Re: Detecting new mail in mbox format
On 2009-04-28, Chris Jones <cjns1989@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 01:22:19PM EDT, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2009-04-25, Chris Jones <cjns1989@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> [..]
>
>> > buffy-list .. list mailboxes with new mail
>
>> 1) That's not what I said I wanted to do. I don't want to
>> check "mailboxes" for new mail. I want to check the
>> current folder for new messages.
>
> Still not sure what you meant.
I want the index view of the current folder to be updated to
reflect any messages that have been recently added to or
removed from the current folder.
> What matters to me is that mutt should notify me of the
> delivery of new mail, and where it was delivered.
I don't care whether it's "new" or not. I just want the index
updated to reflect any changes in the current folder. After I
did a "sync" operation, I mistakenly expected the index view to
reflect the current state of the folder.
> In any case, I have a feeling that one reason I misunderstood
> you in the first place is that in my setup this has worked
> from day one without my having to do anything - i.e. I never
> had to "check" anything because I was automatically notified.
It seems like the wrong solution to set a high polling rate
(especially when using slow network connections) to make up for
the fact that "syncing" only flushes pending writes.
> I use the mbox format, I run fetchmail on demand to download
> internet mail when I feel like it and procmail takes care of
> dispatching my mail to their respective mailing lists folders
> or to my =Inbox.
>
> $mail_check is set to "5", which I assume to be the default
> and $timeout is set to "120" in my .muttrc.
Polling an IMAP server through a sometimes slow, encrypted
network connection every few seconds just seems like a bad
idea.
> In both cases, I verified that the "buffy-list" function was
> giving me the correct results.
I've no doubt that buffy-list correctly lists the folders
contain new mail. What it doesn't do is check for new mail.
> I was unable to access email for the last few days and I have probably
> missed some developments, but I did skim through this thread before
> posting this reply and apart from the fact that you use maildir's (?)
And IMAP.
> which shouldn't matter, the main difference appears to be that
> while _my_ mail as far as mutt is concerned is always local
> (becomes local after I run fetchmail), _yours_ on the other
> hand is stored on remote IMAP-managed servers.
>
> So I would suspect that directly or indirectly this has
> something to do with your mutt's behavior.
I'm pretty sure my mutt's behavior is the same as everybody
elses. The issue is that I'm impatient and don't want to wait
for a timer to timeout to cause the index screen to be updated.
Mutt only checks the current folder new messages on a periodic
basis and not when the folder is "synced" or when "buffy-list"
is run.
> My feeling about this is that since mutt's interface in this
> respect is functionally adequate in a local mail context,
> unobtrusively providing the user with all the notifications he
> needs both in "real time"
I guess I don't know what you mean by "real time".
> - and "after the fact" via the buffy-list function, it should
> work exactly the same when your mail happens to be on remote
> servers.
As far as I can tell, it does work the same.
> No reason why the interface should not be consistent.
>
> Maybe you should open a bug report about this issue with all
> the details of your setup & the exact scenarios..?
>
>> 2) I just tried it, and it does nothing. It's bound to '.'.
>> When I hit '.' absolutely nothing happens. No IMAP commands
>> are sent to server to check either the current folder or
>> the folders in the "mailboxes" list.
>
> Not sure how IMAP works since I don't use it.
>
> I thought that in this context, the MUA typically maintains a
> cache with the headers of the messages available on the
> server(s) and that the body of a particular message is only
> downloaded when the user decides to access the given
> message... ??
Yes.
> If this is the case, wouldn't you need to map some keyboard
> action to something like "refresh cache" followed by
> "buffy-list" for this to successfully inform you of the
> delivery of new mail?
Buffy-list doesn't check for new mail. It only notifies you of
mew mail that has already been detected based on a periodic
check.
--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! Uh-oh!! I'm having
at TOO MUCH FUN!!
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