[PLUG] Emacs: Where Did My Email Go?

[Dean S. Messing]

 ::  I opened up my mail inbox with Emacs and now I can't find out where
 :: it went to. I searched for Rmail in my home directory and then my HD
 :: using mc with find and case-sensitive off and I can not find it. 
 ::  Anyone know where to look for moved mail in Emacs? I was running X
 :: if that makes a differemnce

If you have ~/<mail dir>/inbox defined as your mailbox (mine is:

  (setq rmail-file-name "~/.mail/inbox")

then that is where your moved mail resides.  If you simply edit this
file no mail is moved.

If you hit C-g while editing your inbox, mail is moved (typically from
/var/spool/mail/<your username>).  If you start rmail (w/, e.g., M-x rmail)
then mail is also moved and your inbox is "found" (emacs-ese for "edited").

If something goes wrong during the move (like your home dir fills up)
you can usually find the moved mail somewhere in your home dir because
`movemail' does an indirect copy from /var/spool/mail/<your username>
to ~/.mail/inbox via a backup file.

For the details do (w/in Emacs):

 C-h i m emacs <RET> 
 C-s movemail  <RET> <RET>

and start reading.

You also may get a hint about where the missing mail is by doing something
slightly more general than your search:

You also may get a hint about where the missing mail is by doing something
slightly more general than your search:

find ~ -type f | fgrep -i "mail"

and picking through the output for the backup file.

But I'd read the info page above before doing the latter.

Dean