re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Pablo Sanchez]

Howdy,

I'm using gnus v5.11 and I've google'd (not very hard) on how to
configure gnus to use different directories other than ~/News and
~/Mail.  I'd like to keep my top-level directory tidy.

Any hints would be appreciated.  Thank you.

Cheers,
-- 
pablo

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Martin Geisler]

Pablo Sanchez <dev.null@blueoakdb.com> writes:

Hi Pablo

> I'm using gnus v5.11 and I've google'd (not very hard) on how to
> configure gnus to use different directories other than ~/News and
> ~/Mail. I'd like to keep my top-level directory tidy.

I think you want to change either this variable:

`gnus-home-directory'
     All Gnus file and directory variables will be initialized from this
     variable, which defaults to `~/'.

Or maybe these two:

`gnus-directory'
     Most Gnus storage file and directory variables will be initialized
     from this variable, which defaults to the `SAVEDIR' environment
     variable, or `~/News/' if that variable isn't set.

     Note that Gnus is mostly loaded when the `~/.gnus.el' file is read.
     This means that other directory variables that are initialized
     from this variable won't be set properly if you set this variable
     in `~/.gnus.el'.  Set this variable in `.emacs' instead.

`message-directory'
     Directory used by many mailey things.  The default is `~/Mail/'.
     All other mail file variables are derived from `message-directory'.

When searching for a variable controlling something, then it is often
useful to search with M-x apropos-value for the value in question.

-- 
Martin Geisler

VIFF (Virtual Ideal Functionality Framework) brings easy and efficient
SMPC (Secure Multi-Party Computation) to Python. See: http://viff.dk/.

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Pablo Sanchez]

Martin Geisler <mg@daimi.au.dk> writes:

> Pablo Sanchez <dev.null@blueoakdb.com> writes:
>
> Hi Pablo

Hi Martin,

> I think you want to change either this variable:
>
> `gnus-home-directory'
> `gnus-directory'
> `message-directory'
>
> [ snipped ]
> 

Thank you.

> When searching for a variable controlling something, then it is
> often useful to search with M-x apropos-value for the value in
> question.

Thank you for the hint as I rather learn to `fish than to be fed a
fish.'  :)

I thought I'd try it out.  After entering 'M-x apropos-value' I
entered 'gnus.*directory'  At this point I received a `stack overflow
in regexp matcher'

Am I doing sometihng incredibly lame?  

Cheers,
-- 
pablo

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Martin Geisler]

Pablo Sanchez <dev.null@blueoakdb.com> writes:

> Martin Geisler <mg@daimi.au.dk> writes:
>
>> I think you want to change either this variable:
>>
>> `gnus-home-directory'
>> `gnus-directory'
>> `message-directory'
>>
>> [ snipped ]
>
> Thank you.
>
>> When searching for a variable controlling something, then it is
>> often useful to search with M-x apropos-value for the value in
>> question.
>
> Thank you for the hint as I rather learn to `fish than to be fed a
> fish.' :)

Yeah, me too :-) That apropos command is really powerful!

I found the gnus-home-directory and gnus-directory variables in the
Gnus Info manual, but I had to search with apropos-value for the
message-directory variable (although I ought to have guessed the name
since it is so similar to the other names).

> I thought I'd try it out. After entering 'M-x apropos-value' I
> entered 'gnus.*directory' At this point I received a `stack overflow
> in regexp matcher'
>
> Am I doing sometihng incredibly lame?

I get the same error. I guess it is understandable since your regexp
is matched against all variable *values*, and some of these values are
apparently too big to be searched with that a regexp. If you search
with a regexp that does not require as much backtracking, then it
works fine:

  M-x apropos-value RET gnus.\{1,10\}directory

returns matches in my Emacs.

-- 
Martin Geisler

VIFF (Virtual Ideal Functionality Framework) brings easy and efficient
SMPC (Secure Multi-Party Computation) to Python. See: http://viff.dk/.

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Pablo Sanchez]

Martin Geisler <mg@daimi.au.dk> writes:

> Pablo Sanchez <dev.null@blueoakdb.com> writes:
>
> Hi Pablo

Hi Martin,

> I think you want to change either this variable:

Once again, thank you for the information.  It got me going in the
right direction.  In order to affect this change, I had to make the
following changes:

   (setq gnus-home-directory         "~/.gnus.d")
   (setq gnus-startup-file           (concat gnus-home-directory ".newsrc"))
   (setq gnus-cache-directory        (concat gnus-home-directory "/cache"))
   (setq message-directory           (concat gnus-home-directory "/Mail"))
   (setq gnus-directory              (concat gnus-home-directory "/News"))
   (setq gnus-agent-directory        (concat gnus-directory      "/agent"))
   (setq message-auto-save-directory (concat message-directory   "/drafts"))

By doing the above, all the gnus files and directories are placed in
~/gnus.d:

    ~/gnus.d/
       .newsrc
       Mail/
          +--- drafts/
       News/
          +--- agent/
          +--- drafts/

Now my top-level directory remains tidy.  I suppose I should get to
work now.  :p

Cheers,       
-- 
pablo

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Martin Geisler]

Pablo Sanchez <dev.null@blueoakdb.com> writes:

Hi,

> Once again, thank you for the information.  It got me going in the
> right direction.  In order to affect this change, I had to make the
> following changes:
>
>    (setq gnus-home-directory         "~/.gnus.d")
>    (setq gnus-startup-file           (concat gnus-home-directory ".newsrc"))
>    (setq gnus-cache-directory        (concat gnus-home-directory "/cache"))
>    (setq message-directory           (concat gnus-home-directory "/Mail"))
>    (setq gnus-directory              (concat gnus-home-directory "/News"))
>    (setq gnus-agent-directory        (concat gnus-directory      "/agent"))
>    (setq message-auto-save-directory (concat message-directory   "/drafts"))

I have not tried setting gnus-home-directory myself, but the manual
promises that the other variables will be affected by its setting.

So only the first and forth of your settings ought to be necessary if
you set them in your ~/.emacs file. But as I said, I have not tried
this out, I have only read the fine manual :-)

-- 
Martin Geisler

VIFF (Virtual Ideal Functionality Framework) brings easy and efficient
SMPC (Secure Multi-Party Computation) to Python. See: http://viff.dk/.

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Pablo Sanchez]

>>>>> "Martin" == Martin Geisler <mg@daimi.au.dk> writes:

    Martin> I have not tried setting gnus-home-directory myself, but
    Martin> the manual promises that the other variables will be
    Martin> affected by its setting.

    Martin> So only the first and forth of your settings ought to be
    Martin> necessary if you set them in your ~/.emacs file. But as I
    Martin> said, I have not tried this out, I have only read the fine
    Martin> manual :-)

Hi Martin,

I actually tried with just the first variable but it didn't work.  I
added the next two and tested again.  It still didn't fully work.  Not
until I made the other changes did it all `take.'

Now my top level directory is tidy (I'm an engineer, I like tidy!
<g>) and GNUS of course rocks.

Cheers,
-- 
pablo

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Martin Geisler]

Pablo Sanchez <dev.null@blueoakdb.com> writes:

>>>>>> "Martin" == Martin Geisler <mg@daimi.au.dk> writes:
>
>     Martin> I have not tried setting gnus-home-directory myself, but
>     Martin> the manual promises that the other variables will be
>     Martin> affected by its setting.
>
>     Martin> So only the first and forth of your settings ought to be
>     Martin> necessary if you set them in your ~/.emacs file. But as I
>     Martin> said, I have not tried this out, I have only read the fine
>     Martin> manual :-)
>
> I actually tried with just the first variable but it didn't work.  I
> added the next two and tested again.  It still didn't fully work.  Not
> until I made the other changes did it all `take.'

Okay, that is good to know if I ever want to do something similar
myself -- I also like my home directory to be tidy :-)

-- 
Martin Geisler

VIFF (Virtual Ideal Functionality Framework) brings easy and efficient
SMPC (Secure Multi-Party Computation) to Python. See: http://viff.dk/.

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Pablo Sanchez]

>>>>> "Martin" == Martin Geisler <mg@daimi.au.dk> writes:

    Martin> Okay, that is good to know if I ever want to do something
    Martin> similar myself -- I also like my home directory to be tidy
    Martin> :-)

<g>

In the end, here are my settings:

---8-<---8-<---8-<---8-<---8-<---8-<---8-<--
(setq gnus-home-directory         "~/.gnus.d/")
(setq gnus-startup-file           (concat gnus-home-directory ".newsrc"))
(setq gnus-cache-directory        (concat gnus-home-directory "cache/"))
(setq message-directory           (concat gnus-home-directory "Mail/"))
(setq gnus-directory              (concat gnus-home-directory "News/"))
(setq gnus-agent-directory        (concat gnus-directory      "agent/"))
(setq message-auto-save-directory (concat message-directory   "drafts/"))
(setq gnus-dribble-directory      gnus-home-directory)

(setq nnml-directory              (concat gnus-home-directory "nnml/"))
(setq nnmail-crash-box            (concat nnml-directory "mit-gnus-crash-box/"))
(setq nnml-newsgroups-file        (concat nnml-directory "newsgroup/"))
---8-<---8-<---8-<---8-<---8-<---8-<---8-<--

Cheers,
-- 
pablo

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[anhnmncb]

hi,
        Why does ~/.nnmail-cache still appear in my home dir? How to
        change it to be at ~/.gnus.d/ ?
-- 
Regards,

  anhnmncb
 gpg key: 44A31344

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Reiner Steib]

On Thu, Feb 14 2008, anhnmncb wrote:

>         Why does ~/.nnmail-cache still appear in my home dir? How to
>         change it to be at ~/.gnus.d/ ?

That's a bug, I think.  Fixed in CVS.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[anhnmncb]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:

> On Thu, Feb 14 2008, anhnmncb wrote:
>
>>         Why does ~/.nnmail-cache still appear in my home dir? How to
>>         change it to be at ~/.gnus.d/ ?
>
> That's a bug, I think.  Fixed in CVS.
>
> Bye, Reiner.

I also find that adding this line into .gnu.el does the job:
(setq nnmail-message-id-cache-file "~/.emacs.d/.gnus.d/.nnmail-cache")

Thanks, Reiner!
-- 
Regards,

  anhnmncb
 gpg key: 44A31344

Re: re-specifying ~/News and ~/Mail

[Reiner Steib]

On Tue, Feb 12 2008, Pablo Sanchez wrote:

> I actually tried with just the first variable but it didn't work.  I
> added the next two and tested again.  It still didn't fully work.  Not
> until I made the other changes did it all `take.'

I'm quite sure that setting only `gnus-home-directory' (or
`gnus-directory') and `message-directory' is sufficient to cover
proper initialization of all the variables listed below.  I can
imagine that you need to set `gnus-home-directory' (or
`gnus-directory') and `message-directory' quite early, i.e. before
Gnus/Message libraries are loaded, though.  If this is not the case,
there's a bug we'd like to fix.

| (setq gnus-startup-file           (concat gnus-home-directory ".newsrc"))
| (setq gnus-cache-directory        (concat gnus-home-directory "cache/"))
| (setq gnus-agent-directory        (concat gnus-directory      "agent/"))
| (setq message-auto-save-directory (concat message-directory   "drafts/"))
| (setq gnus-dribble-directory      gnus-home-directory)
| (setq nnml-directory              (concat gnus-home-directory "nnml/"))
| (setq nnml-newsgroups-file        (concat nnml-directory "newsgroup/"))

`nnmail-crash-box' doesn't exist, maybe you meant `mail-source-crash-box'.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/