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(gnus)Splitting in IMAP

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Splitting in IMAP
.................

   Splitting is something Gnus users have loved and used for years, and
now the rest of the world is catching up.  Yeah, dream on; not many
IMAP servers have server side splitting and those that have splitting
seem to use some non-standard protocol.  This means that IMAP support
for Gnus has to do its own splitting.

   And it does.

   Here are the variables of interest:

`nnimap-split-crosspost'
     If non-nil, do crossposting if several split methods match the
     mail.  If nil, the first match in `nnimap-split-rule' found will
     be used.

     Nnmail equivalent: `nnmail-crosspost'.

`nnimap-split-inbox'
     A string or a list of strings that gives the name(s) of IMAP
     mailboxes to split from.  Defaults to `nil', which means that
     splitting is disabled!

          (setq nnimap-split-inbox
                '("INBOX" ("~/friend/Mail" . "lists/*") "lists.imap"))

     No nnmail equivalent.

`nnimap-split-rule'
     New mail found in `nnimap-split-inbox' will be split according to
     this variable.

     This variable contains a list of lists, where the first element in
     the sublist gives the name of the IMAP mailbox to move articles
     matching the regexp in the second element in the sublist.  Got
     that?  Neither did I, we need examples.

          (setq nnimap-split-rule
                '(("INBOX.nnimap"
                   "^Sender: owner-nnimap@vic20.globalcom.se")
                  ("INBOX.junk"    "^Subject:.*MAKE MONEY")
                  ("INBOX.private" "")))

     This will put all articles from the nnimap mailing list into
     mailbox INBOX.nnimap, all articles containing MAKE MONEY in the
     Subject: line into INBOX.spam and everything else in INBOX.private.

     The first string may contain `\\DIGIT' forms, like the ones used by
     replace-match to insert sub-expressions from the matched text.  For
     instance:

          ("INBOX.lists.\\1"     "^Sender: owner-\\([a-z-]+\\)@")

     The second element can also be a function.  In that case, it will
     be called with the first element of the rule as the argument, in a
     buffer containing the headers of the article.  It should return a
     non-nil value if it thinks that the mail belongs in that group.

     Nnmail users might recollect that the last regexp had to be empty
     to match all articles (like in the example above).  This is not
     required in nnimap.  Articles not matching any of the regexps will
     not be moved out of your inbox.  (This might affect performance if
     you keep lots of unread articles in your inbox, since the
     splitting code would go over them every time you fetch new mail.)

     These rules are processed from the beginning of the alist toward
     the end.  The first rule to make a match will `win', unless you
     have crossposting enabled.  In that case, all matching rules will
     `win'.

     This variable can also have a function as its value, the function
     will be called with the headers narrowed and should return a group
     to where it thinks the article should be split.  See
     `nnimap-split-fancy'.

     The splitting code tries to create mailboxes if it needs too.

     To allow for different split rules on different virtual servers,
     and even different split rules in different inboxes on the same
     server, the syntax of this variable has been extended along the
     lines of:

          (setq nnimap-split-rule
                '(("my1server"    (".*"    (("ding"    "ding@gnus.org")
                                            ("junk"    "From:.*Simon")))
                  ("my2server"    ("INBOX" nnimap-split-fancy))
                  ("my[34]server" (".*"    (("private" "To:.*Simon")
                                            ("junk"    my-junk-func)))))

     The virtual server name is in fact a regexp, so that the same rules
     may apply to several servers.  In the example, the servers
     `my3server' and `my4server' both use the same rules.  Similarly,
     the inbox string is also a regexp.  The actual splitting rules are
     as before, either a function, or a list with group/regexp or
     group/function elements.

     Nnmail equivalent: `nnmail-split-methods'.

`nnimap-split-predicate'
     Mail matching this predicate in `nnimap-split-inbox' will be
     split; it is a string and the default is `UNSEEN UNDELETED'.

     This might be useful if you use another IMAP client to read mail in
     your inbox but would like Gnus to split all articles in the inbox
     regardless of readedness. Then you might change this to
     `UNDELETED'.

`nnimap-split-fancy'
     It's possible to set `nnimap-split-rule' to `nnmail-split-fancy'
     if you want to use fancy splitting. Note: Fancy Mail Splitting.

     However, to be able to have different fancy split rules for nnmail
     and nnimap back ends you can set `nnimap-split-rule' to
     `nnimap-split-fancy' and define the nnimap specific fancy split
     rule in `nnimap-split-fancy'.

     Example:

          (setq nnimap-split-rule 'nnimap-split-fancy
                nnimap-split-fancy ...)

     Nnmail equivalent: `nnmail-split-fancy'.