Re: gnus INBOX housekeeping, kept (copies of) mail lying around

[Gijs Hillenius <gijs@hillenius.net>]

On  5 Jan 2016, Gijs Hillenius wrote:

> On  5 Jan 2016, Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
>
>> Gijs Hillenius <gijs@hillenius.net> writes:
>>
>>> On  5 Jan 2016, Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
>>>
>>>> Gijs Hillenius <gijs@hillenius.net> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> On  5 Jan 2016, Gijs Hillenius wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Doing some Gnus imap folders housekeeping this morning, I found
>>>>>> that 8000 messages (called 131940.  131941. etcetera) /hiding/ in
>>>>>> the imap's INBOX. It looks like these are all emails that I've
>>>>>> 'deleted' in Gnus, so they don't show. But for some reason
>>>>>> they're not actually deleted.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Is this a setting I messed up? I recall there used to be such a
>>>>>> feature, but I don't remember what that was called. I've been
>>>>>> searching the manual for this, so far without the result I hoped
>>>>>> to find.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I would appreciate a few hints.
>>>>>
>>>>> encouraged by the two replies...
>>>>>
>>>>> I just sent myself two emails (from a throw-away gmail account),
>>>>> and notice that these messages end up on the system twice.
>>>>>
>>>>> My nnimap-split-fancy places them in the correct nnimap mail
>>>>> group, but a "copy" (or perhaps the original) stays in the INBOX,
>>>>> hidden.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does that ring a bell, with anyone?
>>>>
>>>> Is it a Gmail address?
>>>>
>>>> Not that that immediately solves the problem, but it would be
>>>> useful information. Also, what's your Gnus version?
>>>
>>> The test email came from gmail. My server is for the vanity domain
>>> I'm currently posting with
>>>
>>> Gnus v5.13, in GNU Emacs 24.5.1 (Debian)
>>>
>>> a snippet from my server settings:
>>>
>>> 	(nnimap-inbox "INBOX")
>>> 	(nnimap-split-methods nnmail-split-fancy)
>>> 	(nnimap-unsplittable-articles
>>> 	 '(%Deleted))
>>>
>>> I wonder about that ^^^ last line, I don't actually recognise it.
>>
>> This will be the problem. The normal value of that var is (%Deleted
>> %Seen). Removing %Seen means that all messages in your Inbox will
>> continue being split every time you check for new mail, even though
>> you've already seen them, and they're already in the Inbox.
>>
>> Essentially that means that all messages are copied from the Inbox
>> back into the Inbox each time you check mail.
>>
>> I pushed a change to nnimap.el some time ago that prevents the
>> splitting process from splitting mail into the group it's already in,
>> but you probably don't have that change in your version of Gnus.
>>
>> In the meantime you can fix the problem by setting
>> `nnimap-unsplittable-articles' back to '(%Deleted %Seen). If you
>> leave unread messages in your Inbox for a while, you'll still have a
>> bit of the same problem. But the main issue will be fixed.
>
> I've added %Seen. Restarted Gnus. Should I expect new messages to now
> be "removed" from INBOX ?
>
> I'm asking because a first test from the same throw away address is
> again in the INBOX (but invisible to gnus) and in the fancy split
> folder. Should these messages not be marked expunge or something?


Perhaps this not throwing mail away is because of my cyrus conf, and has
nothing to do with Gnus. I'll start looking in this direction.