nnimap - Multiple issues

[Martin Millnert]

Hi group,

I'm a relatively new user to Emacs and Gnus.  I'm trying to switch from
Evolution with multiple IMAP accounts. I was introduced to Gnuns by a
friend who's using it for news + mail. My primary interest is mail. I
was attracted by the splitting function and posting-styles, first and
foremost. Those make following mailing-lists and occasionally replying to
them a lot easier, since I normally subscribe to each list on a unique
forwarding email address.

While this conversion is a little bit overwhelming and almost certainly
impossible to do without downtime so to speak, if I were to cease using
Evolution abruptly and do a "hard switch", I do think I can make the
switch gradually. I have a list of things left to figure out to make the
switch fully possible.



1) When I use C for catchup on a group (IMAP folder) in the group view,
it is then marked as having 0 new posts immediately. When I restart Gnus
however, the previous count since before the catchup call is shown.  The
catchup call works, I have checked. All the messages in said group *are*
marked as SEEN in the IMAP folder (checked with Evolution numerous
times). I've found that I have to enter said group and pull up the
summary list, or, do a M-g in the group view for the stats to update for
what then becomes the third boot.  If I however restart Emacs completely
after the catchup, Gnus will then catch the change in the folder
directly, without an explicit call to update it.

Since the UI right after the catchup first presents 0 new messages, the
IMAP store is updated, whatever local (in-memory?) group state Gnus
keeps ought also to be updated so that I don't have to manually update a
group after I've done a catchup, for Gnus to understand what's
happened. At least that would seem logical to me.


2) I have a bunch of nmap-split-fancy rules for INBOX and they work fine
(finally). I've had the same Gnus session open for an extended period of
time and I have not yet grasped how updating works. It would seem that
mail arrive in the INBOX (of course, this is outside of Gnus control),
Gnus poll... something, which includes INBOX at least. This polling is
done on its own initiative in some interval, but it doesn't do splitting
(if I remember correctly). I have found that I can manually invoke that
function using B r when I'm viewing the summary list.  Once they are
split/spooled away however, they still remain in the summary list even
though they are not in fact there -- apparently a loss of information
somewhere.

A desired behaviour, I suppose, would be nothing more complicated than a
interval based "refresh" of INBOX, since that's where mail shows up
first, a splitting of whatever new mail arrives there and then whatever
necessary updates of the modified IMAP folders (eg, the destinations of
the splitting) necessary.



That'll be all for now. :) 

I have yet more unsolved issues in my "Things-to-fix-for-a-conversion",
but I thought I would return to them at a later time unless I manage to
solve them, to keep this post more concentrated to nnimap.

In the end I will try to share my experiences of the switch so that
other people can make use of it.


Cheers,
-- 
Martin Millnert <martin@millnert.se>
http://blog.martin.millnert.se