IMAP support

IMAP support

[Richard G Riley]

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

Re: IMAP support

[Jens Thiele]

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 ;-)