Re: read mail in mbox files

[Leonidas Tsampros]

Richard Riley <rileyrg@googlemail.com> writes:

> Gary <gnus@garydjones.name> writes:
>
>> Funny. I didn't see the OP. Anyway...
>>
>> Richard Riley wrote:
>>> ernest <nfdisco@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>> This is my setup: I use fetchmail to get mail from
>>>> different POP/IMAP servers, then split the incoming
>>>> mail with procmail into different mbox files in ~/Mail.
>>>> What I'd like is gnus to work directly on these mbox
>>>> files. Is this possible? What backend do I need?
>>>> I'd say I don't even want a backend, because I don't
>>>> want to copy mail anywhere!
>>
>>> You're not alone! This is *probably* the nnml backend.
>>>
>>>    (setq gnus-select-method '(nnml "nnml"))
>>>
>>> That said I dont know for sure ;)
>>
>> I asked something similar before, but never really got anything that
>> worked so asked on the other gnus list (basically, the dev
>> list). Leonidas Tsampros said the following:
>>
>> ,----[ Leonidas Tsampros ]
>> | My primary select methos is a local university nntp server we have and
>> | as the secondary methods I have the following:
>> |
>> | (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods '((nnml "")
>> |                                       (nnimap "10.6.0.20")))
>> |
>> | Then I have these in my .conf:
>> |
>> | (setq nnml-directory "~/Mail.Gnus")
>> | (setq mail-source-delete-incoming t)
>> |
>> | (setq mail-sources '((directory :path "~/Mail"
>> |                                 :suffix "")))
>> |
>> | So, Emacs now reads all Mail on all mboxes under ~/Mail, and 'ingests'
>> | them into the nnml backend which is under "~/Mail.Gnus".  Now at this
>> | point and in order to emulate procmail's behaviour, I use fancy
>> | splitting:
>> |
>> | ;; fancy mail splitting
>> | (setq nnmail-resplit-incoming t)
>> | (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy)
>> | (setq nnmail-split-fancy
>> |       '(|
>> |        ("list-id" "ding\\.gnus\\.org" "mail.gnus.ding")))
>> `----
>>
>> But, rather embarassingly, I haven't had time to try it out yet.
>>
>>> But a point : despite using Gnus for a few years now I am not clear
>>> on what "incoming mail" means in the context.  Possibly it looks in
>>> /var/spool/mail. But since your mail is already there, I dunno.
>>
>> Does the above help, Richard?
>
> Yes & No ;(
>
> It doesnt use spam-split.
>
> But it DOES explain the "incoming" and "nnml" backend better!
>
> Had it mentioned how and why ~/Mail got its mail (system mail) all the
> better. But a good set up.
>

Previously I was using a combination of fetchmail feeding my postfix
and postfix was feeding procmail which was doing splitting to different
mbox files under ~/Mail. Then, and as shown above, I have set
mail-sources to point there (~/Mail). Then Gnus takes all the messages
from there and 'ingests' them into the nnml backend I use.

I read your other questions on this thread, but I cannot answer what
happens in case you have different mail backends concurrently. Since one
can have multiple mail backends through secondary select methods and
also multiple mail-sources (you can see the relevant manual section),
this is an important question. I'm confused now!

Also, please note that the mail backends in Gnus represent how mails and
other metadata about them (marks/headers etc) are stored in the disk for
Gnus consumption. I consider them like different types of warehouse
organisation. You can compare this behavior with other MUAs too, like
Outlook that uses the well known pst files or Kmail (at least some 3.x.x
version I was using for some time) was maintaining some extra files for
metadata per ~/Mail/mbox file.

So in this sense, the MUA is not restricted to only use the plain old
mbox or Maildir format. They are just two popular to store collections
of electronic mail messages (citing wikipedia's article on mbox).

If someone other has more information or sees any error in the above
explanation, feel free to correct me please, as the above are mostly
*MY* POV on how mail works.

>>
>> Potentially I suppose one could do away with procmail, and set
>> mail-sources to /var/spool/mail, and it will end up split into
>
> Thats my current set up.
>
>> ~/Mail.Gnus. @ernest I'd be very happy if you posted the results of
>> whatever you do, as I have a similar current setup to you, and the same
>> desire to read my email in mbox files using gnus.
>
> I'm interested why mbox? You mean existing mbox?
>
>
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