Comment 2 for bug 27682

Message-ID: <email address hidden>
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:22:32 -0500
From: Ivan Raikov <email address hidden>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <email address hidden>
Subject: gnus: Incoming mail does not get saved to file specified in mail-crash-crash-box

Package: gnus
Version: 5.10.6-1.NO.20051213-1
Severity: grave

Recently, the following situation occurred: Gnus downloaded mail from
the IMAP server I use, and it deleted it on the server, since this is
the way I have configured it. However, there was something in the mail
messages that caused Gnus and Emacs to take up all available memory in
the system, and eventually the kernel started killing processes,
starting of course with Emacs.

    As a consequence, all of the incoming mail was lost. I could see
the new message headers in my Gnus folders, but the message bodies
were irretrievably lost.

    None of the messages were saved to the file specified in
`mail-source-crash-box' (which is the default
`~/.emacs-mail-crash-box'). Perhaps a better crash-save mechanism
should be implemented. The Gnus-relevant settings from my .emacs file
are:

(setq mail-sources (quote ((imap :server "xxxxx.xxxxx.xxx" :port 993
:user "xxxxxx" :stream ssl :authenticator cram-md5 :predicate "UNSEEN
UNDELETED"))))

(setq gnus-use-bbdb t)
(setq gnus-use-sendmail t)
(setq gnus-article-decode-charset 1)
(setq nnmail-delete-incoming t)
(setq mail-source-delete-incoming t)

(setq nnmail-fancy-expiry-targets (quote (("from" ".*" "nnfolder:Chronicle.%Y.%b"))))
(setq nnmail-split-fancy "")
(setq nnmail-split-methods ... ;; (omitted for brevity)
(setq gnus-message-archive-method (quote (nnfolder "Sent"
(nnfolder-directory "~/Mail/Sent/") (nnfolder-active-file
"~/Mail/Sent/active") (nnfolder-get-new-mail nil)
(nnfolder-inhibit-expiry t))))
(setq gnus-outgoing-message-group (quote ("nnfolder+Sent:Sent")))
(gnus-secondary-select-methods (quote ((nnfolder "mail"))))
(setq gnus-select-method (quote (nntp ...
(setq gnus-signature-limit 4.0)
(setq gnus-signature-separator (quote ("^-- $" "^-- *$" "^---*$" "^====*$")))
(setq gnus-thread-sort-functions (quote (gnus-thread-sort-by-date)))

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.4.27-2-686-smp
Locale: LANG=en_IE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_IE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages gnus depends on:
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.4.65 Debian configuration management sy
ii emacs21 21.4a-1 The GNU Emacs editor
ii make 3.80-11 The GNU version of the "make" util
ii ucf 2.004 Update Configuration File: preserv

gnus recommends no packages.

-- debconf information:
  gnus/upgrade/pre_5.9.0: false

--
"I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there
 and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just
 now."
 --Colin Powell, Remarks to Reporters, May 4, 2003
   http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2003/20166.htm