From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Gregory Benjamin Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs mailreader that doesn't move the spool Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:17:34 -0700 Message-ID: <20131022201734.GA32746@dbn66.laserlab.com> References: <5266cc94$0$9750$c3e8da3$aae71a0a@news.astraweb.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1382473078 30461 80.91.229.3 (22 Oct 2013 20:17:58 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 20:17:58 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Oct 22 22:18:00 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1VYiOt-0005fS-MK for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 22 Oct 2013 22:17:59 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:46541 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VYiOt-0008GP-6v for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 22 Oct 2013 16:17:59 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:32926) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VYiOd-0008GJ-Vd for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Oct 2013 16:17:49 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VYiOX-0003c3-Rd for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Oct 2013 16:17:43 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.laserlab.com ([69.229.78.89]:41786 helo=dbn66.laserlab.com) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VYiOX-0003ba-Ju for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Oct 2013 16:17:37 -0400 Original-Received: by dbn66.laserlab.com (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 0C67020E1A9; Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:17:34 -0700 (PDT) Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <5266cc94$0$9750$c3e8da3$aae71a0a@news.astraweb.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 69.229.78.89 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:94148 Archived-At: Hi Hikaru, On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 07:05:56PM +0000, Hikaru Ichijyo wrote: > Every now and then, I consider migrating my mail and news reading to the > wonderful wild world of Emacs, but every time I do, the main thing that > always makes me decide to forget about it is that, as far as I can tell, > there isn't a single Emacs mailreader that doesn't insist on copying > your mailbox into your home directory and leaving it there. > > For mail, currently I use Alpine, but I like occasionally using Mutt, > and sometimes even Kmail. All of these mailreaders have appropriate > file locking mechanisms implemented to make it possible to operate on > the system mailbox in place, in /var/spool/mail or wherever it happens > to be. Having it this way makes it so that even if I use Alpine most of > the time, I can switch if I like, and the mail is always where it's > expected to be. Even my shell knows to give me the "You have new mail" > notication by watching the system spool (where else should my mail be?). > > Most UNIX newsreaders also seem to have a similar philosophy of sharing, > since they all more or less have agreed to keep read/subscribed article > information in ~/.newsrc, even ones that have more efficient mechanisms > that they use for themselves, so you don't have to stay in one > newsreader. I mostly use Tin, but I also use Pan, and sometimes SLRN. > None of them lock me in. > > I've gone over the documentation for RMAIL, VM, and Gnus, and they all > seem to require moving your mailbox to the home directory, apparently > because none of them can lock the mailbox for exclusive access. Emacs > seems powerful enough that a kludge could probably be written that puts > your mailbox back the way it was every time you close your mailreader, > but that seems sort of ugly and unnecessary. > > I'm strongly leaning toward either VM or Gnus if I did migrate, but I > really want to keep my mailbox where it is. Is there any way to do > that? I'm sorry I cannot offer any help at the moment, but wanted to say two things. First, I admire your English writing. Very, very clear and well done. Second, I too use mutt and would like to move to a mixed mutt/emacs environment for mail processing until I'm fully comfortable with the emacs solution. I've used rmail a bit, and tried to force myself to like it, but mutt is still faster and more capable for me. I cannot afford to 'break' email while playing around with rmail, gnus, vm, or some other emacs email configuration.