How can I accomplish this: Run unplugged and do everthing in batch mode.

How can I accomplish this: Run unplugged and do everthing in batch mode.

[Harry Putnam]

I'd like to just run unplugged all the time. Relying on batch fetches
to keep things up to date.  I guess the problem is how to update the
offline gnus from stuff collected by online batch jobs.

I have code that lars posted long ago.  It may be dated by now but
still looks pretty similar to gnus-batch.  I've lost track of how
much I may have butched it up.  And no longer have Lars post.  It was
several years ago (on ding),

I'm running a batch command that loads two things.  A my_gnus.el
generated by scripting that scans .emacs .gnus .site-start.el for
lines with the key symbol ;;;batch following.  So as to avoid
unecessary stuff.

It all happens from a perl script that runs emacs like:

   emacs -q -no-site-file -batch -l $my_gnus_el -l $my_batch_el \
       -f hp-fetch-news

$my_gnus_el is loaded in emacs because it redirects gnus to use
$my_gnus_el as init file.  And points to the right directory for
gnus/lisp so I get my cvs version.  Then $my_batch_el contains the
function hp-fetch-news.  After gnus libraries are loaded.  (Shown
below after $my_gnus_el)

The last item in $my_batch_el (shown at the end) `(gnus-group-quit)'
is documented as closing out without saving anything.  I wondered if
it should be `gnus-group-exit'.
Also confused about this from $my_batch_el:

  ;; The let below might load ~/.gnus if "" trying nil
  ;;(let ((init-file-user "")
  (let ((init-file-user nil)
 	(gnus-always-read-dribble-file t)

Lars original formula used init-file-user ""  But I don't want to
load .gnus so thought maybe I should set that nil.

Finally, in the running unplugged gnus I run a function that is
supposed to refresh it. pgnus-unplugged.  That is loaded on startup.

(defun pgnus-unplugged ()
   (interactive)
   (setq gnus-plugged nil)
   (gnus))
(setq gnus-read-active-file t)


[aside
Sorry about all the data, I tried to organize it so it would come
after any discriptions and be a little easier to plow thru.]

Pretty sure the above way was what Lars had.  So figured it probably
needs to be there.  `gnus-group-exit' is suppose to save stuff on the
way out.

I can't really tell for sure if this is working, but I'm starting to
see those `undownloaded' marked articles in some of my agentized
groups.  Theoretically that should happen, if the batch fetches are
working.. (I think).

I'm confused about how the running `unplugged' gnus can get refreshed
from the batch jobs.  Currently I run this code I had when it was
still pgnus.


cat $my_gnus_el (no formatting) just the lines and where they came
from ( a couple things appear twice but I don't think it hurts
anything): 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(add-to-list 'load-path  "/usr/local/gnus/lisp"
(setq gnus-init-file "/tmp/my_gnus_init.el") 
(load-library "gnus")
(setq mail-user-agent  'gnus-user-agent) ;;;batch:76:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq  max-lisp-eval-depth 2000) ;;;batch:80:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq  message-syntax-checks ;;;batch:81:/home/reader/.gnus
'((sender . disabled))) ;;;batch:82:/home/reader/.gnus
(defun message-make-fqdn () ;;;batch:84:/home/reader/.gnus
"My  hacked message-id." ;;;batch:85:/home/reader/.gnus
"newsguy.com") ;;;batch:86:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-expert-user t) ;;;batch:95:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-agent-short-article 50) ;;;batch:96:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring nil) ;;;batch:152:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq mail-sources ;;;batch:159:/home/reader/.gnus
'((file :path "/var/spool/mail/reader") ;;;batch:160:/home/reader/.gnus
(directory :path "/home/reader/spool/"    :suffix ".in"))) ;;;batch:161:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-extra-headers ;;;batch:164:/home/reader/.gnus
'(To Newsgroups Keywords )) ;;;batch:165:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq nnmail-extra-headers gnus-extra-headers) ;;;batch:166:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-ignored-from-addresses ;;;batch:167:/home/reader/.gnus
"Harry Putnam") ;;;batch:168:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq message-user-organization "Still searching...") ;;;batch:171:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "enews.newsguy.com")) ;;;batch:172:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq user-mail-address "reader@newsguy.com") ;;;batch:175:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-check-new-newsgroups 'ask-server) ;;;batch:183:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-agent-handle-level 3) ;;;batch:186:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-activate-foreign-newsgroups 3) ;;;batch:187:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq mail-source-delete-incoming t) ;;;batch:188:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-use-long-file-name  t) ;;;batch:189:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq nnmail-crosspost nil) ;;;batch:190:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods ;;;batch:194:/home/reader/.gnus
'((nnml ""))) ;;;batch:195:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq nnmail-split-methods ;;;batch:197:/home/reader/.gnus
'(("tests" "^Subject:.*test.*labridge") ;;;batch:198:/home/reader/.gnus
("Edited"  "^Subject: \\[ed\\]\\|^Subject:  \\[ed\\]") ;;;batch:199:/home/reader/.gnus
("misc" ""))) ;;;batch:200:/home/reader/.gnus
(setq user-mail-address "reader@newsguy.com") ;;;batch:124:/home/reader/.emacs
(setq message-syntax-checks '((sender . disabled))) ;;;batch:125:/home/reader/.emacs

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Then this batching function is loaded:
cat $my_batch_el
(defun hp-fetch-news ()
  (interactive)
  ;; The let below might load ~/.gnus if "" trying nil
  ;;(let ((init-file-user "")
  (let ((init-file-user nil)
 	(gnus-always-read-dribble-file t))
    (gnus))

  ;; not sure what this does or if I need it either
  (let ((gnus-agent-confirmation-function 'gnus-agent-batch-confirmation))
    (gnus-group-send-queue)
    (gnus-agent-fetch-session)
    (gnus-group-quit)))