Gnus header re-scan

Gnus header re-scan

[Ross A. Laird]

This is probably in the gnus docs, but I usually find it difficult to
find what I need there, so I thought I'd ask here:

Often I need to go into an archive directory to find old email or
addresses. In mutt, once the headers are downloaded, subsequent rescans
of the archive are very fast (the archive has about 15,000 messages in
it). But gnus seems to want to re-download all the headers again (with
C-u space, for example), and this can take as long as 10 or 20 minutes.
Can I get gnus to work like mutt in this regard, by looking at the local
copies instead?

Also, gnus does seem to have trouble with my imap server. It sometimes
says there are no new emails, when in fact there are. But that's another
issue.

Thanks.

Ross

-- 
Ross A. Laird, PhD
www.rosslaird.info

Re: Gnus header re-scan

[Tassilo Horn]

ross@rosslaird.info (Ross A. Laird) writes:

Hi Ross,

> Often I need to go into an archive directory to find old email or
> addresses. In mutt, once the headers are downloaded, subsequent
> rescans of the archive are very fast (the archive has about 15,000
> messages in it). But gnus seems to want to re-download all the headers
> again (with C-u space, for example), and this can take as long as 10
> or 20 minutes.  Can I get gnus to work like mutt in this regard, by
> looking at the local copies instead?

Is the IMAP server agentized?  To check that, hit `^' in *Group* to
enter the server buffer.  If there's no "(agent)" string behind the IMAP
server hit `J a' on this line.  The next time you download articles they
should be cached on the file system.

Another solution that might be even faster for large amounts of mail may
be a local imap proxy (i.e. OfflineIMAP [1]).

Bye,
Tassilo
__________
[1] http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Re: Gnus header re-scan

[Ross A. Laird]

Thanks for the response;

> Is the IMAP server agentized?

Yes.
But still, large mail directories take 5 to 10 minutes at least.

> Another solution that might be even faster for large amounts of mail may
> be a local imap proxy (i.e. OfflineIMAP [1]).

Actually I have tried this method, but offlineimap has, on a couple of
occasions, done weird things to my mail directories (such as duplicating
about 4,000 emails on the server).

So, I suppose I'm stuck with waiting. I would use mairix as another
alternative, but I understand there's been issues between mairix and
gnus.

Thanks again.

Ross

-- 
Ross A. Laird, PhD
www.rosslaird.info

Re: Gnus header re-scan

[Tassilo Horn]

ross@rosslaird.info (Ross A. Laird) writes:

Hi Ross,

>> Another solution that might be even faster for large amounts of mail
>> may be a local imap proxy (i.e. OfflineIMAP [1]).
>
> Actually I have tried this method, but offlineimap has, on a couple of
> occasions, done weird things to my mail directories (such as
> duplicating about 4,000 emails on the server).

Hm, after I've written this I tried OfflineIMAP and I really like it.
Till now, it didn't do weird things. ;-)

Bye,
Tassilo
-- 
          "Emacs is not a development tool but a way of life."
                - David Kastrup in alt.religion.emacs -

Re: Gnus header re-scan

[Ross A. Laird]

Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org> writes:

> Hm, after I've written this I tried OfflineIMAP and I really like it.
> Till now, it didn't do weird things. ;-)
>

Well, in general I think it's an excellent program. Perhaps the issue
was with my server, the IMAP version, or various other things. And this
was a few months ago, so perhaps offlineimap itself has improved. But
I'm a bit skittish with it at the moment.

Ross

-- 
Ross A. Laird, PhD
www.rosslaird.info

Re: Gnus header re-scan

[David]

ross@rosslaird.info (Ross A. Laird) writes:
> I would use mairix as another alternative, but I understand there's
> been issues between mairix and gnus.

There shouldn't anymore if you use the nnmairix backend:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/emacs-en/GnusMairix

If you have problems with it, just drop me a mail and I'll try to fix
it. 

-David

Re: Gnus header re-scan

[Ross A. Laird]

Thanks for the tip, David.
I'll check it out.

Cheers.

Ross

David <de_bb@arcor.de> writes:

> ross@rosslaird.info (Ross A. Laird) writes:
>> I would use mairix as another alternative, but I understand there's
>> been issues between mairix and gnus.
>
> There shouldn't anymore if you use the nnmairix backend:
>
> http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/emacs-en/GnusMairix
>
> If you have problems with it, just drop me a mail and I'll try to fix
> it. 
>
> -David

-- 
Ross A. Laird, PhD
www.rosslaird.info