Re: [VM] smtp error

[John Hein]

Dave Webb wrote at 13:38 -0500 on Jun  2, 2011:
 > trying to use a smtp inbox for gmail.

smtp is the protocol for outgoing mail.
Perhaps you meant to write "imap" or "pop".
gmail supports retrieving mail via both imap and pop.
If you're not sure, send your vm settings.


 > Things were going fine, but now when connecting and asking inbox to
 > "g" get new mail, vm connects to smtp server, checks for mail,
 > starts to download and then suddenly posts this error
 > "vm-number-messages: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil".

One should not see this error.  It's typically either a corrupt folder
file or a bug in emacs or vm.  Re: corrupt file... at the top of the
folder file are some X-VM* header fields.  To help track down your
problem, you may want to copy your folder file to a backup, then
remove all the X-VM* fields.  Then visit the edited file in vm and see
if you still get the error.


 > If there is any mail in the inbox, now it is marked as read, remains on 
 > server but does not show up in the inbox folder of vm.
 > 
 > this might be related to the earlier error I posted about opening window 
 > not associated with any buffer, but i don't know.
 > 
 > sorry for all these beginner postings but that's where I'm at.

For these kinds of issues, it will usually help if you can narrow
it down to a simple reproducible case.  You should also try using
emacs and vm with default settings ...

mv ~/.vm ~/.vm.temp-move
mv ~/.vm.preferences ~/.vm.preferences.temp-move
sh
emacs -Q --eval "(autoload 'vm \"vm\" \"View Mail\" t)"

Also report version information (M-x vm-version and M-x version).

If you have a problem with a particular folder file (like you are
having), try to whittle it down to something that you can send to the
list or post somewhere (removing any private information).

If you only see a problem with certain personal settings, then
report the minimum non-default vm (and possibly emacs) settings.

If you are still seeing an error like the one you're having, try
setting the debug-on-error variable to t (don't set it permanently,
just when you run across a problem).

Also you may want to search for existing known problems here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/vm