Re: Recommend an email index tool for Emacs?

[Leo <sdl.web@gmail.com>]

* Tim X. (2007-01-02 10:22 +1100) said:
  ^^^^^^
> Leo <sdl.web@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Hi Xavier,
>>
>> * Xavier Maillard (2006-12-31 13:29 +0100) said:
>>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>> It really depends on what tool you are using to read your emails.
>>
>> Those emails are in Gnus nnml format.
>>
>> But I really don't understand why an index tool should have knowledge
>> about the MUA. Email is a standard format, right?
>>
>
> SMTP/ESTMP are standardised, but therre are a number of variations in
> how your MUA will store restored files - mbox and mdirs are probably
> the most common, but different mail readers often "enhance" or
> slightly modify the format. For example, emacs VM has a slightly
> modified mbox format, mh-e (mh) is a bit different to maildirs, I
> can't remember what rmail's format is.  Consequently, if your mail
>  indexing tool is going to be smarter than just a basic grep, it needs
> to understand the format and be able to distinguish different
> messages, body and header and hopefully know how to display the
> message appropriately when you want to look at the results from a
> search (i.e. know how to tell your MUA to retrieve a specific message
> rather than just open a large mbox etc). 
>
> Tim

Thanks, Tim.

-- 
Leo <sdl.web AT gmail.com>                         (GPG Key: 9283AA3F)