Discussion:
split or merged mbox/record
Daan van Rossum
2017-11-29 14:09:41 UTC
Permalink
Dear mutt users, I use two separate mailboxes for received and sent emails, called "mbox" and "sent" respectively. When reading old threads I sometimes wish I had sent and received mail in one and the same mbox. I know it is easy to merge sent and mbox in mutt. But I wonder what the disadvantages are.

Do any of you mutt users have experience with merged vs. split mailboxes and have some good arguments for one or the other setup?

Thanks! Daan van Rossum
Wim
2017-11-29 21:20:00 UTC
Permalink
Post by Daan van Rossum
Do any of you mutt users have experience with merged vs. split
mailboxes and have some good arguments for one or the other setup?
I starting using one box for received and sent emails 3 years ago and
have never looked back. If threads are enabled, it is easy to follow
conversations. On my setup I've just got two mail directories,
an inbox and an archive. Just set both 'spoolfile' and 'record' to point
to your inbox. Try it out for a while. If you're unhappy change it back.
Post by Daan van Rossum
Thanks! Daan van Rossum
--
Bye Wim
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'---''(_/--' `-'\_)
Nathan Stratton Treadway
2017-11-30 00:08:12 UTC
Permalink
Post by Wim
Post by Daan van Rossum
Do any of you mutt users have experience with merged vs. split
mailboxes and have some good arguments for one or the other setup?
I starting using one box for received and sent emails 3 years ago and
have never looked back. If threads are enabled, it is easy to follow
conversations. On my setup I've just got two mail directories,
an inbox and an archive. Just set both 'spoolfile' and 'record' to point
to your inbox. Try it out for a while. If you're unhappy change it back.
Like Wim, I have had my Mutt 'record' pointing to my inbox for years --
and really the only disadvantage I have found is that I now get pretty
frustrated when I have to use some other mail system which doesn't let
me do that....

In addition to Wim's point about threading of the full conversation, I
find it very handy to have all the messages I'm currently dealing with
in one mailbox rather than having decide how I want to juggle back and
fourth between two separate ones.

Nathan
David Woodfall
2017-11-30 00:22:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Nathan Stratton Treadway
Post by Wim
Post by Daan van Rossum
Do any of you mutt users have experience with merged vs. split
mailboxes and have some good arguments for one or the other setup?
I starting using one box for received and sent emails 3 years ago and
have never looked back. If threads are enabled, it is easy to follow
conversations. On my setup I've just got two mail directories,
an inbox and an archive. Just set both 'spoolfile' and 'record' to point
to your inbox. Try it out for a while. If you're unhappy change it back.
Like Wim, I have had my Mutt 'record' pointing to my inbox for years --
and really the only disadvantage I have found is that I now get pretty
frustrated when I have to use some other mail system which doesn't let
me do that....
In addition to Wim's point about threading of the full conversation, I
find it very handy to have all the messages I'm currently dealing with
in one mailbox rather than having decide how I want to juggle back and
fourth between two separate ones.
Nathan
This is interesting. If I have several mailboxes would it be possible
to set the record = current folder on something?

I can see it would be very usable.

Dave
Tim Chase
2017-11-30 01:27:38 UTC
Permalink
Post by David Woodfall
This is interesting. If I have several mailboxes would it be
possible to set the record = current folder on something?
https://dev.mutt.org/trac/wiki/MuttFaq/Folder#HowtosavecopiesofoutgoingsenteMailstothecurrentfolder

:-)

-tkc
David Woodfall
2017-11-30 08:21:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tim Chase
Post by David Woodfall
This is interesting. If I have several mailboxes would it be
possible to set the record = current folder on something?
https://dev.mutt.org/trac/wiki/MuttFaq/Folder#HowtosavecopiesofoutgoingsenteMailstothecurrentfolder
:-)
-tkc
Thanks.

Erik Christiansen
2017-11-30 04:56:03 UTC
Permalink
Post by Daan van Rossum
Dear mutt users, I use two separate mailboxes for received and sent
emails, called "mbox" and "sent" respectively. When reading old
threads I sometimes wish I had sent and received mail in one and the
same mbox. I know it is easy to merge sent and mbox in mutt. But I
wonder what the disadvantages are.
Indeed, splitting outgoing and incoming messages prevents presentation of
the whole thread, so only has disadvantages, AFAICT.

However, throwing all email into one enormous porridge vat is also
disadvantageous, as hunting up and down for the highest priority mail to
deal with next is inefficient.

The method I've settled on is to have an inbox for each mailing list I'm
on, one for family, and the default inbox for the rest. Of the 199 mails
which arrived yesterday, only a dozen or so were unclassified, and the
rest were sorted by procmail.

Placing +/family_u /var/spool/mail/erik first on the first "mailboxes"
line in .muttrc gives them priority when changing mailbox with the 'c'
command.

An fcc-save-hook defaults email saving to "family" from "family_u",
although they could be left in situ. But mailing lists are another
matter. After deleting a large proportion of posts, I find it useful to
sort the informative posts according to subject. For the LinuxCNC list,
I have 454 subject-specific mailboxes, reducing the number of posts to
be searched on a specific topic from 22792 to just dozens or a few
hundred at most.

Erik
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