Re: Recognize mbox files?

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Stefan Monnier writes:
 > Alfred Szmidt writes:

 > > What is wrong with using real local variables?

Nothing.  The main issue is that you may not want to use the
-*- stuff -*- hack since you do not want to touch the From_ line.

Doesn't Emacs recognize local variables in the last page?  Why not
simply have a last "message" from Rmail that simply says

    This mailbox is an explicit Rmail mbox.  That means that Emacs
    will recognize it and automatically start Rmail mode, and you can
    set local variables here.  Keep the local variables at the end of
    this message.

    Local Variables:
    mode: rmail
    coding: binary
    End:

Rmail could suppress display of that message ordinarily.

 > That's my idea as well: try to use the -*-rmail-*- tag.
 > It might even be possible to place it on the first ("From ") line.

Nope, that loses immediately because it breaks the mbox format (FSVO
"mbox format" of course, but it certainly will be different from what
the system MDA generates).  Why bother changing from BABYL if you're
just going to break the format in a different way?  Doesn't emacs
recognize -*- stuff -*- in the second line?  In fact, why not simply
have a real local variables section as above?

 > Another issue is to make sure those files get opened into a unibyte
 > buffer (i.e. use a `binary' coding-system).  So maybe the tag should
 > really be -*-mode:rmail;coding:binary-*-.

A good reason to have a verbose Local Variables section.