Re: Gnus of emacs21 not reading NNTPSERVER on Fink/Mac OS 10.4.3

[Hans Aberg]

On 6 Dec 2005, at 14:20, Reiner Steib wrote:

> > I cannot tell whether this is a problem in emacs21, or in the Fink
> > version of for Mac OS 10.4.3:
> >
> > I can get emacs21 to read the NNTPSERVER variable if I type (in   
> > uxterm/bash):
> >   env NNTPSERVER=<newsserver> emacs21 &
> > but I cannot get emacs21 to read it otherwise, for example, by  
> > putting
> >   NNTPSERVER=<newsserver>
> > into ".profile" and ".bashrc", nor does typing
> >   NNTPSERVER=<newsserver>
> >   emacs21 &
> > work.
>
> This is not a bug in Emacs or Gnus.  You must export the variable to
> the child process (= emacs21 in your case) of the shell.  See the bash
> manual:
>
> ,----[ (info "(bash)Bourne Shell Builtins") ]
> | `export'
> |           export [-fn] [-p] [NAME[=VALUE]]
> |      Mark each NAME to be passed to child processes in the  
> environment.
> `----

Thank you. Yes, when you mention it, I recall having done such  
exports before, as part of debugging a Bison install. But I was in a  
hurry, just to get to see if emacs21 could work at all with Fink (Mac  
OS 10.4.3), which it indeed does. The NNTPSERVER variable now works,  
either if one puts the export directly in the command line, or in the  
".bashrc" file.

> > If I make a ".gnus" file with say
> >   (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news1.comhem.se"))
>
> I'd prefer this way anyhow.

That is best for normal use. But it is good to have more than method,  
perhaps not just for this variable.

While at it, the newsreader I use on Mac OS X, NewsWatcher-X 2.2.3b2,  
has the capacity to take down the active file from the newsserver  
just once, and update it when new groups arrive. This feature speeds  
up subsequent startups. So it leads me to the idea that Gnus has such  
a feature, plus a menu item 'update local active file'. This is good  
on low bandwidth: my active file is 1-2 MB, which can take some time  
also on broadband.

  Hans Åberg