Group subscribe tab-completion

Group subscribe tab-completion

[xyblor]

When I want to subscribe to a newsgroup with "U", tab-completion does
not work, unless I have read the active file with "A A" or
"b". Otherwise, the only valid completions are the groups I have
already subscribed to.

The Gnus tutorial led me to believe that tab-completion should always
work, so I wonder if something's wrong. Shouldn't the newsrc.eld file
save a list of all the available newsgroups, so I don't have to read
the whole active file every time? I suspect this isn't happening
since it is very small (4 KB).

Thanks for any advice.

Re: Group subscribe tab-completion

[Karl Kleinpaste]

xyblor <fake@invalid.email> writes:
> Shouldn't the newsrc.eld file save a list of all the available
> newsgroups, so I don't have to read the whole active file every time?

Saving the entire list of groups is a very expensive (in bandwidth and
storage space) thing to do because there are tens of thousands of
groups known to large installations; far too heavy a cost to outweigh
the small benefit of the very occasional time that one really wants
that list.  (Even on my small server, the active file is half a
megabyte.)

However, rather than using `U', you might try going into server mode,
via `^' in *Group*, and then selecting the server you want to examine
with SPC.  That will induce retrieval, and you can search and
subscribe (and preview, for that matter) to your heart's content.

Re: Group subscribe tab-completion

[xyblor]

Karl Kleinpaste <karl@charcoal.com> writes:

> xyblor <fake@invalid.email> writes:
>> Shouldn't the newsrc.eld file save a list of all the available
>> newsgroups, so I don't have to read the whole active file every time?
>
> Saving the entire list of groups is a very expensive (in bandwidth and
> storage space) thing to do because there are tens of thousands of
> groups known to large installations; far too heavy a cost to outweigh
> the small benefit of the very occasional time that one really wants
> that list.  (Even on my small server, the active file is half a
> megabyte.)

I'm not proposing to download the entire active file every time I
start gnus, I just want to save it once so that tab-completion
works. I thought that was how it's supposed to work; then any new
groups added to the server would be added to the list in .newsrc
according to gnus-check-new-newsgroups. 

This arrangement should use *less* bandwidth, since I would only
download the list once, instead of every time I want to browse it.

I'm confused about all this; maybe I'll look in the "Agent" menu,
since it seems like I'm trying to do something "unplugged". Thanks for
the tip about server mode.

Re: Group subscribe tab-completion

[xyblor]

xyblor <fake@invalid.email> writes:

>>> Shouldn't the newsrc.eld file save a list of all the available
>>> newsgroups, so I don't have to read the whole active file every time?

Actually, it seems that gnus *is* saving the active file to disk in
~/News/agent/nntp/server.name/agent.lib/active (it's over 2 MB).

So why can't it consult that file for tab-completion when I subscribe
to a group?

Re: Group subscribe tab-completion

[xyblor]

xyblor <fake@invalid.email> writes:

> xyblor <fake@invalid.email> writes:
>
>>>> Shouldn't the newsrc.eld file save a list of all the available
>>>> newsgroups, so I don't have to read the whole active file every time?
>
> Actually, it seems that gnus *is* saving the active file to disk in
> ~/News/agent/nntp/server.name/agent.lib/active (it's over 2 MB).
>
> So why can't it consult that file for tab-completion when I subscribe
> to a group?

To answer my own question somewhat, it seems that gnus *can* read the
the active file for tab-completion - the problem is that gnus is
destroying its contents whenever it loads or quits.