Re: How do I mark messages for deletion?

[David S Goldberg <david.goldberg6@verizon.net>]

>>>>> On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 11:59:28 -0500, Jake Colman
>>>>> <colman@ppllc.com> said:

>>>>> "NK" == Norbert Koch <viteno@xemacs.org> writes:
NK> Jake Colman <colman@ppllc.com> writes:
>>> Will gnus delete mail without an 'E' expiry mark?  Or is t only the expiry
>>> process that does it?

NK> If you activate total-expire for a group, every read (and unticked)
NK> message is put through the expiry mechanism.

Dormant articles are also ignored by expiry when you use total expire.

>>> While on the topic, I have never been clear on the difference between
>>> auto-expire and total-expire.  Can you maybe explain?

NK> Hmm, I haven't looked at the code, so I can't provide more information
NK> as the manual "(gnus)Expiring Mail":

NK> ,----
NK> | In a nutshell, "auto-expire" means that Gnus hits `E' for
NK> | you when you select an article.  And "total-expire" means that Gnus
NK> | considers all articles as expirable that are read.  So, in addition to
NK> | the articles marked `E', also the articles marked `r', `R', `O', `K',
NK> | `Y' and so on are considered expirable.
NK> `----

> Hmmmm.  So you use total-expire and only tick those you really want
> to keep.  

Or mark them dormant if you don't want to see them every time you
enter the group.  I realize that's sort of an abuse of the dormant
mark, which is really to flag a thread of interest but only show it
when there's new messages in the thread, but what the heck, it works.

> I guess that makes sense.  And you can always manully
> press 'E' to (eventually) expire messages that are not in a
> totall-expire (or auto-expire) group.

One caveat.  total-expire is dangerous.  If you're not careful about
what you tick you could easily lose mail you consider important.
Also, there have been bugs in the past in which marks were lost.  I
haven't been bit by any in a long time, but there may be some still
around or new ones introduced.  I believe it is still the default to
add the expiry process in gnus-summary-exit-hook.  I recommend
removing that and periodically running expiry by hand in the group
buffer with gnus-group-expire-all-groups.  It also helps to have a
group line format that lists the number of ticked/dormant articles so
you can see if you've lost them.  That combo has saved me from going
to tape on numerous occasions.

-- 
Dave Goldberg
david.goldberg6@verizon.net