gnus: Slave Gnusae
1.3 Slave Gnusae
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You might want to run more than one Emacs with more than one Gnus at the
same time. If you are using different ‘.newsrc’ files (e.g., if you are
using the two different Gnusae to read from two different servers), that
is no problem whatsoever. You just do it.
The problem appears when you want to run two Gnusae that use the same
‘.newsrc’ file.
To work around that problem some, we here at the Think-Tank at the
Gnus Towers have come up with a new concept: “Masters” and “slaves”.
(We have applied for a patent on this concept, and have taken out a
copyright on those words. If you wish to use those words in conjunction
with each other, you have to send $1 per usage instance to me. Usage of
the patent (“Master/Slave Relationships In Computer Applications”) will
be much more expensive, of course.)
Anyway, you start one Gnus up the normal way with ‘M-x gnus’ (or
however you do it). Each subsequent slave Gnusae should be started with
‘M-x gnus-slave’. These slaves won’t save normal ‘.newsrc’ files, but
instead save “slave files” that contain information only on what groups
have been read in the slave session. When a master Gnus starts, it will
read (and delete) these slave files, incorporating all information from
them. (The slave files will be read in the sequence they were created,
so the latest changes will have precedence.)
Information from the slave files has, of course, precedence over the
information in the normal (i.e., master) ‘.newsrc’ file.
If the ‘.newsrc*’ files have not been saved in the master when the
slave starts, you may be prompted as to whether to read an auto-save
file. If you answer “yes”, the unsaved changes to the master will be
incorporated into the slave. If you answer “no”, the slave may see some
messages as unread that have been read in the master.