From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/75184 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eric Abrahamsen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Streamlining first-time Gnus usage Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:12:46 +0800 Message-ID: <87tyid4069.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> References: <87bp4pyvgd.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> <87r5dibc4f.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1292552079 17320 80.91.229.12 (17 Dec 2010 02:14:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:14:39 +0000 (UTC) To: ding@gnus.org Original-X-From: ding-owner+M23539@lists.math.uh.edu Fri Dec 17 03:14:35 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ding-account@gmane.org Original-Received: from util0.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.18]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PTPq4-0004q0-NP for ding-account@gmane.org; Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:14:33 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu) by util0.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1PTPp1-0008Fh-86; Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:13:27 -0600 Original-Received: from mx1.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.32]) by util0.math.uh.edu with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1PTPoz-0008FU-Dm for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:13:25 -0600 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.231.51]) by mx1.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1PTPoy-0003gK-6I for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:13:25 -0600 Original-Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1PTPow-0006YJ-2Y for ding@gnus.org; Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:13:22 +0100 Original-Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PTPov-0004CN-HX for ding@gnus.org; Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:13:21 +0100 Original-Received: from 123.121.248.138 ([123.121.248.138]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:13:21 +0100 Original-Received: from eric by 123.121.248.138 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:13:21 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 54 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 123.121.248.138 User-Agent: Gnus/5.110011 (No Gnus v0.11) Emacs/23.2 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:pFeP2BCe9l5lPMQXz/L7uHiDURg= X-Spam-Score: -0.7 (/) List-ID: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:75184 Archived-At: On Fri, Dec 17 2010, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen wrote: > Eric Abrahamsen writes: > >> In my case I was snarfing mboxes from an Apple Mail installation. I was >> following the instructions under 6.4.8 "Incorporating Old Mail", >> creating a nndoc group and then respooling. If nothing went wrong it was >> okay, but the minute it choked, everything went to hell and it was >> nearly impossible to get back on track. > > Right. That's probably not been tested a lot. Do you remember what > went wrong? Just plain old parsing errors, I think. The error messages weren't that helpful, it just told me a message couldn't be read, and that threw the whole enchilada out the window. > >> I didn't understand the precariousness of the .newsrc.eld file back >> then, and kept trying to change the nnml article numbers, and nothing >> worked, and I felt like gnus hated me. > > This is one of the reasons the .newsrc.eld file looks like it does -- so > that nobody would be tempted to edit it. I mean, nobody tries to edit, > say, Thunderbird data files by hand... perhaps Gnus should start > base64-ing the file before saving it. :-) I think import commands with error recovery would keep people from being tempted to mess directly with that file (no obfuscation please!). But the fact is, once something gets out of sync between what's in your .newsrc.eld/active files, and what's actually in your directories, you're pretty screwed. > >> Even now, I have a heck of a time importing emails. While I was screwing >> up moving my gnus installation into a different directory I got a >> spurious Mail/misc directory with a single email in it, and there is >> apparently no command to take that email and put it into my gnus system. > > nndir/nneething + `B c' should do the trick? I tried "directory", "maildir" and "file" in my mail sources, and neither were able to parse the (gnus-produced) mail file, both left a mail import crash log in my home directory. I don't know any other way of getting mail into gnus. Anyway, I guess the point isn't solving my particular problem here, but just to say that this whole area is far from obvious, and I think a prime candidate for newbie-oriented smoothing. Why not have a 'gnus-snarf-mail' command that can be pointed at an mbox, a single-mail file or a directory, and then be reasonably expected to spool those mails into its servers? Why not, indeed, except that someone would have to write it. :) E