Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

[Ferran Jorba]

Hi fellow Gnus users,

I'm trying to make Gnus my only imap client.  But I find some
inconveniences that I haven't found how to solve.  This message is about
the first of them.

As much as I try to avoid it, I'm always typing `/ o' in my imap folders
in Gnus.  Moreover, when I check for new messages in my inbox, my Gnus
talks to our imap server twice: one for `Esc g' and the other for `/ o'.
And as my inbox is quite big, I feel I overload the server, and
everything slows down.  On the contrary, checking for new mail on
Thunderbird without loosing old messages is just a click of a button.

I'd be happy if I can always see old articles when visiting any folder,
but I'll be satisfied if, at least, this could be accomplished with my
inbox.

As I'm lisp-impaired, I've tried all sorts of variations in my .gnus.el
file that I've found in my Gnus manual reading and Google searches:

 ;;(setq gnus-summary-insert-old-articles 't)
 ;;(gnus-summary-insert-old-articles)
 ;;(setq gnus-fetch-old-headers 5000)

But none of them seems to help.  Help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ferran

Re: Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

[Rémi Letot]

Ferran Jorba <Ferran.Jorba@uab.cat> writes:

> I'd be happy if I can always see old articles when visiting any folder,
> but I'll be satisfied if, at least, this could be accomplished with my
> inbox.

Don't know how to make it automatic, but just type C-u before entering
a group and it will show all articles.

Bye,
-- 
Rémi

Re: Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

[Joel Reicher]

Ferran Jorba <Ferran.Jorba@uab.cat> writes:

> As much as I try to avoid it, I'm always typing `/ o' in my imap folders
> in Gnus.  Moreover, when I check for new messages in my inbox, my Gnus
> talks to our imap server twice: one for `Esc g' and the other for `/ o'.
> And as my inbox is quite big, I feel I overload the server, and
> everything slows down.  On the contrary, checking for new mail on
> Thunderbird without loosing old messages is just a click of a button.

You're not losing old messages. By default Gnus only displays unread
messages when it enters a group. This is fundamental Gnus
functionality and is true (and intuitive) for newsgroups, but
sometimes surprises people for mail folders.

Look in the manual for how to enter groups such that old messages are
displayed.

Cheers,

        - Joel

Re: Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

[Ferran Jorba]

Hi Joel,

> You're not losing old messages. By default Gnus only displays unread
> messages when it enters a group. This is fundamental Gnus
> functionality and is true (and intuitive) for newsgroups, but
> sometimes surprises people for mail folders.

As I wrote, yes, I know to type `/ o', and my phrase `without loosing'
caused confusion.  But as my inbox holds much of my workflow, I very
often have to go to already read messages. 

> Look in the manual for how to enter groups such that old messages are
> displayed.

Rémi suggested `C u' before entering my inbox, and works well.  Even
when I refresh my inbox with `C u / o'.  Myself, I couldn't find it in
the manual, although I tried.

Thanks,

Ferran

Re: Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

[poppyer]

Another question about this.
When I use Ctrl-u to enter a large folder
it will ask me to key in how many articles I want to view
is there any way to pre-set this variable? say 100, such that I don't
need to key in it every time?

Ferran Jorba <Ferran.Jorba@uab.cat> writes:

> Hi Joel,
> 
> > You're not losing old messages. By default Gnus only displays unread
> > messages when it enters a group. This is fundamental Gnus
> > functionality and is true (and intuitive) for newsgroups, but
> > sometimes surprises people for mail folders.
> 
> As I wrote, yes, I know to type `/ o', and my phrase `without loosing'
> caused confusion.  But as my inbox holds much of my workflow, I very
> often have to go to already read messages. 
> 
> > Look in the manual for how to enter groups such that old messages are
> > displayed.
> 
> Rémi suggested `C u' before entering my inbox, and works well.  Even
> when I refresh my inbox with `C u / o'.  Myself, I couldn't find it in
> the manual, although I tried.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ferran

-- 

Re: Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

[Ferran Jorba]

Hi,

> When I use Ctrl-u to enter a large folder
> it will ask me to key in how many articles I want to view
> is there any way to pre-set this variable? say 100, such that I don't
> need to key in it every time?

I don't have the answer, but I've noted that you can type once, and then
recall your previous input with C-p, or up arrow.

Hope it helps,

Ferran

Re: Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

[Rémi Letot]

poppyer <poppyer@gmail.com> writes:

> Another question about this.
> When I use Ctrl-u to enter a large folder
> it will ask me to key in how many articles I want to view
> is there any way to pre-set this variable? say 100, such that I don't
> need to key in it every time?

Customize the group (with G-c in the Group buffer) and use this :

[ ] Initial Input for Large Newsgroup: [Value Menu] All
 [Hide]    
    This number will be prompted as the initial value of the number of
    articles to list when the group is a large newsgroup (see
    `gnus-large-newsgroup').  If it is nil, the default value is the
    total number of articles in the group.


Hope it helps,
-- 
Rémi

Re: Gnus: always seeing old articles when entering an imap folder

[Ferran Jorba]

Hello Rémi,

> Don't know how to make it automatic, but just type C-u before entering
> a group and it will show all articles.

Thanks for this suggestion, that I didn't know, and works fine.  After
more than 10 years with Emacs, probably my fingers won't complaint much
more if I ask them a few more contorsions.

Or I'll bind it to a shorter sequence.

Merci,

Ferran