bug#34983: 27.0.50; Gnus cannot start

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Deus Max <deusmax@gmx.com> writes:

> On Sun, Mar 24 2019, Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
>
>> Bastien <bzg@gnu.org> writes:
>>
>>> I checked out and buil Emacs from master today 24-03-2019.
>>>
>>> I started Gnus using my usual configuration (see
>>> https://github.com/bzg/dotemacs/blob/master/emacs.el) and got this
>>> error:
>>>
>>> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument number-or-marker-p nil)
>>>   <=(nil 6)
>>>   gnus-get-unread-articles(nil nil)
>>>   gnus-setup-news(nil nil nil)
>>>   #f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x1556149e8b91>)()
>>>   gnus-1(nil nil nil)
>>>   gnus(nil)
>>>   funcall-interactively(gnus nil)
>>>   call-interactively(gnus record nil)
>>>   command-execute(gnus record)
>>>   execute-extended-command(nil "gnus" "gnus")
>>>   funcall-interactively(execute-extended-command nil "gnus" "gnus")
>>>   call-interactively(execute-extended-command nil nil)
>>>   command-execute(execute-extended-command)
>>>
>>> Starting Gnus *without* a .newsrc.eld file, I can list local groups
>>> from my dovecot local IMAP server, but I get another weird behavior:
>>> after leaving the summary buffer, the group I just left is listed one
>>> more time; if I enter the group and leave it again, I get three groups
>>> of the same name in the group buffer, etc.
>>>
>>> To read Gnus using my .newsrc.eld file again, I tried to revert back
>>> to Emacs 26.0.92 but now Emacs seems unable to read my .newsrc.eld at
>>> all.  Is it possible that recent changes against Gnus changed the way
>>> Gnus parses .newsrc.eld?
>>>
>>> Copying Eric, as he seems to have been active on Gnus recently.
>>
>> This is frustrating -- this was the most important part of the patch,
>> and the part I thought I'd tested most thoroughly. At worst I think Gnus
>> may be trying to read .newsrc.eld using the wrong encoding, so I don't
>> think you will have lost anything permanently. (Still, I'm very sorry
>> this is causing you Gnus outage.)
>>
>> First -- did you run "make bootstrap" before running this new version?
>> Second, can you tell me if your non-ascii group names are being saved in
>> .newsrc.eld in utf-8, or if they have literal byte sequences in them?
>>
> Confirm for me, non-ascii group names are now being saved in literal
> byte sequences in them. Here's an example:
> "nnimap+AIA:Union/\316\224\316\243-\316\243\317\211\316\274\316\261\317\204\316\265\316\257\316\277\317\205"
>
> Didn't have any such issues before. Compiled using "make bootstrap", 3
> days ago (and today).

Actually, I'm fairly sure that that's how Gnus has always done it, and I
tried not to disturb that. But obviously I've done something wrong along
the way and I think one part of Gnus is using a decoded version of the
group name, and another part is using the encoded version.

Are you seeing duplicate group names? Would you check
(text-properties-at (line-beginning-position)) on both of the duplicated
groups, and tell me the value of the 'gnus-group property' for both?

Thanks,
Eric