Gnus Manual. Node: Mail Spool

PREVRmail Babyl UPChoosing a Mail Backend NEXTMH Spool

6.3.11.3: Mail Spool

The nnml spool mail format isn't compatible with any other known format. It should be used with some caution.

If you use this backend, Gnus will split all incoming mail into files, one file for each mail, and put the articles into the corresponding directories under the directory specified by the nnml-directory variable. The default value is `~/Mail/'.

You do not have to create any directories beforehand; Gnus will take care of all that.

If you have a strict limit as to how many files you are allowed to store in your account, you should not use this backend. As each mail gets its own file, you might very well occupy thousands of inodes within a few weeks. If this is no problem for you, and it isn't a problem for you having your friendly systems administrator walking around, madly, shouting ``Who is eating all my inodes?! Who? Who!?!'', then you should know that this is probably the fastest format to use. You do not have to trudge through a big mbox file just to read your new mail.

nnml is probably the slowest backend when it comes to article splitting. It has to create lots of files, and it also generates NOV databases for the incoming mails. This makes it the fastest backend when it comes to reading mail.

Virtual server settings:

nnml-directory

All nnml directories will be placed under this directory.

nnml-active-file

The active file for the nnml server.

nnml-newsgroups-file

The nnml group descriptions file. See Newsgroups File Format.

nnml-get-new-mail

If non-nil, nnml will read incoming mail.

nnml-nov-is-evil

If non-nil, this backend will ignore any NOV files.

nnml-nov-file-name

The name of the NOV files. The default is `.overview'.

nnml-prepare-save-mail-hook

Hook run narrowed to an article before saving.

If your nnml groups and NOV files get totally out of whack, you can do a complete update by typing M-x nnml-generate-nov-databases. This command will trawl through the entire nnml hierarchy, looking at each and every article, so it might take a while to complete. A better interface to this functionality can be found in the server buffer (see Server Commands).

PREVRmail Babyl UPChoosing a Mail Backend NEXTMH Spool