I'll continue in evidence-based mode and take a slightly different tack. In Thunderbird I removed the size limitation of 50K for synchronization. Then the Thunderbird synchronization file has a Dired entry as shown below:
> c:/Documents and Settings/Alan/Application > Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/qn5qd3de.default/ImapMail/email.fnal.gov: > -rw-rw-rw- 1 Alan None 162119 04-07 20:56 INBOX It has grown in size to 162119. Prior to doing this, my previous email (Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2012 14:54:11 -0500) had reported for that Dired entry: > c:/Documents and Settings/Alan/Application > Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/qn5qd3de.default/ImapMail/email.fnal.gov: > -rw-rw-rw- 1 Alan None 43765 04-07 13:43 INBOX I can make VM parse the "INBOX" file (the Thunderbird synchronization file) by doing two things: 1) Evaluate '(setq vm-leading-message-separator-regexp-From_ "^From[^:]")' 2) Make sure that the "From" line that starts each message is preceded by a blank line The resulting Summary buffer (for "INBOX") is: > -> 1 N Dick Carrigan Mar 7 36/1573 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 2 N [email protected] Mar 16 15/375 "LIBRARY - You borrowed this > book" > 3 N Dick Carrigan Apr 6 91/3729 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 4 N Mark Messier Apr 7 137/6457 "Fwd: LBNE Reconfiguration: > webpage and workshop (April 25-26)" > 5 N WinZip Computing Apr 5 293/15111 "Type 3X Faster with Your > Voice - 50% Off Dragon" > 6 N Fermilab Today Apr 6 1811/113630 "Fermilab Today - Friday, > April 6" The entry in the buffer generated by the command "buffer-menu" for "INBOX" is: > %* INBOX 162922 VM c:/Documents and > Settings/Alan/Application > Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/qn5qd3de.default/ImapMail/email.fnal.gov/INBOX This can be compared to the Summary buffer (for file "inbox"): > 1 U Dick Carrigan Mar 7 37/5605 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 2 [email protected] Mar 16 16/2025 "LIBRARY - You borrowed this > book" > 3 Dick Carrigan Apr 6 91/7806 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > -> 4 Mark Messier Apr 7 137/10825 "Fwd: LBNE Reconfiguration: > webpage and workshop (April 25-26)" > 5 U WinZip Computing Apr 5 293/17469 "Type 3X Faster with Your > Voice - 50% Off Dragon" > 6 Fermilab Today Apr 6 0/113632 "Fermilab Today - Friday, > April 6" where "buffer-menu" gives: > % inbox 49639 VM > ~/mail_rmail/imap-cache-d0925bcceba88ad7703984efcad1f482 I can do "compare-windows" (with a prefix, to ignore whitespace differences) and compare the presentation buffers in each case. They compare equal for the first four messages. For the fifth message the presentation buffer shows: > From: WinZip Computing <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Subject: Type 3X Faster with Your Voice - 50% Off Dragon > Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2012 12:23:07 -0400 > > in each case. In Thunderbird, for that message, much more is shown. For the sixth message the *Messages* buffer said for "INBOX": > INBOX: Decoding MIME message... > INBOX: Inlining text/html by emacs-w3m... > WARNING: Could not load feature w3m. > WARNING: Related functions may not work correctly! > INBOX: Inline text/html by emacs-w3m display failed: Symbol's value as > variable is void: w3m-cid-retrieve-function-alist > INBOX: Decoding MIME message... done For the sixth message, for "inbox", I was asked for the password for "fermi_email:inbox" and the *Messages* buffer said: > Warning: No user-definable flags available for the IMAP mailbox > Retrieving message 1 (of 1) from fermi_email:inbox, 38%... > Retrieving message 1 (of 1) from fermi_email:inbox, 41%... > Retrieving message 1 (of 1) from fermi_email:inbox, 65%... > inbox: Decoding MIME message... > inbox: Inlining text/html by emacs-w3m... > WARNING: Could not load feature w3m. > WARNING: Related functions may not work correctly! > inbox: Inline text/html by emacs-w3m display failed: Symbol's value as > variable is void: w3m-cid-retrieve-function-alist > inbox: Recreating summary... done > inbox: Decoding MIME message... done > and the summary buffer line became: > -> 6 Fermilab Today Apr 6 1812/113632 "Fermilab Today - Friday, > April 6" This time around the relevant VM variables are (again, from the *scratch* buffer): > (format "%s\n%s\n %s\n%s\n%s\n" > vm-primary-inbox > vm-imap-account-alist > vm-enable-external-messages > vm-imap-max-message-size > vm-imap-sync-on-get) > "~/INBOX > ((imap:localhost:143:*:login:wehmann:* fermi_email)) > (imap) > 50000 > nil > " > One can note that this time "vm-primary-inbox" is different from what I reported in my email earlier today, (Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2012 14:54:11 -0500). At that time I had customized "vm-primary-inbox" for just that VM session and now it is back to the saved customization value. In this case "~/INBOX" should not be confused with "INBOX" above, since they are in different directories. File "~/INBOX" is what I have been using with a Yahoo POP server. It was also used in a VM session on April 4, when I was using the IMAP inbox as a spool file. As for the size numbers being different on the Summary buffers for "INBOX" and "inbox", that I assume is because "inbox" has attributes saved in it and "INBOX" does not. As a further test, I added another large message to the IMAP inbox folder. The Dired entry for "INBOX" became: > -rw-rw-rw- 1 Alan None 387242 04-07 22:32 INBOX Its Summary buffer became: > -> 1 N Dick Carrigan Mar 7 36/1573 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 2 N [email protected] Mar 16 15/375 "LIBRARY - You borrowed this > book" > 3 N Dick Carrigan Apr 6 91/3729 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 4 N Mark Messier Apr 7 137/6457 "Fwd: LBNE Reconfiguration: > webpage and workshop (April 25-26)" > 5 N WinZip Computing Apr 5 293/15111 "Type 3X Faster with Your > Voice - 50% Off Dragon" > 6 N Fermilab Today Apr 6 1811/113631 "Fermilab Today - Friday, > April 6" > 7 Fermilab Today Apr 5 3123/218957 "Fermilab Today - Thursday, > April 5" > (after making sure that there was a blank line ahead of each "From" line--as before). In the "inbox" buffer I did the command "vm-get-new-mail". After a significant delay it did so and the Summary buffer became: > -> 1 U Dick Carrigan Mar 7 37/5605 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 2 [email protected] Mar 16 16/2025 "LIBRARY - You borrowed this > book" > 3 Dick Carrigan Apr 6 91/7806 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 4 Mark Messier Apr 7 137/10825 "Fwd: LBNE Reconfiguration: > webpage and workshop (April 25-26)" > 5 WinZip Computing Apr 5 293/17469 "Type 3X Faster with Your > Voice - 50% Off Dragon" > 6 Fermilab Today Apr 6 1812/113632 "Fermilab Today - Friday, > April 6" > 7 Fermilab Today Apr 5 0/225037 "Fermilab Today - Thursday, > April 5" > when I stepped to message 7 in the Summary buffer, more was fetched from the IMAP server and the "inbox" Summary buffer became: > 1 U Dick Carrigan Mar 7 37/5605 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 2 [email protected] Mar 16 16/2025 "LIBRARY - You borrowed this > book" > 3 Dick Carrigan Apr 6 91/7806 "Next quarterly lunch > Wednesday, April 11 [retired scientist list]" > 4 Mark Messier Apr 7 137/10825 "Fwd: LBNE Reconfiguration: > webpage and workshop (April 25-26)" > 5 WinZip Computing Apr 5 293/17469 "Type 3X Faster with Your > Voice - 50% Off Dragon" > 6 Fermilab Today Apr 6 1812/113632 "Fermilab Today - Friday, > April 6" > -> 7 Fermilab Today Apr 5 3124/218959 "Fermilab Today - Thursday, > April 5" > I can emphasize the following conclusions from this evidence: 1) Thunderbird is synchronizing a file on my computer's hard drive, matching the contents of the IMAP inbox folder. 2) The setting of 50000 for "vm-imap-max-message-size" is working. Messages in excess of that size are having only their headers downloaded, when "vm-get-new-mail" is used. The full message is downloaded if I choose it in the Summary buffer. 3) It is possible to have VM parse the Thunderbird synchronization file (local on my hard drive), but it involves a bit of trickery. My experience on April 4 (when I was using the IMAP inbox folder as a spool file), of being asked a) if I wanted to download each large file (answer no), and then being asked b) if I wanted to delete it from the "maildrop" (answer yes . . . bad choice, bad choice, bad choice) has me wondering about the design of those questions. It seems to me rather odd to ask me if I want to delete a large message if I haven't even looked at it (with VM). Cheers, Alan Uday Reddy writes: > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [VM] Info node "External Messages" > Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2012 21:26:22 +0100 > From: Uday Reddy <[email protected]> > > Alan Wehmann writes: > > > One reason to show how it starts off is to illustrate that the first > > line is not recognized by the value of > > "vm-leading-message-separator-regexp-From_" > > You can't read Thunderbird's IMAP folders in VM, only the Local Folders. > (In fact, you can see from the size of the file that it is not a full folder > anyway.) > > > > 6 Fermilab Today Apr 6 0/113632 "Fermilab Today - > > > Friday, April 6" > > > > For message #6 there is no indication that it was left on the server > > because of being over-sized. > > The "0" in the size indicator (presumably 0 lines?) tells you that the > message wasn't downloaded. What happens if you try to read the message 6? > > > I was not asked any question about whether or not I wished to download > > message #6, nor was I asked any question about whether or not I wished > > to delete it from the "maildrop". > > Indeed, that is how it is supposed to work. It is designed to be painless. > > If you delete message 6, expunge and save the folder, then message 6 will > get deleted on the server. > > Cheers, > Uday -- Alan Wehmann [email protected]
