfast.com

Re: One single function for marking articles?

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:

> I'm looking for a single gnus function which looks more or less like
> this:
> 
>   (gnus-generic-mark-article SERVER GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
> 
> It would put the specified MARK on the specified ARTICLE within the
> specified GROUP on the specified back-end SERVER.  It would be
> buffer-safe and thread-safe in the sense that it could be called from
> within any gnus buffer and any context, and it would set the specified
> mark without disturbing its current buffer or any of its context.

No such function exists.  For instance, the actions taken for a group
that has an active summary buffer would be very different than for a
group without one.

Such a function would be quite useful, though.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Re: One single function for marking articles?

[Lloyd Zusman]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:
> 
> > I'm looking for a single gnus function which looks more or less like
> > this:
> > 
> >   (gnus-generic-mark-article SERVER GROUP ARTICLE MARK)
> > 
> > It would put the specified MARK on the specified ARTICLE within the
> > specified GROUP on the specified back-end SERVER.  It would be
> > buffer-safe and thread-safe in the sense that it could be called from
> > within any gnus buffer and any context, and it would set the specified
> > mark without disturbing its current buffer or any of its context.
> 
> No such function exists.  For instance, the actions taken for a group
> that has an active summary buffer would be very different than for a
> group without one.

Fair enough.  Let me focus on a more specific case then:

I have an `nnspool' group, and I want to be able to set specified
marks on specified articles.  If my group has an active summary
buffer, I already know what to do to set the marks I desire, so this
part of the problem is a relative no-brainer.  But could someone
summarize the steps I would have to take to set specified marks on
articles within this `nnspool' group when it *doesn't* have an active
summary buffer?

Or could someone point me to an example where this is actually done?
... or some good documentation about this?

> Such a function would be quite useful, though.

Indeed!

If I can get a handle on how to set marks within a group that doesn't
have an active summary buffer, I think I can then figure out how to
write such a function for the `nnspool' group I'm interested in.

Thanks in advance.

-- 
 Lloyd Zusman
 ljz@asfast.com

Re: One single function for marking articles?

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:

> If I can get a handle on how to set marks within a group that doesn't
> have an active summary buffer, I think I can then figure out how to
> write such a function for the `nnspool' group I'm interested in.

`gnus-add-marked-articles' does something like that...

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen