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Re: Emacs mailreader that doesn't move the spool
From: |
Gregory Benjamin |
Subject: |
Re: Emacs mailreader that doesn't move the spool |
Date: |
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:17:34 -0700 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) |
Hi Hikaru,
On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 07:05:56PM +0000, Hikaru Ichijyo wrote:
> Every now and then, I consider migrating my mail and news reading to the
> wonderful wild world of Emacs, but every time I do, the main thing that
> always makes me decide to forget about it is that, as far as I can tell,
> there isn't a single Emacs mailreader that doesn't insist on copying
> your mailbox into your home directory and leaving it there.
>
> For mail, currently I use Alpine, but I like occasionally using Mutt,
> and sometimes even Kmail. All of these mailreaders have appropriate
> file locking mechanisms implemented to make it possible to operate on
> the system mailbox in place, in /var/spool/mail or wherever it happens
> to be. Having it this way makes it so that even if I use Alpine most of
> the time, I can switch if I like, and the mail is always where it's
> expected to be. Even my shell knows to give me the "You have new mail"
> notication by watching the system spool (where else should my mail be?).
>
> Most UNIX newsreaders also seem to have a similar philosophy of sharing,
> since they all more or less have agreed to keep read/subscribed article
> information in ~/.newsrc, even ones that have more efficient mechanisms
> that they use for themselves, so you don't have to stay in one
> newsreader. I mostly use Tin, but I also use Pan, and sometimes SLRN.
> None of them lock me in.
>
> I've gone over the documentation for RMAIL, VM, and Gnus, and they all
> seem to require moving your mailbox to the home directory, apparently
> because none of them can lock the mailbox for exclusive access. Emacs
> seems powerful enough that a kludge could probably be written that puts
> your mailbox back the way it was every time you close your mailreader,
> but that seems sort of ugly and unnecessary.
>
> I'm strongly leaning toward either VM or Gnus if I did migrate, but I
> really want to keep my mailbox where it is. Is there any way to do
> that?
I'm sorry I cannot offer any help at the moment, but wanted to say two
things.
First, I admire your English writing. Very, very clear and
well done.
Second, I too use mutt and would like to move to a mixed mutt/emacs
environment for mail processing until I'm fully comfortable with the
emacs solution. I've used rmail a bit, and tried to force myself to
like it, but mutt is still faster and more capable for me. I cannot
afford to 'break' email while playing around with rmail, gnus, vm, or
some other emacs email configuration.