> 3. But here's the big one, and one that I thought I understood > but seem to get inconsistent results. At what point does gnus > update the IMAP server? In other words, I read an article. > In the summary buffer that article definitely is now shown as > read. But that doesn't propagate instantly to the IMAP > server. I can see this by (say) opening a gmail web interface > and noting that the article I just read on gnus is still > unread on gmail web. (I will try a few test cases on my own > to see what I can learn.)
Appendix: At least with gmail, the IMAP server appears to be pretty consistently updated with 'read' status from gnus when leaving the group. So (say) q-uitting the INBOX group updates the INBOX status on the server, as evidenced by the web interface. But there are still some inconsistencies with the All Mail folder. To wit, if I read an email in gnus INBOX, and then archive it to the All Mail folder (from gnus) /before/ I exit INBOX, then the mail remains 'unread' in All Mail on the web interface. Furthermore if I reload All Mail on gnus, that same email shows up now as unread. Although this is getting pretty gmail specific, it makes some sense. To gmail, INBOX and All Mail are simply labels and an email is not actually moved from one to the other; /all/ mail /always/ exists in All Mail and 'moving' from INBOX simply means removing the INBOX label. (The exception is Trash and Spam.) But gnus treats these as actual groups (call them folders if you wish). Now, when the email is moved out of INBOX to All Mail, and you exit INBOX, I'm guessing that the All Mail 'read' status isn't updated because gnus views that as a truly separate group. It would have updated INBOX but the email is already gone. Gnus doesn't know, hey this is gmail, they do things the gmail way. Similarly the email in question has yet to be seen in the gnus All Mail group, so when that group is entered/refreshed, the email comes up as a new unseen (unread) item. This points to an issue with gnus and gmail, namely that gnus follows a traditional paradigm which doesn't reflect how gmail actually works. I do not view this as a big issue, however, and fixing it would require, I think, massive rework well beyond the limited added value. I think things are a lot simpler with traditional email which has true IMAP folders. But as a practical matter, if a few emails are shown as unread, whether in gnus or another client, it isn't a show-stopper. -- Bob Newell Honolulu, Hawai`i - Via GNU/Linux/Emacs/Gnus/BBDB
