Re: difference between foreign and secondary servers?

[Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann)]

On 14 Aug 2000, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen wrote:

> Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:
> 
>>       Wherever you would normally use a select method (e.g.
>>    `gnus-secondary-select-method', in the group select method, when
>>    browsing a foreign server) you can use a virtual server name
>>    instead.  This could potentially save lots of typing.  And it's
>>    nice all over.
>> 
>> He interprets this to mean that he can add servers in the server
>> buffer, and then
>> 
>> (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '("foo" "bar" "baz"))
> 
> Yes.
> 
>> Or maybe this:
>> 
>> (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '("nnml:foo" "nnfolder:bar"
>> "nnml:baz"))
> 
> Not unless "nnml:foo" was the name of a virtual server, but it's a
> really odd name.  Might even be invalid.

Isn't there a possible conflict here?  I have servers (nnml "") and
(nnimap "" ...), so I'd have to do

(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '("" ""))

Which one is first, the nnml server or the nnimap server?

;-)

>> Until now, I thought the only difference between secondary and
>> foreign servers was that the former are mentioned in
>> gnus-secondary-select-methods.  When one puts the whole server
>> definition (parameters and all) into gnus-secondary-select-methods,
>> you can see where the difference is -- you can frob the
>> gnus-secondary-select-methods nicely from Lisp code in
>> site-start.el or something, which is not possible for the foreign
>> servers.
>> 
>> But Helmut doesn't do this.  In fact, the info file even suggests
>> it.  So, where is the difference between secondary and foreign
>> servers?  There must be more to it than just that the secondary
>> servers are mentioned in gnus-secondary-select-methods!
> 
> No, that's the difference.  That does have quite wide-ranging
> consequences, though -- for instance, `F' will query the secondary
> servers, while not foreign groups will ever be created by `F'.  Etc.

Ah, yes.  I think it would be useful to know more about the `etc' part
;-)

I now browsed the manual using `s secondary RET' and I found this:

/----
|    A slightly different approach to foreign groups is to set the
| `gnus-secondary-select-methods' variable.  The select methods listed in
| this variable are in many ways just as native as the
| `gnus-select-method' server.  They will also be queried for active
| files during startup (if that's required), and new newsgroups that
| appear on these servers will be subscribed (or not) just as native
| groups are.
\----

Does that tell the whole story?  Or is there anything missing?

kai
-- 
I like BOTH kinds of music.