Making agent work on foreign server / one way that works

Making agent work on foreign server / one way that works

[Harry Putnam]

						Mar 06 11:06am

Most readers will probably be appalled at the lack of technique here, but
here is one way to get agent to work on foreign server groups:

Being iliterate in computer matters and especially unix and elisp has
led to doing this with full on 'Hillbilly' rigging, so hang on to your hats.

On the two setups of qgnus-0.34 I have running (two different users both me)
In each case I was not able to access the articles in these groups when
unplugged.

On the first instance I had long file names set to 't'.  Took me awhile
to see that was the problem.  So changed it to 'nil'.  In the second
instance (setup as an experiment) It began life with long file names set
to 'nil'

In both cases the same file structure was built inside /News/agent/ 

I think the 'agent' built a file structure that it can't recognize when
it comes time to call the off-line server.

The structure of a 'Native' group is built different than foreign
groups. As can be seen below. I am defining a 'foreign' group as one
subscribed to by the method of "B" (browse foreign server).

Agent built a file structure for my two foreign groups
(emac.ding and emacs.w3.beta) both from 'sunsite.auc.dk'
that looks like this:

original structure:
Foreign groups:
~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/nntp+sunsite/auc/dk:emacs/ding 

~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/nntp+sunsite/auc/dk:emacs/w3/beta

'Native' groups:
~/News/agent/nntp/enews.newsguy.com/comp/emacs

~/News/agent/nntp/enews.newsguy.com/gnu/emacs/gnus

What I did was build a structure like a native group structure and then
move the postings, .agentview, and .overview files into it.
The new structure looks like:

~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/emacs/ding

~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/emacs/w3/beta

As can be seen, I eliminated the unix style /'s in the server name.
Now 'agent' can access these groups when unplugged.  Retrieving to them
seems to work too

Running with this setup, I am having trouble with the '@' character being
added to  articles but that is no doubt the result of more
'hillbilly' rigging on the download 'predicate' and scoring.

Didn't like the default of 'short' ( a poor choice of default in my
opinion) so tried to change it to spam or just run with none.  Haven't
figured out how to do that yet.  Easy enough to 'kill' short and set
'spam' as default.  But still having lots of @'s show up.

This wouldn't be a big problem except for one major detail:

If there are  any @'s in a group when 'J s' is run then agent stops
right there and gives this message: 
  > Symbol's function definition is void: nil

The full message says:
  > Fetching headers for comp.editors...	 
  > Loading hexl (compiled)...		 
  > Loading hexl (compiled)...done		 
  > Symbol's function definition is void: nil

No further retrieving happens.  But if I go to the group and change any
@'s to %'s or just remove them then the next group with the @'s in it
stops the action.  So removing them in advance means gnus will
successfully retrieve from all retrievable groups.

It doesn't seem to be possible to kill the default predicate and run
with out one. It just comes back.
I don't know how to give the 'agent' an all inclusive predicate or a
blank one or whatever.

A uggestion is to have no predicate as default.  When a preson gets
competent with using agent is time enough to start worrying about
predicates.

__  

Harry Putnam  reader@newsguy.com

Re: Making agent work on foreign server / one way that works

[Harry Putnam]

Eze Ogwuma <typhoon@dircon.co.uk> writes:


> Thanks for the info Harry.
> 
> I used a link. If I had your directory structure I would have made a
> link from within the ~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/emacs/ directory 
> to ../nntp+sunsite/auc/dk:emacs/ding.

Good move,  wish I had thought of it -- save alot of dopey and confusing
manipulations.  Well at least I never claimed to know what I am doing
with this stuff.

 
> This seems to work but it isn't really the way it should work. It
> seems that Agent creates one directory structure but tries to read
> another.

Yes, my point too.  Agent is making a structure its off-line server
can't read.
 
> Another problem I've found is that J s tries to download all articles
> in all groups whether they're covered by agent or not.

Process marking doesn't change it either - maybe 'C-u' prefix, haven't
tried that yet.

Also prefix and use 'J u' might give you a way to select only those in
the agent umbrella.


I keep having trouble with the 'Catagories' thing.  I want to have no
catagories or either an all inclusive category that puts no limits
what-so-ever on what agent fetches.

It seems having just one '@' mark in a group when doing 'J s' will derail
the whole works until I remove or change it to '%' then run 'J s' again. 

I tried removing everything in predicate edit box but agent wont let you
save it that way.  Is the 'true' predicate what I am looking for?  Is
there syntax I can put in predicate edit box that will mean 'all included'?
I tried  using empty quotes  " " but the edit box ain't buying it.

-- 

Harry Putnam  reader@newsguy.com

Re: Making agent work on foreign server / one way that works

[Eze Ogwuma]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1281 bytes --]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> 						Mar 06 11:06am
> 
> Most readers will probably be appalled at the lack of technique here, but
> here is one way to get agent to work on foreign server groups:

[...]

> original structure:
> Foreign groups:
> ~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/nntp+sunsite/auc/dk:emacs/ding 
> 
> ~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/nntp+sunsite/auc/dk:emacs/w3/beta
> 
> 'Native' groups:
> ~/News/agent/nntp/enews.newsguy.com/comp/emacs
> 
> ~/News/agent/nntp/enews.newsguy.com/gnu/emacs/gnus
> 
> What I did was build a structure like a native group structure and then
> move the postings, .agentview, and .overview files into it.
> The new structure looks like:
> 
> ~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/emacs/ding
> 
> ~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/emacs/w3/beta

Thanks for the info Harry.

I used a link. If I had your directory structure I would have made a
link from within the ~/News/agent/nntp/sunsite.auc.dk/emacs/ directory 
to ../nntp+sunsite/auc/dk:emacs/ding.

This seems to work but it isn't really the way it should work. It
seems that Agent creates one directory structure but tries to read
another.

Another problem I've found is that J s tries to download all articles
in all groups whether they're covered by agent or not.

[...]


[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 11 bytes --]

Eze Ogwuma

Re: Making agent work on foreign server / one way that works

[Eze Ogwuma]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> Eze Ogwuma <typhoon@dircon.co.uk> writes:

[...]

> I keep having trouble with the 'Catagories' thing.  I want to have no
> catagories or either an all inclusive category that puts no limits
> what-so-ever on what agent fetches.
> 
> It seems having just one '@' mark in a group when doing 'J s' will derail
> the whole works until I remove or change it to '%' then run 'J s' again. 

I tried to test this but since Agent isn't really working properly I
had some problems so I gave up.

> I tried removing everything in predicate edit box but agent wont let you
> save it that way. 

Will it accept nil?

[...]

-- 
Eze Ogwuma

Re: Making agent work on foreign server / one way that works

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Eze Ogwuma <typhoon@dircon.co.uk> writes:

> > I tried removing everything in predicate edit box but agent wont let you
> > save it that way. 
> 
> Will it accept nil?

No.

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