Re: gmail and gnus

Re: gmail and gnus

[Bill White]

On Sun Apr 29 2007 at 17:24, Hadron <hadronquark@gmail.com> wrote:

> Bill White <billw@mchsi.com> writes:

>> Unfortunately, gmail doesn't do IMAP:
>> https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10339 but
>> there are some workarounds I'll look into (google "gmail imap"
>> without the quotes).

> You are probably better off in gnu.emacs.gnus

Yes, thanks.

> Why use IMAP? You can access using pop3. Works for me. 

I'm sure no expert but unless I'm missing something, POP3 won't modify my
gmail repository to reflect changes I would make locally to my downloaded
email in gnus.

I read email from 2 computers on ordinary days, more when we travel or
when I'm in the office.  It's necessary for my sanity that my main
universally-accessible email repository be up-to-date wrt
read/archived/ticked marks, etc.

AIUI, this is what would happen with pop3:

- 200 messages arrive in my gmail account
- I download them to gnus on my linux box
- I happily read, delete, tick, archive, move, reply to various messages
  from my linux box
- later I access gmail from my windows box - all 200 messages are still
  marked unread or all are archived by the pop3 process I ran via gnus
- I snap.

Cheers -

bw
-- 
Bill White . http://members.wolfram.com/billw
"No ma'am, we're musicians."

Re: gmail and gnus

[Joel Reicher]

Bill White <billw@mchsi.com> writes:

> On Sun Apr 29 2007 at 17:24, Hadron <hadronquark@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Why use IMAP? You can access using pop3. Works for me. 
> 
> I'm sure no expert but unless I'm missing something, POP3 won't modify my
> gmail repository to reflect changes I would make locally to my downloaded
> email in gnus.

More or less correct. A better description might be that POP3 doesn't
even have a concept of the downloaded email, nor does it have a
concept of remote modification. POP3 really just supports
"authenticate", "give me my mail", and "delete what you have".

> I read email from 2 computers on ordinary days, more when we travel or
> when I'm in the office.  It's necessary for my sanity that my main
> universally-accessible email repository be up-to-date wrt
> read/archived/ticked marks, etc.

FYI what you're describing is just one mode of IMAP operation; what's
called "disconnected mode". IMAP also supports "online mode" whereby
there is no client copy at all, and no synchronisation to be done. In
online mode changes are made immediately to the server-side data.

> AIUI, this is what would happen with pop3:
> 
> - 200 messages arrive in my gmail account
> - I download them to gnus on my linux box
> - I happily read, delete, tick, archive, move, reply to various messages
>   from my linux box
> - later I access gmail from my windows box - all 200 messages are still
>   marked unread or all are archived by the pop3 process I ran via gnus
> - I snap.

It depends on whether your POP3 client issues a delete command after
the retrieve command.

Anyway, you're right to avoid POP3. It doesn't suit your needs at all.

Nevertheless if there's no particular need to use the gmail servers as
the repository, you could always POP your mail across to another
server that does support IMAP.

It depends why you're using gmail. For the delivery/address, or for
the storage?

You might be better off finding alternative storage. Note that an IMAP
server does not need to be a mail server.

Cheers,

        - Joel

Re: gmail and gnus

[Bill White]

On Sun Apr 29 2007 at 21:19, Joel Reicher <joel@panacea.null.org> wrote:

> Nevertheless if there's no particular need to use the gmail servers
> as the repository, you could always POP your mail across to another
> server that does support IMAP.
>
> It depends why you're using gmail. For the delivery/address, or for
> the storage?

For me it boils down to free storage and uniform access from
anywhere.  The "free" part is very important :-)

> You might be better off finding alternative storage. Note that an
> IMAP server does not need to be a mail server.

Hmm... this sounds interesting.  Can you recommend anyone?  Meanwhile,
I'll google.

Thanks for the ideas!

bw
-- 
Bill White . http://members.wolfram.com/billw
"No ma'am, we're musicians."

Re: gmail and gnus

[Joel Reicher]

Bill White <billw@mchsi.com> writes:

> On Sun Apr 29 2007 at 21:19, Joel Reicher <joel@panacea.null.org> wrote:
> 
> > You might be better off finding alternative storage. Note that an
> > IMAP server does not need to be a mail server.
> 
> Hmm... this sounds interesting.  Can you recommend anyone?

Sorry, no. My point about the machine not needing to be a mail server
was a hint that you could set up your own, which is what I would do if
I had access to backed up free storage (such as at a workplace). You
could configure the IMAP server to listen on an unprivileged port so
you wouldn't even need root.

Default deny firewalls notwithstanding, of course.

Cheers,

        - Joel

Re: gmail and gnus

[Gernot Hassenpflug]

Joel Reicher <joel@panacea.null.org> writes:

> Bill White <billw@mchsi.com> writes:
>
>> On Sun Apr 29 2007 at 21:19, Joel Reicher <joel@panacea.null.org> wrote:
>> 
>> > You might be better off finding alternative storage. Note that an
>> > IMAP server does not need to be a mail server.
>> 
>> Hmm... this sounds interesting.  Can you recommend anyone?

Oh, I just learnt something! Great hint.

> Sorry, no. My point about the machine not needing to be a mail server
> was a hint that you could set up your own, which is what I would do if
> I had access to backed up free storage (such as at a workplace). You
> could configure the IMAP server to listen on an unprivileged port so
> you wouldn't even need root.

Wonderful.

> Default deny firewalls notwithstanding, of course.

My institution has forms to apply for SSH logins so that one can
access one's machine from the outside via the institution's SSH
server/SOCKS proxy setup.

-- 
BOFH excuse #108:

The air conditioning water supply pipe ruptured over the machine room

Re: gmail and gnus

[Hadron]

Bill White <billw@mchsi.com> writes:

> On Sat Apr 28 2007 at 18:22, Bill White <minutiae@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> and now 11 years later I still do most everything in or through
>> emacs (except this dang gmail stuff).
>
> Here we go - gnus ahoy.  I use gmail:
>
> - for their relatively infinite storage space (100 accounts * 2.7GB
>   each),
>
> - so I can easily read & show our kids all the graphics-heavy forwards
>   my Mom sends :-) (I don't want to futz with w3, w3m, etc.)

I use w3m and external browser for built in URLs.

>
> - for access anywhere.
>
> Unfortunately, gmail doesn't do IMAP:
> https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10339 but there
> are some workarounds I'll look into (google "gmail imap" without the
> quotes).
>
> Cheers, and thanks to all for the kick in the pants to get back to
> gnus -

Why use IMAP? You can access using pop3. Works for me. You are probably
better off in gnu.emacs.gnus

>
> bw

Crosspost & Followup-To: gnu.emacs.gnus
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