Re: Gnus works `at it is' but isn't that a coincidence?

[Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org>]

Merciadri Luca <Luca.Merciadri@student.ulg.ac.be> writes:

Hi!

First, the link to your emacs init file is broken...

> 2. What's the interest of gnus-select-method? Is it the `primary'
> method? I think so, but then, what is the interest of defining a
> secondary method? What is the difference in their order? I define
>
> ==
> (setq gnus-select-method '((nntp "news.stuff.com")))
> (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
> ==
>
> but I do not know what they do exactly.

Basically, there's no real difference between the "main" select method
and secondary ones.  I guess, the former was implemented first, and then
someone argued that having many select methods would be good.  So the
secondary ones were invented in order not to break the existing
interface.  But that's just a blind guess.

Anyway, for you as a user, there are no differences.  In fact, I've set
my `gnus-select-method' to nnil (a backend that does nothing) and only
use secondary select methods.

> 6. I use
>
> ==
> (setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it); For message-mode
> (setq send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it); ditto
> (setq send-mail-command 'smtpmail-send-it); For mail-mode (Rmail)
> ==
>
> but why do I need the three ones to make the whole stuff work?

Since Emacs 23.2, you don't need the former, because the default is to
send by using smtpmail.

The second is needed for mail modes that don't use message-mode.  With
very recent emacs snapshots, Rmail uses message-mode, too, so that won't
be needed.  But probably you need it with VM or Wanderlust...

The third is totally unneeded.  There is no variable send-mail-command
at all. ;-)

> 7. What's the interest of `my-signature' in
>
> ==
> (setq message-signature 'my-signature)
> (setq gnus-signature-separator '("^-- $"))
> ==
> ?

That variable can be a string (your signature), nil (don't use a
signature), a form (eval it and use the result as signature), or a
symbol corresponding to some function which is called to produce the
signature.  So you either have a function `my-signature', or you've
stolen an incomplete snippet. ;-)

> 8. I set
>
> ==
> (setq nntp-authinfo-file ".someauthfile.gpg")
> (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials ".someauthfile.gpg")
> ==
>
> but what's the difference between them?

One applies to nntp only, the latter to smtp.  Since Emacs 23.2, you'd
normally only set the variable `auth-sources'.

> 9. Providing that the whole stuff works as it is, what is the scheme
> which is done when I want to fetch e-mails, or when I want to send an
> e-mail, both through Gnus?

I think, I don't get your question.

Bye,
Tassilo