Re: OfflineIMAP for backups

[Vincent Beffara <vbeffara+ml@xxxxxxxxx>]

> On Nov 28, 2007 7:57 PM, John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Probably Fetchmail would better suit your needs.
>=20
> Ah, but fetchmail can only operate on one folder at a time and also
> never deletes mail in the local copy, even when it gets deleted on the
> server. Right?
>=20
> I'm searching for a solution which works like offlineimap, but ensures
> that differences always get resolved by syncing from the server to the
> local maildir and never the in the other direction.

An idea could be, if you have plenty of disk space, to run offlineimap=20
to sync an IMAP server to a "staging" Maildir, and then use something=20
like "rsync --delete" to propagate (in one direction) from the staging=20
area to the "real" backup. So supposedly the staging area is always=20
identical to the IMAP version by construction, and the real backup does=20
not affect the live system.

Plus, with rsync you can create "live snapshots" using hardlinks and all=20
sorts of fancy stuff like that. And of course the "staging" and "backup"=20
copies can live on different machines. Plus you can use the "live" Maildi=
r=20
to read your e-mail locally.

Admittedly, having two copies locally sounds a little overkill, OTOH to=20
restore after a mishap by a local "cp -a" or something is certainly=20
convenient - and it will then be merrily synced to the IMAP server by=20
OfflineIMAP (at least I believe it will).

HTH,

  /v

--=20
Vincent Beffara
UMPA - ENS-Lyon
46 all=E9e d'Italie
69364 Lyon Cedex 07
T=E9l : 04 72 72 85 25