M-x vm Opens my email client application from Emacs Fundamental mode

The “.vm” file. I can changes the settings in this file to alter my VM controls and indicators.

From my laptop, logging into a host and starting emacs. It’s best to run emacs and VM on a remote host instead of my laptop:

VM Overview

VM is a mail client. You can run it on any machine. Just be sure not to run two copies of it from two different places. Otherwise, the lock files won’t work properly. You’ll have a train wreck in your folders.

The INBOX is the until that is periodically polling the IMAP server, so new email gets first reported to INBOX.

Handy Commands

Shift D Decodes and saves MIME attachments

$ w Saves an attachment to a file

C-c C-a Attaches a file to an email composition

C-x C-s Saves a file, such as the inbox

s When viewing mail, hit “s” to save a message to a folder

d Marks a mesage as delete. Hit three pound signs (###) to actually delete.

Following is how I open my personal mail application and send a test email to myself. To send the mail, I hit Ctrl-c then Ctrl-d. Then, go to my emacs inbox folder and look at my mode line. When mail arrives, the text “Mail” will appear.

[gmcmillan@redd2212 ~]% mail gmcmillan Subject: hi snake yyy.Am I in body?

Cc: [gmcmillan@redd2212 ~]%

Verify that a folder has been moved or created successfully by using the “v” command, which stands for “visit”.

To dynamically jump from one dir to another dir, use the tilde (~):

[gmcmillan@redd2212 spools]% pwd /home/gmcmillan/Mail/spools [gmcmillan@redd2212 spools]% cd ~/Procmail [gmcmillan@redd2212 ~/Procmail]% pwd /home/gmcmillan/Procmail [gmcmillan@redd2212 ~/Procmail]%

Also.. try using the Tab key to get commmand completion.

Installing VM

Create a directory called Emacs under my home dir
When you expect to go back and forth between multiple directories often, enter “popd” or “pushd shortcut. You don’t have to re-type the return path again:

[gmcmillan@suncs9 ~]% pushd ~jerry/emacs ~jerry/emacs ~ [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~jerry/emacs]% pwd /home/jerry/emacs [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~jerry/emacs]% [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~jerry/emacs]% ls -l total 156 -rw-r–r– 1 jerry 30389 Aug 20 12:31 eperiodic.el -rw-r–r– 1 jerry 77698 Aug 31 2000 gnats.el -rw-rw-r– 1 jerry 2265 Nov 5 1999 lame.el -rw-rw-r– 1 jerry 2591 Nov 5 1999 morse.el -rw-r–r– 1 jerry 29221 Aug 31 2000 send-pr.el lrwxrwxrwx 1 jerry 7 Sep 10 08:55 vm -> vm-6.96 drwxr-xr-x 3 jerry 4096 Sep 10 08:54 vm-6.96

Enter “tar” (tape archive) to grab (copy) a bunch of directories and file all at once. Tar preserves the timestamps too. Write an archive of a directory (and all of its sub directories) from Jerry’s machine to my machine. The verticle bar (|) means take the standard output from one command and beat it into another command. The paranthesizing is a grouping that causes a sub shell. At one level it treats the parenthesis as a command, but inside it is really two commands. In our example, we want two things to be associated with what’s on the other side of the pipe bar. Inside the sub shell, we going to cd back over to /emacs and run the “tar xf”. The “x” means create. The “f” means extract. The “c” means create. We’re running tar twice and piping the output from one to the other, which making one run in a different directory.

[gmcmi@suncs9 ~jerry/emacs] tar cf - vm-6.96

(cd ~/emacs; tar xf - )

Return to my home dir by entering “popd”:

[gmcmillan@suncs9 ~jerry/emacs]% popd [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~]% [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~]% ls emacs elisp_documentation_intro vm vm-6.87 [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~]% cd emacs [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~/emacs]%

Cause the directory name with a version number in it to have a sync link with autoversion number in it. This makes it very easy to change out the version some day, if a new VM comes out. In this way, all our reference that we create in my magic will referent the directory called “vm” without have to change all the references:

[gmcmillan@suncs9 ~/emacs]% ln -s vm vm

Look at the sym link representation that point to the other directory:

[gmcmillan@suncs9 ~/emacs]% ls vm-6.87/ COPYING vm-autoload.el vm-folder.el vm-menu.elc vm-mouse.el vm-search.elc vm-undo.el vm-window.elc Makefile vm-autoload.elc vm-folder.elc vm-message.el vm-mouse.elc vm-sort.el vm-undo.elc vm.el README vm-byteopts.el vm-imap.el vm-message.elc vm-page.el vm-sort.elc vm-user.el vm.elc base64-decode.c vm-delete.el vm-imap.elc vm-mime.el vm-page.elc vm-startup.el vm-user.elc vm.info base64-encode.c vm-delete.elc vm-license.el vm-mime.elc vm-pop.el vm-startup.elc vm-vars.el vm.info-1 make-autoloads vm-digest.el vm-license.elc vm-minibuf.el vm-pop.elc vm-summary.el vm-vars.elc vm.info-2 pixmaps vm-digest.elc vm-macro.el vm-minibuf.elc vm-reply.el vm-summary.elc vm-version.el vm.info-3 qp-decode.c vm-easymenu.el vm-macro.elc vm-misc.el vm-reply.elc vm-thread.el vm-version.elc vm.texinfo qp-encode.c vm-easymenu.elc vm-mark.el vm-misc.elc vm-save.el vm-thread.elc vm-virtual.el tapestry.el vm-edit.el vm-mark.elc vm-motion.el vm-save.elc vm-toolbar.el vm-virtual.elc tapestry.elc vm-edit.elc vm-menu.el vm-motion.elc vm-search.el vm-toolbar.elc vm-window.el [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~/emacs]% ls -l vm lrwxrwxrwx 1 gmcmillan 8 Jan 5 2001 vm -> vm-6.87/ [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~/emacs]%

When the symlink is a directory, and I want to see the contents, I’ll have to reference something below it by entering “ls vm/*”. By default, when something is a symlink, he’s only going to show me the value of the link (not what it points to):

[gmcmillan@suncs9 ~/emacs]% ls vm/* vm/COPYING vm/vm-easymenu.el vm/vm-message.elc vm/vm-save.el vm/vm-user.elc vm/Makefile vm/vm-easymenu.elc vm/vm-mime.el vm/vm-save.elc vm/vm-vars.el vm/README vm/vm-edit.el vm/vm-mime.elc vm/vm-search.el vm/vm-vars.elc vm/base64-decode.c vm/vm-edit.elc vm/vm-minibuf.el vm/vm-search.elc vm/vm-version.el vm/base64-encode.c vm/vm-folder.el vm/vm-minibuf.elc vm/vm-sort.el vm/vm-version.elc vm/make-autoloads vm/vm-folder.elc vm/vm-misc.el vm/vm-sort.elc vm/vm-virtual.el vm/qp-decode.c vm/vm-imap.el vm/vm-misc.elc vm/vm-startup.el vm/vm-virtual.elc vm/qp-encode.c vm/vm-imap.elc vm/vm-motion.el vm/vm-startup.elc vm/vm-window.el vm/tapestry.el vm/vm-license.el vm/vm-motion.elc vm/vm-summary.el vm/vm-window.elc vm/tapestry.elc vm/vm-license.elc vm/vm-mouse.el vm/vm-summary.elc vm/vm.el vm/vm-autoload.el vm/vm-macro.el vm/vm-mouse.elc vm/vm-thread.el vm/vm.elc vm/vm-autoload.elc vm/vm-macro.elc vm/vm-page.el vm/vm-thread.elc vm/vm.info vm/vm-byteopts.el vm/vm-mark.el vm/vm-page.elc vm/vm-toolbar.el vm/vm.info-1 vm/vm-delete.el vm/vm-mark.elc vm/vm-pop.el vm/vm-toolbar.elc vm/vm.info-2 vm/vm-delete.elc vm/vm-menu.el vm/vm-pop.elc vm/vm-undo.el vm/vm.info-3 vm/vm-digest.el vm/vm-menu.elc vm/vm-reply.el vm/vm-undo.elc vm/vm.texinfo vm/vm-digest.elc vm/vm-message.el vm/vm-reply.elc vm/vm-user.el

vm/pixmaps: audio_stamp-colorful.xpm film-colorful.xpm audio_stamp-simple.xpm film-simple.xpm autofile-dn.xbm gear-colorful.xpm autofile-dn.xpm gear-simple.xpm autofile-up.xbm getmail-dn.xbm autofile-up.xpm getmail-dn.xpm autofile-xx.xbm getmail-up.xbm compose-dn.xbm getmail-up.xpm compose-dn.xpm getmail-xx.xbm compose-up.xbm help-dn.xbm compose-up.xpm help-dn.xpm compose-xx.xbm help-up.xbm delete-dn.xbm help-up.xpm delete-dn.xpm help-xx.xbm delete-up.xbm message-colorful.xpm delete-up.xpm message-simple.xpm delete-xx.xbm mime-colorful-dn.xpm document-colorful.xpm mime-colorful-up.xpm document-simple.xpm mime-colorful-xx.xpm file-dn.xbm mime-dn.xbm file-dn.xpm mime-simple-dn.xpm file-up.xbm mime-simple-up.xpm file-up.xpm mime-simple-xx.xpm file-xx.xbm mime-up.xbm [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~/emacs]% mime-xx.xbm recover-dn.xpm mona_stamp-colorful.xpm recover-up.xbm mona_stamp-simple.xpm recover-up.xpm next-dn.xbm recover-xx.xbm next-dn.xpm reply-dn.xbm next-up.xbm reply-dn.xpm next-up.xpm reply-up.xbm next-xx.xbm reply-up.xpm previous-dn.xbm reply-xx.xbm previous-dn.xpm stuffed_box-colorful.xpm previous-up.xbm stuffed_box-simple.xpm previous-up.xpm undelete-dn.xbm previous-xx.xbm undelete-dn.xpm print-dn.xbm undelete-up.xbm print-dn.xpm undelete-up.xpm print-up.xbm undelete-xx.xbm print-up.xpm visit-dn.xbm print-xx.xbm visit-dn.xpm quit-dn.xbm visit-up.xbm quit-dn.xpm visit-up.xpm quit-up.xbm visit-xx.xbm quit-up.xpm quit-xx.xbm recover-dn.xbm

Edit my .vm file, so it knows where my spool is located. When the mail comes in, it has to go somewhere before I ask for the mail. A spool is like a queue. The mail comes in and waits somewhere before someone asks for it. My act of asking for mail, takes it from the spool and moves it to me inbox. All this happens before emacs gets the mail.

My initail .vm file

;;;; Yo! emacs! This here is: --emacs-lisp--

(setq vm-primary-inbox “~/Mail/INBOX”) (setq vm-crash-box “~/Mail/INBOX.CRASH”) (setq vm-folder-directory “~/Mail/”) (setq vm-confirm-new-folders t) (setq mail-archive-directory “~/Mail/”)

;; Inserts “Re:” on all replies

(setq vm-reply-subject-prefix “Re: “)

;; FCC: myself on all outgoing messages

(setq mail-archive-file-name (expand-file-name “~/Mail/sent-items”))

;; Strip out my address when replying

(setq vm-reply-ignored-addresses ‘(“^greg@procket.com” “[ <]gmcmillan@procket.com”))

(setq vm-spool-files (list (concat “imap:mail:143:inbox:login:” (getenv “USER”) “:*”) ;; This one shouldn’t be necessary, but until I see that ;; it’s impossible for anything to get into the ;; old-fashioned spool I’ll keep it. (concat “/var/spool/mail/” (getenv “USER”))))

;; Deciding how frequently emacs should hang waiting for our flaky IMAP ;; server is a tough call. (setq vm-mail-check-interval 150)

;; Wait until I ask to see it. (setq vm-auto-decode-mime-messages nil) ;(setq vm-auto-decode-mime-messages t)

(setq vm-mime-external-content-types-alist ‘( (“text/html” “netscape”) (“image/gif” “xv”) (“image/jpeg” “xv”) (“video/mpeg” “mpeg_play”) (“video” “xanim”) (“application/postscript” “ghostview”) (“application/pdf” “acroread”) ) ) (setq vm-infer-mime-types t) (setq vm-mime-8bit-text-transfer-encoding ‘8bit)

;; There’s something rum about all the crud between the obvious invocation ;; name and the real program that flummoxes emacs. This little subversion ;; makes it work anyway. Maybe I should install my own local netscape. (setq vm-netscape-program “/tools/pkgs/netscape/default/netscape”)

Jerry’s Latest .vm (as of 4/13/04)

[gmcmillan@miata ~]% more ~jerry/.vm

;;;; Yo! emacs! This here is: --emacs-lisp--

;;(vm-set-debug-flags)

(setq vm-spool-files (list (concat “imap:email:143:inbox:login:” (getenv “USER”) “:*”) ;; This one shouldn’t be necessary, but until I see that ;; it’s impossible for anything to get into the ;; old-fashioned spool I’ll keep it. (concat “/var/spool/mail/” (getenv “USER”))))

;; Deciding how frequently emacs should hang waiting for our flaky IMAP ;; server is a tough call. (setq vm-mail-check-interval 180)

;(setq vm-mutable-windows nil) (setq vm-warp-mouse-to-new-frame t) (setq vm-startup-with-summary 50) (setq vm-auto-center-summary t) (setq vm-circular-folders nil) (setq vm-auto-next-message nil) (setq vm-preview-lines nil) (setq vm-follow-summary-cursor t) (setq vm-strip-reply-headers t) ;(setq vm-in-reply-to-format “%i from %f”) (setq vm-included-text-attribution-format “%F wrote (on %w %-3.3m %2d, at %h):\n\n”) (setq vm-included-text-prefix “> “) ;;(setq vm-thread-using-subject nil)

;; Fill the junk from netscape and mac mouth-breathers. ;; (setq vm-fill-paragraphs-containing-long-lines 75) ;; The above creates more trouble than it fixes. (setq vm-fill-paragraphs-containing-long-lines nil)

(setq vm-visible-headers ‘(“Resent-“ “From:” “Sender:” “To:” “Apparently-To:” “Cc:” “Subject:” “Date:” “Newsgroups” “In-Reply-To:”))

;; Stick with rfc934 most of the time. ;(setq vm-forwarding-digest-type “mime”) ;(setq vm-forwarding-digest-type “rfc1153”) (setq vm-forwarding-digest-type “rfc934”)

(setq vm-forwarded-headers ‘(“From:” “Apparently-From” “To:” “Apparently-To:” “Cc:” “Subject” “Date” “In-Reply-To:” “Newsgroups” “Organization:” “Keyword”)) (setq vm-unforwarded-header-regexp nil)

;; uses vm-version, so it has to be in ~/.vm instead of ~/.emacs ;(setq mail-default-headers (concat ; “X-Mailer: VM Version “ (vm-version) “ with Emacs “ emacs-version “\n”))

(setq vm-flush-interval t) (setq vm-auto-folder-alist ‘((“Subject” (“Weekly Status” . “wstatus”) (“USENIX events” . “usenix”) (“TTL” . “ttl”) (“Notification of Payment” . “payment”) ) (“To” (“npu” . “npu”) (“ucoders” . “ucoders”) (“platform-sw”. “plat”) (“npu-bringup” . “bringup”) ) (“From” (“owner-nba*” . “nba”) (“action” . “sysadmin”) )))

;; Wait until I ask to see it. ;(setq vm-auto-decode-mime-messages nil) (setq vm-auto-decode-mime-messages t)

(setq vm-mime-external-content-types-alist ‘( (“text/html” “netscape”) (“image/gif” “xv”) (“image/jpeg” “xv”) (“video/mpeg” “mpeg_play”) (“video” “xanim”) (“application/postscript” “ghostview”) (“application/pdf” “acroread”) ;;(“application/msword” “wordview”) (“application/msword” “viewchooser”) (“application/vnd.ms-powerpoint” “viewchooser”) (“application/vnd.ms-excel” “viewchooser”) (“application/staroffice” “viewchooser”) ) ) (setq vm-infer-mime-types t) (setq vm-mime-8bit-text-transfer-encoding ‘8bit) (setq vm-mime-base64-decoder-program “~/bin/base64-decode”) (setq vm-mime-base64-encoder-program “~/bin/base64-encode”)

;; Don’t look for an NFS-mounted copy of netscape. ;; (if (and (string= system-type “gnu/linux”) ;; (file-executable-p “/usr/bin/netscape”)) ;; (setq vm-netscape-program “/usr/bin/netscape”))

;; emacs 21 wants to do this by default. I’d rather get the space back. (setq vm-use-toolbar nil)

;; an experiment I’ll probably regret: (if (>= emacs-major-version 21) (add-hook ‘vm-select-message-hook ‘(lambda () (smiley-region (point-min) (point-max)))))

;; friedman@netscape.com (Noah Friedman), gnu.emacs.vm.info, Feb 6, 97 ;; Adapted from an idea by Bryan O’Sullivan bos@serpentine.com (defadvice vm-mime-make-multipart-boundary (after ivm-spook-mime activate) (or (boundp ‘spook-phrases-file) (load “spook”)) (let ((cookies (cookie-snarf spook-phrases-file “fnord” “”)) (illegal-re “[^A-Za-z0-9/+-]”) (boundary-string “”) (tail (substring ad-return-value (/ (length ad-return-value) 2))) (seen nil) (new nil) (count (1+ (random 3)))) (while (not (zerop count)) (setq new (aref cookies (random (length cookies)))) (cond ((memq new seen)) (t (setq seen (cons new seen)) (setq count (1- count))))) (setq boundary-string (mapconcat ‘identity seen “-“)) (save-match-data (while (and (<= count (length boundary-string)) (string-match illegal-re boundary-string count)) (aset boundary-string (match-beginning 0) ?) (setq count (match-end 0)))) (setq ad-return-value (concat boundary-string “-“ tail))))

;; From: Noah Friedman friedman@splode.com ;; Subject: Re: delete messages by message-id? ;; Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.vm.info ;; Date: 06 Dec 2001 23:42:33 -0800 (add-hook ‘vm-arrived-messages-hook ‘vma-kill-duplicate-messages-by-message-id)

(defun vma-kill-duplicate-messages-by-message-id (&optional mp) “Mark as deleted any message with a duplicate message ID. Any undeleted message which has a Message ID indentical to that of another undeleted message in the same folder, is marked for deletion.” (interactive) (vm-select-folder-buffer) (vm-check-for-killed-summary) (vm-error-if-folder-read-only) (vm-error-if-folder-empty) (let ((htbl (make-vector 103 0)) (n 0) (case-fold-search t) mid) (unless mp (setq mp vm-message-list)) (while mp (cond ((vm-deleted-flag (car mp))) (t (setq mid (vm-su-message-id (car mp))) (or mid (debug (car mp))) (when (intern-soft mid htbl) (vm-set-deleted-flag (car mp) t) (setq n (1+ n))) (intern mid htbl))) (setq mp (cdr mp))) (and (interactive-p) (message “%d duplicate%s marked deleted” n (if (= n 1) “” “s”))) (vm-update-summary-and-mode-line) (when vm-move-after-killing (let ((vm-circular-folders (and vm-circular-folders (eq vm-move-after-killing t)))) (vm-next-message 1 t executing-kbd-macro))) n))

Email Aliases

Define mail aliases in a file named `~/.mailrc’.

To define an alias in `~/.mailrc’, write a line in the following format:

alias

The Difference Between .emacs and .vm

From: Jerry Kreuscher jerry@Procket.com To: gmcmillan@Procket.com Subject: Question: Re: test3 Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 09:42:58 -0700

Greg McMillan wrote (on Tuesday May 22, at 09:23:31):

Question.

What’s the primary difference between .emacs and .vm?

.emacs controls the Emacs environments, controls, and indicators.

Whereas .vm controls VM?

I often don’t know what file to modify when.

Yes, you understand it. Use .vm for things specific to vm. The boundary might seem ambiguous because there is a little about vm in .emacs, but that stuff is about how to find vm, and not how to make it work once it’s been found. vm has to get found before there’s any reason to care about the .vm file.

This auto-fill fix is more general. It applies to all text-mode buffers. If you’d rather not have it in all text mode buffers, we can cobble it into a vm-specific mode-hook.

VM Tuning

Documentation in vm-vars.el

See /home/gmcmillan/emacs/vm-6.87/vm-vars.el

Do not modify this file because it’s part of the actual VM program. Only read this file.

VM Upgrading

I go to http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/download.html

Download “vm-7.18.tar.gz” to my /home/gmcmillan/emacs/vm directory

Don’t use .18. It has a weird MIME bug. Grab .15 from ~jerry/src/vm-7.15.tar.gz

Since I’m on a Linux box, do this:

gunzip vm-7.18.tar.gz tar xvf vm-7.18.tar.gz

You can combine these as: tar zxf The v switch only put more stuff on your screen.

My habit is to expand the tar file in $HOME/emacs. That creates a subdir vm-. Then I cd to the new directory and type make there. After that back to $HOME/emacs where I create a symlink named vm to the new directory:

tar zxf vm-7.15.tar.gz
cd vm-7.15
make
cd ..
ln -s ~/emacs/vm-7.15 ~/emacs/vm

In my .emacs I’ve added “~/emacs/vm” to my load-path.

There are other ways. This works for me. Before pointing emacs at a new vm, though, quit the current one. You should probably quit emacs, too, because there’s no guarantee that loading a new version overrides everything done by a prior load of the previous one.

question: do I need to do a “make install” or something like that?

Tell .vm and .emacs to pick up the new vm. I don’t see anything obvious in the files that needs to change. Am I missing something?

It gets found by your load-path.

I haven’t time to grovel through your dot-files. If they worked with the old version, they should work for the new one. You already have a load-path item pointing to a vm, so put the new in that place and make there. mv the old one aside as a precaution.

Checkpoint Files

Every so many key strokes, vm is writing to a checkpoint file, such as ##. This file protects you from a power outage or a line going down. If data is missing from a checkpoint file, maybe vm didn't have enough time to write it before the file/connection got clobbered. The only way you could not lose data is if vm wrote to disk each time you typed a character. In this case, the time hit would drive you nuts.

Tip: Each time you get new mail do a save. Especially over an analog modem link.

Testing INBOX File Recovery
In the INBOX, delete one email.
Kill emacs then restart it.
Enter “M-x recover-file” and hit return
Enter “INBOX” and hit return. First, tell emacs the name of the real file. Then, it’ll come back and asks if the checkpoint file (#INBOX#) that emacs has for you is a match. Say “yes” if it is a match.
Enter “yes”

Now start fetching mail after you do a save. Notice that the thing you deleted is not deleted.

Setting Up Clickable URLs

Put this line in your .vm

(setq vm-netscape-program “/tools/pkgs/netscape/default/netscape”)

;; There’s something rum about all the crud between the obvious invocation ;; name and the real program that flummoxes emacs. This little subversion ;; makes it work anyway. Maybe I should install my own local netscape.

Stripping out my email address when sending an email

From: Jerry Kreuscher jerry@Procket.com To: gmcmillan@Procket.com Subject: Question: setq vm-reply-ignored-addresses Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 16:56:11 -0700

No comma. Separate them by white-space. Whether than mean putting them on on separate lines is up to you.

Greg McMillan wrote (on Thursday Apr 5, at 16:28:39):

Hi Jerry,

I’m updating .vm to strip out my email addresses when I reply to a message. The VM web page says I should use the following variable. However, how do I enter my two address? Side-by-side separated by a comma or on separate lines?

VM says use this: (setq vm-reply-ignored-addresses ‘(“^username@example.com” “[ <]username@example.com”))

Enter my info like this? (setq vm-reply-ignored-addresses ‘(“^greg@procket.com” “[ <]gmcmillan@procket.com”))

or…. like this? (setq vm-reply-ignored-addresses ‘(“^greg@procket.com”, “gmcmillan@procket.com”))

Sending a Test Email to Myself

[gmcmillan@suncs9 ~]% mail gmcmillan Subject: Test Email Hello,

Did you get this, Greg? ^C «————————————Enter Ctrl C here (Interrupt – one more to kill letter) «—–Enter Ctrl D here EOT «————————————Enter Return here [gmcmillan@suncs9 ~]%

Bulk Delete Same Author in Folder

Shift m + a (mark all messages in current folder by the same author)
Shift m + n (prefix my next global command with vm-next-command-uses-marks)
d (applies the delete function to all the marked messages)

Bulk Delete all in Folder

“Shift m” + “m” (mark all messages in current folder)
“Shift m” + “n” (prefix my next global command with vm-next-command-uses-marks)
d (applies the delete function to all the marked messages)

Tip: To undo marks from all messages, enter Shift m + u.

 To unmark a specified region in the summary highlight the interesting
 region, then enter Shift m + r to unmark.

IMAP

a) authentication

It’s happening because of the “(getenv “USER”)” part of your vm-spool-files setting. If you always intend to be “gmcmillan” in this context and the environment variable USER is liable not to be consistent with that, then the environment variable shouldn’t be used for this. Use your username instead. That is:

(setq vm-spool-files (list (concat “imap:mail.gregdella.us:143:inbox:login:” “gmcmillan” “:*”)))

Greg McMillan wrote (on Monday May 24, at 23:25:58):

Hey Jerry, :-)

After 2+ hours poking around on the web, I finally need to ask you the question…

I’m now using vm on my home system to poll an imap server (named “mail.gregdella.us”, provided by a web hosting outfit.

.vm contains this:

(setq vm-spool-files (list (concat “imap:mail.gregdella.us:143:inbox:login:” (getenv “USER”) “:*”)))

Here’s my problem. When I “M-x vm” from within emacs, I get this:
IMAP password for root@mail.gregdella.us [inbox]:
My IMAP account username is actually “gmcmillan”, not “root”. Yes, I’m logged into the local system as “root”. But I have no idea how vm is prepending that.

Then I try changing it to:
"imap:mail.gregdella.us:143:inbox:login:gmcmillan"
But then I get:
IMAP password for gmcmillanroot@mail.gregdella.us [inbox]:
ARrrr…..

b) sendmail

Subject: /var/spool/Mail and MailQ Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 13:21:32 -0700

see if things are piling up there

also see sendmail.com, if I choose to use it

IMAP is a mail delivery agent to my INBOX. It does not send mail. SMTP is the outgoing mail relay agent, which usually needs to be authenticated due to the large amounts of spam these days.

Embellishment

If you’re still using vm when you get to emacs-21, you’ll get a little kick out of having this in your .vm:

(if (>= emacs-major-version 21) (add-hook ‘vm-select-message-hook ‘(lambda () (smiley-region (point-min) (point-max)))))

References

Standard VM:

http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/

http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/vm-faq-7.html

Tunning VM Display Settings:

http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/user-manual/vm_14.html#SEC25