Re: Gnus works `at it is' but isn't that a coincidence?

[Merciadri Luca]

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asjo@koldfront.dk (Adam Sjøgren) writes:

> On Mon, 17 May 2010 19:38:55 +0200, Merciadri wrote:
>
>> I like to understand how things work.
>
> Good thing you've got the source code and manual for Gnus at your fingertips!
>
> :-)
Yes. Sorry, I should have taken more than an eye into it.

>> (setq nnmail-spool-file "/var/mail/merciadriluca")
>
> This variable was removed in Gnus 5.9, so it isn't a big wonder that it
> doesn't do much in your Gnus 5.11 :-)
Okay. I removed it, and, effectively, it does no(t) harm.
>
> Where did you pick it up?
>
>> 2. What's the interest of gnus-select-method?
>
> What do you mean?
Solved by your following answers.

>> Is it the `primary' method?
>
> Yes.
>
>> I think so, but then, what is the interest of defining a secondary
>> method?
>
> So you can have more than one? I connect to three nntp-servers, for
> instance.
>
>> What is the difference in their order? I define
>
> The primary method isn't prefixed. The secondary ones are.
Prefixed? Huh? In which way? You meant that if method1 is stuff1 and
method2 is stuff2, stuff1 is not prefixed, and, thus, everything
calling stuff1 without prefix will call stuff1, but, to call stuff2,
one needs to add some prefix before operations?

>> (setq gnus-select-method '((nntp "news.stuff.com")))
>> (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")))
>
>> but I do not know what they do exactly.
>
> This means that you can refer to groups on news.stuff.com by just their
> name, say a.group.name, instead of by nntp+news.stuff.com:a.group.name,
> and that you refer to your mail-groups as nnml:a.mailgroup.name
Thanks.

>> 3. If I define
>
>> ==
>> (setq message-directory "~/.Mail/")
>> (setq nnml-directory "~/Mail/")
>> ==
>
>> what will be the difference between both concepts?
>
> ,----[ C-h v message-directory RET ]
> | `message-directory' is a variable declared in Lisp.
> |   -- loaded from "message"
> | 
> | Value: "~/Mail/"
> | 
> | Documentation:
> | *Directory from which all other mail file variables are derived.
> `----
>
> ,----[ C-h v nnml-directory RET ]
> | `nnml-directory' is a variable declared in Lisp.
> |   -- loaded from "nnml"
> | 
> | Value: "~/Mail/"
> | 
> | Documentation:
> | Spool directory for the nnml mail backend.
> | 
> | This is a Gnus server variable.  See Info node `(gnus)Select Methods'.
> `----
Thanks.

>> 4. To me,
>
>> ==
>> (setq mail-sources
>>    (list '(directory
>>              :path "~/Mail/"
>>              :suffix ""
>>           )
>>    )
>> )
>> ==
>> simply tells Gnus to fetch e-mails at ~/Mail/: it tells it `okay,
>> messages are there. There is a MUA which brings them there, and do not
>> try to understand it further.' Am I right?
>
> I think it means "pick up new emails from ~/Mail/" - which is probably a
> bad idea if that is also where you store your emails.
That might explain the total mess it currently does on my HDD.

> On my machine emails are delivered to an mbox file in /var/mail/, and I
> simply use the mail-source ((file)).
Not a bad idea.

>> 5. Is there an interesting in defining iso-8859-15 as a charset, such
>> as in
>
>> ==
>> (defun mm-read-charset (prompt)
>>    "Return a charset."
>>    'iso-8859-15)
>>  (setq gnus-default-posting-charset (quote iso-8859-15))
>> ==
>> ?
>
> Eh, what?
Sorry, I wanted to say `[...] an _interest_ in defining [...]'. Is it
more clear, now? I mean... utf-8 is widely accepted, but is there some
reason why Gnus should use iso8859-1? What is its default setting? I
guess utf-8, but to be sure.

>> 7. What's the interest of `my-signature' in
>
> What do you mean by 'interest' here?
For me, `my-signature' was some homemade variable, and I was asking
why I would have ever defined such a variable if there was already one
which was made for it (i.e. a default one).

>> ==
>> (setq message-signature 'my-signature)
>> (setq gnus-signature-separator '("^-- $"))
>> ==
>> ?
>
> You must have defined my-signature somewhere previously?
No, as you can see on 
http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/emacs.php.

> Why are you customizing gnus-signature-separator?!
Isn't that necessary? That could be what causes my signatures' problems.
>
>> 8. I set
>
>> ==
>> (setq nntp-authinfo-file ".someauthfile.gpg")
>> (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials ".someauthfile.gpg")
>> ==
>
>> but what's the difference between them?
>
> Looks like one is for nntp, the other is for smtp? You can get help on
> any variable by pressing 'C-h v' and then typing the name of the
> variable (tab-completion works).
Both give [no match] in my Emacs. And I never found any interesting
answer about it, on the Internet too.

>> 9. Providing that the whole stuff works as it is, what is the scheme
>> which is done when I want to fetch e-mails, or when I want to send an
>> e-mail, both through Gnus?
>
> Are you asking for someone to paraphrase what Gnus does when you go 'g'
> in the group buffer and when you go 'm', write an email and then go 'C-c
> C-c'?
>
> I'm afraid I don't understand the question :-)
According to the settings of my .gnus, I would like, to be sure to
have understood the whole process, to know how it manages to post some
message using nnml/nnmail. The nntp method is not a problem for me; I
understand how it works, but, for the e-mail, I still mix all the
directories. I have specified many directories in my .gnus, but I
cannot judge if they are reasonably set, i.e. if respective stuff
needs to be there. What I can see is that I have two directories in
~/:

==
$ ls -al | grep Mail
drwxr-xr-x  5 merciadriluca merciadriluca     4096 2010-05-17 21:35 Mail
drwxr-xr-x  3 merciadriluca merciadriluca     4096 2010-05-08 21:23 .Mail
==

with

==
~/Mail$ ls -al
total 180
drwxr-xr-x  5 merciadriluca merciadriluca  4096 2010-05-17 21:35 .
drwxr-xr-x 98 merciadriluca merciadriluca 20480 2010-05-17 21:39 ..
- -rw-r--r--  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca    34 2010-05-17 21:35 active
drwxr-xr-x  2 merciadriluca merciadriluca  4096 2009-11-01 19:11 drafts
- -rw-------  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca  4854 2009-12-05 21:18 
Incoming42160BS
- -rw-r--r--  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca 19765 2009-12-05 21:18 
Incoming4216n3L
- -rw-------  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca  2427 2009-12-05 21:18 
Incoming4318Hte
- -rw-r--r--  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca  2730 2009-12-05 21:18 
Incoming4339aFM
drwxr-xr-x  3 merciadriluca merciadriluca  4096 2009-11-01 18:40 mail
drwxr-xr-x  2 merciadriluca merciadriluca 12288 2010-05-17 21:35 posted
- -rw-------  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca 91953 2010-05-13 10:33 .procmail.log
==

and

==
~/.Mail$ ls -al
total 47456
drwxr-xr-x  3 merciadriluca merciadriluca     4096 2010-05-08 21:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 98 merciadriluca merciadriluca    20480 2010-05-17 21:39 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 merciadriluca merciadriluca     4096 2009-11-01 18:40 archive
- -rw-------  1 merciadriluca mail            847264 2010-05-08 21:23 
Incoming194817BJ
- -rw-r--r--  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca  3146079 2010-05-08 21:16 
Incoming194818tz
- -rw-r--r--  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca 31749839 2010-05-08 21:23 
Incoming19481u3C
- -rw-r--r--  1 merciadriluca merciadriluca 12748754 2010-05-08 21:14 
Incoming19481vjt
==

Thanks for your help.

- -- 
Merciadri Luca
See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/
- -- 

 Don't take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive.
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