Sup FAQ
-------
+Q: What is Sup?
+A: Sup is a console-based email client for people with a lot of email.
+ It supports tagging, very fast full-text search, automatic
+ contact-list management, and more. If you're the type of person
+ who subscribed to high-volume mailing lists and never deletes any
+ email, Sup is for you.
+
Q: What does Sup stand for?
-A: It stands for "what's up?", which is more or less the question in
- mind when I fire up my mail client.
+A: "What's up?"
+
+Q: Sup looks a lot like a text-based Gmail.
+A: I stole a lot of their ideas. And improved upon them, of course.
Q: If you love Gmail so much, why not just use it?
A: I hate ads, I hate using a mouse, and I hate non-programmability
and non-extensibility.
- Also, Gmail encourages top-posting. THIS CANNOT BE TOLERATED!
-
Also, Gmail doesn't let you use a monospace font, which is just
plain lame.
+ Also, Gmail encourages top-posting. THIS CANNOT BE TOLERATED!
+
Q: Why the console?
-A: Because a keystroke is worth a hundred mouse clicks (as any Unix
- user knows). Because you don't need web browser. Because you get
+A: Because a keystroke is worth a hundred mouse clicks, as any Unix
+ user knows. Because you don't need web browser. Because you get
instantaneous response and a simple interface.
Q: How does Sup deal with spam?
Q: But I want to delete it for real, not just add a 'deleted' flag in
the index. I want it gone from disk!
-A: Ok, at some point I plan to have a batch deletion tool that will
- run through a source and delete all messages that have a 'spam' or
- 'deleted' tags. But that doesn't exist yet.
+A: Currently, for mbox sources, there is a batch deletion tool that
+ will strip out all messages marked as spam or deleted.
Q: I got some error message about needing to run sup-sync --changed
when I tried to read a message. What's that about?
sources don't change except by having new messages added. If that
assumption is violated, you'll have to sync the index.
- The alternative is to rescan every source when Sup starts up.
- Because Sup is designed to work with arbitrarily large mbox files,
- this would not be a good idea.
-
Q: How do I back up my index?
Q: How do I make a state dump?
A: Since the contents of the messages are recoverable from their
Q: I upgraded Ferret and the index format changed. I need to
completely rebuild my index. How do I do this?
+Q: Ferret crashed and I can't read my index. Luckily I made a state
+ dump. What should I do?
A: First, you'll need a complete state dump. If you haven't made
one, you'll need to downgrade Ferret and make a state dump as
above. Then run these commands:
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/imap.rb:204: uninitialized constant Net::IMAP::SSL (NameError)
S: You need to install a package called libssl-ruby or something similar.
Or, don't use imaps:// sources. Ruby's IMAP library otherwise fails in
- this somewhat uninformative manner.
+ this completely uninformative manner.
P: When I run Sup remotely and view an HTML attachment, an existing
Firefox on the *local* machine is redirected to the attachment
I view HTML attachments in this environment?
S: Put this in your ~/.mailcap on the machine you run Sup on:
text/html; /usr/bin/firefox -a sup '%s'; description=HTML Text; test=test -n "$DISPLAY"; nametemplate=%s.html
-
First, try running 'sup'. Since this is your first time, you'll be
confronted with a mostly blank screen, and a notice at the bottom that
-you have no new messages. That's because Sup doesn't have any messages
-in its index yet, and has no idea where to look for them anyways.
+you have no new messages. That's because Sup doesn't hasn't loaded
+anything into its index yet, and has no idea where to look for them
+anyways.
If you want to play around a little at this point, you can press 'b'
to cycle between buffers and 'x' to kill a buffer. There's probably
keyboard commands, but in the absence of any email, these will be
mostly useless. When you get bored, press 'q' to quit.
-I mentioned that Sup's index was empty. The index is where Sup stores
-all message state (e.g. read or unread, any message labels), and all
-information necessary for searching and for threading messages. Sup
-only knows about messages in its index, so we've got to add some to
-it.
-
-We add messages to the index by telling Sup about the source where the
-messages reside. Sources are things like IMAP folders, mbox folders,
-maildir directories, and Gmail accounts (in the future). Sup doesn't
-duplicate the actual message content in the index. So when you search
-for messages or view your inbox, Sup talks only to the index (stored
-locally on disk). When you view a thread, Sup requests the full
-content of all the messages from the source.
+To actually use Sup for email, we need to load messages into the
+index. The index is where Sup stores all message state (e.g. read or
+unread, any message labels), and all information necessary for
+searching and for threading messages. Sup only knows about messages in
+its index.
+
+We can add messages to the index by telling Sup about the "source"
+where the messages reside. Sources are things like IMAP folders, mbox
+folders, maildir directories, and Gmail accounts (in the future). Sup
+doesn't duplicate the actual message content in the index; it only
+stores whatever information is necessary for searching, threading and
+labelling. So when you search for messages or view your inbox, Sup
+talks only to the index (stored locally on disk). When you view a
+thread, Sup requests the full content of all the messages from the
+source.
The easiest way to set up all your sources is to run "sup-config".
This will interactively walk you through some basic configuration,
prompt you for all the sources you need, and optionally import
-messages from them.
-
-sup-config works by calling sup-add and sup-sync with the right
-arguments. If you have a non-trivial setup, you may need to run
-sup-add and sup-sync manually.
-
-You can manually add a source to Sup's source list by running
-'sup-add' with a URI pointing to it. The URI should be of the form:
-- mbox://path/to/a/filename, for an mbox file on disk.
-- maildir://path/to/a/filename, for a maildir directory on disk.
-- imap://imap.server/folder for an unsecure IMAP folder.
-- imaps://secure.imap.server/folder for a secure IMAP folder.
-- mbox+ssh://remote.machine/path/to/a/filename for a remote mbox file.
-
-Before you add the source, you need make two decisions. The first is
-whether you want Sup to regularly poll this source for new messages.
-By default it will, but if this is a source that will never have new
-messages, you can specify --unusual. Sup polls only "usual" sources.
+messages from them. Sup-config uses two other tools, sup-add and
+sup-sync, to load messages into the index. In the future you may make
+use of these tools directly (see below).
-The second is whether you want messages from the source to be
-automatically archived. An archived message will not show up in your
-inbox, but will be found when you search. (Your inbox in Sup is, by
-definition, the set of all all non-archived messages). Specify
---archive to automatically archive all messages from the source. This
-is useful for sources that contain, for example, high-traffic mailing
-lists that you don't want polluting your inbox.
-
-If Sup requires account information, e.g. for IMAP servers and remote
-mbox files, sup-add will ask for it.
-
-Now that you've added the source, let's import all the current
-messages from it, by running sup-sync with the source URI. You can
-specify --archive to automatically archive all messages in this
-import; typically you'll want to specify this for every source you
-import except your actual inbox. You can also specify --read to mark
-all imported messages as read; the default is to preserve the
-read/unread status from the source.
-
-sup-sync will now load all the messages from the source into the
-index. Depending on the size of the source, this may take a while.
-Don't panic! It's a one-time process.
-
-Ok, now run 'sup'. You should see the most recent unarchived messages
-appear in your inbox. Congratulations, you've got Sup working!
+Once you've run sup-config, you're ready to run 'sup'. You should see
+the most recent unarchived messages appear in your inbox.
+Congratulations, you've got Sup working!
If you're coming from the world of traditional MUAs, there are a
couple differences you should be aware of at this point. First, Sup
-does not use folders. Instead, you organize and find messages by a
+has no folders. Instead, you organize and find messages by a
combination of search and labels (knowns as 'tags' everywhere else in
-the world). I claim that 95% of the functionality of folders is
-superseded by a quick, easy-to-access, and powerful search mechanism,
-and the other 5% by labels. (The Sup philosophical treatise has a
+the world). Search and labels are an integral part of Sup because in
+Sup, rather than viewing the contents of a folder, you view the
+results of a search. I mentioned above that your inbox is, by
+definition, the set of all messages that aren't archived. This means
+that your inbox is nothing more than the result of the search for all
+messages with the label "inbox". (It's actually slightly more
+complicated---we omit messages marked as killed, deleted or spam.)
+
+You could replicate the folder paradigm easily under this scheme, by
+giving each message exactly one label and only viewing the results of
+simple searches for those labels. But you'd quickly find out that life
+can be easier than that if you just trust the search engine, and use
+labels judiciously for things that are too hard to find with search.
+The idea is that a labeling system that allows arbitrary, user-defined
+labels, supplemented by a quick and easy-to-access search mechanism
+provides all the functionality that folders does, plus much more, at a
+far lower cost to the user. (The Sup philosophical treatise has a
little more on this.)
-Search and labels are an integral part of Sup because in Sup, rather
-than viewing the contents of a folder, you view the results of a
-search. I mentioned above that your inbox is, by definition, the set
-of all messages that aren't archived. This means that your inbox is,
-in fact, the result of the search for all messages with the label
-"inbox". (It's actually slightly more complicated---we omit killed,
-deleted and spam messages as well.)
-
-So you could replicate the folder paradigm easily under this scheme,
-by giving each message exactly one label and only viewing the results
-of simple searches for those labels. But you'd quickly find out that
-life can be easier than that if you just trust the search engine, and
-use labels judiciously for things that are too hard to find with
-search.
-
Now let's take a look at your inbox. You'll see that Sup groups
messages together into threads: each line in the inbox is a thread,
and the number in parentheses is the number of messages in that
-thread. (If there's no number, there's just one message.) In Sup, most
-operations are on threads, not individual messages. The idea is that
-you rarely want to operate on a message independent of its context.
-You typically want to view, archive, kill, or label all the messages
-in a thread at one time.
+thread. (If there's no number, there's just one message in the
+thread.) In Sup, most operations are on threads, not individual
+messages. The ideais that you rarely want to operate on a message
+independent of its context. You typically want to view, archive, kill,
+or label all the messages in a thread at one time.
Use the up and down arrows to highlight a thread. ('j' and 'k' do the
same thing, and 'J' and 'K' will scroll the whole window. Even the
messages. You'll also notice that Sup hides quoted text and
signatures. If you highlight a particular hidden chunk, you can press
enter to expand it, or you can press 'o' to toggle every hidden chunk
-in a particular message. (You can hit '?' to see the full list of
-keyboard commands at any point.)
+in a particular message. (Remember, you can hit '?' to see the full
+list of keyboard commands at any point.)
A few other useful commands while viewing a thread. Press 'd' to
toggle a detailed header for a message. If you've scrolled too far to
but which seem to pop up on every mailing list.)
If a thread is spam, press 'S'. It will disappear and won't come back.
-It won't even appear in search results (unless you explicitly search
-for spam.)
+It won't even appear in search results, unless you explicitly search
+for spam.
-You can also star a thread by pressing '*'. Starred threads are
-displayed with a little yellow asterisk next to them, but otherwise
-have no special semantics. (But you can also search for them
-easily---we'll see how in a moment).
+You can star a thread by pressing '*'. Starred threads are displayed
+with a little yellow asterisk next to them, but otherwise have no
+special semantics. But you can also search for them easily---we'll see
+how in a moment.
To edit the labels for (all the messages in) a thread, press 'l'. Type
in the labels as a sequence of space-separated words. To cancel the
command to the set of threads. ';t', of course, will untag all tagged
messages.
-Ok, let's try using labels and search. Press 'L' to bring up a list of
-all the labels you've ever used, along with some special labels
-(Draft, Starred, Sent, Spam, etc.). Highlight a label and press enter
-to view all the messages with that label.
+Ok, let's try using labels and search. Press 'L' to do a quick label
+search. You'll be prompted for a label; simply hit enter to bring up
+scrollable list of all the labels you've ever used, along with some
+special labels (Draft, Starred, Sent, Spam, etc.). Highlight a label
+and press enter to view all the messages with that label.
What you just did was actually a specific search. For a general
search, press "/". Now type in your query (again, Ctrl-G to cancel at
- Queries against a particular field using <field name>:<query>,
e.g.: label:ruby-talk, or from:matz@ruby-lang.org. (Fields include:
body, from, to, and subject.)
-- Force occurrence and non-occurrence using + and -, e.g. +label:spam,
- or -body:"hot soup"
+- Force non-occurrence by -, e.g. -body:"hot soup"
You can combine those all together. For example:
- +label:ruby-talk +subject:\[ANN\] -rails
+ label:ruby-talk subject:\[ANN\] -rails
Play around with the search, and see the Ferret documentation for
details on more sophisticated queries (date ranges, "within n words",
- Star an individual message, not just a thread
There's one last thing to be aware of when using Sup: how it interacts
-with other email programs. Sup stores data about messages in the
-index, but doesn't duplicate the message contents themselves. The
-messages remain on the source. If the index and the source every fall
-out of sync, e.g. due to another email client modifying the source,
-then Sup will be unable to operate on that source.
-
-For example, for mbox files, Sup stores a byte offset into the file
-for each message. If a message deleted from that file by another
-client, or even marked as read (yeah, mbox sucks), all succeeding
-offsets will be wrong.
-
-That's the bad news. The good news is that Sup is fairly good at being
+with other email programs. As I described at the beginning of the
+document, Sup stores data about messages in the index, but doesn't
+duplicate the message contents themselves. The messages remain on the
+source. If the index and the source every fall out of sync, e.g. due
+to another email client modifying the source, then Sup will be unable
+to operate on that source. For example, for mbox files, Sup stores a
+byte offset into the file for each message. If a message deleted from
+that file by another client, or even marked as read (yeah, mbox
+sucks), all succeeding offsets will be wrong.
+
+That's the bad news. The good news is that Sup is pretty good at being
able to detect this type of situation, and fixing it is just a matter
of running sup-sync --changed on the source. Sup will even tell you
how to invoke sup-sync when it detects a problem. This is a
and another MUA on the same source, so it's good to be aware of it.
Have fun, and let me know if you have any problems. --William
+
+Appending A: sup-add and sup-sync
+---------------------------------
+
+Instead of using sup-config to add a new source, you can manually run
+'sup-add' with a URI pointing to it. The URI should be of the form:
+- mbox://path/to/a/filename, for an mbox file on disk.
+- maildir://path/to/a/filename, for a maildir directory on disk.
+- imap://imap.server/folder for an unsecure IMAP folder.
+- imaps://secure.imap.server/folder for a secure IMAP folder.
+- mbox+ssh://remote.machine/path/to/a/filename for a remote mbox file.
+
+Before you add the source, you need make three decisions. The first is
+whether you want Sup to regularly poll this source for new messages.
+By default it will, but if this is a source that will never have new
+messages, you can specify --unusual. Sup polls only "usual" sources.
+
+The second is whether you want messages from the source to be
+automatically archived. An archived message will not show up in your
+inbox, but will be found when you search. (Your inbox in Sup is, by
+definition, the set of all all non-archived messages). Specify
+--archive to automatically archive all messages from the source. This
+is useful for sources that contain, for example, high-traffic mailing
+lists that you don't want polluting your inbox.
+
+The final decision is whether you want any labels automatically
+applied to messages from this source. You can use --labels to do this.
+
+If Sup requires account information, e.g. for IMAP servers and remote
+mbox files, sup-add will ask for it.
+
+Now that you've added the source, let's import all the current
+messages from it, by running sup-sync with the source URI. You can
+specify --archive to automatically archive all messages in this
+import; typically you'll want to specify this for every source you
+import except your actual inbox. You can also specify --read to mark
+all imported messages as read; the default is to preserve the
+read/unread status from the source.
+
+sup-sync will now load all the messages from the source into the
+index. Depending on the size of the source, this may take a while.
+Don't panic! It's a one-time process.
+
+Appending B: Handling high-volume mailing lists
+-----------------------------------------------
+
+Here's what I recommend:
+1. Use procmail to filter messages from the list into a distinct source.
+2. Add that source to Sup as a usual source with auto-archive turned
+ on, and with a label corresponding to the mailing list name.
+ (E.g.: sup-add mbox:/home/me/Mail/ruby-talk -a -l ruby-talk)
+3. Voila! Sup will load new messages into the index but not into the
+ inbox, and you can browse the mailing list traffice at any point by
+ searching for that label.
+
+
+
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