new gnus setup with Dovecot

new gnus setup with Dovecot

[Benjamin Slade]

I am currently using mu4e for email, but I would like to try out Gnus
(while keeping my working mu4e setup in order to be able to actually do
email while trying out/setting up Gnus). mu4e uses offlineimap as a
backend with Maildir structure. So I was hoping to be able to maintain my
Maildir setup while trying out Gnus.

I setup dovecot by simply putting

mail_location = maildir:~/home/MYUSERNAME/Maildir:LAYOUT=fs

in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf and starting the dovecot server.

In .gnus.el I put:

(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnimap "localhost" (nnimap-stream
network))))

According to
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9977182/how-to-integrate-dovecot-version-2-with-gnus-emacs
I should then be able to browse servers with ```^```, but when I do
this, I find:

     {nnfolder:archive} (closed)
     {nndraft:} (opened)
     {nnimap:localhost} (denied)
     {nntp:news} (denied)

I assume I want {nnimap:localhost}, but that appear inaccessible.

I also found somewhat different instructions at
http://roland.entierement.nu/blog/2010/09/08/gnus-dovecot-offlineimap-search-a-howto.html
, but as that info is over 5 years old, I wasn't sure if it was still current.

Does anyone have any further tips on how to get Gnus up and running with
a local Dovecot server (with mailsync handled with offlineimap)? And
should this be able co-exist alongside mu4e?

thanks,
  --Ben
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Benjamin Slade
pgp fingerprint: 21BA 2AE1 28F6 DF36 110A 0E9C A320 BBE8 2B52 EE19
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{sent by mu4e on Emacs running under GNU/Linux}
(Choose Linux, Choose Freedom)

Re: new gnus setup with Dovecot

[Rasmus]

Benjamin Slade <slade@jnanam.net> writes:

> I am currently using mu4e for email, but I would like to try out Gnus
> (while keeping my working mu4e setup in order to be able to actually do
> email while trying out/setting up Gnus). mu4e uses offlineimap as a
> backend with Maildir structure. So I was hoping to be able to maintain my
> Maildir setup while trying out Gnus.
>
> I setup dovecot by simply putting
>
> mail_location = maildir:~/home/MYUSERNAME/Maildir:LAYOUT=fs
>
> in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf and starting the dovecot server.
>
> In .gnus.el I put:
>
> (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnimap "localhost" (nnimap-stream
> network))))

I think, I only use the following:

    (add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
                   '(nnimap "mail"
                            (nnimap-stream shell)
                            (nnimap-shell-program
                             "MAIL=maildir:$HOME/mail /usr/lib/dovecot/imap")))

Gnus should also be able to handle maildirs.

Rasmus

-- 
History is what should never happen again

Re: new gnus setup with Dovecot

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Benjamin Slade <slade@jnanam.net> writes:

> I am currently using mu4e for email, but I would like to try out Gnus
> (while keeping my working mu4e setup in order to be able to actually do
> email while trying out/setting up Gnus). mu4e uses offlineimap as a
> backend with Maildir structure. So I was hoping to be able to maintain my
> Maildir setup while trying out Gnus.
>
> I setup dovecot by simply putting
>
> mail_location = maildir:~/home/MYUSERNAME/Maildir:LAYOUT=fs
>
> in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf and starting the dovecot server.
>
> In .gnus.el I put:
>
> (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnimap "localhost" (nnimap-stream
> network))))
>
> According to
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9977182/how-to-integrate-dovecot-version-2-with-gnus-emacs
> I should then be able to browse servers with ```^```, but when I do
> this, I find:
>
>      {nnfolder:archive} (closed)
>      {nndraft:} (opened)
>      {nnimap:localhost} (denied)
>      {nntp:news} (denied)
>
> I assume I want {nnimap:localhost}, but that appear inaccessible.
>
> I also found somewhat different instructions at
> http://roland.entierement.nu/blog/2010/09/08/gnus-dovecot-offlineimap-search-a-howto.html
> , but as that info is over 5 years old, I wasn't sure if it was still current.
>
> Does anyone have any further tips on how to get Gnus up and running with
> a local Dovecot server (with mailsync handled with offlineimap)? And
> should this be able co-exist alongside mu4e?

I wrote this last year, and it's more focused on searching, but the
basic setup should be plenty viable for you. See if this helps!

https://ericabrahamsen.net/tech/2014/oct/gnus-dovecot-lucene.html

Re: new gnus setup with Dovecot

[Benjamin Slade]

> I wrote this last year, and it's more focused on searching, but the
> basic setup should be plenty viable for you. See if this helps!
>
> https://ericabrahamsen.net/tech/2014/oct/gnus-dovecot-lucene.html

Thanks for this. It looks very close to what I need to set up. Multiple
accounts etc. I was originally thinking to try to piggyback the Gnus
setup on the offlineimap setup I already have for mu4e (so that I could
continue to use both), but looking at the details of the setup, it seems
like it would be better to do a separate setup with mbsync and a
separate maildir for gnus.

Does this setup synchronise well across machines?  I have 3 different
machines that need to synchronise.  For the older offlineimap setup of
http://roland.entierement.nu/blog/2010/09/08/gnus-dovecot-offlineimap-search-a-howto.html
, I note that he customises offlineimap.py to synchronise some Gnus
flags (expire). Can something equivalent be done with mbsync, or this is
no longer necessary?

Is the Lucien search solution working out well for you? One thing I do
really like about mu4e is the speed and flexibility of search.

Re: new gnus setup with Dovecot

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Benjamin Slade <slade@jnanam.net> writes:

>> I wrote this last year, and it's more focused on searching, but the
>> basic setup should be plenty viable for you. See if this helps!
>>
>> https://ericabrahamsen.net/tech/2014/oct/gnus-dovecot-lucene.html
>
> Thanks for this. It looks very close to what I need to set up. Multiple
> accounts etc. I was originally thinking to try to piggyback the Gnus
> setup on the offlineimap setup I already have for mu4e (so that I could
> continue to use both), but looking at the details of the setup, it seems
> like it would be better to do a separate setup with mbsync and a
> separate maildir for gnus.

I don't know exactly what you're doing, but if the mails are all coming
down to a single dovecot installation, it really shouldn't matter how
you're feeding dovecot (offlineimap vs mbsync), or reading from it (gnus
vs mu4e). Dovecot does a nice job of funneling everything into the same
setup.

> Does this setup synchronise well across machines?  I have 3 different
> machines that need to synchronise.  For the older offlineimap setup of
> http://roland.entierement.nu/blog/2010/09/08/gnus-dovecot-offlineimap-search-a-howto.html
> , I note that he customises offlineimap.py to synchronise some Gnus
> flags (expire). Can something equivalent be done with mbsync, or this is
> no longer necessary?

I can't tell you about custom flags, that's something I've never tried
to do. Hopefully someone else might jump in with information that...

I keep mail sync'ed between two different machines, and it works great.
It worked okay when I was using Gmail as a backend, and since I switched
my mail setup to self-hosted (also with Dovecot on the server), it works
even better. It's been perfect synchronization, so far, though as I say
I haven't tried custom flags.

> Is the Lucien search solution working out well for you? One thing I do
> really like about mu4e is the speed and flexibility of search.

Lucene search works great. What's awkward is the IMAP search syntax, and
particularly Gnus' interaction with it: the nnir search interface to
IMAP seems unnecessarily clunky. I have extremely iffy results when
doing date-based searches, but I don't know if I should blame
dovecot/lucene, or gnus/nnir.

So I guess yes on the speed, maybe not so much on the flexibility.

HTH,

Eric

Re: new gnus setup with Dovecot

[Julien Cubizolles]

Benjamin Slade <slade@jnanam.net> writes:


> I also found somewhat different instructions at
> http://roland.entierement.nu/blog/2010/09/08/gnus-dovecot-offlineimap-search-a-howto.html
> , but as that info is over 5 years old, I wasn't sure if it was still current.

I successfully switched to a dovecot + Gnus + notmuch setup following
these indications. Let me know if you need some help configuring your
setup.

Julien.