Re: syncing groups/topics arrangement between machines?

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Benjamin Slade <slade@jnanam.net> writes:

> Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:
>
>> Benjamin Slade <slade@jnanam.net> writes:
>>
>>> I'm not certain where Gnus stores groups/topics
>>> settings. I would like to be to sync group/topic
>>> settings/arrangements between machines.
>>> Is this possible?
>>
>> Do you mean as in _settings_ - i.e., preferences, or
>> "configuration and extention" in the Emacs world?
>>
>> Then:
>>
>>     gnus-init-file
>>
>> (But note you can put your Gnus Elisp
>> configs/extensions in *any* file and just `load' it
>> manually if you feel there is a reason to.)
>>
>> Or do you mean as in _state_ - what groups you
>> subscribe to, what messages you have read, etc?
>>
>> Then:
>>
>>     gnus-current-startup-file
>>     gnus-startup-file
>>
>> Or do you mean something else?
>>
>> Then:
>>
>>     What do you mean?
>
> So in the *Group* buffer, which looks like:
>
> [ Gnus -- 9198 ]
>   [ Emacs ]
>        0:imap+mymail:emacs
>        7:imap+mymail:sexy_emacs
>   [ Work ]
>     9000:imap+gmail:urgent_work
>   [ misc ]
>        89:imap+mymail:origami
>      ...
> etc., etc.
>
> I have setup certain topics and arranged groups within them. Is there a
> way to sync this between machines? Or is it something which needs to be
> recreated by hand on each separate machine?
>
> It doesn't look like Gnus is saving these settings in .emacs or anything.

It's kept in the variable `gnus-topic-alist', which is saved to the file
pointed to by `gnus-startup-file', which on this machine points to
~/.emacs.d/.newsrc. That's where gnus stores most of its state,
including subscribed groups and message marks.

I wouldn't recommend copying this file between machines -- I tried that
before, and it didn't work out well. There is a possibility that in the
future, Gnus' various state objects will be separated out a little more
cleanly. It would be nice to at least have a separation between
"settings than can be synced or kept in version control" (which would
include group subscriptions and topic arrangements), and "settings that
only Gnus should mess with", which I guess would mostly be marks.

For the time being, though, at least you can manually copy the setq
statement out of newsrc.eld...

Yours,
Eric