> of the problem there.
</P
></DIV
-><DIV
-CLASS="REFSECT2"
-><A
-NAME="AEN381"
-></A
-><H3
->Use with MS Exchange server</H3
-><P
-> Several users have reported problems with Microsoft Exchange
- servers in conjunction with OfflineIMAP. This generally
- seems to be related to the Exchange servers not properly
- following the IMAP standards.
- </P
-><P
-> Mark Biggers has posted some <A
-HREF="http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/2005/09/msg00011.html.gz"
-TARGET="_top"
->information</A
->
- to the <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> mailing list about how he made it work.
- </P
-><P
-> Other users have indicated that older (5.5) releases of
- Exchange are so bad that they will likely not work at all.
- </P
-><P
-> I do not have access to Exchange servers for testing, so any
- problems with it, if they can even be solved at all, will
- require help from <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> users to find and fix.
- </P
-></DIV
-></DIV
-><DIV
-CLASS="REFSECT1"
-><A
-NAME="AEN390"
-></A
-><H2
->Other Frequently Asked Questions</H2
-><P
->There are some other FAQs that might not fit into another section
- of the document, so they are discussed here.
- </P
-><P
-></P
-><DIV
-CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
-><DL
-><DT
->What platforms does <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> run on?</DT
-><DD
-><P
-> It should run on most platforms supported by Python, which are quite a
- few. I do not support Windows myself, but some have made
- it work there; see the FAQ entry for that platform.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->I'm using Mutt. Other IMAP sync programs require me to use "set maildir_trash=yes". Do I need to do that with <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
->?</DT
-><DD
-><P
-> No. <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> 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.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->I've upgraded and now <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
->
- crashes when I start it up! Why?</DT
-><DD
-><P
->You need to upgrade your configuration
- file. See at the end of this
- manual.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->How do I specify the names of my folders?</DT
-><DD
-><P
-> You do not need to. <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> is smart
- enough to automatically figure out what folders are present
- on the IMAP server and synchronize them. You can use the
- <SPAN
-CLASS="PROPERTY"
->folderfilter</SPAN
-> and <SPAN
-CLASS="PROPERTY"
->nametrans</SPAN
->
- configuration file options to request certain folders and rename them
- as they come in if you like.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->How can I prevent certain folders from being synced?</DT
-><DD
-><P
-> Use the <SPAN
-CLASS="PROPERTY"
->folderfilter</SPAN
-> option in the configuration file.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->How can I add or delete a folder?</DT
-><DD
-><P
-> <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> does not currently provide this feature, but if you create a new
- folder on the IMAP server, it will be created locally automatically.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->Are there any other warnings that I should be aware of?</DT
-><DD
-><P
-> Yes; see the Notes section below.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->What is the mailbox name recorder (mbnames) for?</DT
-><DD
-><P
->Some mail readers, such as Mutt, are not capable
- of automatically determining the names of your mailboxes.
- <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> can help these programs by writing the names
- of the folders in a format you specify. See the example
- <TT
-CLASS="FILENAME"
->offlineimap.conf</TT
-> for details.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->Can I synchronize multiple accounts with <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
->?</DT
-><DD
-><P
->Sure. Just name them all in the
- <SPAN
-CLASS="PROPERTY"
->accounts</SPAN
-> line in the <SPAN
-CLASS="PROPERTY"
->general</SPAN
->
- section of the configuration file, and add a per-account section
- for each one.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->Does <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> support POP?</DT
-><DD
-><P
->No. POP is not robust enough to do a completely reliable
- multi-machine synchronization like <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> can do. <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
->
- will not support it.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->Does <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> support mailbox formats other than Maildir?</DT
-><DD
-><P
->Not at present. There is no technical reason not to; just no
- demand yet. Maildir is a superior format anyway.
- However, <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> 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
- <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> sync to that.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->[technical] Why are your Maildir message filenames so huge?</DT
-><DD
-><P
-><SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> 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, <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
->
- 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.
- </P
-><P
-> So, <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> must store both a UID folder ID. The folder ID is
- necessary so <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> can detect a message moved to a different
- folder. <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> stores the UID (U= number) and an md5sum of the
- foldername (FMD5= number) to facilitate this.
- </P
-></DD
-><DT
->What is the speed of <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
->'s sync?</DT
-><DD
-><P
->OfflineIMAP
- versions 2.0 and above contain a multithreaded system. A good way to
- experiment is by setting <SPAN
-CLASS="PROPERTY"
->maxsyncaccounts</SPAN
-> to 3 and <SPAN
-CLASS="PROPERTY"
->maxconnections</SPAN
-> to 3
- in each account clause.
- </P
-><P
->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.
- </P
-><P
->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.
- </P
-><P
->An informal benchmark yields these results for my setup:
- </P
-><P
-></P
-><UL
-><LI
-><P
->10 minutes with MacOS X Mail.app "manual cache"
- </P
-></LI
-><LI
-><P
->5 minutes with GNUS agent sync</P
-></LI
-><LI
-><P
->20 seconds with OfflineIMAP 1.x</P
-></LI
-><LI
-><P
->9 seconds with OfflineIMAP 2.x</P
-></LI
-><LI
-><P
->3 seconds with OfflineIMAP 3.x "cold start"</P
-></LI
-><LI
-><P
->2 seconds with OfflineIMAP 3.x "held connection"</P
-></LI
-></UL
-></DD
-><DT
->Can I use <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> on Windows?</DT
-><DD
-><P
-> These answers have been reported by <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
->
- users. I do not run <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> on Windows myself, so
- I can't directly address their accuracy.
- </P
-><P
-> The basic answer is that it's possible and doesn't
- require hacking <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> source code. However,
- it's not necessarily trivial. The information below is
- based in instructions submitted by Chris Walker.
- </P
-><P
-> First, you must run <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> in the <A
-HREF="http://www.cygwin.com/"
-TARGET="_top"
->Cygwin</A
->
- environment.
- </P
-><P
-> Next, you'll need to mount your Maildir directory in a
- special way. There is information for doing that at
- <A
-HREF="http://barnson.org/node/view/295"
-TARGET="_top"
->http://barnson.org/node/view/295</A
->.
- That site gives this example:
- </P
-><PRE
-CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
->mount -f -s -b -o managed "d:/tmp/mail" "/home/of/mail"
- </PRE
-><P
-> That URL also has more details on making OfflineIMAP
- work with Windows.
- </P
-></DD
-></DL
-></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN508"
+NAME="AEN381"
></A
><H2
>Conforming To</H2
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN521"
+NAME="AEN394"
></A
><H2
>Notes</H2
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN523"
+NAME="AEN396"
></A
><H3
>Deleting Local Folders</H3
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN530"
+NAME="AEN403"
></A
><H3
>Multiple Instances</H3
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN537"
+NAME="AEN410"
></A
><H3
>Copying Messages Between Folders</H3
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN543"
-></A
-><H3
->Use with Evolution</H3
-><P
-><SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> can work with Evolution. To do so, first configure
- your <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> account to have
- <CODE
-CLASS="OPTION"
->sep = /</CODE
-> 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
- <SPAN
-CLASS="emphasis"
-><I
-CLASS="EMPHASIS"
->inside</I
-></SPAN
-> your <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> storage location.
- You're now set!
- </P
-></DIV
-><DIV
-CLASS="REFSECT2"
-><A
-NAME="AEN551"
-></A
-><H3
->Use with KMail</H3
-><P
->At this time, I believe that <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> 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
- <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
->.
- </P
-><P
-> However, I have made KMail version 3 work well with
- <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> by installing an IMAP server on my local
- machine, having <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> sync to that, and pointing
- KMail at the same server.
- </P
-></DIV
-><DIV
-CLASS="REFSECT2"
-><A
-NAME="AEN559"
+NAME="AEN416"
></A
><H3
>Mailing List</H3
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN563"
+NAME="AEN420"
></A
><H3
>Bugs</H3
><P
->Reports of bugs should be sent via e-mail to the
- <SPAN
+> Reports of bugs should be reported online at the
+ <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> mailing list at offlineimap at complete
- dot org. Debian users are encouraged to instead use the
+> homepage.
+ Debian users are encouraged to instead use the
Debian
bug-tracking system.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN581"
+NAME="AEN438"
></A
><H2
>Copyright</H2
><P
->OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright © 2002, 2003 John Goerzen.</P
+>OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright © 2002 - 2006 John Goerzen.</P
><P
> 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
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN590"
+NAME="AEN447"
></A
><H2
>Author</H2
HREF="http://software.complete.org/offlineimap"
TARGET="_top"
>homepage</A
->.
- </P
-><P
-> <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->OfflineIMAP</SPAN
-> 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
- <A
-HREF="http://svn.complete.org/"
-TARGET="_top"
->complete.org Subversion page</A
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN601"
+NAME="AEN455"
></A
><H2
>See Also</H2
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
-NAME="AEN606"
+NAME="AEN460"
></A
><H2
>History</H2
plete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/2003/04/msg00012.html.gz> of the
problem there.
- USE WITH MS EXCHANGE SERVER
- Several users have reported problems with Microsoft Exchange servers in
- conjunction with OfflineIMAP. This generally seems to be related to
- the Exchange servers not properly following the IMAP standards.
-
- Mark Biggers has posted some information <URL:http://lists.com-
- plete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/2005/09/msg00011.html.gz> to the
- OfflineIMAP mailing list about how he made it work.
-
- Other users have indicated that older (5.5) releases of Exchange are so
- bad that they will likely not work at all.
-
- I do not have access to Exchange servers for testing, so any problems
- with it, if they can even be solved at all, will require help from
- OfflineIMAP users to find and fix.
-
-OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- There are some other FAQs that might not fit into another section of
- the document, so they are discussed here.
-
- What platforms does OfflineIMAP run on?
- It should run on most platforms supported by Python, which are
- quite a few. I do not support Windows myself, but some have
- made it work there; see the FAQ entry for that platform.
-
- I'm using Mutt. Other IMAP sync programs require me to use "set
- maildir_trash=yes". Do I need to do that with OfflineIMAP?
- 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.
-
- I've upgraded and now OfflineIMAP crashes when I start it up! Why?
- You need to upgrade your configuration file. See [XRef to
- UPGRADING.4.0] at the end of this manual.
-
- How do I specify the names of my folders?
- You do not need to. OfflineIMAP is smart enough to automati-
- cally figure out what folders are present on the IMAP server and
- synchronize them. You can use the folderfilter and nametrans
- configuration file options to request certain folders and rename
- them as they come in if you like.
-
- How can I prevent certain folders from being synced?
- Use the folderfilter option in the configuration file.
-
- How can I add or delete a folder?
- OfflineIMAP does not currently provide this feature, but if you
- create a new folder on the IMAP server, it will be created
- locally automatically.
-
- Are there any other warnings that I should be aware of?
- Yes; see the Notes section below.
-
- What is the mailbox name recorder (mbnames) for?
- Some mail readers, such as Mutt, are not capable of automati-
- cally 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 offlineimap.conf for
- details.
-
- Can I synchronize multiple accounts with OfflineIMAP?
- Sure. Just name them all in the accounts line in the general
- section of the configuration file, and add a per-account section
- for each one.
-
- Does OfflineIMAP support POP?
- No. POP is not robust enough to do a completely reliable multi-
- machine synchronization like OfflineIMAP can do. OfflineIMAP
- will not support it.
-
- Does OfflineIMAP support mailbox formats other than Maildir?
- 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.
-
- [technical] Why are your Maildir message filenames so huge?
- OfflineIMAP has two relevant principles: 1) never modifying your
- messages in any way and 2) ensuring 100% reliable synchroniza-
- tions. In order to do a reliable sync, OfflineIMAP must have a
- way to uniquely identify each e-mail. Three pieces of informa-
- tion 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.
-
- So, OfflineIMAP must store both a UID folder ID. The folder ID
- is necessary so OfflineIMAP can detect a message moved to a dif-
- ferent folder. OfflineIMAP stores the UID (U= number) and an
- md5sum of the foldername (FMD5= number) to facilitate this.
-
- What is the speed of OfflineIMAP's sync?
- OfflineIMAP versions 2.0 and above contain a multithreaded sys-
- tem. A good way to experiment is by setting maxsyncaccounts to
- 3 and maxconnections to 3 in each account clause.
-
- This lets OfflineIMAP open up multiple connections simultane-
- ously. That will let it process multiple folders and messages
- at once. In most cases, this will increase performance of the
- sync.
-
- 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.
-
- An informal benchmark yields these results for my setup:
-
- o 10 minutes with MacOS X Mail.app "manual cache"
-
- o 5 minutes with GNUS agent sync
-
- o 20 seconds with OfflineIMAP 1.x
-
- o 9 seconds with OfflineIMAP 2.x
-
- o 3 seconds with OfflineIMAP 3.x "cold start"
-
- o 2 seconds with OfflineIMAP 3.x "held connection"
-
- Can I use OfflineIMAP on Windows?
- These answers have been reported by OfflineIMAP users. I do not
- run OfflineIMAP on Windows myself, so I can't directly address
- their accuracy.
-
- The basic answer is that it's possible and doesn't require hack-
- ing OfflineIMAP source code. However, it's not necessarily
- trivial. The information below is based in instructions submit-
- ted by Chris Walker.
-
- First, you must run OfflineIMAP in the Cygwin
- <URL:http://www.cygwin.com/> environment.
-
- Next, you'll need to mount your Maildir directory in a special
- way. There is information for doing that at
- <URL:http://barnson.org/node/view/295>. That site gives this
- example:
-
- mount -f -s -b -o managed "d:/tmp/mail" "/home/of/mail"
-
-
- That URL also has more details on making OfflineIMAP work with
- Windows.
-
CONFORMING TO
o Internet Message Access Protocol version 4rev1 (IMAP 4rev1) as speci-
fied in RFC2060 and RFC3501
o CRAM-MD5 as specified in RFC2195
- o Maildir as specified in the Maildir manpage
+ o Maildir as specified in the Maildir manpage
<URL:http://www.qmail.org/qmail-manual-html/man5/maildir.html> and
the qmail website <URL:http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html>.
NOTES
DELETING LOCAL FOLDERS
- 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
+ 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
- (~/.offlineimap by default). Otherwise, OfflineIMAP will take this as
+ just delete all their local mail folders periodically. If you do this
+ with OfflineIMAP, remember to also remove your local status cache
+ (~/.offlineimap 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
+ 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)
MULTIPLE INSTANCES
- 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 syn-
- chronizations, please use the autorefresh settings rather than cron.
- Alternatively, you can set a separate metadata directory for each
+ 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 syn-
+ chronizations, please use the autorefresh settings rather than cron.
+ Alternatively, you can set a separate metadata directory for each
instance.
COPYING MESSAGES BETWEEN FOLDERS
- Normally, when you copy a message between folders or add a new message
- to a folder locally, OfflineIMAP will just do the right thing. How-
+ Normally, when you copy a message between folders or add a new message
+ to a folder locally, OfflineIMAP will just do the right thing. How-
ever, sometimes this can be tricky -- if your IMAP server does not pro-
- vide 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
+ vide 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.
- USE WITH EVOLUTION
- OfflineIMAP can work with Evolution. To do so, first configure your
- OfflineIMAP account to have sep = / in its configuration. Then, con-
- figure Evolution with the "Maildir-format mail directories" server
- type. For the path, you will need to specify the name of the top-level
- folder inside your OfflineIMAP storage location. You're now set!
-
- USE WITH KMAIL
- At this time, I believe that OfflineIMAP with Maildirs is not compati-
- ble 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.
-
- 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.
-
MAILING LIST
There is an OfflineIMAP mailing list available. To subscribe, send the
text "Subscribe" in the subject of a mail to offlineimap-request@com-
<URL:http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/>.
BUGS
- Reports of bugs should be sent via e-mail to the OfflineIMAP mailing
- list at offlineimap at complete dot org. Debian users are encouraged
- to instead use the Debian bug-tracking system.
+ Reports of bugs should be reported online at the OfflineIMAP homepage.
+ Debian users are encouraged to instead use the Debian bug-tracking sys-
+ tem.
UPGRADING TO 4.0
If you are upgrading from a version of OfflineIMAP prior to 3.99.12,
from the server and then you can continue using it like normal.
COPYRIGHT
- OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 John
+ OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright (C) 2002 - 2006 John
Goerzen.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
OfflineIMAP may be downloaded, and information found, from its homepage
<URL:http://software.complete.org/offlineimap>.
- 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 Subver-
- sion, please visit the complete.org Subversion page
- <URL:http://svn.complete.org/>.
-
SEE ALSO
mutt(1), python(1)
-John Goerzen 29 November 2006 OFFLINEIMAP(1)
+John Goerzen 01 December 2006 OFFLINEIMAP(1)
.\" <http://shell.ipoline.com/~elmert/comp/docbook2X/>
.\" Please send any bug reports, improvements, comments, patches,
.\" etc. to Steve Cheng <steve@ggi-project.org>.
-.TH "OFFLINEIMAP" "1" "29 November 2006" "John Goerzen" "OfflineIMAP Manual"
+.TH "OFFLINEIMAP" "1" "01 December 2006" "John Goerzen" "OfflineIMAP Manual"
.SH NAME
OfflineIMAP \- Powerful IMAP/Maildir synchronization and reader support
mailing list <URL:http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/>\&. You can find a
detailed
discussion <URL:http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/2003/04/msg00012.html.gz> of the problem there.
-.SS "USE WITH MS EXCHANGE SERVER"
-.PP
-Several users have reported problems with Microsoft Exchange
-servers in conjunction with OfflineIMAP. This generally
-seems to be related to the Exchange servers not properly
-following the IMAP standards.
-.PP
-Mark Biggers has posted some information <URL:http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/2005/09/msg00011.html.gz>
-to the \fBOfflineIMAP\fR mailing list about how he made it work.
-.PP
-Other users have indicated that older (5.5) releases of
-Exchange are so bad that they will likely not work at all.
-.PP
-I do not have access to Exchange servers for testing, so any
-problems with it, if they can even be solved at all, will
-require help from \fBOfflineIMAP\fR users to find and fix.
-.SH "OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS"
-.PP
-There are some other FAQs that might not fit into another section
-of the document, so they are discussed here.
-.TP
-\fBWhat platforms does OfflineIMAP run on?\fR
-It should run on most platforms supported by Python, which are quite a
-few. I do not support Windows myself, but some have made
-it work there; see the FAQ entry for that platform.
-.TP
-\fBI'm using Mutt. Other IMAP sync programs require me to use "set maildir_trash=yes". Do I need to do that with OfflineIMAP?\fR
-No. \fBOfflineIMAP\fR 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.
-.TP
-\fBI've upgraded and now OfflineIMAP crashes when I start it up! Why?\fR
-You need to upgrade your configuration
-file. See [XRef to UPGRADING.4.0] at the end of this
-manual.
-.TP
-\fBHow do I specify the names of my folders?\fR
-You do not need to. \fBOfflineIMAP\fR is smart
-enough to automatically figure out what folders are present
-on the IMAP server and synchronize them. You can use the
-\fIfolderfilter\fR and \fInametrans\fR
-configuration file options to request certain folders and rename them
-as they come in if you like.
-.TP
-\fBHow can I prevent certain folders from being synced?\fR
-Use the \fIfolderfilter\fR option in the configuration file.
-.TP
-\fBHow can I add or delete a folder?\fR
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR does not currently provide this feature, but if you create a new
-folder on the IMAP server, it will be created locally automatically.
-.TP
-\fBAre there any other warnings that I should be aware of?\fR
-Yes; see the Notes section below.
-.TP
-\fBWhat is the mailbox name recorder (mbnames) for?\fR
-Some mail readers, such as Mutt, are not capable
-of automatically determining the names of your mailboxes.
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR can help these programs by writing the names
-of the folders in a format you specify. See the example
-\fIofflineimap.conf\fR for details.
-.TP
-\fBCan I synchronize multiple accounts with OfflineIMAP?\fR
-Sure. Just name them all in the
-\fIaccounts\fR line in the \fIgeneral\fR
-section of the configuration file, and add a per-account section
-for each one.
-.TP
-\fBDoes OfflineIMAP support POP?\fR
-No. POP is not robust enough to do a completely reliable
-multi-machine synchronization like \fBOfflineIMAP\fR can do. \fBOfflineIMAP\fR
-will not support it.
-.TP
-\fBDoes OfflineIMAP support mailbox formats other than Maildir?\fR
-Not at present. There is no technical reason not to; just no
-demand yet. Maildir is a superior format anyway.
-However, \fBOfflineIMAP\fR 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
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR sync to that.
-.TP
-\fB[technical] Why are your Maildir message filenames so huge?\fR
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR 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, \fBOfflineIMAP\fR
-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.
-
-So, \fBOfflineIMAP\fR must store both a UID folder ID. The folder ID is
-necessary so \fBOfflineIMAP\fR can detect a message moved to a different
-folder. \fBOfflineIMAP\fR stores the UID (U= number) and an md5sum of the
-foldername (FMD5= number) to facilitate this.
-.TP
-\fBWhat is the speed of OfflineIMAP\&'s sync?\fR
-OfflineIMAP
-versions 2.0 and above contain a multithreaded system. A good way to
-experiment is by setting \fImaxsyncaccounts\fR to 3 and \fImaxconnections\fR to 3
-in each account clause.
-
-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.
-
-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.
-
-An informal benchmark yields these results for my setup:
-.RS
-.TP 0.2i
-\(bu
-10 minutes with MacOS X Mail.app "manual cache"
-.TP 0.2i
-\(bu
-5 minutes with GNUS agent sync
-.TP 0.2i
-\(bu
-20 seconds with OfflineIMAP 1.x
-.TP 0.2i
-\(bu
-9 seconds with OfflineIMAP 2.x
-.TP 0.2i
-\(bu
-3 seconds with OfflineIMAP 3.x "cold start"
-.TP 0.2i
-\(bu
-2 seconds with OfflineIMAP 3.x "held connection"
-.RE
-.TP
-\fBCan I use OfflineIMAP on Windows?\fR
-These answers have been reported by \fBOfflineIMAP\fR
-users. I do not run \fBOfflineIMAP\fR on Windows myself, so
-I can't directly address their accuracy.
-
-The basic answer is that it's possible and doesn't
-require hacking \fBOfflineIMAP\fR source code. However,
-it's not necessarily trivial. The information below is
-based in instructions submitted by Chris Walker.
-
-First, you must run \fBOfflineIMAP\fR in the Cygwin <URL:http://www.cygwin.com/>
-environment.
-
-Next, you'll need to mount your Maildir directory in a
-special way. There is information for doing that at
- <URL:http://barnson.org/node/view/295>\&.
-That site gives this example:
-
-.nf
-mount -f -s -b -o managed "d:/tmp/mail" "/home/of/mail"
-
-.fi
-
-That URL also has more details on making OfflineIMAP
-work with Windows.
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
message will be re-downloaded with the proper UID.
\fBOfflineIMAP\fR makes sure that the message was properly uploaded before deleting it,
so there should be no risk of data loss.
-.SS "USE WITH EVOLUTION"
-.PP
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR can work with Evolution. To do so, first configure
-your \fBOfflineIMAP\fR account to have
-\fBsep = /\fR 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
-\fBinside\fR your \fBOfflineIMAP\fR storage location.
-You're now set!
-.SS "USE WITH KMAIL"
-.PP
-At this time, I believe that \fBOfflineIMAP\fR 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
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR\&.
-.PP
-However, I have made KMail version 3 work well with
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR by installing an IMAP server on my local
-machine, having \fBOfflineIMAP\fR sync to that, and pointing
-KMail at the same server.
.SS "MAILING LIST"
.PP
There is an OfflineIMAP mailing list available.
<URL:http://lists.complete.org/offlineimap@complete.org/>\&.
.SS "BUGS"
.PP
-Reports of bugs should be sent via e-mail to the
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR mailing list at offlineimap at complete
-dot org. Debian users are encouraged to instead use the
+Reports of bugs should be reported online at the
+\fBOfflineIMAP\fR homepage.
+Debian users are encouraged to instead use the
Debian
bug-tracking system.
.SH "UPGRADING TO 4.0"
like normal.
.SH "COPYRIGHT"
.PP
-OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 John Goerzen.
+OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright (C) 2002 - 2006 John Goerzen.
.PP
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
.PP
\fBOfflineIMAP\fR may be downloaded, and information found, from its
homepage <URL:http://software.complete.org/offlineimap>\&.
-.PP
-\fBOfflineIMAP\fR 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
-complete.org Subversion page <URL:http://svn.complete.org/>\&.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
\fBmutt\fR(1),