[Pan-users] Re: The old, annoying and essential problem with old headers

[Duncan]

Jim Henderson posted on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 22:57:21 +0000 as excerpted:

> On Sun, 06 Mar 2011 23:18:24 +0100, CSV4ME2 wrote:
> 
>> alias pan='flock -n /<some_dir or file> /usr/local/bin/pan' to ensure 1
>> pan instance only,
>> 
>> see man flock for the gory details
> 
> That's a useful tip, would be handy, though, if it were done in the pan
> code itself - unless there is a legit reason for running 2 simultaneous
> sessions?

There is, and I use pan that way personally.

By making use of the $PAN_HOME environment variable, it's possible to 
point pan at a data/config dir other than the normal ~/.pan2.

By making use of /that/, it's possible to configure multiple different pan 
instances, separating groups by type (binary, text, test, the ones I use), 
subject (mp3s, gmane list-groups, tv series video...), or subject 
appropriateness (adult-only, kids, general), and to setup different 
configurations (cache sizes, expirations, etc) for each, with certain 
files (hotkeys, perhaps the scorefile) sym- or hard-linked so their config 
is shared between instances.

One can then use stub-scripts to setup PAN_HOME and anything else one may 
wish to set (individual instance locks, in context), appropriately, then 
point one's preferred launch method (menu, hotkey, quick-launch-icon, 
whatever... consider the usefulness of an easily found icon for the kid 
one, with only a typed in command for the adult-only one, for instance) at 
each individually purposed stub-script pan launcher as desired.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman