duplicate copies

duplicate copies

[Harry Putnam]

I often copy news messages to similar named nnml groups to hold for a
while, study, refer to or whatever.  I've never managed to figure out
how to avoid copying duplicates to a group.

Imagine you read a thread and you want to hold the messages awhile,
then a week later you see there are 10 new messsages in the thread but
in reading them you get mixed up as to which ones you already kept, So
end up copying some more than once.

Short of memory improvement classes ( way to late for that) how can
gnus help me out?  

There is quite a lot about dups in the manual but all seems very
complicated and hard to follow.

The ideal solution for  this problem exists in another news reader
whos name I cannot say outload, but its initials are "Forte Agent".

There the user can throw a handful of messages at a group and will be
prompted as to whether they really want dups.  If you say "no" then the
ones that are dups don't get moved.  A handy way to sort it out.

Can gnus do something like that?

Re: duplicate copies

[Brian May]

>>>>> "Harry" == Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

    Harry> Imagine you read a thread and you want to hold the messages
    Harry> awhile, then a week later you see there are 10 new
    Harry> messsages in the thread but in reading them you get mixed
    Harry> up as to which ones you already kept, So end up copying
    Harry> some more than once.

I would cache the required articles. (*). That way, duplicates
cannot occur.

    Harry> There is quite a lot about dups in the manual but all seems
    Harry> very complicated and hard to follow.

I have seen the following variables:

gnus-suppress-duplicates
gnus-summary-ignore-duplicates
nnmail-treat-duplicates (set to delete).

At the moment I am confused at having 3 variables for the same
task. It is my guess:

- the top two only work within one group??? Or are they global
for all groups? Obviously, I am confused... What is the scope
for each of these variables?

- The first one marks duplicates with (M).
- The second hides duplicates so they aren't shown.
- the third one deletes the physical copy.

Can somebody please try to un-confuse me? I would really like
to know what these variables do.


For instance, lets say I wanted:

- duplicate messages within each group to be deleted (or not shown).

- duplicate messages between each group to be marked as read, but still
shown.

Is this possible?

(Note: I am assuming that the groups are mailing lists, hence Gnus
wont detect cross posts, at least with my current mail filtering
rules).

    Harry> There the user can throw a handful of messages at a group
    Harry> and will be prompted as to whether they really want dups.
    Harry> If you say "no" then the ones that are dups don't get
    Harry> moved.  A handy way to sort it out.

I think one of the above *might* help, but I would use the caching
feature instead.


-- 
Brian May <bmay@csse.monash.edu.au>

Re: duplicate copies

[Kai Großjohann]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> I often copy news messages to similar named nnml groups to hold for a
> while, study, refer to or whatever.  I've never managed to figure out
> how to avoid copying duplicates to a group.

I suggest a different approach, same as Brian really.

Either set gnus-use-cache to t and type `u' or `!' or `?' on each
message you wish to keep.  If you type `u' or `!' (same thing), then
the message you want to keep will always be shown.  If you type `?',
the message will only be shown if you use `/ D' or if it has
followups.

Or set gnus-use-cache to passive and then use `*' to put a message in
the cache and `M-*' to remove it.  Use `/ *' to show cached messages.

Setting gnus-use-cache to t means that Gnus hits `*' or `M-*' for you
when you use `!', `u', `?' and `d'.

kai
-- 
A preposition is not a good thing to end a sentence with.

Re: duplicate copies

[Harry Putnam]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> 
> > I often copy news messages to similar named nnml groups to hold for a
> > while, study, refer to or whatever.  I've never managed to figure out
> > how to avoid copying duplicates to a group.
> 
> I suggest a different approach, same as Brian really.

Yes, cacheing for newgroups is one way and that is what I asked
about. However in reality I copy *mail* messages to different groups
for various reasons too.  And in that case the cache method is
redundant and wasteful.

I'd still like a way for gnus to let me know when I try to copy the
same message to a group where that message already resides.  Or better
still:

Have gnus let me know there are dups, and ask me if I want gnus to
sort them out before `B c' ing them.

Is there already functionality that covers this or comes close?