Re: gnus losing mail?

[Kai Grossjohann <kgrossjo@eu.uu.net>]

Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca> writes:

> What kind of advantages [of nnmaildir] are we talking about?

Here is the blurb from the info file:

    `nnmaildir' stores mail in the maildir format, with each maildir
    corresponding to a group in Gnus.  This format is documented here:
    `http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html' and here:
    `http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html'.  `nnmaildir' also stores
    extra information in the `.nnmaildir/' directory within a maildir.

       Maildir format was designed to allow concurrent deliveries and
    reading, without needing locks.  With other back ends, you would have
    your mail delivered to a spool of some kind, and then you would
    configure Gnus to split mail from that spool into your groups.  You can
    still do that with `nnmaildir', but the more common configuration is to
    have your mail delivered directly to the maildirs that appear as group
    in Gnus.

       `nnmaildir' is designed to be perfectly reliable: `C-g' will never
    corrupt its data in memory, and `SIGKILL' will never corrupt its data
    in the filesystem.

       `nnmaildir' stores article marks and NOV data in each maildir.  So
    you can copy a whole maildir from one Gnus setup to another, and you
    will keep your marks.

The last paragraph talks about a feature that nnml and nnfolder also
have.  Regarding the next-to-last paragraph, well I can't recall data
corruption with nnml, either, but I never tried to provoke it.

I think the concurrent delivery stuff is something you might find
useful.  (I hope I did mention this possibility -- I tend to forget
sometimes.)

Kai