Subject: "Can’t mark negative article numbers": why and how to avoid this error?

From: Bastien <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2019 07:41:45 +0100

Hi,

from time to time, trying to mark articles with "!", I get this error:
"Can’t mark negative article numbers" and the article is not marked.

My config is here: https://github.com/bzg/dotemacs/blob/master/emacs.el

I'm using Gnus over a local dovecot-powered IMAP, sync'ed with mbsync.

Is this error related to the use of Gnus score?

Thanks,

Gnus v5.13
GNU Emacs 27.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2019-03-25
200 news.gmane.org InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.6.1 ready (posting ok)
100 Legal commands
  ARTICLE [message-ID|number]
  AUTHINFO USER name|PASS password|SASL mechanism [initial-response]|GENERIC program [argument ...]
  BODY [message-ID|number]
  CAPABILITIES [keyword]
  COMPRESS DEFLATE
  DATE
  GROUP newsgroup
  HDR header [message-ID|range]
  HEAD [message-ID|number]
  HELP
  IHAVE message-ID
  LAST
  LIST [ACTIVE [wildmat]|ACTIVE.TIMES [wildmat]|COUNTS [wildmat]|DISTRIB.PATS|DISTRIBUTIONS|HEADERS [MSGID|RANGE]|MODERATORS|MOTD|NEWSGROUPS [wildmat]|OVERVIEW.FMT|SUBSCRIPTIONS [wildmat]]
  LISTGROUP [newsgroup [range]]
  MODE READER
  NEWGROUPS [yy]yymmdd hhmmss [GMT]
  NEWNEWS wildmat [yy]yymmdd hhmmss [GMT]
  NEXT
  OVER [range]
  POST
  QUIT
  STARTTLS
  STAT [message-ID|number]
  XGTITLE [wildmat]
  XHDR header [message-ID|range]
  XOVER [range]
  XPAT header message-ID|range pattern [pattern ...]
Report problems to <[email-masked]>.
.
382 Begin TLS negotiation now
100 Legal commands
  ARTICLE [message-ID|number]
  AUTHINFO USER name|PASS password|SASL mechanism [initial-response]|GENERIC program [argument ...]
  BODY [message-ID|number]
  CAPABILITIES [keyword]
  COMPRESS DEFLATE
  DATE
  GROUP newsgroup
  HDR header [message-ID|range]
  HEAD [message-ID|number]
  HELP
  IHAVE message-ID
  LAST
  LIST [ACTIVE [wildmat]|ACTIVE.TIMES [wildmat]|COUNTS [wildmat]|DISTRIB.PATS|DISTRIBUTIONS|HEADERS [MSGID|RANGE]|MODERATORS|MOTD|NEWSGROUPS [wildmat]|OVERVIEW.FMT|SUBSCRIPTIONS [wildmat]]
  LISTGROUP [newsgroup [range]]
  MODE READER
  NEWGROUPS [yy]yymmdd hhmmss [GMT]
  NEWNEWS wildmat [yy]yymmdd hhmmss [GMT]
  NEXT
  OVER [range]
  POST
  QUIT
  STARTTLS
  STAT [message-ID|number]
  XGTITLE [wildmat]
  XHDR header [message-ID|range]
  XOVER [range]
  XPAT header message-ID|range pattern [pattern ...]
Report problems to <[email-masked]>.
.

-- 
 Bastien