Re: self contained nnfolder

[prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc)]

Dan Christensen <jdc@uwo.ca> wrote:
> I'm still curious why my nnfolder groups come with various servers:
> "nnfolder:", (nnfolder "") and "archive".  What's the difference
> between these?

"nnfolder:" and "archive" are both strings identifying your
(nnfolder "") method; see my response to Kai.  The method itself
should always be specified in full (i.e., including all server
parameters) whenever it is used, but it should only be used once, in
one of gnus-select-method, gnus-secondary-select-methods, or
gnus-server-alist.  All other places that identify your server should
use one of the string forms.  A string form should also be used in
gnus-secondary-select-methods if the method is already in
gnus-server-alist (i.e., it's foreign).

Now maybe you're wondering which form of string identifier to use.
The advantage of "nnfolder:" is that it works for all kinds of servers
(primary, secondary, and foreign).  But if you commit to using a
foreign server, you can use the "archive" or "" name; the advantage
there is that you can change the select method's address (the string
after the backend), and the "archive" or "" name will still work.
(You can avoid the need for this, though, by explicitly using
whichever server parameter corresponds to the address, if any - e.g.,
nntp-address.)  The "nnfolder:" identification would have to be
updated to use the new address.  Conceivably, you might even be able
to change the foreign method's backend and still use the same
"archive" name, but there might well be problems with that.

> Can they be unified?  Is there a problem keeping them separate?  All
> the files are stored in one directory, and my server buffer only
> shows one nnfolder server.

I think you have only one select method, as far as Gnus is concerned.
You're specifying it in multiple places, though, which I imagine might
cause some trouble, especially if you ever change some server
parameters, so it'd be good to remove all but one, or replace them
with one of the string identifiers.

> A group created by moving an article to a non-existent group is
> created with the "archive" server.

I think that's because the "archive" name appears first in your
gnus-server-alist.  Gnus knows which method to put the group in, and
when it looks for the method's server name in gnus-server-alist,
"archive" is the first one it finds.


paul