Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Steinar Bang]

Platform: Debian 10.0 "buster", amd64
	GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.4) of 2019-02-03, modified by Debian
	Gnus v5.13

When starting gnus and when fetching new mail and news with 'g', I get
the following error message in the minibuffer:
 Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)

According to the docs[1]:
 You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by setting mail-sources (see Fetching Mail) to a mail source specifier.

Doing 'C-h v mail-sources RET':
 mail-sources is a variable defined in ‘mail-source.el’.
 Its value is ((file))

Also according to [1], about "file":
 :path
   The file name. Defaults to the value of the MAIL environment variable or the value of rmail-spool-directory (usually something like /usr/mail/spool/user-name). 

Doing 'C-h v rmail-spool-directory RET
 rmail-spool-directory is a variable defined in ‘rmail.el’.
 Its value is "/var/mail/"

which points to the directory where my inbox resides:
 sb@lorenzo:~$ ls -al /var/mail/sb 
 -rw-rw---- 1 sb mail 28529 Aug  4 10:39 /var/mail/sb
 sb@lorenzo:~$ 

The MAIL environment variable also points to my inbox:
 sb@lorenzo:~$ env | grep MAIL
 MAIL=/var/mail/sb
 sb@lorenzo:~$

Does anybody know what the problem might be?

Thanks!


- Steinar


References:
[1] <https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Mail-Source-Specifiers.html>

Re: Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Adam Sjøgren]

Steinar writes:

> When starting gnus and when fetching new mail and news with 'g', I get
> the following error message in the minibuffer:
>  Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)

Is it trying to shell out to movemail(1) or some such?

,----[ C-h v mail-source-movemail-program RET ]
| mail-source-movemail-program is a variable defined in ‘mail-source.el’.
| Its value is "movemail"
| 
|   This variable may be risky if used as a file-local variable.
|   Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 26.2.
| 
| Documentation:
| If non-nil, name of program for fetching new mail.
| 
| You can customize this variable.
| 
| This variable was introduced, or its default value was changed, in
| version 26.2 of Emacs.
`----

(Just a guess.)

Looking at mail-source-fetcher-alist and mail-source-fetch-file, I think
it is.

On Debian movemail(1) lives in the mailutils package: 

 · https://packages.debian.org/buster/mailutils


  Best regards,

    Adam

-- 
 "Don't just do something, stand there!"                      Adam Sjøgren
                                                         asjo@koldfront.dk

Re: Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Colin Baxter]

>>>>> Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no> writes:

    > Platform: Debian 10.0 "buster", amd64 GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 2,
    > x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.4) of 2019-02-03, modified
    > by Debian Gnus v5.13

    > When starting gnus and when fetching new mail and news with 'g', I
    > get the following error message in the minibuffer: Mail source
    > (file) error (Searching for Program)

    > According to the docs[1]: You tell Gnus how to fetch mail by
    > setting mail-sources (see Fetching Mail) to a mail source
    > specifier.

    > Doing 'C-h v mail-sources RET': mail-sources is a variable defined
    > in ‘mail-source.el’.  Its value is ((file))

    > Also according to [1], about "file": :path The file name. Defaults
    > to the value of the MAIL environment variable or the value of
    > rmail-spool-directory (usually something like
    > /usr/mail/spool/user-name).

    > Doing 'C-h v rmail-spool-directory RET rmail-spool-directory is a
    > variable defined in ‘rmail.el’.  Its value is "/var/mail/"

    > which points to the directory where my inbox resides:
    > sb@lorenzo:~$ ls -al /var/mail/sb -rw-rw---- 1 sb mail 28529 Aug 4
    > 10:39 /var/mail/sb sb@lorenzo:~$

    > The MAIL environment variable also points to my inbox:
    > sb@lorenzo:~$ env | grep MAIL MAIL=/var/mail/sb sb@lorenzo:~$

    > Does anybody know what the problem might be?

    > Thanks!


    > - Steinar


    > References: [1]
    > <https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Mail-Source-Specifiers.html>

Have you this

(setq mail-source-movemail-program "/path/to/movemail")

in your ~/gnus.el or ~/.emacs?


-- 
Colin Baxter
www.Colin-Baxter.com

Re: Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Steinar Bang]

>>>>> Colin Baxter <m43cap@yandex.com>:

> Have you this

> (setq mail-source-movemail-program "/path/to/movemail")

> in your ~/gnus.el or ~/.emacs?

Unfortunately not.

'C-h v mail-source-movemail-program RET' says:

mail-source-movemail-program is a variable defined in ‘mail-source.el’.
Its value is nil

  This variable may be risky if used as a file-local variable.

However, I can try setting it and see what happens.

I set the variable to "movemail" and then Gnus startet without an error
message.


Thanks!  (and thanks to Adam as well)

Re: Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Steinar Bang]

>>>>> Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no>:

> However, I can try setting it and see what happens.

> I set the variable to "movemail" and then Gnus startet without an error
> message.

Hm... looking at the .emacs diff, two variables are set ("Apply and
save" saved all variables in the customize buffer) , and I don't know
which one had the desired effect:

diff --git a/.emacs b/.emacs
index b1eb917abf..19de76a9d4 100644
--- a/.emacs
+++ b/.emacs
@@ -731,7 +731,7 @@ to be something different.")
  '(desktop-files-not-to-save
    "\\(^/[^/:]*:\\|(ftp)$\\|^/tmp\\|.+\\.jar\\|.+\\.log\\|.+/target\\)")
  '(gnus-blocked-images ".")
- '(gnus-cloud-method "nnimap:privat" t)
+ '(gnus-cloud-method "nnimap:privat")
  '(gnus-cloud-storage-method (quote base64-gzip))
  '(gnus-picon-style (quote right))
  '(gnus-treat-fill-long-lines nil)
@@ -741,6 +741,7 @@ to be something different.")
     ("SCCS" "RCS" "CVS" "MCVS" ".src" ".svn" ".git" ".hg" ".bzr" "_MTN" "_darcs" "{arch}" "node_modules" "target")))
  '(jdee-server-dir
    "/home/sb/.m2/repository/com/github/jdee-emacs/jdee-server/1.1-SNAPSHOT")
+ '(mail-source-movemail-program "movemail")
  '(message-forward-as-mime t)
  '(message-user-fqdn "dod.no")
  '(nxml-child-indent 1)
@@ -765,6 +766,7 @@ to be something different.")
  '(package-selected-packages
    (quote
     (flycheck json-mode rjsx-mode git-commit async bbdb dash ghub let-alist magit magit-popup org sparql-mode with-editor csv-mode feature-mode crappy-jsp-mode rnc-mode editorconfig yaml-mode ttl-mode psvn psgml markdown-mode groovy-mode csharp-mode)))
+ '(rmail-movemail-program "/usr/bin/movemail")
  '(select-enable-clipboard t)
  '(split-width-threshold nil)
  '(user-mail-address "sb@dod.no"))

(the gnus-cloud-method change was not something I did intentionally and
happened before I started messing with movemail.  I have no idea what
this change does)

Re: Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Steinar Bang]

I tried again from scratch, various permutation.

And gnus-cloud-method is modified when I save the customization of
mail-source-movemail-program to "movemail".  I don't know how and why
gnus-cloud-method was modified.

However, I was able to eliminate the customization of
rmail-movemail-program whithout any ill effects (I haven't used rmail
for three decades anyway... I quickly moved om to VM because it
supported the native unix mailbox format, and then moved on to various
mh-based MUAs in the 1990ies before ending up with gnus where I stayed).

So now the only modifications are:
- '(gnus-cloud-method "nnimap:privat" t)
+ '(gnus-cloud-method "nnimap:privat")

and
+ '(mail-source-movemail-program "movemail")

and now it works.

Thanks again!

Re: Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Colin Baxter]

>>>>> Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no> writes:

>>>>> Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no>:
    >> However, I can try setting it and see what happens.

    >> I set the variable to "movemail" and then Gnus startet without an
    >> error message.

    > Hm... looking at the .emacs diff, two variables are set ("Apply
    > and save" saved all variables in the customize buffer) , and I
    > don't know which one had the desired effect:

    > diff --git a/.emacs b/.emacs index b1eb917abf..19de76a9d4 100644
    > --- a/.emacs +++ b/.emacs @@ -731,7 +731,7 @@ to be something
    > different.")  '(desktop-files-not-to-save
    > "\\(^/[^/:]*:\\|(ftp)$\\|^/tmp\\|.+\\.jar\\|.+\\.log\\|.+/target\\)")
    > '(gnus-blocked-images ".")  - '(gnus-cloud-method "nnimap:privat"
    > t) + '(gnus-cloud-method "nnimap:privat")
    > '(gnus-cloud-storage-method (quote base64-gzip))
    > '(gnus-picon-style (quote right)) '(gnus-treat-fill-long-lines
    > nil) @@ -741,6 +741,7 @@ to be something different.")  ("SCCS"
    > "RCS" "CVS" "MCVS" ".src" ".svn" ".git" ".hg" ".bzr" "_MTN"
    > "_darcs" "{arch}" "node_modules" "target"))) '(jdee-server-dir
    > "/home/sb/.m2/repository/com/github/jdee-emacs/jdee-server/1.1-SNAPSHOT")
    > + '(mail-source-movemail-program "movemail")
    > '(message-forward-as-mime t) '(message-user-fqdn "dod.no")
    > '(nxml-child-indent 1) @@ -765,6 +766,7 @@ to be something
    > different.")  '(package-selected-packages (quote (flycheck
    > json-mode rjsx-mode git-commit async bbdb dash ghub let-alist
    > magit magit-popup org sparql-mode with-editor csv-mode
    > feature-mode crappy-jsp-mode rnc-mode editorconfig yaml-mode
    > ttl-mode psvn psgml markdown-mode groovy-mode csharp-mode))) +
    > '(rmail-movemail-program "/usr/bin/movemail")
    > '(select-enable-clipboard t) '(split-width-threshold nil)
    > '(user-mail-address "sb@dod.no"))

    > (the gnus-cloud-method change was not something I did
    > intentionally and happened before I started messing with movemail.
    > I have no idea what this change does)

As I understand things (WARNING: I understand very little.) the current
emacs (26.2) configures "--with-mailutils" as a default
setting.  Therefore the movemail program is the one from gnus and
located (usually) at /usr/bin/movemail. If you build emacs
"--without-mailutils" then the movemail program used is the one in the
emacs-exec directory (../local/lib/emacs/...) To confuse things further,
I believe in past these configure settings were reversed.

I have configured my emacs explicitly as './configure --with-mailutils'.
I therefore  use /usr/bin/movemail as my movemail program and set
explicitly as (setq mail-source-movemail-program "/usr/bin/movemail")

Best wishes,

Re: Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Steinar Bang]

>>>>> Colin Baxter <m43cap@yandex.com>:

> As I understand things (WARNING: I understand very little.) the current
> emacs (26.2) configures "--with-mailutils" as a default
> setting.  Therefore the movemail program is the one from gnus and
> located (usually) at /usr/bin/movemail. If you build emacs
> "--without-mailutils" then the movemail program used is the one in the
> emacs-exec directory (../local/lib/emacs/...) To confuse things further,
> I believe in past these configure settings were reversed.

> I have configured my emacs explicitly as './configure --with-mailutils'.
> I therefore  use /usr/bin/movemail as my movemail program and set
> explicitly as (setq mail-source-movemail-program "/usr/bin/movemail")

Thanks! I'm using the emacs built by debian.  I have no idea what build
options and/or patches they have used. :-)

Re: Problem with gnus on emacs-26 on debian 10: "Mail source (file) error (Searching for Program)"

[Felix Natter]

hi Steinar,

Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no> writes:
>>>>>> Colin Baxter <m43cap@yandex.com>:
>
>> As I understand things (WARNING: I understand very little.) the current
>> emacs (26.2) configures "--with-mailutils" as a default
>> setting.  Therefore the movemail program is the one from gnus and
>> located (usually) at /usr/bin/movemail. If you build emacs
>> "--without-mailutils" then the movemail program used is the one in the
>> emacs-exec directory (../local/lib/emacs/...) To confuse things further,
>> I believe in past these configure settings were reversed.
>
>> I have configured my emacs explicitly as './configure --with-mailutils'.
>> I therefore  use /usr/bin/movemail as my movemail program and set
>> explicitly as (setq mail-source-movemail-program "/usr/bin/movemail")
>
> Thanks! I'm using the emacs built by debian.  I have no idea what build
> options and/or patches they have used. :-)

Debian 10 has emacs-1:26.1+1-3.2. You can fetch the (packaging) source
with "apt-get source emacs":

$ LANG=C apt-get source emacs
Reading package lists... Done
NOTICE: 'emacs' packaging is maintained in the 'Git' version control system at:
https://salsa.debian.org/rlb/deb-emacs.git
Please use:
git clone https://salsa.debian.org/rlb/deb-emacs.git
to retrieve the latest (possibly unreleased) updates to the package.
Skipping already downloaded file 'emacs_26.1+1-3.2.dsc'
Need to get 24.3 MB of source archives.
Get:1 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian buster/main emacs 1:26.1+1-3.2 (tar) [24.3 MB]
Get:2 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian buster/main emacs 1:26.1+1-3.2 (diff) [56.8 kB]
Fetched 24.3 MB in 14s (1795 kB/s)
dpkg-source: info: extracting emacs in emacs-26.1+1
dpkg-source: info: unpacking emacs_26.1+1.orig.tar.xz
dpkg-source: info: unpacking emacs_26.1+1-3.2.debian.tar.xz
dpkg-source: info: using patch list from debian/patches/series
dpkg-source: info: applying 0001-Prefer-usr-share-info-emacs.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0002-Run-debian-startup-and-set-debian-emacs-flavor.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0003-Remove-files-that-appear-to-be-incompatible-with-the.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0004-Adjust-documentation-references-for-Debian.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0005-Modify-the-output-of-version-to-indicate-Debian-modi.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0006-Don-t-try-to-build-src-macuvs.h-via-IVD_Sequences.tx.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0007-Kill-gpg-agent-in-package-test.el-to-avoid-a-race.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0008-Don-t-downcase-real-xref-in-elisp-mode-tests.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0009-An-epg-test-failure-with-recent-GnuPG-versions-has-b.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0010-Mark-vc-bzr-test-fauilt-bzr-autoloads-as-unstable-fo.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0011-tramp-test42-remote-load-path-regexp-quote-directory.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0012-ibuffer-filter-inclusion-3-regexp-quote-directory.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0013-Mark-echo-server-with-dns-test-as-unstable-for-now.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 0014-Fix-an-eshell-ls-dired-test-for-non-recent-files.patch

As you can see, quite a few patches are applied (they can be seen in
emacs-26.1+1/debian/patches). Also, from emacs-26.1+1/debian/rules:

# common configure flags
confflags += --prefix=/usr
confflags += --sharedstatedir=/var/lib
confflags += --libexecdir=/usr/lib
confflags += --localstatedir=/var/lib
confflags += --infodir=/usr/share/info
confflags += --mandir=/usr/share/man
confflags += --enable-libsystemd
confflags += --with-pop=yes
confflags += --enable-locallisppath=$(local_lpath)
confflags += --with-sound=alsa
confflags += --without-gconf
confflags += --with-mailutils

# x configure flags
confflags_gtk := $(confflags)
confflags_gtk += --with-x=yes
confflags_gtk += --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
# For those who prefer the old-style non-toolkit scrollbars, just
# change the assignment below to --without-toolkit-scroll-bars.  The
# resulting emacs-gtk package will have the old scrollbars.
confflags_gtk += --with-toolkit-scroll-bars

# nox configure flags
confflags_nox := $(confflags)
confflags_nox += --with-x=no
confflags_nox += --without-gsettings

# lucid configure flags
confflags_lucid := $(confflags)
confflags_lucid += --with-x=yes
confflags_lucid += --with-x-toolkit=lucid
confflags_lucid += --with-toolkit-scroll-bars
confflags_lucid += --without-gsettings

See --with-mailutils above.

HTH,
Felix
--
Felix Natter