nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[kgreiner]

I currently have three nntp servers agentized.  When I'm online, I can
open groups on any server, fetch articles into the agent, etc.

When I'm offline, I can open any group on the primary server.  When I
try to open a group on a secondary server, I get a directory not found
error.  I've traced the problem to the backend configuration but I'm
now stuck.

The problem appears to be that nnoo-state-alist doesn't have the
correct value for nnagent-directory on the secondary servers.  I've
included a portion of nnoo-state-alist to demonstrate.

 (nnagent "nntp+news.gnus.org"
          ("*internal-non-initialized-backend*"
           (nnagent-directory . nnagent-directory)
           (nnagent-active-file . nnagent-active-file)
           (nnagent-newsgroups-file . nnagent-newsgroups-file)
           (nnagent-get-new-mail . nnagent-get-new-mail))
          ("nntp+news.randori.com"
           (nnagent-directory . 
"~/News/agent/nntp/news.randori.com/")
           (nnagent-active-file . 
"~/News/agent/nntp/news.randori.com/agent.lib/active")
           (nnagent-newsgroups-file . 
"~/News/agent/nntp/news.randori.com/agent.lib/newsgroups")
           (nnagent-get-new-mail))
          ("nntp+news.ev1.net"
           (nnagent-directory . "~/Mail/")
           (nnagent-active-file . "~/Mail/active")
           (nnagent-newsgroups-file . "~/Mail/newsgroups")
           (nnagent-get-new-mail . t)))

My primary server is news.randori.com.  It's nnagent-directory is
set correctly so I can view the agentized contents of this server.
One of my secondary servers is news.ev1.net.  I can't open its
groups because nnagent-directory is set to the nnml default
"~/Mail/".

I've traced the execution through nnagent-open-server.  I know that
it is calling nnoo-change-server with the correct nnagent-directory.
For some reason, that def is ignored when updating nnoo-state-alist.

Any ideas?  
Kevin

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

kgreiner@xpediantsolutions.com writes:

> I currently have three nntp servers agentized.

Mee too.  :-)

> When I'm offline, I can open any group on the primary server.  When I
> try to open a group on a secondary server, I get a directory not found
> error.  I've traced the problem to the backend configuration but I'm
> now stuck.

Hm...  That can be difficult to debug.

> The problem appears to be that nnoo-state-alist doesn't have the
> correct value for nnagent-directory on the secondary servers.  I've
> included a portion of nnoo-state-alist to demonstrate.

[...]

> My primary server is news.randori.com.  It's nnagent-directory is
> set correctly so I can view the agentized contents of this server.
> One of my secondary servers is news.ev1.net.  I can't open its
> groups because nnagent-directory is set to the nnml default
> "~/Mail/".

Huh.  Do you have anything special set in the select method for this
group?  It kinda sounds like the nnoo structures aren't getting
initialized -- that might be the symptom of having several servers
with the same name, come to think of it...

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

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[kgreiner]

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

> kgreiner@xpediantsolutions.com writes:
>
>> I currently have three nntp servers agentized.
>
> Mee too.  :-)
>
>> When I'm offline, I can open any group on the primary server.  When I
>> try to open a group on a secondary server, I get a directory not found
>> error.  I've traced the problem to the backend configuration but I'm
>> now stuck.
>
> Hm...  That can be difficult to debug.
>
>> The problem appears to be that nnoo-state-alist doesn't have the
>> correct value for nnagent-directory on the secondary servers.  I've
>> included a portion of nnoo-state-alist to demonstrate.
>
> [...]
>
>> My primary server is news.randori.com.  It's nnagent-directory is
>> set correctly so I can view the agentized contents of this server.
>> One of my secondary servers is news.ev1.net.  I can't open its
>> groups because nnagent-directory is set to the nnml default
>> "~/Mail/".
>
> Huh.  Do you have anything special set in the select method for this
> group?  It kinda sounds like the nnoo structures aren't getting
> initialized -- that might be the symptom of having several servers
> with the same name, come to think of it...

No. The select method is simply (nntp "news.ev1.net").  The fun thing
to remember is that this works fine with I'm plugged in.

I know that this will sound foolish but isn't the server's name its host name?

The closest that I came to understanding it was that, while
initializing the primary server, the nnoo-state-alist has a structure
that contained a list of symbols such as (... (nnagent-directory)
...).  After initializing that server, the list of symbols looks like
(... (nnagent-directory . nnagent-directory) ...).  To be honest, I'm
not sure if this has anything to do with that I am observing.

Sorry, it has been several days since I looked so I can't be very specific.

Thanks,
Kevin

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[kgreiner]

This may help.  It appears that Kai reported the same problem back in
Oct.  See <87pturfv8f.fsf@crybaby.cs.uni-dortmund.de> in gnus.ding for
his original message.

I can't see where he resolved it.

Kevin

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

kgreiner@xpediantsolutions.com writes:

> No. The select method is simply (nntp "news.ev1.net").  The fun thing
> to remember is that this works fine with I'm plugged in.

Yes, it's only the nnagent state that's confused...

> I know that this will sound foolish but isn't the server's name its
> host name?

It usually is, but you can specify a name and then use stuff like
`(nntp-address "some.host.name")' to specify the host name.

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

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[kgreiner]

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

> kgreiner@xpediantsolutions.com writes:
>
>> No. The select method is simply (nntp "news.ev1.net").  The fun thing
>> to remember is that this works fine with I'm plugged in.
>
> Yes, it's only the nnagent state that's confused...
>
>> I know that this will sound foolish but isn't the server's name its
>> host name?
>
> It usually is, but you can specify a name and then use stuff like
> `(nntp-address "some.host.name")' to specify the host name.

This server was not specifically added to
gnus-secondary-select-methods.  I instead used
gnus-group-browse-foreign-server to display and select the server's
group.

Kevin

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

kgreiner@xpediantsolutions.com writes:

> This server was not specifically added to
> gnus-secondary-select-methods.  I instead used
> gnus-group-browse-foreign-server to display and select the server's
> group.

Right.  What does `G e' on the group display?  There might be some
gruft in the method that's tripping nnoo up...

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

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[kgreiner]

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

> kgreiner@xpediantsolutions.com writes:
>
>> This server was not specifically added to
>> gnus-secondary-select-methods.  I instead used
>> gnus-group-browse-foreign-server to display and select the server's
>> group.
>
> Right.  What does `G e' on the group display?  There might be some
> gruft in the method that's tripping nnoo up...

On an offline group, I get (nntp "news.ev1.net")
On an online group, I get (nntp "news.gnus.org")

Kevin

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

kgreiner@xpediantsolutions.com writes:

> On an offline group, I get (nntp "news.ev1.net")
> On an online group, I get (nntp "news.gnus.org")

Er -- on the same group?  I think I must be misreading something,
which isn't unlikely.  :-)

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

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[kgreiner]

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

>> On an offline group, I get (nntp "news.ev1.net")
>> On an online group, I get (nntp "news.gnus.org")
>
> Er -- on the same group?  I think I must be misreading something,
> which isn't unlikely.  :-)

In the group buffer, I positioned point over one of my ev1 groups
(it's currently offline).  I press 'G e' to display the buffer for
editing the group's select method.  That buffer displayed (nntp
"news.ev1.net").  I then closed the customization buffer, moved point
to gnus.ding, then repeated the command.

Kevin

Re: nnoo bug - unable to open secondary nntp server when offline

[kgreiner]

kgreiner@xpediantsolutions.com writes:

> Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:
>
>>> On an offline group, I get (nntp "news.ev1.net")
>>> On an online group, I get (nntp "news.gnus.org")
>>
>> Er -- on the same group?  I think I must be misreading something,
>> which isn't unlikely.  :-)
>
> In the group buffer, I positioned point over one of my ev1 groups
> (it's currently offline).  I press 'G e' to display the buffer for
> editing the group's select method.  That buffer displayed (nntp
> "news.ev1.net").  I then closed the customization buffer, moved point
> to gnus.ding, then repeated the command.

Found it!!!

The problem was actually in gnus-open-server.  It called
nntp-open-server which, since my server is offline, failed to
initialize the server. So gnus-open-server set the server's status to
offline.  The only problem was that it then forgot to call
nnagent-open-server to initialize the agent backend!!

This all happened within gnus-activate-group so, in the buggy version,
gnus-activate-group would blindly invoke gnus-request-group on an
unopened server.  The result was that the nnoo data structures were
corrupted.

The actual fix was very simple and easily tested so I'm checking it
in tonight.

Kevin