bug#8502: Make the agent eagerly cache articles

bug#8502: Make the agent eagerly cache articles

[Stefan Monnier]

Package: Emacs,Gnus
Version: 24.0.50

IIUC gnus-agent-cache only causes headers to be cached.  Not caching
full articles made a lot of sense a few years ago, but with current disk
sizes, most/many MUAs happily keep a full local copy of the remote IMAP
folders and Gnus should be able to do the same.


        Stefan




In GNU Emacs 24.0.50.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2011-04-13 on ceviche
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10905000
configured using `configure  'CFLAGS=-Wall -Wno-pointer-sign -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE -DSYNC_INPUT -DENABLE_CHECKING -DXASSERTS -DFONTSET_DEBUG -g -O1 -I/usr/include/GNUstep' '--enable-maintainer-mode' '--with-x-toolkit=lucid''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: fr_CH.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Minibuffer-Area

Minor modes in effect:
  diff-auto-refine-mode: t
  electric-pair-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  url-handler-mode: t
  global-reveal-mode: t
  reveal-mode: t
  auto-insert-mode: t
  savehist-mode: t
  minibuffer-electric-default-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> 
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> 
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> 
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> 
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> 
<M-return> <left> C-a <up> <right> <right> <down> <right> 
<right> <right> <right> <right> <right> F I X M E : 
SPC M-c C-a C-x C-s <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <down-mouse-1> 
<mouse-movement> <mouse-1> SPC SPC W e SPC s h o u 
l d SPC p r o v i <M-backspace> <M-backspace> <M-backspace> 
c c - m o d e SPC s h o u l d SPC p r o v i d e SPC 
a SPC f u n c t i o n SPC i n s t e a d . C-a C-x C-s 
<select-window> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<select-window> <select-window> <select-window> <select-window> 
<select-window> <select-window> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> M-x r e p o - e m - b <tab> <return> 
M a k e SPC t h e SPC a g e n t SPC c a c h e SPC a 
r t i c l e s SPC b y SPC d e f <M-backspace> <M-backspace> 
<backspace> M-b M-b e a g e r l y SPC C-e <return> 
M-< q <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> <switch-frame> 
<up> C-l C-u C-x 5 1 C-l <help-echo> <switch-frame> 
M-x M-p <return> M-p <return> M-< C-e q M-x l - l <M-tab> 
<return> c l - m a <tab> <return> <switch-frame> M-x 
M-p <switch-frame> M-< C-e q M-x M-p <return> c l <return> 
M-x M-p M-p <return>

Recent messages:
Entering debugger...
Mark set
Back to top level.
Entering debugger...
Mark set
Back to top level.
Loading /home/monnier/src/emacs/work/lisp/emacs-lisp/cl-macs.el (source)...
Entering debugger...
Back to top level.
Loading /home/monnier/src/emacs/work/lisp/emacs-lisp/cl.el (source)...done

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(mail-extr message format-spec mml mml-sec mm-decode term disp-table
ehelp ange-ftp mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045
ietf-drums mailabbrev sendmail nnheader mail-utils rfc822 mailheader
emacsbug url-util cl-specs grep pcase compile epa-file epa derived epg
epg-config log-edit pcvs-util dabbrev add-log informat texinfo
smerge-mode xscheme trace testcover scheme unsafep re-builder shadow
inf-lisp ielm pp comint ring gmm-utils ert find-func elp edebug
cust-print cus-edit cus-start cus-load wid-edit jka-compr debug info
executable copyright filecache make-mode multi-isearch sort
network-stream starttls tls mpc whitespace diff-mode vc-bzr sha1
hex-util vc-sccs vc-svn vc-cvs vc-rcs vc-dir ewoc vc vc-dispatcher
server noutline outline easy-mmode flyspell ispell eldoc checkdoc
regexp-opt thingatpt help-mode easymenu view prog-mode electric
url-handlers url-parse auth-source warnings eieio byte-opt bytecomp
byte-compile cconv macroexp assoc gnus-util time-date password-cache
url-vars mm-util mail-prsvr reveal autoinsert uniquify advice help-fns
advice-preload savehist minibuf-eldef cl cl-loaddefs proof-site
proof-autoloads pg-vars bbdb-autoloads agda2 tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks
lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe
lisp-mode register page newcomment menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select
scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax font-core frame cham georgian
utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean
japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian
cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev
minibuffer loaddefs button faces cus-face files text-properties overlay
md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget
hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process dbusbind
dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting x-toolkit
x multi-tty emacs)

bug#8502: Make the agent eagerly cache articles

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> IIUC gnus-agent-cache only causes headers to be cached.  Not caching
> full articles made a lot of sense a few years ago, but with current disk
> sizes, most/many MUAs happily keep a full local copy of the remote IMAP
> folders and Gnus should be able to do the same.

Downloading articles isn't so much about disk space as network
capacity.  But I agree with you that the Agent should probably download
the articles by default.

Does anybody mind me switching `gnus-agent-predicate' to `true' by
default?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/

bug#8502: Make the agent eagerly cache articles

[Stefan Monnier]

>> IIUC gnus-agent-cache only causes headers to be cached.  Not caching
>> full articles made a lot of sense a few years ago, but with current disk
>> sizes, most/many MUAs happily keep a full local copy of the remote IMAP
>> folders and Gnus should be able to do the same.
> Downloading articles isn't so much about disk space as network
> capacity.  But I agree with you that the Agent should probably download
> the articles by default.

I'm talking about caching.  I.e. keeping local copies after we've
downloaded them, so it shouldn't increase network traffic, only disk use.

> Does anybody mind me switching `gnus-agent-predicate' to `true' by
> default?

Maybe that would be good, yes.  A better docstring would also be
welcome: I don't understand the current one.


        Stefan

bug#8502: Make the agent eagerly cache articles

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> I'm talking about caching.  I.e. keeping local copies after we've
> downloaded them, so it shouldn't increase network traffic, only disk use.

Hm.  Caching?

>> Does anybody mind me switching `gnus-agent-predicate' to `true' by
>> default?
>
> Maybe that would be good, yes.  A better docstring would also be
> welcome: I don't understand the current one.

Oh, I thought you were talking about the download categories (i.e., what
happens when you type `J s').

Let's see...  caching...  so if you're online (in an agentised group)
and select an article, you want the article to be saved in the Agent
directory?  That sounds eminently reasonable, and I thought that was
supposed to happen, but I can't find any code for doing that...  hm...
Nope.

Articles are entered into the (non-agent) cache if `gnus-use-cache' is
set to t, though.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/

bug#8502: Make the agent eagerly cache articles

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Let's see...  caching...  so if you're online (in an agentised group)
> and select an article, you want the article to be saved in the Agent
> directory?  That sounds eminently reasonable, and I thought that was
> supposed to happen, but I can't find any code for doing that...  hm...
> Nope.

This is now fixed in git Gnus.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/