From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Robert Thorpe Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: tutorial for rmail and IMAP Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2014 17:06:54 +0100 Message-ID: <877g6cm5wh.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> References: <9238b899-1a7a-4243-a536-3f96a10eae16@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1398528457 24719 80.91.229.3 (26 Apr 2014 16:07:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2014 16:07:37 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Sam Halliday Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Apr 26 18:07:31 2014 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 1We58T-0007s6-9h for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 26 Apr 2014 18:07:29 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:34412 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1We58Q-0003md-HX for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 26 Apr 2014 12:07:26 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:54602) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1We588-0003mX-DW for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 26 Apr 2014 12:07:15 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1We57x-000845-3Z for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 26 Apr 2014 12:07:08 -0400 Original-Received: from outbound-smtp02.blacknight.com ([81.17.249.8]:49717) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1We57w-00083j-Sv for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 26 Apr 2014 12:06:57 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.blacknight.com (pemlinmail02.blacknight.ie [81.17.254.11]) by outbound-smtp02.blacknight.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C60F61DC1D9 for ; Sat, 26 Apr 2014 16:05:21 +0000 (UTC) Original-Received: (qmail 16813 invoked from network); 26 Apr 2014 16:06:55 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO RTLaptop) (rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com@[109.76.235.97]) by 81.17.254.9 with ESMTPSA (DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA encrypted, authenticated); 26 Apr 2014 16:06:54 -0000 In-Reply-To: <9238b899-1a7a-4243-a536-3f96a10eae16@googlegroups.com> (message from Sam Halliday on Sat, 26 Apr 2014 06:01:24 -0700 (PDT)) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 81.17.249.8 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:97382 Archived-At: Sam Halliday writes: ... > I don't think this will be a problem for me, as I don't get that much mail (although the archive is large and will take some time on first use). If you have other devices that access a lot you may hit them. If you have to download your entire inbox a few times to get things working you may hit them. > I gave up trying to use movemail for IMAP access as it just doesn't seem to work at all for me, even on the command line. Instead, I'm investigating using offlineimap which has created me a bunch of Maildir folders under ~/Mail. > > This setup means that I can send mail, and I can use M-x google-contacts to look up my contact list (I've not yet integrated it with M-x m). > > However, I still can't get rmail to see the Maildir folders. Rmail isn't compatible with the maildir format, as far as I know. > Incidentally, from reading the documentation it would appear that rmail doesn't really support mail folders or browsing of email. Is that correct? If so, I don't think it's going to work for me. Not really, you can file email and browse it. In Thunderbird or Outlook you have "folders". Whether these are implemented using actually directories is a different thing. Mostly they're not. In Emacs it's common to talk about things more directly. MH-E and Maildir are systems for storing email. A directory structure is used and each email is put in a separate file. Several types of mailer can use these formats, but not Rmail. In Rmail you have mboxes rather than directories. A user can file emails by subject into separate mboxes. That's what the "rmail-output-file-alist" stuff I mentioned before does. You search and browse other mboxes in the same way as the inbox. To the user this isn't much different to the mailers that use actual directories. There are a few pros and cons which you can read about online. > I'm really looking for a simple mail client that allows me to search mail, browse folders, and "tag" or "untag" messages (which is how gmail moves mails between folders). Much as how this person does things: http://chrisdone.com/posts/emacs-mail You can label messages in rmail too. There are inbuilt labels and you can create your own. Seperate mbox files and labels are different things though. > I'm going to experiment with the notmuch client and I might give gnus another try. > > > Thanks all so far, I've not given up on rmail but I'd really like to know if it is worth pursuing or if notmuch is a better fit for my needs. Since movemail doesn't seem to work with gmail pursuing other options is a good idea.