Re: gnus INBOX housekeeping, kept (copies of) mail lying around

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Gijs Hillenius <gijs@hillenius.net> writes:

> On  5 Jan 2016, Gijs Hillenius wrote:
>
>> On  5 Jan 2016, Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
>>
>>> Gijs Hillenius <gijs@hillenius.net> writes:
>>>
>>>> On  5 Jan 2016, Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Gijs Hillenius <gijs@hillenius.net> writes:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On  5 Jan 2016, Gijs Hillenius wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Doing some Gnus imap folders housekeeping this morning, I found
>>>>>>> that 8000 messages (called 131940.  131941. etcetera) /hiding/ in
>>>>>>> the imap's INBOX. It looks like these are all emails that I've
>>>>>>> 'deleted' in Gnus, so they don't show. But for some reason
>>>>>>> they're not actually deleted.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is this a setting I messed up? I recall there used to be such a
>>>>>>> feature, but I don't remember what that was called. I've been
>>>>>>> searching the manual for this, so far without the result I hoped
>>>>>>> to find.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I would appreciate a few hints.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> encouraged by the two replies...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I just sent myself two emails (from a throw-away gmail account),
>>>>>> and notice that these messages end up on the system twice.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My nnimap-split-fancy places them in the correct nnimap mail
>>>>>> group, but a "copy" (or perhaps the original) stays in the INBOX,
>>>>>> hidden.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Does that ring a bell, with anyone?
>>>>>
>>>>> Is it a Gmail address?
>>>>>
>>>>> Not that that immediately solves the problem, but it would be
>>>>> useful information. Also, what's your Gnus version?
>>>>
>>>> The test email came from gmail. My server is for the vanity domain
>>>> I'm currently posting with
>>>>
>>>> Gnus v5.13, in GNU Emacs 24.5.1 (Debian)
>>>>
>>>> a snippet from my server settings:
>>>>
>>>>    (nnimap-inbox "INBOX")
>>>>    (nnimap-split-methods nnmail-split-fancy)
>>>>    (nnimap-unsplittable-articles
>>>>     '(%Deleted))
>>>>
>>>> I wonder about that ^^^ last line, I don't actually recognise it.
>>>
>>> This will be the problem. The normal value of that var is (%Deleted
>>> %Seen). Removing %Seen means that all messages in your Inbox will
>>> continue being split every time you check for new mail, even though
>>> you've already seen them, and they're already in the Inbox.
>>>
>>> Essentially that means that all messages are copied from the Inbox
>>> back into the Inbox each time you check mail.
>>>
>>> I pushed a change to nnimap.el some time ago that prevents the
>>> splitting process from splitting mail into the group it's already in,
>>> but you probably don't have that change in your version of Gnus.
>>>
>>> In the meantime you can fix the problem by setting
>>> `nnimap-unsplittable-articles' back to '(%Deleted %Seen). If you
>>> leave unread messages in your Inbox for a while, you'll still have a
>>> bit of the same problem. But the main issue will be fixed.
>>
>> I've added %Seen. Restarted Gnus. Should I expect new messages to now
>> be "removed" from INBOX ?
>>
>> I'm asking because a first test from the same throw away address is
>> again in the INBOX (but invisible to gnus) and in the fancy split
>> folder. Should these messages not be marked expunge or something?
>
>
> Perhaps this not throwing mail away is because of my cyrus conf, and has
> nothing to do with Gnus. I'll start looking in this direction.

I'm guessing, a bit, what the actual problem is. But please do let us
know how things progress!