Hi, thanks for reaching out to me / asking: My e-mail provider (zoho) allows for imap access (pretty standard today, I guess) - and this is how I get my mail, indeed (from an incoming folder there).
While I could have configured my gnus to access this imap folder directly (these imap folders - more on this plural below ...) - and indeed: when accessing mail from my iphone or ipad: that's what I do - I have on my Linux-PC / main machine (where I am also running gnus), a local imap server intalled: dovecot (and in particular dovecot-imapd) - allowing for a local (folder-) perspective of my mail: e-mail arriving at my machine gets sorted into maildir folders: misc, etc, gnus, gauche, hare, etc, spam (these folders corresponding to my interests / mailing lists that I am subscribed to) - and they are sorted in there for the most part automatically (with some exim-sieve filters - having used procmail for that kind of sorting before) - but also by hand (more on that below). Now my Gnus is configured to look at these local maildir folders: nnimap:misc corresponds to my local misc maildir folder, likewise nnimap:etc to my (maildir/)etc folder, and so on. The advantages of having a local imap server are: access is faster, and I can work (on my mail) regardless of current internet connection (on a train, in a tunnel, say). Mail then gets synchronized from time to time: in my case with mbsync (offline imap is another candidate - written in python this one). - I prefer mbsync (...). - And this synchronisation happens: whenever I wish to do so manually (call mbsync [params] ...), and automatically: with a cron job every 20 min in my case - and it works in both directions from my computer (maildir folders) to my remote e-mail provider, and vice versa. Thus locally I have (as mentioned already): maildir folders misc, etc, gauche, spam, ... - accessible in gnus as nnimap:misc, nnimap:etc, nnimap:gauche - but my e-mail provider also allows for more than just one (incoming) imap folder - and I make use of that feature: I have created imap folders: Misc, Etc, Spam, ... on my e-mail providers mail account. - and not too surprisingly: when e-mail gets synced with mbsync: mail in my local (maildir/) misc folder get synchronised to my remote (imap) Misc folder (and likewise etc to remote Etc, and so on - I mentioned that synchronisation works in both directions). So far so standard - I guess: One can find good documentation / examples configs for mbsync / as well as for gnus / imap (and I shall be happy to provide further details of my config, in case there is interest). Now the problem is (as it appears to me): As long as I am working locally with gnus on my imap folders - move some mail within gnus from (maildir/)misc to (maildir/etc) say - visible to my in gnus as folders/groups nnimap:misc and nnimap:etc - and I move mail in gnus from one folder to another with B-m ... - then so far there are no restrictions: everthing works fine / gnus does what seems appropriate (with regards to mail numbers within maildir folders for example: this is nothing, I want to bother about usually, and I rely on on gnus just doing the right thing in this regard). However, the similar (imap) folder structure on my e-mail providers end (Misc, Etc, ...), seems to be more restrictive: each of these folders has some (highest allowed) e-mail number, as I understand - and when syncing between my provider and my local machine, such restritions are enforced / get in my way: Locally (under gnus) an e-mail of mine (that I have just moved to the local etc folder say), may have too high a number for that remote Etc folder on my providers end, such e-mail number restrictions better be respected, or mbsync complains (or whatnot). And apparently other people (mu4e users) have run into such issues, and then have provided a means that their (local) mu4e client better respects such restrictions on the remote side - allowing for automatically renumbering messages, if needed. This is what I am hoping for (to be possible) in Gnus. Thanks, A' -- PS: One can also do the e-mail sorting remotely (on the imap server) - which I may try to accomplish some time - but so far I am happy with my (local) sieve filter (and then they appear sorted remotely, once synced again with mbsync...). James Thomas <jim...@gmx.net> writes: > Andreas Reuleaux wrote: > >> while being a (long time) happy gnus user, I regularly run into this >> issue: when moving mails from one nnimap:... group/folder to another >> (w/ B-m ...), >> and then syncing these folders with my remote mail server, I get mbsync >> errors: > > I'm not sure I understand: nnimap directly operates on the remote > server, no? Are you running an IMAP server offline and then syncing? > > --
