Two annoyances with daemons

Two annoyances with daemons

[David Z. Maze]

I have a daemon set up to scan new news/mail every 10 minutes.  This
works well, except for two little problems:

(1) I enter a group from the *Group* buffer by pressing RET.  This
    unfortunately coincides with a daemon update.  The news scan
    happens, and then my top-level thread collapses.  (It seems like,
    in general, a daemon update happening while I'm in the group
    buffer sends the cursor to the top of the buffer.)

(2) I'm composing a news post when an update happens.  AFAICT the post 
    happens fine, but reading more articles from the same group fails
    with an "article not found" error.  Exiting and re-entering the
    group mostly fixes things.

Any hints/solutions to these problems?  pgnus-0.79, using topics and
bbdb, if either of those matter...

-- 
David Maze             dmaze@mit.edu          http://donut.mit.edu/dmaze/
"Hey, Doug, do you mind if I push the Emergency Booth Self-Destruct Button?"
"Oh, sure, Dave, whatever...you _do_ know what that does, right?"

Re: Two annoyances with daemons

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

"David Z. Maze" <dmaze@donut.mit.edu> writes:

> (1) I enter a group from the *Group* buffer by pressing RET.  This
>     unfortunately coincides with a daemon update.  The news scan
>     happens, and then my top-level thread collapses.

Heh.

> (2) I'm composing a news post when an update happens.  AFAICT the post 
>     happens fine, but reading more articles from the same group fails
>     with an "article not found" error.  Exiting and re-entering the
>     group mostly fixes things.

But aren't the daemonic updated only supposed to happen when Emacs is
idle?

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

Re: Two annoyances with daemons

[Mats Lvfdahl]

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

> But aren't the daemonic updated only supposed to happen when Emacs
> is idle?

Maybe they are supposed to be that way, but that is not what happens.
At least not for me with Gnus 5.6.45.

I have the following code in my .gnus.el:

   (gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-demon-scan-mail-groups 15 nil)
   	   
   (defun gnus-demon-scan-mail-groups ()
     (save-window-excursion
       (when (gnus-alive-p)
   	 (save-excursion
   	   (set-buffer gnus-group-buffer)
   	   (gnus-group-get-new-news 2)))))

It often happens that the scanning takes place just when I return to
emacs and gnus after being away for some time or in the middle of
browsing a group or composing a message.  Quite annoying.


-- 
Mats Löfdahl

Re: Two annoyances with daemons

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

"Mats Lvfdahl" <mats@astro.su.se> writes:

> > But aren't the daemonic updated only supposed to happen when Emacs
> > is idle?
> 
> Maybe they are supposed to be that way, but that is not what happens.
> At least not for me with Gnus 5.6.45.

[...]

> It often happens that the scanning takes place just when I return to
> emacs and gnus after being away for some time

Yes, that's when Emacs is idle.  Of course, Gnus should have foreseen
that you were going to come back, but you've neglected to install the
microphone and camera so that Emacs could see that you were near,
haven't you?  Tsk, tsk. 

> or in the middle of browsing a group or composing a message.  

That's a different matter, and sounds like a bug.

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

Re: Two annoyances with daemons

["Mats Löfdahl"]

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

> > It often happens that the scanning takes place just when I return
> > to emacs and gnus after being away for some time
> 
> Yes, that's when Emacs is idle.  Of course, Gnus should have
> foreseen that you were going to come back, but you've neglected to
> install the microphone and camera so that Emacs could see that you
> were near, haven't you?  Tsk, tsk.

Har har.  :-)

I should have written somethig like "...just when I return to emacs
and gnus, hitting a key, after being away for some time".

-- 
Mats Löfdahl

Re: Two annoyances with daemons

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

"Mats Löfdahl" <mats@astro.su.se> writes:

> I should have written somethig like "...just when I return to emacs
> and gnus, hitting a key, after being away for some time".

So the daemons start running just *after* you've hit a key?

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

Re: Two annoyances with daemons

[Mats Lvfdahl]

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

> "Mats Löfdahl" <mats@astro.su.se> writes:
> 
> > I should have written somethig like "...just when I return to
> > emacs and gnus, hitting a key, after being away for some time".
> 
> So the daemons start running just *after* you've hit a key?

That is indeed my impression.  I don't know how to verify this,
though. 

-- 
Mats Löfdahl

Re: Two annoyances with daemons

[Mats Lvfdahl]

"Mats Lvfdahl" <mats@astro.su.se> writes:

> Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:
> 
> > "Mats Löfdahl" <mats@astro.su.se> writes:
> > 
> > > I should have written somethig like "...just when I return to
> > > emacs and gnus, hitting a key, after being away for some time".
> > 
> > So the daemons start running just *after* you've hit a key?
> 
> That is indeed my impression.  I don't know how to verify this,
> though. 

It doesn't happen every time.  It might be that it is not caused by my
pressing a key, but just happens close enough in time that I mentally
connect the events.  In that case it is just an effect of the same bug
that sometimes makes it go while I'm reading or composing messages.

-- 
Mats Löfdahl