Subject: Re: bug#31737: 26.1.50; Gnus does not use mailutils movemail

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2018 22:20:50 +0300

> From: Robert Pluim <[email-masked]>
> Cc: [email-masked],  [email-masked]
> Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2018 20:47:53 +0200
> 
> > But then the fix should be where mail-source-movemail-progam is used,
> > not in its default value, right?  Gnus should use executable-find to
> > look for the program named by mail-source-movemail-progam.
> >
> 
> It blindly calls call-process at the moment, rather than using
> executable-find, but thatʼs a separate issue.

But call-process looks up the program along exec-path, and exec-path
puts exec-directory at its end.  Right?  So if GNU Mailutils are
installed and on PATH, Gnus should find its movemail first, right?  Or
am I missing something?

IOW, if Gnus calls call-process, then it already uses executable-find,
albeit internally.

> >> The simplest fix is below, but it will cause people who currently have
> >> Mailutils movemail installed, but an emacs built to not use it, to
> >> start using it, so it makes me uncomfortable. Perhaps gnus should
> >> check in 'exec-directory' first if mail-source-movemail-program is
> >> nil, and then fall back to 'executable-find'?
> >
> > I see no need for any special handling by Emacs here: the user could
> > customize the value to point to "our" movemail as an absolute file
> > name, in which case executable-find will pick it up.  We just need to
> > change Gnus to use executable-find where the variable is used.
> 
> In emacs-26 there is no "our" movemail to point at when Mailutils were
> detected, and asking the user to customize a variable to get back to
> where they were before feels wrong as well.

We are mis-communicating, I think.  The situation you described in
which you feel uncomfortable was that both Mailutils and "our"
movemail are installed.  If that's not the situation, then what makes
you uncomfortable about a case where only one movemail is available
and Gnus uses it?