How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Jake Colman]

My office has decided to replace our current IMAP Server, truman, with a new
IMAP Server, hamilton.  For the next few days, both servers will be available
to me but next week truman will be taken off-line.  The SA's have copied all
my mailboxes and folders from truman to hamilton and all new email will be
sent to hamilton.

So how do I tell gnus that I now want it to access hamilton instead of
truman?  What I have done in the meantime is to subscribe to new nnimap
mailboxes on hamilton giving them the same name as they had on truman.  This,
of course, gave me two entries for each mailbox, one on each server.  I have
killed (C-k) many of the truman copies of these mailboxes.

Questions:

1) Was there a better way to have done this?

2) Some of the truman mailboxes have ticked articles marked with an
   exclamation point.  How do I get the hamilton copies of the messages
   ticked the same way.

3) I still have references to the killed truman mailboxes in my .newsrc.eld.
   Is this a problem?

4) I currently have entries for both truman and hamilton in my
   gnus-secondary-select-methods.  When I start gnus, it logs on to both
   servers, prompting me for passwords for both.  Great!  If I remove truman,
   I crap out with a lisp error.  Before I delve into this and give you a
   better report, is there something obvious I missed that would cause a
   problem, perhaps one of the items mentioned above?

TIA!

...Jake

-- 
Jake Colman                     

Principia Partners LLC                  Phone: (201) 946-0300
Harborside Financial Center               Fax: (201) 946-0320
902 Plaza Two                          E-mail: colman@ppllc.com
Jersey City, NJ 07311                  www.principiapartners.com

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Simon Josefsson]

On 18 Oct 2001, Jake Colman wrote:

> My office has decided to replace our current IMAP Server, truman, with a new
> IMAP Server, hamilton.  For the next few days, both servers will be available
> to me but next week truman will be taken off-line.  The SA's have copied all
> my mailboxes and folders from truman to hamilton and all new email will be
> sent to hamilton.
>
> So how do I tell gnus that I now want it to access hamilton instead of
> truman?  What I have done in the meantime is to subscribe to new nnimap
> mailboxes on hamilton giving them the same name as they had on truman.  This,
> of course, gave me two entries for each mailbox, one on each server.  I have
> killed (C-k) many of the truman copies of these mailboxes.
>
> Questions:
>
> 1) Was there a better way to have done this?

Can't think of one.

> 2) Some of the truman mailboxes have ticked articles marked with an
>    exclamation point.  How do I get the hamilton copies of the messages
>    ticked the same way.

How was the messages copied between the servers?  The flags should be
copied as well.

> 3) I still have references to the killed truman mailboxes in my .newsrc.eld.
>    Is this a problem?

Shouldn't be, but you can probably remove them by running some command to
kill "zombies" or "killed" groups, or something like that.

> 4) I currently have entries for both truman and hamilton in my
>    gnus-secondary-select-methods.  When I start gnus, it logs on to both
>    servers, prompting me for passwords for both.  Great!  If I remove truman,
>    I crap out with a lisp error.  Before I delve into this and give you a
>    better report, is there something obvious I missed that would cause a
>    problem, perhaps one of the items mentioned above?

No, it is a bug.  Can you post the entire backtrace?

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Kai Großjohann]

Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:

> 1) Was there a better way to have done this?

If I was sure that the new server was exactly the same as the old
server, then I'd have tried to replace

    (nnimap "" (nnimap-address "truman"))

with

    (nnimap "" (nnimap-address "hamilton"))

in gnus-secondary-select-methods.

> 2) Some of the truman mailboxes have ticked articles marked with an
>    exclamation point.  How do I get the hamilton copies of the messages
>    ticked the same way.

The tick marks should be saved on the server side.  Ick.  I think this
means that the SAs didn't copy everything.  Hm.  Not sure what to do
about this.

> 3) I still have references to the killed truman mailboxes in my .newsrc.eld.
>    Is this a problem?

Is it in gnus-killed-list, or somewhere else?  Since gnus-killed-list
is for saving a list of killed groups, that's okay, I guess.

> 4) I currently have entries for both truman and hamilton in my
>    gnus-secondary-select-methods.  When I start gnus, it logs on to both
>    servers, prompting me for passwords for both.  Great!  If I remove truman,
>    I crap out with a lisp error.  Before I delve into this and give you a
>    better report, is there something obvious I missed that would cause a
>    problem, perhaps one of the items mentioned above?

Can't imagine what might be wrong here.

kai
-- 
GNU/Linux provides a nice `poweroff' command, but where is `poweron'?

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Jake Colman]

Simon,

Are the gnus tick marks actually stored on the IMAP server?  I thought they
were an artificial invention of gnus.  I cannot imagine how they night have
copied things over such that all the email arrived but not the associated
marks.

...Jake


>>>>> "SJ" == Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

    SJ> On 18 Oct 2001, Jake Colman wrote:
    >> My office has decided to replace our current IMAP Server, truman, with
    >> a new IMAP Server, hamilton.  For the next few days, both servers will
    >> be available to me but next week truman will be taken off-line.  The
    >> SA's have copied all my mailboxes and folders from truman to hamilton
    >> and all new email will be sent to hamilton.
    >>
    >> So how do I tell gnus that I now want it to access hamilton instead of
    >> truman?  What I have done in the meantime is to subscribe to new
    >> nnimap mailboxes on hamilton giving them the same name as they had on
    >> truman.  This, of course, gave me two entries for each mailbox, one on
    >> each server.  I have killed (C-k) many of the truman copies of these
    >> mailboxes.
    >>
    >> Questions:
    >>
    >> 1) Was there a better way to have done this?

    SJ> Can't think of one.

    >> 2) Some of the truman mailboxes have ticked articles marked with an
    >> exclamation point.  How do I get the hamilton copies of the messages
    >> ticked the same way.

    SJ> How was the messages copied between the servers?  The flags should be
    SJ> copied as well.

    >> 3) I still have references to the killed truman mailboxes in my
    >>    .newsrc.eld.
    >> Is this a problem?

    SJ> Shouldn't be, but you can probably remove them by running some
    SJ> command to kill "zombies" or "killed" groups, or something like that.

    >> 4) I currently have entries for both truman and hamilton in my
    >> gnus-secondary-select-methods.  When I start gnus, it logs on to both
    >> servers, prompting me for passwords for both.  Great!  If I remove
    >> truman, I crap out with a lisp error.  Before I delve into this and
    >> give you a better report, is there something obvious I missed that
    >> would cause a problem, perhaps one of the items mentioned above?

    SJ> No, it is a bug.  Can you post the entire backtrace?

-- 
Jake Colman                     

Principia Partners LLC                  Phone: (201) 946-0300
Harborside Financial Center               Fax: (201) 946-0320
902 Plaza Two                          E-mail: colman@ppllc.com
Jersey City, NJ 07311                  www.principiapartners.com

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Simon Josefsson]

On 19 Oct 2001, Jake Colman wrote:

> Simon,
>
> Are the gnus tick marks actually stored on the IMAP server?  I thought they
> were an artificial invention of gnus.  I cannot imagine how they night have
> copied things over such that all the email arrived but not the associated
> marks.

Everything is stored on the IMAP server, and copying the articles without
the marks isn't good.  If you have access to both servers still, maybe you
can copy everything again with marks.

>
> ...Jake
>
>
> >>>>> "SJ" == Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
>
>     SJ> On 18 Oct 2001, Jake Colman wrote:
>     >> My office has decided to replace our current IMAP Server, truman, with
>     >> a new IMAP Server, hamilton.  For the next few days, both servers will
>     >> be available to me but next week truman will be taken off-line.  The
>     >> SA's have copied all my mailboxes and folders from truman to hamilton
>     >> and all new email will be sent to hamilton.
>     >>
>     >> So how do I tell gnus that I now want it to access hamilton instead of
>     >> truman?  What I have done in the meantime is to subscribe to new
>     >> nnimap mailboxes on hamilton giving them the same name as they had on
>     >> truman.  This, of course, gave me two entries for each mailbox, one on
>     >> each server.  I have killed (C-k) many of the truman copies of these
>     >> mailboxes.
>     >>
>     >> Questions:
>     >>
>     >> 1) Was there a better way to have done this?
>
>     SJ> Can't think of one.
>
>     >> 2) Some of the truman mailboxes have ticked articles marked with an
>     >> exclamation point.  How do I get the hamilton copies of the messages
>     >> ticked the same way.
>
>     SJ> How was the messages copied between the servers?  The flags should be
>     SJ> copied as well.
>
>     >> 3) I still have references to the killed truman mailboxes in my
>     >>    .newsrc.eld.
>     >> Is this a problem?
>
>     SJ> Shouldn't be, but you can probably remove them by running some
>     SJ> command to kill "zombies" or "killed" groups, or something like that.
>
>     >> 4) I currently have entries for both truman and hamilton in my
>     >> gnus-secondary-select-methods.  When I start gnus, it logs on to both
>     >> servers, prompting me for passwords for both.  Great!  If I remove
>     >> truman, I crap out with a lisp error.  Before I delve into this and
>     >> give you a better report, is there something obvious I missed that
>     >> would cause a problem, perhaps one of the items mentioned above?
>
>     SJ> No, it is a bug.  Can you post the entire backtrace?
>
>

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Jake Colman]

Simon,

My SA used Microsoft's ExMerge wizard for moving the mailboxes from truman
to hamilton.  The wizard provides no explicit options for copying or not
copying the marks so I supposed it should have just worked.  The problem is
that, although all my messages were copied, gnus is not showing me which ones
were ticked.

Any idea what I should do now?  How can I get them ticked?  I still have
access to the old truman mailbox with the message and tick intact.

Thanks!

...Jake


>>>>> "SJ" == Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

    SJ> On 19 Oct 2001, Jake Colman wrote:
    >> Simon,
    >>
    >> Are the gnus tick marks actually stored on the IMAP server?  I thought
    >> they were an artificial invention of gnus.  I cannot imagine how they
    >> night have copied things over such that all the email arrived but not
    >> the associated marks.

    SJ> Everything is stored on the IMAP server, and copying the articles
    SJ> without the marks isn't good.  If you have access to both servers
    SJ> still, maybe you can copy everything again with marks.

    >>
    >> ...Jake
    >>
    >>
    >> >>>>> "SJ" == Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
    >>
    SJ> On 18 Oct 2001, Jake Colman wrote:
    >> >> My office has decided to replace our current IMAP Server, truman,
    >> >> with a new IMAP Server, hamilton.  For the next few days, both
    >> >> servers will be available to me but next week truman will be taken
    >> >> off-line.  The SA's have copied all my mailboxes and folders from
    >> >> truman to hamilton and all new email will be sent to hamilton.
    >> >>
    >> >> So how do I tell gnus that I now want it to access hamilton instead
    >> >> of truman?  What I have done in the meantime is to subscribe to new
    >> >> nnimap mailboxes on hamilton giving them the same name as they had
    >> >> on truman.  This, of course, gave me two entries for each mailbox,
    >> >> one on each server.  I have killed (C-k) many of the truman copies
    >> >> of these mailboxes.
    >> >>
    >> >> Questions:
    >> >>
    >> >> 1) Was there a better way to have done this?
    >>
    SJ> Can't think of one.
    >>
    >> >> 2) Some of the truman mailboxes have ticked articles marked with an
    >> >> exclamation point.  How do I get the hamilton copies of the
    >> >> messages ticked the same way.
    >>
    SJ> How was the messages copied between the servers?  The flags should be
    SJ> copied as well.
    >>
    >> >> 3) I still have references to the killed truman mailboxes in my
    >> >>    .newsrc.eld.
    >> >> Is this a problem?
    >>
    SJ> Shouldn't be, but you can probably remove them by running some
    SJ> command to kill "zombies" or "killed" groups, or something like that.
    >>
    >> >> 4) I currently have entries for both truman and hamilton in my
    >> >> gnus-secondary-select-methods.  When I start gnus, it logs on to
    >> >> both servers, prompting me for passwords for both.  Great!  If I
    >> >> remove truman, I crap out with a lisp error.  Before I delve into
    >> >> this and give you a better report, is there something obvious I
    >> >> missed that would cause a problem, perhaps one of the items
    >> >> mentioned above?
    >>
    SJ> No, it is a bug.  Can you post the entire backtrace?
    >>
    >>

-- 
Jake Colman                     

Principia Partners LLC                  Phone: (201) 946-0300
Harborside Financial Center               Fax: (201) 946-0320
902 Plaza Two                          E-mail: colman@ppllc.com
Jersey City, NJ 07311                  www.principiapartners.com

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Kai Großjohann]

Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:

> Are the gnus tick marks actually stored on the IMAP server?

Yes.  IMAP defines so-called message flags.  And the tick mark is
stored as the "\Flagged" flag.  nnimap maps to standard IMAP flags
where possible and uses its own flag names for the rest.  IMAP says
that you can define and use your own flag names.

kai
-- 
GNU/Linux provides a nice `poweroff' command, but where is `poweron'?

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Kai Großjohann]

Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:

> Any idea what I should do now?  How can I get them ticked?  I still have
> access to the old truman mailbox with the message and tick intact.

You can kluge it, but the easiest thing to do would be to erase the
messages from hamilton and copy them again from truman.

If there are new messages on hamilton, maybe you should move them to
truman, then delete everything on hamilton, then move the whole
shebang from truman to hamilton.  Then they will be on the new server.

If you have groups/folders which receive new mail, you'll have to do
something special for them.  For example, if just INBOX receives new
mail, you can rename your truman INBOX to INBOX.old and move it to
hamilton.  Then you'll have to merge the two.

kai
-- 
GNU/Linux provides a nice `poweroff' command, but where is `poweron'?

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Jake Colman]

>>>>> "SJ" == Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

    >> 3) I still have references to the killed truman mailboxes in my
    >>    .newsrc.eld.
    >> Is this a problem?

    SJ> Shouldn't be, but you can probably remove them by running some
    SJ> command to kill "zombies" or "killed" groups, or something like that.

    >> 4) I currently have entries for both truman and hamilton in my
    >> gnus-secondary-select-methods.  When I start gnus, it logs on to both
    >> servers, prompting me for passwords for both.  Great!  If I remove
    >> truman, I crap out with a lisp error.  Before I delve into this and
    >> give you a better report, is there something obvious I missed that
    >> would cause a problem, perhaps one of the items mentioned above?

    SJ> No, it is a bug.  Can you post the entire backtrace?

Well, I've killed all my truman mailboxes and, after I remove truman as a
gnus-secondary-select-methods, I cannot start gnus successfully. Here is the
backtrace:

Signaling: (error "Trying to require a method that doesn't exist")
  signal(error ("Trying to require a method that doesn't exist"))
  cerror("Trying to require a method that doesn't exist")
  apply(cerror "Trying to require a method that doesn't exist")
  error("Trying to require a method that doesn't exist")
  gnus-server-opened((nil ""))
  gnus-activate-group("nnimap+truman:INBOX/Linux/RedHat/Watch" scan)
  gnus-get-unread-articles(nil)
  gnus-setup-news(nil nil nil)
  byte-code("..." [gnus-slave gnus-current-startup-file gnus-startup-file did-connect level dont-connect gnus-group-quit gnus-run-hooks gnus-startup-hook gnus-make-newsrc-file gnus-dribble-read-file bbb-login add-hook gnus-summary-mode-hook gnus-grouplens-mode gnus-setup-news nil gnus-setup-news-hook gnus-start-draft-setup gnus-group-list-groups gnus-group-first-unread-group gnus-configure-windows group gnus-group-set-mode-line gnus-started-hook gnus-use-dribble-file gnus-use-grouplens] 4)
  gnus-1(nil nil nil)
  gnus(nil)
  call-interactively(gnus)
  command-execute(gnus t)
  execute-extended-command(nil)
  call-interactively(execute-extended-command)

As you can see, it is trying to activate a truman-based group.  I looked at
my .newsrc.eld file and my truman-based groups are currently listed in
gnus-newsrc-alist and gnus-topic-alist.

So where do I go from here?  I need to kill truman since the server is about
to be taken off-line!

Thanks!

...Jake


-- 
Jake Colman                     

Principia Partners LLC                  Phone: (201) 946-0300
Harborside Financial Center               Fax: (201) 946-0320
902 Plaza Two                          E-mail: colman@ppllc.com
Jersey City, NJ 07311                  www.principiapartners.com

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Kai Großjohann]

Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:

> As you can see, it is trying to activate a truman-based group.  I looked at
> my .newsrc.eld file and my truman-based groups are currently listed in
> gnus-newsrc-alist and gnus-topic-alist.

Maybe the quickest thing to do is to edit .newsrc.eld manually.  I
advise the C-M-f, C-M-k commands and their ilk to preserve paren
nesting.

If you want to do it right, add the nnimap:truman server again, start
Gnus, use L to list all groups, search for the ones from that server,
kill them.

Hm.  Maybe you even want to do `A A' to be sure that you get them
all.  Alas, from `A A' you can't see which ones are killed already.
But a quick kbd macro should help...

Only after all the groups are gone, delete nnimap:truman from
gnus-secondary-select-methods or wherever it is.

kai
-- 
Lisp is kinda like tpircstsoP

Re: How To Switch To Another IMAP Server?

[Jake Colman]

I'm an idiot.  Somehow I negelected to kill a few of the truman groups.  When
I did an "L" in the groups buffer these groups still showed up (I don't know
how I missed them).  I killed those groups, removed truman as a
gnus-secondary-select-methods and now all is well.

Thanks for your help!

...Jake


    KG> Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:
    >> As you can see, it is trying to activate a truman-based group.  I
    >> looked at my .newsrc.eld file and my truman-based groups are currently
    >> listed in gnus-newsrc-alist and gnus-topic-alist.

    KG> Maybe the quickest thing to do is to edit .newsrc.eld manually.  I
    KG> advise the C-M-f, C-M-k commands and their ilk to preserve paren
    KG> nesting.

    KG> If you want to do it right, add the nnimap:truman server again, start
    KG> Gnus, use L to list all groups, search for the ones from that server,
    KG> kill them.

    KG> Hm.  Maybe you even want to do `A A' to be sure that you get them
    KG> all.  Alas, from `A A' you can't see which ones are killed already.
    KG> But a quick kbd macro should help...

    KG> Only after all the groups are gone, delete nnimap:truman from
    KG> gnus-secondary-select-methods or wherever it is.

    KG> kai
    KG> --
    KG> Lisp is kinda like tpircstsoP

-- 
Jake Colman                     

Principia Partners LLC                  Phone: (201) 946-0300
Harborside Financial Center               Fax: (201) 946-0320
902 Plaza Two                          E-mail: colman@ppllc.com
Jersey City, NJ 07311                  www.principiapartners.com