Re: IMAP support

[Jens Thiele <karme@berlios.de>]

On 18 Sep 2007, rileyrgdev@googlemail.com wrote:

> I recently signed up to a free account at fastmail just to try out
> IMAP from Gnus. I have connected fine and can see email just fine. But
> whats the story with local buffering?  Is the whole idea of IMAP that
> this doesn't happen?

Yes and no ;-)

> Can Gnus do it? What should I do if I want a
> local copy in case the network is down?

I assume you use the nnimap backend.
You may have to adjust your agent settings. By default only the mail
headers are cached by the agent. I just tried it myself. (Beware: I do
not no the caveats yet ;-)) Bellow I try to describe one possible way to
do it. I followed the instructions of the gnus agent documentation.
Using Exal de Jesus Garcia Carrillo's referencing style ;-) :
(Info-goto-node "(gnus)Gnus Unplugged")

Step 1: Create a category for groups the agent should keep the complete
articles/mails.
In the Group buffer type:
"J c" to enter the *Agent Category*
"a" to create a new category (i called it "downloadall")
"e" to edit the category
Change the selection predicate to true
Optionally disable agent cache expiration.

Step 2: Add groups to this category
In the Group buffer type:
"J a" on the group to add to the category (in my case "downloadall")

Step 3: Tell the agent to store articles when selected in "plugged
mode", too.
M-x customize-variable gnus-select-article-hook
Simply set the cross on gnus-agent-fetch-selected-article

I think that's it.

Some other keys to keep in mind
(use "C-h k" followed by the keystrokes to get help - f.e. "C-h k C-h k")
and see
(Info-goto-node "(gnus)Agent commands")

Group buffer:
"J j" toggle plugged/unplugged
"J s" download (prepare for going unplugged - tell agent to download all
new mails/news)

Summary buffer:
"J M-#" remove agent download mark

It is probably a good idea to read the section about "Agent and IMAP".
Especially this part:
,---- (Info-goto-node "(gnus)Agent and IMAP"):
|    Some things are currently not implemented in the Agent that you'd
| might expect from a disconnected IMAP client, including:
| 
|    * Copying/moving articles into nnimap groups when unplugged.
| 
|    * Creating/deleting nnimap groups when unplugged.
`----

Greetings
Jens

PS: have fun with gnus ;-)