Problems using agent

Problems using agent

[Steinar Bang]

Platform: Acer Aspire One, Intel Atom, Linpus Linux (FC8 derivative)
	  GNU Emacs 22.1.1 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.12.1) of 2007-10-24 on xenbuilder2.fedora.redhat.com
	  No Gnus v0.11 (CVS update from June 29 2009)


I have two problems with agent right now, and I wonder if they are
related, and related to something in my settings?  I'll appreciate any
pointers, and guesses, as to where the issue may be.

My setup is old and has evolved since the early 90-ies, so I may have a
legacy setting that conflicts with the current code.  I've seen the
issue in multiple Gnusen on different emacsen (21 and 22) on different
platforms (RHEL4, Windows Vista Professional, debian lenny, and now
Linpus linux), all with No Gnus, and at different points in time.

The problems are:
 1. adding gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article to gnus-select-article-hook
    no longer saves the article in the agent

 2. when exiting a group while unplugged I see the following message in
    the minibuffer

Error reading nntp marks file /home/user/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/ ((error IO error reading /home/user/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/: Is a directory)).  Continuing will use marks from .newsrc.eld.  Continue? (yes or no) 

    When I respond with `yes RET' I get the following message in the minibuffer:

Could not write to /home/user/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/ ((file-error Opening output file is a directory /home/user/News/marks/news.gmane.org/gmane/discuss/)).  Continue? (yes or no) 
    I respond with `yes RET' and I'm back in *Group*, but I have no idea
    what, if any, state has been saved

    The directory above is present and contains a file called .marks:
       -rw-rw-r--  1 user user 1545 2009-07-02 20:15 .marks


I haven't seen anyone else report these problems, and google finds no
relevant matches, and I see the problem on all of my installations,
which share the same emacs and Gnus config, which is why I think this
must be caused by something in my setup.

Thanx!


- Steinar