From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Using R-mail in Emacs Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2018 18:43:53 +0200 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: <86efdud83a.fsf@zoho.com> References: <86va7afpda.fsf@zoho.com> <83musmktmv.fsf@gnu.org> <87r2hxstkw.fsf@delle7240.chemeng.ucl.ac.uk> <837ejplc7p.fsf@gnu.org> <87zhwlzct5.fsf@gmail.com> <87d0tgh6rx.fsf@hornfels.zedat.fu-berlin.de> <865zz8e0kd.fsf@zoho.com> <861s9wdytg.fsf@zoho.com> <86worocffa.fsf@zoho.com> <86o9czder0.fsf@zoho.com> <86in36df2x.fsf@zoho.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1537029804 9809 195.159.176.226 (15 Sep 2018 16:43:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2018 16:43:24 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Sep 15 18:43:20 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1g1DfC-0002SB-W5 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 15 Sep 2018 18:43:19 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:56187 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g1DhJ-00086o-B6 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 15 Sep 2018 12:45:29 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 60 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: onLrbz09yV+MU3RaxdbMkg.user.gioia.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.3 Cancel-Lock: sha1:B1bpzMfH3E958bBb20jQram9ldg= Mail-Copies-To: never Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:223808 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:117933 Archived-At: > Gnus has several back ends for mail: > > https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Comparing-Mail-Back-Ends.html Ha! Rmail is mentioned in that file, which is part of Gnus' documentation. It seems Rmail first used the equivalent of the Gnus nnbabyl back end (Babyl) and then, i.e. now, uses the equivalent of the Gnus nnmbox back end, mbox (or if you prefer it, the other way around, because Babyl and mbox were there before Gnus). OK, so RMS wrote Rmail! I suppose this partly explains the wierd quote that "Rmail is the primary Emacs mail-reader." [1] Anyway: nnbabyl Once upon a time, there was the DEC-10 and DEC-20, running operating systems called TOPS and related things, and the usual (only?) mail reading environment was a thing called Babyl. I don't know what format was used for mail landing on the system, but Babyl had its own internal format to which mail was converted, primarily involving creating a spool-file-like entity with a scheme for inserting Babyl-specific headers and status bits above the top of each message in the file. Rmail was Emacs's first mail reader, it was written by Richard Stallman, and Stallman came out of that TOPS/Babyl environment, so he wrote Rmail to understand the mail files folks already had in existence. Gnus (and VM, for that matter) continue to support this format because it's perceived as having some good qualities in those mailer-specific headers/status bits stuff. Rmail itself still exists as well, of course, and is still maintained within Emacs. Since Emacs 23, it uses standard mbox format rather than Babyl. Both of the above forms leave your mail in a single file on your file system, and they must parse that entire file each time you take a look at your mail. [2] [1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2004-09/msg00328.html [2] https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Comparing-Mail-Back-Ends.html -- underground experts united http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573