Re: List Unsubscribed Groups Matching a Pattern

Re: List Unsubscribed Groups Matching a Pattern

[bazad]

Joel Reicher <joel@panacea.null.org> writes:

> bazad <nobody@noreply.not> writes:
>
>> My computer is not fast and execution of 'A A' command takes some
>> time.  I'd like to execute something like 'A m' against unsubscribed
>> groups.  Unfortunately, it seems that 'A m' command works with
>> subscribed groups only.
>> 
>> I also don't seem to get levels working.  '9 L' does not display any
>> unsubscribed groups.
>
> You should read the info page
> (gnus) Listing Groups
>
> It clearly says that `A A' reads the active file(s) of the server(s),
> and so the slowness has nothing to do with your computer; you're
> downloading what is probably a very large file when you do that.
>
> `A m' and `A M' are the commands you're looking for, but they'll only
> go through your own local `active file'. Many Gnus installations will
> not save a complete local copy by default, to save space. You should
> check the value of the gnus-save-killed-list variable to make sure
> it's non-nil. You should also read the info page
> (gnus) The Active File
>
> To actually get the killed list into your .newsrc.eld, you'll probably
> either have to manually kill the whole list of groups at least once
> (which might also kill your subscribed groups if you're not careful),
> or change the value of gnus-read-active-file to something other than
> nil or `some', start gnus up, and then change the value back.
>
> Cheers,
>
>         - Joel

ok,

I just wasted lots of time without any reasonable sucess.  slrn took
me incredibly much less time to get running!  And it was on Windows
box, which is not native to slrn!  I just thought that LISP and emacs
are good ideas...

So, may be experts can help me to configure my system.  Here are the
configuration parameters:

NNTP server: free.teranews.com
connection: DSL
xemacs: 21.4.14 "Reasonable Discussion" configured for i386--freebsd
processor: AMD K6 350MHz.

This nntp service carries *all* newsgroups, so the Active file is
really really huge.  Since I failed to save the file I can't say how
huge it is.  It takes a lot of time to download and a lot of time to present
the file on the screen.  Talk about efficiency...

So, I want to be able to read newsgroups easily.  I subscribed already
to several groups.  I don't care if list of newsgroups changes.  It is
unlikely, that I would need to subscribe to some new group.

Killing groups.  Ok, I tried.  It works on a small region (less than
20 items).  It appears to do nothing when I try to select a huge
chunk.  or it is just incredibly slow...

Re: List Unsubscribed Groups Matching a Pattern

[Joel Reicher]

bazad <nobody@noreply.not> writes:

> > Verify that .newsrc.eld is now very large.
> 
> I followed the instructions above and it did not work.
> 
> I added the following text to my ~/.gnus.el file:
> 
> (setq gnus-read-active-file t)
> (setq gnus-save-killed-list t)
> (setq gnus-check-new-newsgroups t)
> 
> I saw that gnus spent some time loading active file from nntp server.
> I also observed that it spent some time after the file got loaded.  If
> .newsrc.eld is big and it takes a long time to proces it, when
> application starts, I prefer a samller size.  I don't subscribe to
> groups that much anymore.

Recall that your original question was being able to list unsubscribed
groups matching a pattern (as the subject line says). You need a local
copy of groups to search over to do this easily.

You don't need to worry about having a large .newsrc.eld in my
opinion. On my trusty old 486 100MHz it ploughs through the file in no
time at all. I can almost guarantee any slowness you observe is from
downloading the entire active file, and subsequent processing on it,
both due to the read active file and check new newsgroups settings
above, which I said would be temporary.

I'm very surprised what I described didn't work, however. Are you
absolutely sure? How big was .newsrc.eld when you were done
(i.e. after you had quit)? Somewhere between 600k and 1MB is what I
would expect for a complete list of groups.

If it's not somewhere in that range (or larger) then things haven't
worked, but I'll need more information to help further.

Incidentally, I might have found an easier way to do all this.

C-u C-u M-x gnus-find-new-newsgroups

from the group buffer might be all you need, regardless of how you
have gnus set up. So perhaps set everything back to normal and try
that. According to the docs this *will* bring new groups in as
zombies, and you should only need to do it once.

Cheers,

        - Joel