Re: not reading news, only email

[Reiner Steib]

On Sat, Sep 22 2007, Dan Nicolaescu wrote:

> I have always used gnus to read both news and email. But now I have a
> system where I only use it for mail. 
> Everytime I start gnus I get the message 
> "Unable to open nntp:news, go offline? (y or n)"
> Obviously I am not subscribed to any newsgroup on that machine. 
>
> What is the best way to tell gnus not to try nntp?

Customize `gnus-select-method' to use the nnnil back end instead of
nntp, e.g. (nnnil "").  Alternatively, use your preferred mail back
end as primary select method (`gnus-select-method' instead of
`gnus-secondary-select-methods').

I notice that nnnil is not documented in the manual.  From `nnnil.el':

;;; Commentary:

;; nnnil is a Gnus backend that provides no groups or articles.  It's useful
;; as a primary select method when you want all your real select methods to
;; be secondary or foreign.

> Should it even try it if there's no subscription to any newsgroup?

I think it should.  Gnus automatically subscribes some groups and the
user probably wants to start subscribing when no groups are subscribed
yet.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
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