6.3.13 Choosing a Mail Back End

Gnus will read the mail spool when you activate a mail group. The mail file is first copied to your home directory. What happens after that depends on what format you want to store your mail in.

There are six different mail back ends in the standard Gnus, and more back ends are available separately. The mail back end most people use (because it is possibly the fastest) is nnml (see section 6.3.13.3 Mail Spool).

6.3.13.1 Unix Mail Box		Using the (quite) standard Un*x mbox.
6.3.13.2 Rmail Babyl		Emacs programs use the Rmail Babyl format.
6.3.13.3 Mail Spool		Store your mail in a private spool?
6.3.13.4 MH Spool		An mhspool-like back end.
6.3.13.5 Maildir		Another one-file-per-message format.
6.3.13.10 Mail Folders		Having one file for each group.
6.3.13.11 Comparing Mail Back Ends		An in-depth looks at pros and cons.