From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Gregory Heytings via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Gnus: caching message headers? Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2020 21:52:08 +0000 Message-ID: References: <874ko9sgcn.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> <87v9gpqyir.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> Reply-To: Gregory Heytings Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="36419"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" User-Agent: Alpine 2.22 (NEB 394 2020-01-19) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Stefan Monnier Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Tue Sep 08 23:52:43 2020 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1kFlXe-0009Mt-RP for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2020 23:52:42 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59228 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kFlXd-0003je-TZ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2020 17:52:41 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:37872) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kFlXF-0003jK-Hu for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2020 17:52:17 -0400 Original-Received: from mx.sdf.org ([205.166.94.24]:61676) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kFlXD-0001BT-KV for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2020 17:52:17 -0400 Original-Received: from sdf.org (IDENT:ghe@faeroes.freeshell.org [205.166.94.9]) by mx.sdf.org (8.15.2/8.14.5) with ESMTPS id 088LqBoC025910 (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256 bits) verified NO); Tue, 8 Sep 2020 21:52:11 GMT Original-Received: (from ghe@localhost) by sdf.org (8.15.2/8.12.8/Submit) id 088LqMij018462; Tue, 8 Sep 2020 21:52:22 GMT In-Reply-To: Received-SPF: pass client-ip=205.166.94.24; envelope-from=ghe@sdf.org; helo=mx.sdf.org X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: First seen = 2020/09/08 16:39:53 X-ACL-Warn: Detected OS = ??? X-Spam_score_int: -18 X-Spam_score: -1.9 X-Spam_bar: - X-Spam_report: (-1.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 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-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.help:124000 Archived-At: > >> Is there a way to tell gnus-agent to create only a cache of headers, >> that is, to not store a local copy of the emails that have been read? > > Interesting. IMO nowadays MUAs should work by systematically > maintaining a full local copy of your mailboxes/folders. > I (respectfully!) disagree. This means that each MUA has to reinvent what already exists on the server, that is, to reinvent its own IMAP-like implementation, to store emails and to locate information in emails. It is also a waste of resources, given that only a very small fraction of the emails are read more than once. A "pure IMAP" MUA only has to query the server through the IMAP protocol, and only manages (1) a list of folders and (2) a list of email summaries in each folder. In fact it could even manage nothing, and query the list of folders each time it is started, and create a summary of the N most recent emails each time a folder is opened.