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<!ENTITY OfflineIMAP "<application>OfflineIMAP</application>">
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<reference>
<refentryinfo>
<address><email>jgoerzen@complete.org</email></address>
<author><firstname>John</firstname><surname>Goerzen</surname></author>
- <date> $Date: 2003-01-08 08:40:39 -0600 (Wed, 08 Jan 2003) $ </date>
+ <date> $Date: 2004-06-04 10:26:30 -0500 (Fri, 04 Jun 2004) $ </date>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<arg>-a <replaceable>accountlist</replaceable></arg>
<arg>-c <replaceable>configfile</replaceable></arg>
<arg>-d <replaceable>debugtype[,...]</replaceable></arg>
+ <arg>-l <replaceable>filename</replaceable></arg>
<arg>-o</arg>
<arg>-u <replaceable>interface</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
<refsect2>
<title>Method of Operation</title>
- <para>&OfflineIMAP; operates by maintaining a hierarchy of
+ <para>&OfflineIMAP; traditionally
+ operates by maintaining a hierarchy of
mail folders in Maildir format locally. Your own mail
reader will read mail from this tree, and need never know
that the mail comes from IMAP. &OfflineIMAP; will detect
computer and bi-directionally synchronize them, copying,
marking, and deleting messages as necessary.
</para>
+ <para>
+ With &OfflineIMAP; 4.0, a powerful new ability has been
+ introduced -- the program can now synchronize two IMAP
+ servers with each other, with no need to have a Maildir
+ layer in-between. Many people use this if they use a mail
+ reader on their local machine that does not support
+ Maildirs. People may install an IMAP server on their local
+ machine, and point both &OfflineIMAP; and their mail reader
+ of choice at it. This is often preferable to the mail
+ reader's own IMAP support since &OfflineIMAP; supports many
+ features (offline reading, for one) that most IMAP-aware
+ readers don't. However, this feature is not as time-tested
+ as traditional syncing, so my advice is to stick with normal
+ methods of operation for the time being.
+ </para>
</refsect2>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Quick Start</title>
<para>If you have already installed &OfflineIMAP; system-wide,
- or your system adminstrator has done that for you, your task
+ or your system administrator has done that for you, your task
for setting up &OfflineIMAP; for the first time is quite
simple. You just need to set up your configuration file, make
your folder directory, and run it!
<PROGRAMLISTING>[general]
accounts = Test
-[Test]
+[Account Test]
+localrepository = Local
+remoterepository = Remote
+
+[Repository Local]
+type = Maildir
localfolders = ~/Test
+
+[Repository Remote]
+type = IMAP
remotehost = examplehost
remoteuser = jgoerzen
</PROGRAMLISTING>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Have a mail reader that supports the Maildir mailbox format. Most
- modern mail readers have this support built-in, so you can choose from
- a wide variety of mail servers. This format is also known as the
- "qmail" format, so any mail reader compatible with it will work with
- &OfflineIMAP;.
+ Have a mail reader that supports the Maildir mailbox
+ format. Most modern mail readers have this support
+ built-in, so you can choose from a wide variety of mail
+ servers. This format is also known as the "qmail"
+ format, so any mail reader compatible with it will work
+ with &OfflineIMAP;. If you do not have a mail reader
+ that supports Maildir, you can often install a local
+ IMAP server and point both &OfflineIMAP; and your mail
+ reader at it.
+ </para>
</itemizedlist>
</refsect2>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="configuration">
- <title id="configuration-title">Configruation</title>
+ <title id="configuration-title">Configuration</title>
<para>
&OfflineIMAP; is regulated by a configuration file that is normally
stored in <filename>~/.offlineimaprc</filename>. &OfflineIMAP;
&OfflineIMAP;.
</para>
- <variablelist><title>OfflineIMAP arguments</title>
+ <variablelist>
<varlistentry><term>-1</term>
<listitem><para>Disable most multithreading operations and use
solely a single-connection
- sync. This effectively sets the <property>maxsyncaccounts</property>
+ sync. This effectively sets the
+ <property>maxsyncaccounts</property>
and all <property>maxconnections</property> configuration file
variables to 1.
</para></listitem>
<para><option>-d</option> requires one or more debugtypes,
separated by commas. These define what exactly will be
- debugged, and include two options: <property>imap</property>
- and <property>maildir</property>. The <property>imap</property>
+ debugged, and include three options: <property>imap</property>,
+ <property>maildir</property>, and <property>thread</property>.
+ The <property>imap</property>
option will enable IMAP protocol stream and parsing debugging. Note
that the output may contain passwords, so take care to remove that
from the debugging output before sending it to anyone else. The
<property>maildir</property> option will enable debugging for
- certain Maildir operations.
+ certain Maildir operations. And <property>thread</property>
+ will debug the threading model.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry><term>-l
+ <replaceable>filename</replaceable></term>
+ <listitem><para>
+ Enables logging to filename. This will log everything
+ that goes to the screen to the specified file.
+ Additionally, if any debugging is specified with -d,
+ then debug messages will not go to the screen, but
+ instead to the logfile only.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>-o</term>
<listitem><para>Run only once, ignoring all
<property>autorefresh</property> settings in the configuration
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>-u <replaceable>interface</replaceable></term>
<listitem><para>Specifies an alternative user interface module
- to use. This overrides the defailt specified in the
+ to use. This overrides the default specified in the
configuration file. The pre-defined options are listed in
the User Interfaces section.</para>
</listitem>
in this section.</para>
<refsect2>
<title>Tk.Blinkenlights</title>
- <para>This is an interface designed to be sleek, fun to watch, and
+ <para>Tk.Blinkenlights is an interface designed to be sleek, fun to watch, and
informative of the overall picture of what &OfflineIMAP;
is doing. I consider it to be the best general-purpose interface in
&OfflineIMAP;.
is performing right now. The colors indicate what task
the particular thread is performing, and are as follows:
</para>
- <variablelist><title>Blinkenlights Colors</title>
+ <variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Black</term>
- <para>indicates that this light's thread has terminated; it will light up
+ <listitem><para>indicates that this light's thread has terminated; it will light up
again later when new threads start up. So, black indicates no
activity.
- </para>
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Red (Meaning 1)</term>
- <para>is the color of the main program's thread, which basically does
+ <listitem><para>is the color of the main program's thread, which basically does
nothing but monitor the others. It might remind you of HAL 9000 in
<citation>2001</citation>.
- </para>
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Gray</term>
- <para>indicates that the thread is establishing a new connection to the IMAP
+ <listitem><para>indicates that the thread is establishing a new connection to the IMAP
server.
- </para>
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Purple</term>
- <para>is the color of an account synchronization thread that is monitoring
+ <listitem><para>is the color of an account synchronization thread that is monitoring
the progress of the folders in that account (not generating any I/O).
- </para>
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Cyan</term>
- <para>indicates that the thread is syncing a folder.
- </para>
+ <listitem><para>indicates that the thread is syncing a folder.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Green</term>
- <para>means that a folder's message list is being loaded.
- </para>
+ <listitem><para>means that a folder's message list is being loaded.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Blue</term>
- <para>is the color of a message synchronization controller thread.
- </para>
+ <listitem><para>is the color of a message synchronization controller thread.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Orange</term>
- <para>indicates that an actual message is being copied.
- (We use fuschia for fake messages.)
- </para>
+ <listitem><para>indicates that an actual message is being copied.
+ (We use fuchsia for fake messages.)
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Red (meaning 2)</term>
- <para>indicates that a message is being deleted.
- </para>
+ <listitem><para>indicates that a message is being deleted.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Yellow / bright orange</term>
- <para>indicates that message flags are being added.
- </para>
+ <listitem><para>indicates that message flags are being added.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Pink / bright red</term>
- <para>indicates that message flags are being removed.
- </para>
+ <listitem><para>indicates that message flags are being removed.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Red / Black Flashing</term>
- <para>corresponds to the countdown timer that runs between
+ <listitem><para>corresponds to the countdown timer that runs between
synchronizations.
- </para>
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>The name of this interfaces derives from a bit of computer
history. Eric Raymond's <citation>Jargon File</citation> defines
- <term>blinkenlights</term>, in part, as:
+ <firstterm>blinkenlights</firstterm>, in part, as:
</para>
<blockquote>
<para>Front-panel diagnostic
<refsect2>
<title>Tk.VerboseUI</title>
<para>
- This interface (formerly known as Tk.TkUI) is a graphical interface
+ Tk.VerboseUI (formerly known as Tk.TkUI) is a graphical interface
that presents a variable-sized window. In the window, each
currently-executing thread has a section where its name and current
status are displayed. This interface is best suited to people running
<refsect2>
<title>TTY.TTYUI</title>
<para>
- This interface is for people running in basic, non-color terminals. It
+ TTY.TTYUI interface is for people running in basic, non-color terminals. It
prints out basic status messages and is generally friendly to use on a console
or xterm.
</para>
<refsect2>
<title>Noninteractive.Basic</title>
<para>
- This interface is designed for situations in which &OfflineIMAP;
+ Noninteractive.Basic is designed for situations in which &OfflineIMAP;
will be run non-attended and the status of its execution will be
logged. You might use it, for instance, to have the system run
automatically and
<refsect2>
<title>Noninteractive.Quiet</title>
<para>
- This interface is designed for non-attended running in situations
+ Noninteractive.Quiet is designed for non-attended running in situations
where normal status messages are not desired. It will output nothing
except errors and serious warnings. Like Noninteractive.Basic,
this user interface
</refsect1>
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Examples</title>
+ <para>Here are some example configurations for various situations.
+ Please e-mail any other examples you have that may be useful to
+ me.
+ </para>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Multiple Accounts with Mutt</title>
+ <para>
+ This example shows you how to set up &OfflineIMAP; to
+ synchronize multiple accounts with the mutt mail reader.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Start by creating a directory to hold your folders by running
+ <command>mkdir ~/Mail</command>. Then, in your
+ <filename>~/.offlineimaprc</filename>, specify:
+ </para>
+ <programlisting>accounts = Personal, Work</programlisting>
+ <para>
+ Make sure that you have both an
+ <property>[Account Personal]</property>
+ and an <property>[Account Work]</property> section. The
+ local repository for each account must have different
+ <property>localfolder</> path names.
+ Also, make sure
+ to enable <property>[mbnames]</property>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In each local repository section, write something like this:
+ </para>
+ <programlisting>localfolders = ~/Mail/Personal</programlisting>
+ <para>
+ Finally, add these lines to your <filename>~/.muttrc</filename>:
+ </para>
+ <programlisting>source ~/path-to-mbnames-muttrc-mailboxes
+folder-hook Personal set from="youremail@personal.com"
+folder-hook Work set from="youremail@work.com"
+set mbox_type=Maildir
+set folder=$HOME/Mail
+spoolfile=+Personal/INBOX</programlisting>
+ <para>
+ That's it!
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>UW-IMAPD and References</title>
+ <para>Some users with a UW-IMAPD server need to use &OfflineIMAP;'s
+ "reference" feature to get at their mailboxes, specifying a reference
+ of "~/Mail" or "#mh/" depending on the configuration. The below
+ configuration from (originally from docwhat@gerf.org)
+ shows using a <property>reference</property> of Mail, a <property>nametrans</property>
+ that strips
+ the leading Mail/ off incoming folder names, and a
+ <property>folderfilter</property> that
+ limits the folders synced to just three.
+ </para>
+ <programlisting>[Account Gerf]
+localrepository = GerfLocal
+remoterepository = GerfRemote
+
+[Repository GerfLocal]
+type = Maildir
+localfolders = ~/Mail
+
+[Repository GerfRemote]
+type = IMAP
+remotehost = gerf.org
+ssl = yes
+remoteuser = docwhat
+reference = Mail
+# Trims off the preceeding Mail on all the folder names.
+nametrans = lambda foldername: \
+ re.sub('^Mail/', '', foldername)
+# Yeah, you have to mention the Mail dir, even though it
+# would seem intuitive that reference would trim it.
+folderfilter = lambda foldername: foldername in [
+ 'Mail/INBOX',
+ 'Mail/list/zaurus-general',
+ 'Mail/list/zaurus-dev',
+ ]
+maxconnections = 1
+holdconnectionopen = no</programlisting>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>pythonfile Configuration File Option</title>
+ <para>You can have &OfflineIMAP;
+ load up a Python file before evaluating the
+ configuration file options that are Python expressions. This example
+ is based on one supplied by Tommi Virtanen for this feature.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In <filename>~/.offlineimap.rc</filename>, he adds these options:
+ </para>
+ <programlisting>[general]
+pythonfile=~/.offlineimap.py
+[Repository foo]
+foldersort=mycmp</programlisting>
+ <para>
+ Then, the <filename>~/.offlineimap.py</filename> file will
+ contain:
+ </para>
+ <programlisting>prioritized = ['INBOX', 'personal', 'announce', 'list']
+
+def mycmp(x, y):
+ for prefix in prioritized:
+ xsw = x.startswith(prefix)
+ ysw = y.startswith(prefix)
+ if xsw and ysw:
+ return cmp(x, y)
+ elif xsw:
+ return -1
+ elif ysw:
+ return +1
+ return cmp(x, y)
+
+def test_mycmp():
+ import os, os.path
+ folders=os.listdir(os.path.expanduser('~/data/mail/tv@hq.yok.utu.fi'))
+ folders.sort(mycmp)
+ print folders</programlisting>
+ <para>
+ This code snippet illustrates how the <property>foldersort</property>
+ option can be customized with a Python function from the
+ <property>pythonfile</property> to always synchronize certain
+ folders first.
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Errors</title>
+ <para>
+ If you get one of some frequently-encountered or confusing errors,
+ please check this section.
+ </para>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>UID validity problem for folder</title>
+ <para>IMAP servers use a unique ID (UID) to refer to a specific message.
+ This number is guaranteed to be unique to a particular message
+ <emphasis>forever</emphasis>.
+ No other message in the same folder will ever get the same
+ UID. UIDs are an integral part of &OfflineIMAP;'s synchronization
+ scheme; they are used to match up messages on your computer to
+ messages on the server.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Sometimes, the UIDs on the server might get reset. Usually this will
+ happen if you delete and then recreate a folder. When you create a
+ folder, the server will often start the UID back from 1. But
+ &OfflineIMAP; might still have the UIDs from the previous folder by the
+ same name stored. &OfflineIMAP; will detect this condition and skip the
+ folder. This is GOOD, because it prevents data loss.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ You can fix it by removing your local folder and cache data. For
+ instance, if your folders are under <filename>~/Folders</filename>
+ and the folder with the problem is INBOX, you'd type this:
+ </para>
+
+ <programlisting>rm -r ~/Folders/INBOX
+rm -r ~/.offlineimap/Account-<replaceable>AccountName</>
+rm -r ~/.offlineimap/Repository-<replaceable>RepositoryName</></programlisting>
+
+ <para>
+ (Of course, replace AccountName and RepositoryName
+ with the names as specified
+ in <filename>~/.offlineimaprc</filename>).
+ </para>
+
+ <para>Next time you run &OfflineIMAP;, it will re-download
+ the folder with the
+ new UIDs. Note that the procedure specified above will lose any local
+ changes made to the folder.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Some IMAP servers are broken and do not support UIDs properly. If you
+ continue to get this error for all your folders even after performing
+ the above procedure, it is likely that your IMAP server falls into
+ this category. &OfflineIMAP; is incompatible with such servers.
+ Using &OfflineIMAP; with them will not destroy any mail, but at the same time,
+ it will not actually synchronize it either. (&OfflineIMAP; will detect
+ this condition and abort prior to synchronization.)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This question comes up frequently on the
+ <ulink
+ url="http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/">&OfflineIMAP;
+ mailing list</ulink>. You can find a
+ <ulink
+ url="http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/2003/04/msg00012.html.gz">detailed
+ discussion</ulink> of the problem there.
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+ </refsect1>
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Other Frequently Asked Questions</title>
+ <para>There are some other FAQs that might not fit into another section
+ of the document, so they are discussed here.
+ </para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry><term>What platforms does &OfflineIMAP; run on?</term>
+ <listitem><para>
+ It should run on most platforms supported by Python, which are quite a
+ few.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>I'm using Mutt. Other IMAP sync programs require me to use "set maildir_trash=yes". Do I need to do that with &OfflineIMAP;?</term>
+ <listitem><para>
+ No. &OfflineIMAP; is smart enough to figure out message deletion without this extra
+ crutch. You'll get the best results if you don't use this setting, in
+ fact.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>I've upgraded and now &OfflineIMAP;
+ crashes when I start it up! Why?</term>
+ <listitem><para>You need to upgrade your configuration
+ file. See <xref linkend="upgrading.4.0"> at the end of this
+ manual.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>How do I specify the names of my folders?</term>
+ <listitem><para>
+ You do not need to. &OfflineIMAP; is smart
+ enough to automatically figure out what folders are present
+ on the IMAP server and synchronize them. You can use the
+ <property>folderfilter</property> and <property>foldertrans</property>
+ configuration file options to request certain folders and rename them
+ as they come in if you like.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>How can I prevent certain folders from being synced?</term>
+ <listitem><para>
+ Use the <property>folderfilter</property> option in the configuration file.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>How can I add or delete a folder?</term>
+ <listitem><para>
+ &OfflineIMAP; does not currently provide this feature, but if you create a new
+ folder on the IMAP server, it will be created locally automatically.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>Are there any other warnings that I should be aware of?</term>
+ <listitem><para>
+ Yes; see the Notes section below.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>What is the mailbox name recorder (mbnames) for?</term>
+ <listitem><para>Some mail readers, such as Mutt, are not capable
+ of automatically determining the names of your mailboxes.
+ &OfflineIMAP; can help these programs by writing the names
+ of the folders in a format you specify. See the example
+ <filename>offlineimap.conf</filename> for details.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>Can I synchronize multiple accounts with &OfflineIMAP?</term>
+ <listitem><para>Sure. Just name them all in the
+ <property>accounts</property> line in the <property>general</property>
+ section of the configuration file, and add a per-account section
+ for each one.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>Does &OfflineIMAP; support POP?</term>
+ <listitem><para>No. POP is not robust enough to do a completely reliable
+ multi-machine synchronization like &OfflineIMAP; can do. &OfflineIMAP;
+ will not support it.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>Does &OfflineIMAP; support mailbox formats other than Maildir?</term>
+ <listitem><para>Not at present. There is no technical reason not to; just no
+ demand yet. Maildir is a superior format anyway.
+ However, &OfflineIMAP; can sync between two IMAP
+ servers, and some IMAP servers support other formats. You
+ could install an IMAP server on your local machine and have
+ &OfflineIMAP sync to that.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>[technical] Why are your Maildir message filenames so huge?</term>
+ <listitem><para>&OfflineIMAP; has two relevant principles: 1) never modifying your
+ messages in any way and 2) ensuring 100% reliable synchronizations.
+ In order to do a reliable sync, &OfflineIMAP;
+ must have a way to
+ uniquely identify each e-mail. Three pieces of information are
+ required to do this: your account name, the folder name, and the
+ message UID. The account name can be calculated from the path in
+ which your messages are. The folder name can usually be as well, BUT
+ some mail clients move messages between folders by simply moving the
+ file, leaving the name intact.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ So, &OfflineIMAP; must store both a UID folder ID. The folder ID is
+ necessary so &OfflineIMAP; can detect a message moved to a different
+ folder. &OfflineIMAP; stores the UID (U= number) and an md5sum of the
+ foldername (FMD5= number) to facilitate this.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term>What is the speed of &OfflineIMAP;'s sync?</term>
+ <listitem><para>OfflineIMAP
+ versions 2.0 and above contain a multithreaded system. A good way to
+ experiment is by setting <property>maxsyncaccounts</property> to 3 and <property>maxconnections</property> to 3
+ in each account clause.
+ </para>
+ <para>This lets OfflineIMAP open up multiple connections simultaneously.
+ That will let it process multiple folders and messages at once. In
+ most cases, this will increase performance of the sync.
+ </para>
+ <para>Don't set the number too high. If you do that, things might actually
+ slow down as your link gets saturated. Also, too many connections can
+ cause mail servers to have excessive load. Administrators might take
+ unkindly to this, and the server might bog down. There are many
+ variables in the optimal setting; experimentation may help.
+ </para>
+ <para>An informal benchmark yields these results for my setup:
+ </para>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem><para>10 minutes with MacOS X Mail.app "manual cache"
+ </para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>5 minutes with GNUS agent sync</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>20 seconds with OfflineIMAP 1.x</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>9 seconds with OfflineIMAP 2.x</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>3 seconds with OfflineIMAP 3.x "cold start"</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>2 seconds with OfflineIMAP 3.x "held connection"</para></listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </listitem></varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Conforming To</title>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem><para>Internet Message Access Protocol version 4rev1 (IMAP 4rev1) as
+ specified in RFC2060 and RFC3501</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>CRAM-MD5 as specified in RFC2195</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Maildir as specified in
+ <ulink url="http://www.qmail.org/qmail-manual-html/man5/maildir.html">the Maildir manpage</ulink> and
+ <ulink url="http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html">the qmail website</ulink>.</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Standard Python 2.2.1 as implemented on POSIX-compliant systems.</para></listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Notes</title>
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Deleting Local Folders</title>
+ <para>&OfflineIMAP; does a two-way synchronization. That is, if you
+ make a change to the mail on the server, it will be propagated to your
+ local copy, and vise-versa. Some people might think that it would be
+ wise to just delete all their local mail folders periodically. If you
+ do this with &OfflineIMAP;, remember to also remove your local status
+ cache (<filename>~/.offlineimap</filename> by default). Otherwise, &OfflineIMAP; will take
+ this as an intentional deletion of many messages and will interpret
+ your action as requesting them to be deleted from the server as well.
+ (If you don't understand this, don't worry; you probably won't
+ encounter this situation)
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Multiple Instances</title>
+ <para>&OfflineIMAP; is not designed to have several instances (for instance, a cron job and an interactive invocation) run over the same
+ mailbox simultaneously. It will perform a check on startup and
+ abort if another &OfflineIMAP; is already running. If you need
+ to schedule synchronizations, please use the
+ <property>autorefresh</property> settings rather than cron.
+ Alternatively, you can set a separate <property>metadata</property>
+ directory for each instance.
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Copying Messages Between Folders</title>
+ <para>
+ Normally, when you copy a message between folders or add a new message
+ to a folder locally, &OfflineIMAP;
+ will just do the right thing. However, sometimes this can be tricky
+ -- if your IMAP server does not provide the SEARCH command, or does
+ not return something useful, &OfflineIMAP;
+ cannot determine the new UID of the message. So, in these rare
+ instances, OfflineIMAP will upload the message to the IMAP server and
+ delete it from your local folder. Then, on your next sync, the
+ message will be re-downloaded with the proper UID.
+ &OfflineIMAP; makes sure that the message was properly uploaded before deleting it,
+ so there should be no risk of data loss.
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Use with Evolution</title>
+ <para>&OfflineIMAP; can work with Evolution. To do so, first configure
+ your &OfflineIMAP; account to have
+ <option>sep = /</option> in its configuration. Then, configure
+ Evolution with the
+ "Maildir-format mail directories" server type. For the path, you will need to
+ specify the name of the top-level folder
+ <emphasis>inside</emphasis> your &OfflineIMAP; storage location.
+ You're now set!
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Use with KMail</title>
+ <para>At this time, I believe that &OfflineIMAP; with Maildirs
+ is not compatible
+ with KMail. KMail cannot work in any mode other than to move
+ all messages out of all folders immediately, which (besides being annoying
+ and fundamentally broken) is incompatible with
+ &OfflineIMAP;.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ However, I have made KMail version 3 work well with
+ &OfflineIMAP; by installing an IMAP server on my local
+ machine, having &OfflineIMAP; sync to that, and pointing
+ KMail at the same server.
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Mailing List</title>
+ <para>There is an OfflineIMAP mailing list available.
+ To subscribe, send the text "Subscribe" in the subject of a mail to
+ offlineimap-request@complete.org. To post, send the message to
+ offlineimap@complete.org. Archives are available at
+ <ulink url="http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/"></>.
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Bugs</title>
+ <para>Reports of bugs should be sent via e-mail to the
+ &OfflineIMAP; bug-tracking system (BTS) at
+ offlineimap@bugs.complete.org or submitted online using
+ the <ulink url="http://bugs.complete.org/">web interface</ulink>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The Web site also lists all current bugs, where you can check their
+ status or contribute to fixing them.
+ </para>
+ </refsect2>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1 id="upgrading.4.0">
+ <title>Upgrading to 4.0</title>
+ <para>
+ If you are upgrading from a version of &OfflineIMAP; prior to
+ 3.99.12, you will find that you will get errors when
+ &OfflineIMAP; starts up (relating to ConfigParser or
+ AccountHashGenerator) and the
+ configuration file. This is because the config file format
+ had to change to accommodate new features in 4.0. Fortunately,
+ it's not difficult to adjust it to suit.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ First thing you need to do is stop any running &OfflineIMAP;
+ instance, making sure first that it's synced all your mail.
+ Then, modify your
+ <filename>~/.offlineimaprc</filename> file. You'll need to
+ split up each account section (make sure that it now starts
+ with "Account ") into two Repository sections (one for the
+ local side and another for the remote side.) See the files
+ <filename>offlineimap.conf.minimal</filename> and
+ <filename>offlineimap.conf</filename> in the distribution if
+ you need more assistance.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ &OfflineIMAP;'s status directory area has also changed.
+ Therefore, you should delete everything in ~/.offlineimap as
+ well as your local mail folders.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ When you start up &OfflineIMAP; 4.0, it will re-download all
+ your mail from the server and then you can continue using it
+ like normal.
+ </para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Copyright</title>
+ <para>OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright © 2002, 2003 John Goerzen.</para>
+
+ <para>
+ This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+ (at your option) any later version.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+ GNU General Public License for more details.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+ Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA</para>
+
+ <para>imaplib.py comes from the Python dev tree and is licensed under
+ the GPL-compatible PSF license as stated in the file
+ <filename>COPYRIGHT</filename> in the &OfflineIMAP;
+ distribution.
+ </para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Author</title>
+ <para>&OfflineIMAP;, its libraries, documentation, and all included files, except where
+ noted, was written by John Goerzen <email>jgoerzen@complete.org</email> and
+ copyright is held as stated in the COPYRIGHT section.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ &OfflineIMAP; may be downloaded, and information found, from its
+ homepage via either <ulink url="gopher://quux.org/1/devel/offlineimap">Gopher</ulink>
+ or <ulink url="http://quux.org/devel/offlineimap">HTTP</ulink>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ &OfflineIMAP; may also be downloaded using Subversion. Additionally,
+ the distributed tar.gz may be updated with a simple "svn update"
+ command; it is ready to go. For information on getting OfflineIMAP
+ with Subversion, please visit the
+ <ulink url="http://svn.complete.org/">complete.org Subversion page</ulink>.
+ </para>
+
+ </refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
- <para>This is also a test. Foo bar.</para>
+ <para><application>mutt</application>(1),
+ <application>python</application>(1)
+ </para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>History</title>
+ <para>
+ Detailed history may be found in the file ChangeLog in the
+ &OfflineIMAP; distribution. Feature and bug histories may be
+ found in the file debian/changelog which, despite its name, is
+ not really Debian-specific. This section provides a large
+ overview.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Development on &OfflineIMAP; began on June 18, 2002. Version
+ 1.0.0 was released three days later on June 21, 2002. Point
+ releases followed, including speed optimizations and some
+ compatibility fixes.
+ </para>
+ <para>Version 2.0.0 was released on July 3, 2002, and
+ represented the first time the synchronization became
+ multithreaded and, to the best of my knowledge, the first
+ multithreaded IMAP syncrhonizing application in existance.
+ The last 2.0.x release, 2.0.8, was made on July 9.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Version 3.0.0 was released on July 11, 2002, and introduced
+ modular user interfaces and the first GUI interface for
+ &OfflineIMAP;. This manual also was introduced with 3.0.0,
+ along with many command-line options. Version 3.1.0 was
+ released on July 21, adding the Noninteractive user
+ interfaces, profiling support, and several bugfixes. 3.2.0
+ was released on July 24, adding support for the Blinkenlights
+ GUI interface. &OfflineIMAP; entered maintenance mode for
+ awhile, as it had reached a feature-complete milestone in my
+ mind.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The 3.99.x branch began in on October 7, 2002, to begin work
+ for 4.0. The Curses.Blinkenlights interface was added in
+ 3.99.6, and many architectural changes were made.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ 4.0.0 was released on July 18, 2003, including the ability to
+ synchronize directly between two IMAP servers, the first
+ re-architecting of the configuration file to refine the
+ notion of an account, and the new Curses interface.
+ </para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>
</reference>
+
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