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

[Colin Baxter <m43cap@yandex.com>]

>>>>> 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,