[VM] stunnel, folders, comment

[Dave Webb]

i'm running windows7, so i installed stunnel 4.36 which includes an exe
file located in c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel.exe

do i specify in the .vm file c:/program files (x86)/stunnel or
c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel or
c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel.exe (i guess my question
becomes, is vm supposed to start stunnel)

downloaded and trying ver 8.1.2, since running make/make install w/
cygwin puts some files (or tries to) in wierd places (like
system/system32) I just unpacked in ~/vm, byte compiled the info files
and manually moved them, placed exec files in system. have a basic .vm
file (which keeps getting larger as everytime I try and run vm, it says
to set another variable) which defines vm-folder-directory,
primary-inbox, mail archive, mail crashbox, stunnel, vm spool file (set
to imap-ssl, etc, etc,) , imap folder and again for smtpmail. Running
M-x vm, it opens in a separate window with (*scratch* since that's where
I opned it with the minibuffer reading "No VM folder buffer associated
with this buffer". i thought i had defined every option for mailboxes,
folders, etc.

comment: I am by no means very competent programmer though i have done
stuff in python, perl and now some very small lisp YET I CAN'T GET THIS
THING TO WORK. Uday made the comment "22 people is that all the users we
have?" without some better way to get this going easily I don't wonder.
I have thunderbird and mailbox express running and yeah I know all about
windoze is crap and all, but they installed with MINIMUM fuss and
working out of the box. sorry about the rant, but now a week into this
and frustration is running high.

[Uday S Reddy]

Hi Dave,

Sorry to see you getting frustrated. As I menioned in a previous
post, I am out travelling but I am taking time off to write back
because you seem to be stuck.

If you are a new user of VM (which wasn't clear from your earlier
posts), then I recommend that you follow the instrucitons on the
Emacswiki page:

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ViewMailQuickStart

In particular, I recommend that you use VM from the build directory as
described in the INSTALL file and the Emacswiki page, and not do make
install. Doing system install on Cygwin under Windows (which are two
separate environments already) is a complicated business and you would
need to know how everything works before you can attempt that. If the
Emacswiki page is deficient in some way, please let us know and
somebody will attempt to fix that.

VM is one component in the open software setup, and all the other
components have to fit and work correctly in order to get the results
you need.

Post by Dave Webb
i'm running windows7, so i installed stunnel 4.36 which includes an exe
file located in c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel.exe
do i specify in the .vm file c:/program files (x86)/stunnel or
c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel or
c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel.exe (i guess my question
becomes, is vm supposed to start stunnel)

VM is preconfigured to use "stunnel" (the value of the variable
`vm-stunnel-program') whenever you need the secure sockets layer (SSL)
for email. I myself use the Cygwin's stunnel program, which is on my
PATH and Emacs's exec-path and I never had to configure anything for
it. If you want to use some other stunnel program, then you need to
specify either make sure that its location is included in the Emacs
exec-path or specify the full path in the `vm-stunnel-program'
variable. If it doesn't work, then I recommend that you simply use
the Cygwin's stunnel program.

VM gets close to 500 downloads from Launchpad, and an unknown number
of other users download it from the gnu web site or use it from
in-built Linux releases. The 22 users that have signed up to this
mailing list are volunteers who care. They will be happy to help you
with the problems you face. But please be SPECIFIC and PRECISE about
the problems. Rants won't help because they will simply put off all
the volunteers who are donating their time and attention to VM.

I am afraid precision is lacking in your reports. For instance, you
say you downloaded version 8.1.2, but there is no such release. You
probably menat 8.1.1., or perhaps 8.2.0a pre-release. We don't know.
You haven't mentioned which stunnel program you have installed. These
details matter. If something is not working, you need to describe the
precise behaviour you are witnessing so that we can figure out what
could be going wrong. The more information you provide, the better
help you can get.

Cheers,
Uday

[Dave Webb]

Post by Uday S Reddy
Hi Dave,
Sorry to see you getting frustrated. As I menioned in a previous
post, I am out travelling but I am taking time off to write back
because you seem to be stuck.

I appreciate your help and realize that I am not very clear, since I
don't really know what is important and what isn't.

I apologize to the list for ranting.

Post by Uday S Reddy
If you are a new user of VM (which wasn't clear from your earlier
posts), then I recommend that you follow the instrucitons on the
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ViewMailQuickStart
In particular, I recommend that you use VM from the build directory as
described in the INSTALL file and the Emacswiki page, and not do make
install. Doing system install on Cygwin under Windows (which are two
separate environments already) is a complicated business and you would
need to know how everything works before you can attempt that. If the
Emacswiki page is deficient in some way, please let us know and
somebody will attempt to fix that.
VM is one component in the open software setup, and all the other
components have to fit and work correctly in order to get the results
you need.

Post by Dave Webb
i'm running windows7, so i installed stunnel 4.36 which includes an exe
file located in c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel.exe
do i specify in the .vm file c:/program files (x86)/stunnel or
c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel or
c:/program files (x86)/stunnel/stunnel.exe (i guess my question
becomes, is vm supposed to start stunnel)

VM is preconfigured to use "stunnel" (the value of the variable
`vm-stunnel-program') whenever you need the secure sockets layer (SSL)
for email. I myself use the Cygwin's stunnel program, which is on my
PATH and Emacs's exec-path and I never had to configure anything for
it. If you want to use some other stunnel program, then you need to
specify either make sure that its location is included in the Emacs
exec-path or specify the full path in the `vm-stunnel-program'
variable. If it doesn't work, then I recommend that you simply use
the Cygwin's stunnel program.
VM gets close to 500 downloads from Launchpad, and an unknown number
of other users download it from the gnu web site or use it from
in-built Linux releases. The 22 users that have signed up to this
mailing list are volunteers who care. They will be happy to help you
with the problems you face. But please be SPECIFIC and PRECISE about
the problems. Rants won't help because they will simply put off all
the volunteers who are donating their time and attention to VM.
I am afraid precision is lacking in your reports. For instance, you
say you downloaded version 8.1.2, but there is no such release. You
probably menat 8.1.1., or perhaps 8.2.0a pre-release. We don't know.
You haven't mentioned which stunnel program you have installed. These
details matter. If something is not working, you need to describe the
precise behaviour you are witnessing so that we can figure out what
could be going wrong. The more information you provide, the better
help you can get.
Cheers,
Uday

[Dave Webb]

Post by Uday S Reddy
Hi Dave,
Sorry to see you getting frustrated. As I menioned in a previous
post, I am out travelling but I am taking time off to write back
because you seem to be stuck.

Thank you very much for this, your encouragement has kept me trying
to make it work rather than trying another program.

Post by Uday S Reddy
for email. I myself use the Cygwin's stunnel program, which is on my

this was a key item to making it work, the MS binary for stunnel 4.6 kept
hanging and freezing up emacs, eventually reporting failure.

Post by Uday S Reddy
I am afraid precision is lacking in your reports.

you are right and I apologize, not really knowing what I should report.

changing from emacs smtp and starttls to msmtp configured to use its own
start tls worked for me.

imap server still seems buggy, this week I'm switching to using the pop
server for gmail instead and things so far are working out ok.

again thanks for the support and by the way this is being sent by emacs-vm

Post by Uday S Reddy
Cheers,
Uday

[Uday S Reddy]

Post by Dave Webb
changing from emacs smtp and starttls to msmtp configured to use its own
start tls worked for me.

That is great. Congratulations!

Post by Dave Webb
imap server still seems buggy, this week I'm switching to using the pop
server for gmail instead and things so far are working out ok.

Please let me know in due course what is going wrong with IMAP and I
can look into it. Many of us use gmail IMAP server quite regularly.

Cheers,
Uday