From 79c638de09907f8733d1ffac84d8375ec7a37f42 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Jarc Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 23:09:43 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] * gnus.texi (Choosing a Mail Back End): mention nnmaildir. (Comparing Mail Backends): briefly describe nnmaildir. --- texi/ChangeLog | 5 ++++ texi/gnus.texi | 65 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--- 2 files changed, 67 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/texi/ChangeLog b/texi/ChangeLog index 385986fcb..dc69ed0ce 100644 --- a/texi/ChangeLog +++ b/texi/ChangeLog @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ +2002-01-17 Paul Jarc + + * gnus.texi (Choosing a Mail Back End): mention nnmaildir. + (Comparing Mail Backends): briefly describe nnmaildir. + 2002-01-17 ShengHuo ZHU * gnus.texi (Agent Commands): Use gnus-agent-batch instead of diff --git a/texi/gnus.texi b/texi/gnus.texi index 2c0eba8ed..739564e74 100644 --- a/texi/gnus.texi +++ b/texi/gnus.texi @@ -13570,10 +13570,13 @@ Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that depends on what format you want to store your mail in. -There are five different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more +There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use -(because it is the fastest and most flexible) is @code{nnml} -(@pxref{Mail Spool}). +(because it is possibly the fastest) is @code{nnml} (@pxref{Mail +Spool}). You might notice that only five back ends are listed below; +@code{nnmaildir}'s documentation has not yet been completely +incorporated into this manual. Until it is, you can find it at +@uref{http://multivac.cwru.edu./nnmaildir/}. @menu * Unix Mail Box:: Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox. @@ -14005,6 +14008,62 @@ messages, @code{nnfolder} is not the best choice, but if you receive only a moderate amount of mail, @code{nnfolder} is probably the most friendly mail back end all over. +@item nnmaildir + +@code{nnmaildir} is largely similar to @code{nnml}, with some notable +differences. Each message is stored in a separate file, but the +filename is unrelated to the article number in Gnus. @code{nnmaildir} +also stores the equivalent of @code{nnml}'s overview files in one file +per article, so it uses about twice as many inodes as @code{nnml}. (Use +@code{df -i} to see how plentiful your inode supply is.) If this slows +you down or takes up very much space, consider switching to ReiserFS +(@uref{http://www.namesys.com/}) or another non-block-structured +filesystem. + +Since maildirs don't require locking for delivery, the maildirs you use +as groups can also be the maildirs your mail is directly delivered to. +This means you can skip Gnus's mail splitting if your mail is already +organized into different mailboxes during delivery. A @code{directory} +entry in @code{mail-sources} would have a similar effect, but would +require one set of mailboxes for spooling deliveries (in mbox format, +thus damaging message bodies), and another set to be used as groups (in +whatever format you like). A maildir has a built-in spool, in the +@code{new/} subdirectory. Beware that currently, mail moved from +@code{new/} to @code{cur/} instead of via mail splitting will undergo +treatment such as duplicate checking. + +An article will not necessarily keep the same number across Gnus +sessions; articles are renumbered starting from 1 for each Gnus session +(more precisely, each time you open the @code{nnmaildir} server). This +way, you don't get gaps in your article number ranges, and when entering +large groups, Gnus is likely to give a more accurate article count. The +price is that @code{nnmaildir} doesn't work with the cache or agent. +This will probably be changed in the future. + +@code{nnmaildir} stores article marks for a given group in the +corresponding maildir, in a way designed so that it's easy to manipulate +them from outside Gnus. You can tar up a maildir, unpack it somewhere +else, and still have your marks. @code{nnml} also stores marks, but +it's not as easy to work with them from outside Gnus as with +@code{nnmaildir}. + +For configuring expiry and other things, @code{nnmaildir} uses group +parameters slightly different from those of other mail backends. + +@code{nnmaildir} uses a significant amount of memory to speed things up. +(It keeps in memory some of the things that @code{nnml} stores in files +and that @code{nnmh} repeatedly parses out of message files.) If this +is a problem for you, you can set the @code{nov-cache-size} group +parameter to somthing small (0 would probably not work, but 1 probably +would) to make it use less memory. + +Startup and shutdown are likely to be slower with @code{nnmaildir} than +with other backends. Everything in between is likely to be faster, +depending in part on your filesystem. + +@code{nnmaildir} does not use @code{nnoo}, so you cannot use @code{nnoo} +to write an @code{nnmaildir}-derived backend. + @end table -- 2.34.1