Re: IMAP over SSH in GNUS

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:51:16 +0100 Hans Ekbrand <hans.ekbrand@sociology.gu.se> 
wrote: 

HE> I want to try out gnus for reading email. Currently, I use mutt with IMAP 
over ssh like this:

HE> set tunnel="ssh -q code.cjb.net 'export MAIL=maildir:$HOME/Maildir; 
/usr/lib/dovecot/imap --exec-mail imap'"

HE> After reading the documentation of gnus, I tried the following:

HE> (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "textnews.news.cambrium.nl"))
HE> (setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
HE>     '(
HE>             (nnimap "code.cjb.net"
HE>                     (nnimap-stream shell)
HE>                     (imap-shell-program "ssh -q code.cjb.net 'export 
MAIL=maildir:$HOME/Maildir; /usr/lib/dovecot/imap --exec-mail imap'")
HE>              )
HE>                 (nnimap "test"
HE>                      (nnimap-address "localhost")
HE>                      (nnimap-server-port 1234)
HE>              )
HE>     )
HE> )

HE> While the second entry "test", works it requires:

HE>  a. a working ssh-tunnel before I start gnus
HE>  b. that the imap server is configured to listen on a port and to 
authenticate
HE>  c. that gnus manages (asks me about) username and password for the imap 
server

HE> All of which are unnecessary in my current setup (the mutt-onliner above).

HE> Why does not the first entry above "code.cjb.net" work? (gnus says:
HE>      {nnimap:test} (opened)
HE>      {nnimap:code.cjb.net} (denied))

Try a standalone shell script to set up the tunnel.  When that works,
you can just call it from Gnus.  I never had luck with opening SSH
directly.  Here's what I used to use:

#!/bin/sh

ssh -x z@x.y.com /home/lifelogs/bin/imapd | tee /tmp/imap-run

The tee was so I could see what happened on the server side.  I needed
this because Courier IMAP was not supported at the hosting company I had
back then :)

Ted