Incorporating Old Mail
----------------------

   Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats.  If
you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
backends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
your mail groups.

   Doing so can be quite easy.

   To take an example: You're reading mail using `nnml' (*note Mail
Spool::.), and have set `nnmail-split-methods' to a satisfactory value
(see Splitting Mail.).  You have an old Unix mbox file filled with
important, but old, mail.  You want to move it into your `nnml' groups.

   Here's how:

  1. Go to the group buffer.

  2. Type `G f' and give the path of the mbox file when prompted to
     create an `nndoc' group from the mbox file (*note Foreign
     Groups::.).

  3. Type `SPACE' to enter the newly created group.

  4. Type `M P b' to process-mark all articles in this group (
see Setting Process Marks.).

  5. Type `B r' to respool all the process-marked articles, and answer
     `nnml' when prompted (see Mail Group Commands.).

   All the mail messages in the mbox file will now also be spread out
over all your `nnml' groups.  Try entering them and check whether things
have gone without a glitch.  If things look ok, you may consider
deleting the mbox file, but I wouldn't do that unless I was absolutely
sure that all the mail has ended up where it should be.

   Respooling is also a handy thing to do if you're switching from one
mail backend to another.  Just respool all the mail in the old mail
groups using the new mail backend.