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: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 23:45:02 +0100 Message-ID: <87lhuvfyxd.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> References: <38e264d5-378f-416b-a303-4e3e43ed26f7@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1398293146 28081 80.91.229.3 (23 Apr 2014 22:45:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 22:45:46 +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 Thu Apr 24 00:45:41 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 1Wd5vA-0000lF-0z for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 24 Apr 2014 00:45:40 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:34988 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wd5v9-0002ho-M3 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 23 Apr 2014 18:45:39 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:46668) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wd5uj-0002he-B3 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Apr 2014 18:45:19 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wd5uc-0002ER-Oc for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Apr 2014 18:45:13 -0400 Original-Received: from outbound-smtp01.blacknight.com ([81.17.249.7]:54123) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wd5uc-00027e-IP for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Apr 2014 18:45:06 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.blacknight.com (pemlinmail04.blacknight.ie [81.17.254.17]) by outbound-smtp01.blacknight.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0F8ED988DA for ; Wed, 23 Apr 2014 22:43:34 +0000 (UTC) Original-Received: (qmail 18776 invoked from network); 23 Apr 2014 22:45:03 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO RTLaptop) (rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com@[109.78.189.215]) by 81.17.254.9 with ESMTPSA (DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA encrypted, authenticated); 23 Apr 2014 22:45:03 -0000 In-Reply-To: <38e264d5-378f-416b-a303-4e3e43ed26f7@googlegroups.com> (message from Sam Halliday on Wed, 23 Apr 2014 12:11:12 -0700 (PDT)) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 81.17.249.7 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:97343 Archived-At: Sam Halliday writes: > I'm seriously considering using emacs as my mail client and I should like to give rmail a try. > > However, despite several google searches and having a look at the rmail website, I cannot find any tutorials for an rmail beginner. As Eli mentions the Emacs manual describes rmail in detail. > Does anybody know of an rmail tuturial that will: > > 1. get me set up with IMAP (specifically gmail) It's quite simple. First you have to install "Movemail" from GNU Mailutils. You can use the package manager to do that. The movemail that comes with Emacs doesn't handle IMAP. Then put in. (setq rmail-primary-inbox-list ("imap://username:password@yourimapserver.com")) You also have to setup outgoing mail. I use internal Emacs smtp: (setq smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.yoursmtpserver.com") My username and password are so long that this spans several lines, so I've used concat to split it across lines. There seems to be a little bug if your username has a "@" in it. I can tell you how to fix that if it happens to you. http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=16946 > 2. auto-complete recipients using my google address book I don't know how to do that, it might not be possible. > 3. typical use-cases (receiving mail, sorting mail, responding, etc) They're all described well in the manual. A couple of other things worth mentioning.... * Gmail. People have told me that gmail has some wierd limitation on the number of IMAP logins you can do with them per day. I don't use it so I don't know. * IMAP. Rmail is a mode for viewing and editing mbox files. Movemail does the mail receiving, it always copies everything to a local mbox file ("RMAIL") and rmail views that. The IMAP system where all the mail sits on the IMAP server doesn't work well with this. You can still use rmail from several PCs though. What I do is I have one PC where all mail is kept. I have a set of rules that move everything out of the local inbox to subject specific mbox files. On other machines I set: (setq rmail-preserve-inbox t). That means that movemail doesn't delete email in the IMAP inbox, so it can be picked up later by my main PC which stores mail. On those other machines I delete everything in the local inbox after reading. * Rules. I have lots of simple rules that copy things into other mbox files: (setq rmail-delete-after-output t rmail-output-file-alist '(("contains this regexp" . "~/Mail/Goes_In_This_File.mbox") ("another regexp" . "~/Mail/Another_File.mbox"))) * Sorting. Rmail sorts actually resort the whole mbox file. If you save it then it's saved in the new order, so it's best to sort look for what you need then revert. You can also open mbox files in fundamental mode and use occur on them, which is sometimes useful. BR, Robert Thorpe