mailboxes disappeared, some mail missing, suggestions welcome

mailboxes disappeared, some mail missing, suggestions welcome

[Ciarán O'Riordan]

Hi all,

I hit some key and all but one of my inboxes disappeared from the Groups
buffer.  This is the third time I've had this problem and I think I've
figured out what happened: I probably hit C-w, which is a shortcut for
gnus-group-kill-region.  I tried to undo but it just said the buffer was
read-only.  By the time I thought of checking lossage, I'd already hit too
many other keys so I couldn't confirm C-w is the culprit.

I know how to get my inboxes to re-appear: I hit U and subscribe to them
again.  I've done this, but my sent-mail inbox just contains four seemingly
randomly selected mails I sent.  The other 1500 are gone.

I dropped to the command line and went to my mail directory and grepped for
the name of someone I've sent a dozen mails to, but the only hits I got were
in my inbox.  I opened my sent-mail file (I'm using nnfolder, one file per
inbox) with 'less' and confirmed that the only contents were those four
random surviving mails.  The related files are similarly small: 

-rw------- 1 coriordan coriordan 5985 Aug 29 19:19 Back2Gnus/sent-mail~
-rw------- 1 coriordan coriordan 6729 Sep  2 01:43 Back2Gnus/sent-mail
-rw------- 1 coriordan coriordan   34 Jan 20 20:00 Back2Gnus/sent-mail.mrk
-rw------- 1 coriordan coriordan 1315 Sep  2 01:57 Back2Gnus/sent-mail.nov

One other problem is that after I resubscribed to my other inboxes, every
mail is listed as unread.

Anyone think there's any hope of getting all my sent-mails back?

If anyone knows how to fix the "read" markings in my other inboxes, that
would be nice, but I can do all that manually if necessary.

My .gnus (below) is quite plain.


Thanks in advance.

===========================
(setq gnus-select-method '(nnfolder ""))

(setq gnus-group-line-format "%S %5y : %G (%s) m:%m\n")

(setq gnus-sorted-header-list '("^From:" "^Date:" "^Subject:"
				"^To:" "^Cc:" "^Reply-To:"
				"^In-Reply-To:" "^Cc:" "^Reply-To:"
				"^User-Agent:" "^X-Mailer:"))
(setq gnus-visible-headers gnus-sorted-header-list)

(setq gnus-message-archive-group "nnfolder:sent-mail")

(setq mail-sources '((file :path "/var/spool/mail/coriordan")))
(setq mail-yank-prefix "> ")

(setq nnmail-crosspost t)
(setq nnmail-split-methods
      '(("spam" "^X-Spam-Flag:.*YES")
	("spam" "From: .*prconsulting2012.*@yahoo.com")
;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;  to keep this mail short I trimmed 50 lines here
;;;;;;;;;;;;;
	("epfsug" "List-Id: <epfsug.epfsug.eu>")
 	("other" ""))))

(setq nnfolder-directory "~/Back2Gnus/")

(defun my-message-mode-setup ()
  (setq fill-column 76)
  (turn-on-auto-fill)
  (font-lock-mode nil))
(add-hook 'message-mode-hook 'my-message-mode-setup)
===========================


-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan
+32 (0) 485 118 029
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/

http://EndSoftwarePatents.org/ - http://en.swpat.org/

mails found (was: Re: mailboxes disappeared, some mail missing, suggestions welcome)

[Ciarán O'Riordan]

Lost mails found!  Sorry for that.

I forgot I had this in my .emacs:

(setq mail-archive-file-name "~/RSENT")

It doesn't show up when I hit 'U' but I can add it as a file (I don't
remember the command right but I had to do this last time I had the same
problem and I remember it's not difficult).

So now my only problem is that I've thousands of mails listed as unread.  If
there's a solution, I'd be happy to hear it, but it's not a huge problem.


While I'm here, can I suggest that gnus-group-kill-region not have a
binding?  Hitting C-w by accident is really easy and it leaves the user with
no mailboxes and no idea what happened or what to do.  I abandonned Gnus the
first two times it happened me (but I came back after a few months of trying
rmail).  I'd go as far as to say the command should be disabled by default
(I've done that now in my .gnus), but if not, then at least consider
removing the keybinding.

-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan
+32 (0) 485 118 029
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/

http://EndSoftwarePatents.org/ - http://en.swpat.org/

Re: mails found (was: Re: mailboxes disappeared, some mail missing, suggestions welcome)

[Ciarán O'Riordan]

ciaran@member.fsf.org (Ciarán O'Riordan) writes:
> So now my only problem is that I've thousands of mails listed as unread.

Also fixed.  Close emacs, open emacs, mail markings working again.

Sorry for the unnecessary call for help then.  Seems everything's working.

The first two times this happened I had no idea what was going on and I
spent days trying to recover.  I'd still recommend unbinding C-w.


-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan
+32 (0) 485 118 029
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/

http://EndSoftwarePatents.org/ - http://en.swpat.org/

Re: mails found

[Steinar Bang]

>>>>> ciaran@member.fsf.org (Ciarán O'Riordan):

> While I'm here, can I suggest that gnus-group-kill-region not have a
> binding?  Hitting C-w by accident is really easy and it leaves the
> user with no mailboxes and no idea what happened or what to do.

I agree that this is a bad thing from a user point of view, but FWIW in
all my years of using Gnus (and before that: GNUS), I have never done
this. 

Also FWIW, since someone who has used Gnus for as long as I have, have
never missed it, I predict that few others will miss it, should it go
away. 

Re: mails found

[Ciarán O'Riordan]

Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no> writes:
> I agree that this is a bad thing from a user point of view, but FWIW in
> all my years of using Gnus (and before that: GNUS), I have never done
> this. 

I use both QWERTY and AZERTY keyboards, so I mix up those keys sometimes.

> I predict that few others will miss it, should it go away.

This is what I think too.  There won't be many people who run
gnus-group-kill-region often enough to want a keybinding, and removing or
disabling it will save some people from a having a really big problem.


-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan
+32 (0) 485 118 029
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/

http://EndSoftwarePatents.org/ - http://en.swpat.org/