README.md -- Installation instructions need help

[gauteh]

README.md -- Installation instructions need help

[gauteh]

Hi Jeff, I'm sorry that the instructions did not work for you - unfortunately I don't have time to give you a long answer at the moment, but here goes:

setuptools setup.py is a standard packaging tool for python packages, so I did not intend to give an explanation of how to use it. You can use it to create a package, distribution, source distro --- or to do a local install, that usually entails doing:

$ python setup.py build
$ python setup.py install

that would probably try to install gmaileer to /usr/local/. Hopefully your system works with that, if not check command args to choose a different prefix. Here is the arch linux package.

A gmaileer repository was intended to be a sub-dir of your root mail folder, with notmych already set up, so:

~/mail <- root mail
~/mail/.notmuch
~/mail/arbitrary.imap.account <- other account, maybe synced with offlineimap
~/mail/gmail.account1 <- first gmaileer repo
~/mail/gmail.account2 <- second gmaileer repo

this is an equivalent setup to mine. Then all gmi commands should be run from within the ~/mail/gmail.account1 (and/or ~/mail/gmail.account2).

The requirements names are the most generic package names I could find - irrespective of distro: specific distro instructions could go in a separate section or wiki.

[gauteh]

Jeff Stern writes on august 29, 2017 22:25:

Hi, Gaute - Thanks for your quick responses. Sticking to the main point of where I am stuck: How can notmuch be set up already, when the maildir does not yet exist? As I mentioned in 3., gmi bums out because notmuch does not yet have a Xapian directory set up. But how can I set up a notmuch installation (with its ./xapian subdir) if there is nothing for notmuch to run on yet (because the maildir has not yet been downloaded)? This seems like a bit of a Catch-22.

No, notmuch does not need to have anything to work on. It can use an empty root, I don't have the chance to test this now, but for a fresh install I think this should work (backup you mail!): $ cd ~ $ mkdir mail $ notmuch setup ...

follow instructions, point notmuch to ~/mail

... $ cd mail $ mkdir gmail.account1 $ cd gmail.account1 $ gmi init [email protected]

[gauteh]

It is not used with offlineimap or any other syncing: only notmuch. The emails have to be re-downloaded, anything else would be really tricky to do. Initial sync might take some time, but if it crashes for some reason (e.g. broken connection) it will pick up were it left if you restart it.

[androclus]

Hi, Gaute - Thanks for your quick responses. Sticking to the main point of where I am stuck: How can notmuch be set up already, when the maildir does not yet exist? As I mentioned in 3., gmi bums out because notmuch does not yet have a Xapian directory set up. But how can I set up a notmuch installation (with its ./xapian subdir) if there is nothing for notmuch to run on yet (because the maildir has not yet been downloaded)? This seems like a bit of a Catch-22.

[androclus]

Okay, thanks. This has gotten me farther, and I didn't realize I could do a notmuch new without any mail in there (thus creating the xapian subdir), but it does work.

I have started the download successfully! Thank you for your tips.

If it will be helpful, I've forked off this repo, and will edit the README.md to add in these steps explicitly, and send you a pull request. Should make it a bit easier for newbs like me. :-)

[gauteh]

Jeff Stern writes on august 29, 2017 23:28:

Okay, thanks. This has gotten me farther, and I didn't realize I could do a notmuch new without any mail in there (thus creating the xapian subdir), but it does work. I have started the download successfully! Thank you for your tips. If it will be helpful, I've forked off this repo, and will edit the README.md to add in these steps explicitly, and send you a pull request. Should make it a bit easier for newbs like me. :-)

Yes, feel free to do that, that would be useful. As I mentioned; distribution-specific instructions should go in the wiki - but it would be fine to link to a general page from the README. Can we close #37 as a duplicate of this?

[androclus]

Sure, Gaute, let's close #37, and I'll address that issue, as well, in the revision to the README.md.