Re: Deleting mail with nnimap

[Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann)]

On 18 Oct 2000, Jake Colman wrote:
> 
> I don't want this to be done automatically, but how do I physically
> delete an email - if I choose - after having read it?  I would want
> the mail deleted from the IMAP Server never to be seen again.

The preferred way to delete mails is to mark them as expirable.  You
can do this with `E'.  Another way is to use auto-expire which means
that Gnus hits `E' for you when you read a message.  A third way is to
use total-expire which means that all messages marked as read are also
considered expirable.  (Note the subtle difference between auto-expire
and total-expire.)

Expiration works as follows: you mark a message as expirable.
Sometime later, expiry is run, which means that old expirable articles
are physically deleted.  You can run expiry explicitly, or you can
exit a group with `q' which by default also runs expiry for that
group.  The variable nnmail-expiry-wait determines which messages are
considered `old'.

Rather than marking messages as expirable you can also use a
sledgehammer and physically delete them right away, using `B DEL'.

The term `physically delete' means that a file is removed from the
disk for the normal mail backends, but for nnimap, another step of
indirection is involved: they are flagged as `\Deleted' on the IMAP
server, and an EXPUNGE operation deletes the files of the messages
flagged as `\Deleted'.  The variable nnimap-expunge-on-close
determines whether or not EXPUNGE is done when you exit a group using
`q'. 

kai
-- 
I like BOTH kinds of music.