Getting a handle on gnus

Getting a handle on gnus

[Les Harris]

I've spent the past week slowly coming up to speed with gnus.  I'm at
the point where I can pretty much use it in a basic way and am wondering
why I haven't been using it for years.

I can't seem to figure out from the documentation or elsewhere a couple 
things though:

1) I like topic mode. How do I make it the default mode on startup?

2) What is the difference between 'g' (Check for new news) and 'alt-g'
(Fetch new articles). 'alt-g' does what I want, can't seem to figure out
what 'g' is doing. A corrollary: How can I fetch new articles on gnus
startup?

3) How do I go about automatically fetching new articles on some
constant time interval? (Something with a gnus daemon...?)

Any pointers to documentation or outright answers very much appreciated.

Les

Re: Getting a handle on gnus

[Memnon Anon]

Les Harris <me@lesharris.com> writes:

> I can't seem to figure out from the documentation or elsewhere a couple 
> things though:
>
> 1) I like topic mode. How do I make it the default mode on startup?

From the gnus info file

,---- [2.16 Group Topics]
|    If you want this permanently enabled, you should add that minor mode
| to the hook for the group mode.  Put the following line in your
| `~/.gnus.el' file:
| 
|      (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
`----

hth

Re: Getting a handle on gnus

[Teemu Likonen]

Les Harris (2009-01-10 06:52 -0800) wrote:

> 1) I like topic mode. How do I make it the default mode on startup?

Command gnus-topic-mode turns it on. You have to add that command to the
gnus-group-mode-hook so that it is run every time the Group buffer is
initialized. So, put the following line to your ~/.gnus.el file:

    (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)

Re: Getting a handle on gnus

[Rémi Letot]

Les Harris <me@lesharris.com> writes:


[...]

> 2) What is the difference between 'g' (Check for new news) and 'alt-g'
> (Fetch new articles). 'alt-g' does what I want, can't seem to figure out
> what 'g' is doing. A corrollary: How can I fetch new articles on gnus
> startup?

In the group buffer :

g will check for new articles in every subscribed group
alt-g will do so only for the current group or topic

To see the description of a key : alt-x describe-key
This has to be used in the context in which you want the explanation
since keys have different meanings in different contexts.

Normally gnus will check for new articles in all subscribed groups on
startup (at least it does for me, without extra configuration)

HTH,
-- 
Rémi

Re: Getting a handle on gnus

[Memnon Anon]

Hi!

Just one question left ;).
So I will give it a shot.

Les Harris <me@lesharris.com> writes:

> 3) How do I go about automatically fetching new articles on some
> constant time interval? (Something with a gnus daemon...?)

Are you using linux?
To do this, I use leafnode, a (simple yet effective) local newsserver.
I fetch my email using fetchmail.
Using cron, it should be easy to setup automatically fetching.
(I prefer to do it manually).

With this setup, gnus only has to read from my harddrive and
is *very* fast.

hth

Re: Getting a handle on gnus

[Les Harris]

First of all, thank you everyone for the responses.  Got everything
setup nicely now with one exception:

> g will check for new articles in every subscribed group
> alt-g will do so only for the current group or topic

This is the behavior that I expected.  What I am getting though is
something like the following:

*I start up GNUS*

* gnu.emacs.gnus

*I hit g*

'No News is Good Gnus'
* gnu.emacs.gnus

*I hit M-g*
2 gnu.emacs.gnus

So 'g' isn't seeing new articles but fetching new articles with M-g
pulls unread articles from the server.  Can't really explain this
behavior!

Anyway, thank you all again.

Les

Re: Getting a handle on gnus

[Les Harris]

First off, thank you for all the responses to my questions.  I think my
issue with the g/M-g item is simply some strange behavior associated
with my usenet provider (giganews).  At least I have found other
giganews/gnus users with the problem.  So M-g it is, for me!

I have one final (as far as I can see) thing I am stuck on.  My previous
newsreader was Pan and once it downloaded the headers for a group they
would display in that group's summary buffer irregardless of read/unread
status.  I would like to duplicate this behavior but am running into a
wall.

I know one way to display read headers is to enter C-u N <Enter> in the
group buffer to display N many read headers.  This however does not
display all downloaded headers which is the behavior I would like.

I have tried adding gnus-fetch-old-headers 'some into my .gnus but this
seems to ignore any cached headers as it hits the server every time upon
group entry and starts downloading more headers.

I've looked into the article caching features of gnus but these
seemingly aren't really what I need either; I just want to display
previously cached headers not store entire articles on a case by case 
basis. (I'm referring to Y c, / * and friends here)

So I'm stuck.  I have the agent enabled with my server agentized and
plugged. The headers are being cached because C-u N will not hit the
nntp server if I request N<Headers Downloaded headers. Just need to
figure out how to display those cached headers by default.

Thanks again.
-- 
Do they only stand
By ignorance, is that their happy state,
The proof of their obedience and their faith?

Re: Getting a handle on gnus

[mazieres-amfuht9hpz7kr78jhria45x2ki]

Les Harris <me@lesharris.com> writes:

> 2) What is the difference between 'g' (Check for new news) and 'alt-g'
> (Fetch new articles). 'alt-g' does what I want, can't seem to figure out
> what 'g' is doing. A corrollary: How can I fetch new articles on gnus
> startup?

If "g" doesn't do what you want, try "5 g" (or substitute some other
level for 5) to check news in all groups with priority 5 or higher.