From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim X Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Recommend an email index tool for Emacs? Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2007 10:22:02 +1100 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: <87d55yjpt1.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> References: <86d560s0xo.fsf@zogzog.gnu-rox.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1167694876 3352 80.91.229.12 (1 Jan 2007 23:41:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2007 23:41:16 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jan 02 00:41:16 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1H1WmH-0008JA-33 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 02 Jan 2007 00:41:13 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1H1WmG-00086p-G8 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:41:12 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!newscon04.news.prodigy.net!prodigy.net!news.astraweb.com!router1.astraweb.com!sn-xt-sjc-05!sn-xt-sjc-08!sn-post-sjc-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.92 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:AmhoWXsgmyqFdzHsg0G/CZ5/Yc4= Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Original-Lines: 31 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:144486 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:40089 Archived-At: Leo 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 -- tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au