Re: overriding marks for synchronization

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:48:07 +0200 Steinar Bang <sb@dod.no> wrote: 

SB> Good point!  Also it would provide _some_ kind of transaction control.
SB> Two independent ssh processes accessing the same file won't.
SB> (not that it is likely to happen since I can't operate more than a
SB> single Gnus at any point in time, but anyway...:-) )

SB> The reasons I didn't go for imaps was:
SB>  - I didn't know the steps neccessary to make tramp imap use the same
SB>    auth as nnimap

The filename in my case (Courier IMAP server) is
/imaps:tzz@mail.server.com:/INBOX.test/sync.eld

which results in messages with subject
"tramp-imap-subject-markersync.eld" (you can change the variable
tramp-imap-subject-marker to something else if you like, by default it
is its own symbol-name).

*Messages* will tell you:

auth-source-user-or-password: get password for mail.server.com (tramp-imap) + user=nil

Which means in the authinfo you need ("port" can be omitted):

machine mail.server.com login tzz password MYPASSWORD port tramp-imap

SB>     - do I need to create a particular folder for the use of tramp?

No, but it's tidier that way.  tramp-imap.el filters out all messages
whose subject doesn't start with the tramp-imap-subject-marker.

SB>     - will it create one message or many?

IMAP doesn't allow "write in place" so instead we write a new message
and mark the old one expired.  It's not ideal but neither is IMAP.

SB>     - Can more than one file be stored in any particular folder?

Sure.  In fact any key-value data (if you use the underlying
imap-hash.el library) can be stored in an IMAP mailbox.  That's how
tramp-imap.el does it.

Ted