Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

[Tiarnán Ó Corráin]

Hello--

my problem is this: our IMAP server has severe quota limitations, and
all too frequently I get an automated rap across the knuckles from the
system admin.

Is it possible to set a mark in the IMAP inbox for some messages, so
that only those messages are saved in a local folder and deleted from
the server?

All the best

Tiarnan

Re: Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

[Simon Josefsson]

tiarnan.ocorrain@logicacmg.com (Tiarnán Ó Corráin) writes:

> Hello--
>
> my problem is this: our IMAP server has severe quota limitations, and
> all too frequently I get an automated rap across the knuckles from the
> system admin.
>
> Is it possible to set a mark in the IMAP inbox for some messages, so
> that only those messages are saved in a local folder and deleted from
> the server?

You can cache them locally forever using * and mark them as expired
with E and set up expiring so it is expired on the server after a
while.  But maybe the expiring code excludes cached articles from
being expired, but if it does report back and it can probably be made
into user customizable behaviour.

Re: Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

[Kai Großjohann]

tiarnan.ocorrain@logicacmg.com (Tiarnán Ó Corráin) writes:

> Is it possible to set a mark in the IMAP inbox for some messages, so
> that only those messages are saved in a local folder and deleted from
> the server?

You could just hit `B m' on them to move them to another group, say
an nnml group.

Also see the variable gnus-move-split-methods, you could use that to
avoid having to enter the group name.
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

[Niklas Morberg]

tiarnan.ocorrain@logicacmg.com (Tiarnán Ó Corráin) writes:

> Hello--
>
> my problem is this: our IMAP server has severe quota
> limitations, and all too frequently I get an automated
> rap across the knuckles from the system admin.
>
> Is it possible to set a mark in the IMAP inbox for some
> messages, so that only those messages are saved in a local
> folder and deleted from the server?

I have exactly the same situation. I use the agent as a
cache to solve this. I have this in my .gnus:

(setq gnus-agent t)
(setq gnus-agent-consider-all-articles t)
(setq gnus-agent-expire-days 36500)
(add-hook 'gnus-select-article-hook 'gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article)

I then mark messages I don't want to keep on the server as
expirable and they will get deleted from the server. They
will still be available locally (given that the article at
some point has been fetched by the agent).

When I first tried this a couple of weeks ago, I missed
setting the gnus-agent-expire days to a large number and my
local articles got deleted as well.

Niklas

Re: Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

[Simon Josefsson]

Niklas Morberg <niklas.morberg@axis.com> writes:

> (setq gnus-agent-expire-days 36500)
...
> When I first tried this a couple of weeks ago, I missed
> setting the gnus-agent-expire days to a large number and my
> local articles got deleted as well.

Is the default for g-a-e-d (7) a good one?  It goes against the
principle that Gnus never expire or delete any articles unless you
configure it to do so.

I think articles in the agent should not be expired by default.  Disk
is cheap compared to accidently losing mail.  Patch below is untested.

--- gnus-agent.el.~6.136.~	Thu Jan 30 05:42:20 2003
+++ gnus-agent.el	Mon Feb  3 10:45:54 2003
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ;;; gnus-agent.el --- unplugged support for Gnus
-;; Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
+;; Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
 ;;        Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 
 ;; Author: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>
@@ -59,12 +59,14 @@
   :group 'gnus-agent
   :type 'integer)
 
-(defcustom gnus-agent-expire-days 7
+(defcustom gnus-agent-expire-days nil
   "Read articles older than this will be expired.
-This can also be a list of regexp/day pairs.  The regexps will
-be matched against group names."
+This can also be a list of regexp/day pairs.  The regexps will be
+matched against group names.  If nil, articles in the agent cache are
+never expired."
   :group 'gnus-agent
-  :type 'integer)
+  :type '(choice (number :tag "days")
+		 (const :tag "never" nil)))
 
 (defcustom gnus-agent-expire-all nil
   "If non-nil, also expire unread, ticked and dormant articles.
@@ -2124,8 +2126,11 @@
 FORCE is equivalent to setting gnus-agent-expire-days to zero(0)."
   (interactive)
 
-  (if (or (not (eq articles t))
-          (yes-or-no-p (concat "Are you sure that you want to expire all articles in " (if group group "every agentized group") ".")))
+  (if (and (not gnus-agent-expire-days)
+	   (or (not (eq articles t))
+	       (yes-or-no-p (concat "Are you sure that you want to expire all "
+				    "articles in " (if group group
+						     "every agentized group") "."))))
       (let ((methods (if group
                          (list (gnus-find-method-for-group group))
                        gnus-agent-covered-methods))

Re: Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

[Niklas Morberg]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

> Is the default for g-a-e-d (7) a good one? 

I don't think so, no.

> I think articles in the agent should not be expired by
> default. Disk is cheap compared to accidently losing mail.

Excellent. Good work, Simon. :)

Niklas

Re: Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

[Simon Josefsson]

Niklas Morberg <niklas.morberg@axis.com> writes:

> Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
>
>> Is the default for g-a-e-d (7) a good one? 
>
> I don't think so, no.

I committed the patch.  While at it, I started cleaning up
gnus-agent-expire too.  Is there a reason that function is wrapped in
a unwind-protect (now in g-a-e-1)?  I think it is better to handle
whatever errors crop up during its execution instead, and if it still
breaks users will be informed and can send a bug report.

Re: Saving some read IMAP messages to a local folder

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:

> I committed the patch.  While at it, I started cleaning up
> gnus-agent-expire too.  Is there a reason that function is wrapped in
> a unwind-protect (now in g-a-e-1)?  I think it is better to handle
> whatever errors crop up during its execution instead, and if it still
> breaks users will be informed and can send a bug report.

Well, an `unwind-protect' doesn't mean that errors won't be
propagated; it just guarantees that the cleanup forms will be
executed even if the code fails.  And then the error will be
signaled. 

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen