Possible FAQ entry: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

Possible FAQ entry: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

[Rob Browning]

This seems like FAQ material now that there's a fairly good solution.

Q: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

A: Some of the server backends, notably nnml ATM, now actually store
the article marks with each group.  For these servers, archiving and
restoring a group is fairly simple (Caveat: at the moment, group
parameters will not be preserved by this process, so if you depend on
them, beware):

  Archiving:

  - Quit gnus.

  - Tar up the relevant group directory and save it somewhere.

  - Start gnus and delete the group with "C-u G DEL".  WARNING: This
    will delete the group and its contents, so make sure your tar
    command really worked!

  Restoring:

  - Quit gnus.

  - Untar a group directory into the right place (wherever your
    nnml backend keeps them).

  - Start gnus and ask it to create the group with "G m".  It will ask
    you for the group name (make sure you use the same name as the
    directory you untarred), and for the server backend, probably
    something like "nnml:foo".

    The reason you need this step is so that the new group will have
    an entry in the active file.  Without that, gnus won't know that
    it's there.  Some backends, notably nnmaildir, will automatically
    notice new directories, making this step unnecessary.

Thanks to Simon and ShengHuo for the info.

-- 
Rob Browning
rlb @defaultvalue.org, @linuxdevel.com, and @debian.org
Previously @cs.utexas.edu
GPG=1C58 8B2C FB5E 3F64 EA5C  64AE 78FE E5FE F0CB A0AD

Re: Possible FAQ entry: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

[Simon Josefsson]

Rob Browning <rlb@defaultvalue.org> writes:

> This seems like FAQ material now that there's a fairly good solution.

Very nice.  Is Justin reading this?  Maybe the FAQ doesn't discuss
beta stuff though.

> Q: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

nnfolder as well.  (And nnmaildir?)

>   Archiving:
...
>   Restoring:

Quitting and restarting Gnus is optional, at least for nnml and
nnfolder.  Dunno about nnmaildir here though?

Re: Possible FAQ entry: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

[Paul Jarc]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> wrote:
> Rob Browning <rlb@defaultvalue.org> writes:
>> Q: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?
> 
> nnfolder as well.  (And nnmaildir?)

Yup.  nnmaildir has stored marks since 2001-04-11.

>>   Archiving:
> ...
>>   Restoring:
> 
> Quitting and restarting Gnus is optional, at least for nnml and
> nnfolder.  Dunno about nnmaildir here though?

Yup.  nnmaildir notices new groups during -request-scan, and doesn't
mind if they've disappeared at that time.  Note, though, the procedure
would be a bit different for nnmaildir: the server is configured to
use a directory containing symlinks to maildirs, not the maildirs
themselves.


paul

Re: Possible FAQ entry: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

[Simon Josefsson]

Rob Browning <rlb@defaultvalue.org> writes:

> Q: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

Inspired by this, I added a node on archiving mail, comments welcome:

Archiving Mail
--------------

   Some of the backends, notably nnml and nnfolder, now actually store
the article marks with each group.  For these servers, archiving and
restoring a group while preserving marks is fairly simple.

   (Preserving the group level and group parameters as well still
requires ritual dancing and sacrifies to the `.newsrc.eld' deity
though.)

   To archive an entire `nnml' or `nnfolder' server, take a recursive
copy of the server directory.  There is no need to shut down Gnus, so
archiving may be invoked by `cron' or similar.  You restore the data by
restoring the directory tree, and adding a server definition pointing
to that directory in Gnus. The *Note Article Backlog::, *Note
Asynchronous Fetching:: and other things might interfer with
overwriting data, so you may want to shut down Gnus before you restore
the data.

   It is also possible to archive individual `nnml' or `nnfolder'
groups, while preserving marks.  For `nnml', you recursively copy the
group's directory within the `nnml' server directory.  For `nnfolder'
you need to copy both the base folder file itself, and the file named
by concatenating the base folder name with `.mkr'.  Restoring the
groups is done with `G m' from the Group buffer.  The last step makes
Gnus notice the new directory.

Re: Possible FAQ entry: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

[Kai Großjohann]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

>    It is also possible to archive individual `nnml' or `nnfolder'
> groups, while preserving marks.  For `nnml', you recursively copy the
> group's directory within the `nnml' server directory.  For `nnfolder'
> you need to copy both the base folder file itself, and the file named
> by concatenating the base folder name with `.mkr'.  Restoring the
> groups is done with `G m' from the Group buffer.  The last step makes
> Gnus notice the new directory.

I think it's mrk not mkr?

Also, is `recursively' right here?  For example, if I have a group
nnml:foo and another group nnml:foo.bar, and if I want to archive the
nnml:foo group, then I want to tar up all the files in ~/Mail/foo, but
not the ~/Mail/foo/bar subdir.

And finally, IMVHO the middle sentence looks a bit clumsy.  What do
you think about something along the lines of the following, err,
lines?

    For `nnfolder' you need to copy both the base folder file itself
    (FOO, say), and the marks file (FOO.mrk in this example).

Of course, these are just nitpicks.  I like the section.

kai
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Re: Possible FAQ entry: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

[Simon Josefsson]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> I think it's mrk not mkr?
>
> Also, is `recursively' right here?  For example, if I have a group
> nnml:foo and another group nnml:foo.bar, and if I want to archive the
> nnml:foo group, then I want to tar up all the files in ~/Mail/foo, but
> not the ~/Mail/foo/bar subdir.
>
> And finally, IMVHO the middle sentence looks a bit clumsy.  What do
> you think about something along the lines of the following, err,
> lines?
>
>     For `nnfolder' you need to copy both the base folder file itself
>     (FOO, say), and the marks file (FOO.mrk in this example).
>
> Of course, these are just nitpicks.  I like the section.

Thanks, I added your suggestions, and changed `recursively' into `copy
all files' or something like that.  Do you think it is better now?

Re: Possible FAQ entry: How do I archive/restore my (nnml) mail?

[Kai Großjohann]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

> Thanks, I added your suggestions, and changed `recursively' into `copy
> all files' or something like that.  Do you think it is better now?

Very nice.  I especially like the dancing part :-)  (Of course, I liked
that right from the beginning.)

kai
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