Multiple nnimap folders as mail sources

Multiple nnimap folders as mail sources

[Michael Sperber]

I'm trying to do something similar to the "directory" mail-source
specifier with IMAP, but I can't figure out how.  Here's what I'm
trying to do:

I get A LOT of email, and I frequently need to access the most
important stuff on the road, when I'm only connected via a modem, and
where I possibly can't connect for long.  So I pre-sort the email into
different IMAP boxes on the server, and just read the ones I don't
need that often online via nnimap.  So far so good.

Now, for the most important groups, I'd like to download those, but in
each instance only the ones I'm specifically interested in.  Ideally,
I'd like to have a separate IMAP box serve as a mail source for an
nnml group, so I can choose which groups to update selectively.  But
it seems `mail-sources' only gives me all or nothing for IMAP, unlike,
say "directory" which reads only the files for which I'm updating mail
groups.

Is there a way to tell it that, if I want to update group nnml:foo
(and *only* then) to consult IMAP folder foo as the mail source for
that?

Any help would be much appreciated!

(Please don't give me any answers involving the agent :-) )

-- 
Cheers =8-} Mike
Friede, Völkerverständigung und überhaupt blabla

Re: Multiple nnimap folders as mail sources

[Simon Josefsson]

Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:

> I'm trying to do something similar to the "directory" mail-source
> specifier with IMAP, but I can't figure out how.  Here's what I'm
> trying to do:
>
> I get A LOT of email, and I frequently need to access the most
> important stuff on the road, when I'm only connected via a modem, and
> where I possibly can't connect for long.  So I pre-sort the email into
> different IMAP boxes on the server, and just read the ones I don't
> need that often online via nnimap.  So far so good.
>
> Now, for the most important groups, I'd like to download those, but in
> each instance only the ones I'm specifically interested in.  Ideally,
> I'd like to have a separate IMAP box serve as a mail source for an
> nnml group, so I can choose which groups to update selectively.  But
> it seems `mail-sources' only gives me all or nothing for IMAP, unlike,
> say "directory" which reads only the files for which I'm updating mail
> groups.
>
> Is there a way to tell it that, if I want to update group nnml:foo
> (and *only* then) to consult IMAP folder foo as the mail source for
> that?
>
> Any help would be much appreciated!

Would a nnml mail split that inspect the X-Gnus-Mail-Source header,
and move all messages from the IMAP source to nnml:foo, work?

Re: Multiple nnimap folders as mail sources

[Michael Sperber]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

> Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:
>
>> Is there a way to tell it that, if I want to update group nnml:foo
>> (and *only* then) to consult IMAP folder foo as the mail source for
>> that?
>
> Would a nnml mail split that inspect the X-Gnus-Mail-Source header,
> and move all messages from the IMAP source to nnml:foo, work?

Would that only look at the headers as it's consulting the IMAP
server, or download all the articles as well?

-- 
Cheers =8-} Mike
Friede, Völkerverständigung und überhaupt blabla

Re: Multiple nnimap folders as mail sources

[Simon Josefsson]

Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:

> Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
>
>> Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:
>>
>>> Is there a way to tell it that, if I want to update group nnml:foo
>>> (and *only* then) to consult IMAP folder foo as the mail source for
>>> that?
>>
>> Would a nnml mail split that inspect the X-Gnus-Mail-Source header,
>> and move all messages from the IMAP source to nnml:foo, work?
>
> Would that only look at the headers as it's consulting the IMAP
> server, or download all the articles as well?

It would download all articles from one IMAP mailbox, then add that
header, which you could inspect to filter all e-mails into the
nnml:foo group.  Perhaps I misunderstood what you wanted.

Re: Multiple nnimap folders as mail sources

[Michael Sperber]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

> Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:
>
>> Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
>>
>>> Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:
>>>
>>>> Is there a way to tell it that, if I want to update group nnml:foo
>>>> (and *only* then) to consult IMAP folder foo as the mail source for
>>>> that?
>>>
>>> Would a nnml mail split that inspect the X-Gnus-Mail-Source header,
>>> and move all messages from the IMAP source to nnml:foo, work?
>>
>> Would that only look at the headers as it's consulting the IMAP
>> server, or download all the articles as well?
>
> It would download all articles from one IMAP mailbox, then add that
> header, which you could inspect to filter all e-mails into the
> nnml:foo group.  Perhaps I misunderstood what you wanted.

When I'm updating only certain groups, I only want the articles of
that group to be downloaded.  It seems what you're describing means
I'll always need to download all the articles.

-- 
Cheers =8-} Mike
Friede, Völkerverständigung und überhaupt blabla

Re: Multiple nnimap folders as mail sources

[Simon Josefsson]

Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:

> Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
>
>> Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:
>>
>>> Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> Michael Sperber <sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> Is there a way to tell it that, if I want to update group nnml:foo
>>>>> (and *only* then) to consult IMAP folder foo as the mail source for
>>>>> that?
>>>>
>>>> Would a nnml mail split that inspect the X-Gnus-Mail-Source header,
>>>> and move all messages from the IMAP source to nnml:foo, work?
>>>
>>> Would that only look at the headers as it's consulting the IMAP
>>> server, or download all the articles as well?
>>
>> It would download all articles from one IMAP mailbox, then add that
>> header, which you could inspect to filter all e-mails into the
>> nnml:foo group.  Perhaps I misunderstood what you wanted.
>
> When I'm updating only certain groups, I only want the articles of
> that group to be downloaded.  It seems what you're describing means
> I'll always need to download all the articles.

Aha, I think I understand now.

I don't think this is possible, although for a rather subtle reason.
When you press M-g to update group nnml:foo, it will run through all
mail-sources.  If there was a way to say "only query this particular
mail-source", it might work.  You could write a function to change the
mail source variable definition depending on which group you wanted to
update, but it sounds slightly messy.  Perhaps there are simpler
solutions, or maybe the "query this particular mail-source" operation
is possible but I don't know how to.

Assuming the above, you'd then set up a IMAP split rule to move
message from INBOX.foo into INBOX.foo-to-nnml, and then have a
mail-source that reads from INBOX.foo-to-nnml and a nnml split rule
that moves everything from the INBOX.foo-to-nnml IMAP mail-source into
nnml:foo.