configuring gnus-agent to download everything

[Mark Thomas]

I'm running Gnus 5.10.6 in XEmacs 21.4.15 inside of X11 on Mac OSX 10.3.7.

I'm using nnimap backend, and I'm trying to configure the agent to
download and cache to my laptop *all* articles from the last 4 months.
(I guess I'm trying to emulate an nnml environment with a 4month
expiry, but I want to leave the articles on the server so I can get to
them on occasion with other imap clients.)

My setup includes the following:

  ;; use the agent.
  (setq gnus-agent t)

  ;; if article is in cache, use it instead of from server
  (setq gnus-agent-cache t)

  ;; when connected, read article should also be put into the agent
  (add-hook 'gnus-select-article-hook
            'gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article)

  ;; agent predicate decides when to download an article
  (setq gnus-agent-consider-all-articles t)

  ;; don't automatically expire
  (setq gnus-agent-enable-expiration 'DISABLE)

  ;; how long to let articles live in the local agent cache
  (setq gnus-agent-expire-days 125)  ; 4 months

  ;; only download articles from groups with this level
  (setq gnus-agent-handle-level 2)

In the agent category buffer, I've set the predicate of the 'default'
category to true, and I've added all the groups on level 2 into the
default category as well.

In the server buffer, I've "agentized" my IMAP server.

I run gnus-unpluggeed, then type J j in the *Group* buffer to connect;
I type J s to synchronize with the server, and then g to get new
mail.  At this point, I would like it if all the new mail were on my
local machine, and to be able to disconnect and the read mail.

However, when I visit buffers, the download mark is '-', showing that
I don't have the article.  If I attempt to read the article while
plugged, the mark changes to '+' and everything is fine.  If I'm
unplugged when I try to read the article, Gnus shows the message as
being [undownloaded].

What's extremely annoying is that if I later plug in the server, there
doesn't appear to be any way to convince Gnus to download that article
short of blowing away the .overview and .agentview files.

What am I missing in the abundant Agent documentation?

Thanks,

-Mark