From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: wgreenhouse@riseup.net (W. Greenhouse) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What are advantages and disadvantages of RMAIL and mh-rmail ? Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:12:39 +0000 Message-ID: <877gffyqdk.fsf@motoko.kusanagi> References: <5ili3zuuj0.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1377101606 27778 80.91.229.3 (21 Aug 2013 16:13:26 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:13:26 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Aug 21 18:13:27 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 1VCB2E-0003UC-S1 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 21 Aug 2013 18:13:26 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:54803 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VCB2E-000804-EI for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:13:26 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:57155) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VCB1z-0007xL-Ak for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:13:17 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VCB1t-0007cp-A1 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:13:11 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:47803) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VCB1t-0007cZ-4Q for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:13:05 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1VCB1r-0002wJ-LX for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 21 Aug 2013 18:13:03 +0200 Original-Received: from 199.48.147.39 ([199.48.147.39]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 21 Aug 2013 18:13:03 +0200 Original-Received: from wgreenhouse by 199.48.147.39 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 21 Aug 2013 18:13:03 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 38 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.48.147.39 User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:qtZg+ayBzioVSGKwS2vFt275f5c= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 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:93035 Archived-At: Don Saklad writes: > What are advantages and disadvantages of RMAIL and mh-rmail ? RMAIL and MH-E (of which the function `mh-rmail' is a part) are similar in that they assume the presence of a traditional UNIX mail system (Mail Transfer Agents such as sendmail, postfix, exim, etc., and possibly Mail Delivery Agents such as procmail, maildrop, etc.). That is because they normally only handle mail arriving at the system mailbox for the user, leaving it to the user or the user's site administrator to arrange for that to happen. There are exceptions to this; RMAIL offers some basic ability to deal with POP3 on its own, and some MH implementations (notably the GNU Mailutils version of MH) can handle POP and IMAP in a simple fashion. They differ in the handling and formatting of the mail once it arrives. RMAIL stores the mail in one big file, similar to UNIX mbox format and usable with external tools designed for that. MH-E deals with the mail in a directory structure, one message per file and one directory per mail folder. Unlike RMAIL, which manages its own mailbox on its own, MH-E is a frontend and set of Lisp functions to exploit the RAND Mail Handler (mh)[1], one of the first mail systems to use a "message-as-file" concept. Modern mh implementations suitable for use with MH-E include nmh and GNU Mailutils. With MH-E you have the option of using the MH implementation's command line tools to manipulate your mail as well as using Emacs. So, in short, you need an MH to use MH-E, which uses the legacy mh mail format. Or you can use RMAIL which also uses a legacy format. Or, you can use Gnus as `read-mail-command' instead of either of these, which is my own preference. Footnotes: [1] http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/ -- Regards, WGG