Questions about gnus

Questions about gnus

[Xiaowei Yang]

Hi there,

I am looking for a thread-based mailer read and want to know whether
GNUS is the right choice for me. I am an mh-e user. Thus, I would like
to run the mailer in emacs, as well as using mh-e's command line
interfaces such as "pick", "scan". I also want to use BBDB. Can
someone on this list give me a clue whether GNUS is the right one?
Thanks.

	Cheers,
	--Xiaowei

Re: Questions about gnus

[Kai Großjohann]

Xiaowei Yang <yxw@mit.edu> writes:

> I am looking for a thread-based mailer read and want to know whether
> GNUS is the right choice for me. I am an mh-e user. Thus, I would like
> to run the mailer in emacs, as well as using mh-e's command line
> interfaces such as "pick", "scan". I also want to use BBDB. Can
> someone on this list give me a clue whether GNUS is the right one?

Gnus normally doesn't like it if you use other tools behind its
back.  If you use the nnmh backend (slow!), you have the highest
chance of it working.  I think in that case, you only need to be
aware of the following:

* If you manipulate messages behind Gnus' back, the Gnus-internal
  marks will not travel with the messages.

* If you EVER reuse message numbers (eg, by deleting the last msg in
  a folder and then putting a new message into the folder which then
  gets the same number as the previously-deleted message), then Gnus
  will get REALLY REALLY confused.  If the previous message was read,
  then Gnus will think the new message is read, and so on.

  DON'T DO THAT.

With these caveats, it might work.

kai
-- 
A large number of young women don't trust men with beards.  (BFBS Radio)

Re: Questions about gnus

[Yair Friedman (Jerusalem)]

On Tue, 27 Aug 2002 13:38:39 +0200, 
Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> Gnus normally doesn't like it if you use other tools behind its
> back.  If you use the nnmh backend (slow!), you have the highest
> chance of it working.

It was working when I tried it (several years ago). nnmh was designed
for that sort of thing.

>  I think in that case, you only need to be
> aware of the following:
>
> * If you manipulate messages behind Gnus' back, the Gnus-internal
>   marks will not travel with the messages.

The marks functionality in nnmh is more limited because of that reason.

> * If you EVER reuse message numbers (eg, by deleting the last msg in
>   a folder and then putting a new message into the folder which then
>   gets the same number as the previously-deleted message), then Gnus
>   will get REALLY REALLY confused.  If the previous message was read,
>   then Gnus will think the new message is read, and so on.
>
>   DON'T DO THAT.

Setting nnmail-keep-last-article to t will take care of it from gnus' side. 

You might want to set nnmh-be-safe

Re: Questions about gnus

[Kai Großjohann]

"Yair Friedman (Jerusalem)" <YAIRFR@amdocs.com> writes:

> Setting nnmail-keep-last-article to t will take care of it from gnus' side. 

But the command line MH programs might delete the last article, too.
Beware.

kai
-- 
A large number of young women don't trust men with beards.  (BFBS Radio)

Re: Questions about gnus

[Paul Jarc]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) wrote:
> Gnus normally doesn't like it if you use other tools behind its
> back.  If you use the nnmh backend (slow!), you have the highest
> chance of it working.

nnmaildir is also intended to work this way.

> * If you manipulate messages behind Gnus' back, the Gnus-internal
>   marks will not travel with the messages.

This isn't a problem with nnmaildir unless you move a message from one
group to another.  But nnmaildir makes it easy for you to copy the
marks along with the message.

> * If you EVER reuse message numbers

This isn't a problem with nnmaildir, since filenames are different
from article numbers.


paul