Re: Retrieve lost messages in agent directory

[soma@cs.unm.edu (Anil B. Somayaji)]

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Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> I hope someone here is well experienced with rsyncing Gnus setup from
> place to place.  My proceedure has been:

I use rsync extensively to synchronize my desktop and laptop machines
(where I mirror my whole home directory), and my home and school
machines (where I'm a bit more selective).  The main problem I see is
that you aren't using --delete and --force.  By default, rsync doesn't
delete files and directories at the destination that aren't present at
the source.  These options ensure that it does.  This is _dangerous_,
but if you are mirroring your personal files, it is probably what you
want (I like my deleted files to stay deleted).

To suit my taste, I'd do something like this:

  * Create a Common directory, move all the files you want to sync up
    into that directory.  You can make ~/Mail a symlink to
    ~/Common/Mail - gnus will work fine.  To move your .newsrc.eld to
    Common, though, I'd suggest changing gnus-startup-file to point to
    a file in Common, such as ~/Common/newsrc.  You will need a
    symlink for ~/.gnus.el, unless you twiddle with things in you
    .emacs.

  * Then, do something like this (assuming you are on desktop, and
    want to update laptop):

      rsync -a -v --delete --force -e ssh ~/Common laptop:.

    Note the lack of trailing slashes!

    I wouldn't bother with -z unless there is a slow connection
    between the machines.

    (Actually, I haven't timed it, but rsync is already pretty compute
    bound if there aren't too many files to transfer, so I don't see
    how -z would help over regular ethernet - but I could be wrong.)

In addition, I created conditional aliases on the two machines, so the
command I type indicates what direction I'm going in, and the wrong
command doesn't exist on the wrong machine.  I also have it echo what
exactly it is doing (say, "Sending Common to laptop").  If you ever
have remote windows up between your machines, this can be a
life-saver.

For the curious, I bothered setting this up for myself when I moved
all of my email to CFS.  I can now keep my personal email on our
department's web server without worring about No File Security (NFS).
So, in my case, what I synchronize is my ~/Crypt.  As you might
imagine, CFS could get upset if files and directories weren't mirrored
exactly.  I've been doing this for several months at least, and I've
found that rsync does this with no problems (knock on wood).

I hope this helps!

  --Anil

- -- 
Anil Somayaji (soma@cs.unm.edu)
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~soma
+1 505 872 3150
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