N00b begging quick input.

N00b begging quick input.

[DiagonalArg]

Well, I must say that the Gnus manual is utterly overwhelming!  I can at least 
connect to usenet, but setting it up for mail is a bit harder as I can't screw
thing up in the process.  I wonder if someone can give me a quick pointer of
where I need to get started for the following situation:

I am using RMAIL with <<many>> files in Babyl format.  Each individual that I
correspond with has their own file.  Once read, I sort the emails to their proper
file by hand.  Mail comes from the local spool.  I now need to shift over to 
gnus.  I would like the same functionality until I can figure out how to use gnus
to change everything over to MailDir.  I don't want to get blindsided by 
incorrect expiration that might delete mails that I keep until I can act on them.

How in god's (pick a convenient one) name do I do this??  I am so lost in details
that I am having trouble figuring how to start.  Reading the manual linearly is 
not working, which is what I tried after jumping around failed. Any chance
someone could give me a couple of pointers so I could begin to step into this?

Thanks all in advance -
/DA.

(By the way, this needs to be quick.  emacs 23 is long out, and I don't want to 
shift over to the destructive mbox format that RMAIL is now using.)

Re: N00b begging quick input.

[Steinar Bang]

>>>>> DiagonalArg <gmane.boxy@xoxy.net>:

> I am using RMAIL with <<many>> files in Babyl format.  Each individual
> that I correspond with has their own file.  Once read, I sort the
> emails to their proper file by hand.  Mail comes from the local spool.
> I now need to shift over to gnus. 

Well, there is an nnbabyl backend.  But on a quick try it doesn't seem
to be able to open multiple folders.  All nnbabyl mail groups are
directed to ~/RMAIL unless I'm mistaken...?

I created a group with the following commands in the *Group* buffer:
 G m noob RET nnbabyl RET
and the result was an empty RMAIL file in the home directory.

Also, it probably isn't the local backend that sees the most use.  That
would be nnml (which helps you nothing at all).

> I would like the same functionality until I can figure out how to use
> gnus to change everything over to MailDir. 

Hm... I started out writing this response with the premise that you
could open your existing RMAIL files as nnbabyl groups and then open
nnmailbox folders and `B c' your old emails over.

But... since nnbabyl only operates on ~/RMAIL then that idea is out.
Sorry!

> I don't want to get blindsided by incorrect expiration that might
> delete mails that I keep until I can act on them.

Expiration isn't turned on by default.  You have to explicitly set it
up.  So no danger there.

Re: N00b begging quick input.

[Tassilo Horn]

DiagonalArg <gmane.boxy@xoxy.net> writes:

Hi!

> I am using RMAIL with <<many>> files in Babyl format.

I've never used RMAIL, so I cannot give any detailed suggestions.  But
the RMAIL version in Emacs 23+ switched to the MBOX format instead of
Babyl.

,----[ Emacs 23.1 release notes ]
| *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
| Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
| and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
| 
| The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
| automatically converts it to mbox format.  This is a one-time
| conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
| your machine and on the size of the file.  You should find the rest of
| Rmail usage unaltered.
`----

So if you open each of your mailboxes with a recent RMAIL version, they
should all be converted to MBOX automatically.  You should be able to
use them as-is, or you can switch over to nnml (which is probably the
most common backend for local mail) and incorporate the mail from your
mbox files.

,----[ (info "(gnus)Incorporating Old Mail") ]
| Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats.  If
| you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
| back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
| your mail groups.
`----

Bye,
Tassilo