How to search a recently read mail

How to search a recently read mail

[F. Durand]

Hello,

I've switched to gnus like 3 months ago and I still did not figure out 
how to quickly search for an old mail I've read some days ago.

I'm in the summary window most of the time and use M-g to refresh it.
At a moment I need to find a past mail from a keyword.
Something from
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Searching-for-
Articles.html
would be perfect, but it only searches into mails displayed in the summary 
view, i.e. not in already read mail.

I could use /o to first load some old mail, but how many ? If I take not
enough, I have to add them like 50 by 50. If I take too much, I have to 
wait some very long seconds to display lots of mail while the article I 
search may be in the 50 latest read mails.

I could use nnir but I'll have to break my flow by going to the group view,
then searching my entire mailbox for 30 very long seconds (ewith an indexed 
mailbox) eventhough I'm interested only in the latest one.

So do you guys know how to do that ? Or am i the only one searching into 
recently read mail ?

Thanks for your help!

Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Eric Abrahamsen]

On Wed, Jul 11 2012, F. Durand wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've switched to gnus like 3 months ago and I still did not figure out 
> how to quickly search for an old mail I've read some days ago.
>
> I'm in the summary window most of the time and use M-g to refresh it.
> At a moment I need to find a past mail from a keyword.
> Something from
> http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Searching-for-
> Articles.html
> would be perfect, but it only searches into mails displayed in the summary 
> view, i.e. not in already read mail.
>
> I could use /o to first load some old mail, but how many ? If I take not
> enough, I have to add them like 50 by 50. If I take too much, I have to 
> wait some very long seconds to display lots of mail while the article I 
> search may be in the 50 latest read mails.
>
> I could use nnir but I'll have to break my flow by going to the group view,
> then searching my entire mailbox for 30 very long seconds (ewith an indexed 
> mailbox) eventhough I'm interested only in the latest one.
>
> So do you guys know how to do that ? Or am i the only one searching into 
> recently read mail ?

You could consider using mairix for indexing and searching. A query like
"d:5d- bs:keyword" would create a group containing messages from the
past five days with "keyword" in the body or subject header.

Nnmairix allows you to create persistent groups with a certain query. So
I've got a "recent" group where the query is something like "d:4d-"
(plus some exclusion of uninteresting messages). It means I update the
mairix database a couple of times a day, but that goes very quickly.
Then it's "M-g" on the recent group, enter it, and there's everything.
Still trying to keep it from marking messages as read in that group, but
that's another story.

Eric

-- 
GNU Emacs 24.1.50.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.10)
 of 2012-07-08 on pellet
Ma Gnus v0.6

Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Julien Cubizolles]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> On Wed, Jul 11 2012, F. Durand wrote:

> You could consider using mairix for indexing and searching. A query like
> "d:5d- bs:keyword" would create a group containing messages from the
> past five days with "keyword" in the body or subject header.

How does it compare with namazu ? I couldn't find a comparison of their
features.

> Nnmairix allows you to create persistent groups with a certain query. So
> I've got a "recent" group where the query is something like "d:4d-"
> (plus some exclusion of uninteresting messages). 

Namazu can't do that, can it ?

Julien.


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Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Eric Abrahamsen]

On Fri, Jul 20 2012, Julien Cubizolles wrote:

> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>
>> On Wed, Jul 11 2012, F. Durand wrote:
>
>> You could consider using mairix for indexing and searching. A query like
>> "d:5d- bs:keyword" would create a group containing messages from the
>> past five days with "keyword" in the body or subject header.
>
> How does it compare with namazu ? I couldn't find a comparison of their
> features.

I used to use namazu, then switched to nnmairix. Unfortunately I
recently cleaned up my emacs/gnus init files, including a big block of
long-commented code (and expletive-littered notes to self) related to my
old namazu installation, so I can't really tell you why I switched. All
I can remember is that I was happier afterwards. I think it had
something to do with the fact that mairix is much more target to email,
and had more mail-specific features. Sorry…

One disadvantage of mairix is that it only seems to perform ascii
indexing, ie no Latin-1 or UTF-8 (is this right?). If you use other
languages often, it's something to take into consideration.

>> Nnmairix allows you to create persistent groups with a certain query. So
>> I've got a "recent" group where the query is something like "d:4d-"
>> (plus some exclusion of uninteresting messages). 
>
> Namazu can't do that, can it ?
>
> Julien.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> info-gnus-english mailing list
> info-gnus-english@gnu.org
> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnus-english

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 of 2012-07-14 on pellet
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Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Julien Cubizolles]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:



> All I can remember is that I was happier afterwards. I think it had
> something to do with the fact that mairix is much more target to
> email, and had more mail-specific features. Sorry…
...
> One disadvantage of mairix is that it only seems to perform ascii
> indexing, ie no Latin-1 or UTF-8 (is this right?). If you use other
> languages often, it's something to take into consideration.

You had mairix sold to me until this point... I'm french, so ascii is
not enough for me.

Julien.


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Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Eric Abrahamsen]

On Fri, Jul 20 2012, Julien Cubizolles wrote:

> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>
>
>
>> All I can remember is that I was happier afterwards. I think it had
>> something to do with the fact that mairix is much more target to
>> email, and had more mail-specific features. Sorry…
> ...
>> One disadvantage of mairix is that it only seems to perform ascii
>> indexing, ie no Latin-1 or UTF-8 (is this right?). If you use other
>> languages often, it's something to take into consideration.
>
> You had mairix sold to me until this point... I'm french, so ascii is
> not enough for me.

Don't take my word for it! But as far as I can tell… 

-- 
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 of 2012-07-14 on pellet
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Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Angel de Vicente]

Hi,

Julien Cubizolles <j.cubizolles@free.fr> writes:
>> You could consider using mairix for indexing and searching. A query like
>> "d:5d- bs:keyword" would create a group containing messages from the
>> past five days with "keyword" in the body or subject header.

I've been looking at the info files for both mairix and gnus (and "out
there" with Google), and I couldn't find a reference to the search
syntax used by mairix. Can somebody point me to a place that documents
it? 

Thanks,
-- 
Ángel de Vicente
http://angel-de-vicente.blogspot.com/


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Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Eric Abrahamsen]

On Tue, Jul 24 2012, Angel de Vicente wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Julien Cubizolles <j.cubizolles@free.fr> writes:
>>> You could consider using mairix for indexing and searching. A query like
>>> "d:5d- bs:keyword" would create a group containing messages from the
>>> past five days with "keyword" in the body or subject header.
>
> I've been looking at the info files for both mairix and gnus (and "out
> there" with Google), and I couldn't find a reference to the search
> syntax used by mairix. Can somebody point me to a place that documents
> it? 

The mairix man files are the only place I know of. Luckily you still
don't have to leave emacs: M-x man will get you there.

-- 
GNU Emacs 24.1.50.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.11)
 of 2012-07-23 on pellet
Ma Gnus v0.6

Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Angel de Vicente]

Hi Eric,

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
> The mairix man files are the only place I know of. Luckily you still
> don't have to leave emacs: M-x man will get you there.

thanks a lot. These days I assume that info has more up-to-date
information than man, so I forgot to look there.

The man page has very useful examples. Thanks a lot,
-- 
Ángel de Vicente
http://angel-de-vicente.blogspot.com/


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Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Tassilo Horn]

F. Durand <fdur559@gmail.com> writes:

> So do you guys know how to do that ? Or am i the only one searching
> into recently read mail ?

I do that frequently using nnir on IMAP accounts.  Most IMAP servers
index at least the subjects, to, and from headers of all messages, so
searches like

  C-u G G Gnus RET subject RET

will give me all messages containing Gnus in the subject in a fraction
of a second (ok, maybe it's a second).

And you can even use the IMAP search command language directly.  E.g.,
this would give me all messages about Gnus related messages I've sent to
or got from Hugo in the period between 17th August 2011 and 1st June
2012.

  C-u G G SUBJECT "Gnus"
          (OR FROM "hugo@some.domain"
              TO   "hugo@some.domain")
          SINCE  "17-Aug-2011"
          BEFORE "01-Jun-2012"
  RET imap RET

It seems, `M-x gnus-group-make-nnir-group' happens to work also in
summary buffers.  It's just not bound to a key by default.

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Rasmus]

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

>> So do you guys know how to do that ? Or am i the only one searching
>> into recently read mail ?

The mu4e client (which relies on email searcher mu) has a nicer feature
which brings up mail from the last seven days.  I don't know whether mu
is integrated with Gnus (or if it's preferable to use mu over some other
mail indexer). 

But it seemed quite quick.

nnir is also quick unless the whole body is search (the default).

A persistent group with recent mails is a nice idea btw.

–Rasmus

-- 
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Re: How to search a recently read mail

[Tassilo Horn]

Rasmus <rasmus@gmx.us> writes:

Hi Rasmus,

> nnir is also quick unless the whole body is search (the default).

That depends on the nnir backend and also server capabilities.  For
example, searching Gmane groups is very fast.

Searching IMAP groups is usually not fast if you do a full-text search,
because most IMAP mail providers only maintain search indexes for from,
to, and subject.  However, full-text searches on my Gmail IMAP account
are very fast, so I suspect they maintain some kind of full-text index.
And for Dovecot, there is also some full-text search plugin (FTS) you
can easily setup if you run a local dovecot.

nnir also supports several search engines for local mail, e.g., notmuch
or namazu, but I have no experiences with those.

Bye,
Tassilo