J S and the art of batch downloading (gnus-group-category)

J S and the art of batch downloading (gnus-group-category)

[Jari Aalto+mail.emacs]

I don't quite understand how J S is supposed to work. I'm thinking of
setting up a batch job that runs whenever I open the ISP connection,
but I can't use the advertised batch download in the agent manual
page, because it would read all 200 newsgroups i have in the view.

I have defined 3 categories and none of those include the 200
newsgroups, not even the 'default if you look at it in category
buffer with "g".

I looked at the code that inside gnus-agent-fetch-group-1 there is call
to gnus-group-category, which always return group 'default if
there is no category defined for the group. I'm thinking that
this in incorrect, because the group is not listed in 'default
category's "g" list.

    (defun gnus-group-category (group)
      "Return the category GROUP belongs to."
      (unless gnus-category-group-cache
        (setq gnus-category-group-cache (gnus-make-hashtable 1000))
        (let ((cs gnus-category-alist)
              groups cat)
          (while (setq cat (pop cs))
            (setq groups (cadddr cat))
            (while groups
              (gnus-sethash (pop groups) cat gnus-category-group-cache)))))
      (or (gnus-gethash group gnus-category-group-cache)
>>      (assq 'default gnus-category-alist)))


I was hoping to define a category for "pure downloads" and instruct Gnus
agent to use only that category when doing the J S, but is seems
that Gnus does not work that way.

Is the assumption correct? Presumption:

    Does Gnus download all (? huh ) 
    newsgroups from the newsserver that I have subscribed (under 
    gnus-agent-handle-level naturally) when doing the J S?

    And  categories are just finer control for downloading and
    you can't specify which category you want to have respected
    when J S is requested?

Hm, I find that I mostly want to update 10-20 groups for active
download and just keep the "rest" for spare time reading.

--> Is the solution to move the goups that I do not want
    the agent to download above the gnus-agent-handle-level? 


Not quite what I hoped to find from gnus, but it will do until I come
up something other.

Jari

Re: J S and the art of batch downloading (gnus-group-category)

[Alan Shutko]

posting-list@MailAndNews.com (Jari Aalto+mail.emacs) writes:

>     Does Gnus download all (? huh ) newsgroups from the newsserver
>     that I have subscribed (under gnus-agent-handle-level naturally)
>     when doing the J S?

No.  J S sends posts, J s downloads them.  8^)

However, J s normally downloads all groups.  This can be changed by
adding groups you want to download to specific categories, and change
the default category not to download anything.  Then you'll still get
headers for all groups (I think....) but you won't download articles
from those groups unless you've entered the group and specifically
marked articles for downloading.

>     And  categories are just finer control for downloading and
>     you can't specify which category you want to have respected
>     when J S is requested?

Not really, no.  Gnus respects all categories when doing an agent
download.

> --> Is the solution to move the goups that I do not want
>     the agent to download above the gnus-agent-handle-level? 

That, or the category stuff I mentioned above.  If you sometimes want
to download them all, sometimes not, maybe some lisp could frob the
categories.... 

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
As a goatherd learns his trade by goat, so a writer learns his trade by wrote.

Re: J S and the art of batch downloading (gnus-group-category)

[Harry Putnam]

Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> writes:

> 
> >     And  categories are just finer control for downloading and
> >     you can't specify which category you want to have respected
> >     when J S is requested?

Well you could a move group around from one category to another.

> Not really, no.  Gnus respects all categories when doing an agent
> download.
> 
> > --> Is the solution to move the goups that I do not want
> >     the agent to download above the gnus-agent-handle-level? 

One possible way is to have several `categories'.  I use 
One with a `true' predicate that downloads everthing

One with a `high' predicate and score that downloads only messages
beginning with `Re:'

And a default category with a `false' predicate.  That downloads
only headers.

Things that I really don't want to fool with at all I put above the
agent..handle level.

You could jockey groups around before a download with `J a' (add) or
`J r' (rem) on the group, if you want to do something differnent
occasionally.  I found I don't really mess with it once I have it
setup.

Re: J S and the art of batch downloading (gnus-group-category)

[Kai Großjohann]

On 17 Dec 2000, Jari Aalto wrote:

> I don't quite understand how J S is supposed to work. I'm thinking
> of setting up a batch job that runs whenever I open the ISP
> connection, but I can't use the advertised batch download in the
> agent manual page, because it would read all 200 newsgroups i have
> in the view.

I don't understand it either, so I use gnus-agent-handle-level to
restrict the groups that the agent fetches, just like Harry
describes.  Works nicely.

kai
-- 
A large number of young women don't trust men with beards.  (BFBS Radio)