Improve our MANUAL
Make it contain real use cases and more explanations. We probably need to add more of the FAQ entries to the MANUAL and point to relevant FAQ entries from the manual. Signed-off-by: Sebastian Spaeth <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> Signed-off-by: Nicolas Sebrecht <nicolas.s-dev@laposte.net>
This commit is contained in:
Sebastian Spaeth
Nicolas Sebrecht
parent
654e3ab9dc
commit
3333723ce7
383
docs/MANUAL.rst
383
docs/MANUAL.rst
@ -14,39 +14,44 @@ Powerful IMAP/Maildir synchronization and reader support
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.. TODO: :Manual group:
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SYNOPSIS
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========
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offlineimap [-h|--help]
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offlineimap [OPTIONS]
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| -1
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| -P profiledir
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| -a accountlist
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| -c configfile
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| -d debugtype[,...]
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| -f foldername[,...]
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| -k [section:]option=value
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| -l filename
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| -o
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| -u interface
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DESCRIPTION
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===========
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Most configuration is done via the configuration file. Nevertheless, there are
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a few command-line options that you may set for OfflineIMAP.
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OfflineImap operates on a REMOTE and a LOCAL repository and synchronizes
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emails between them, so that you can read the same mailbox from multiple
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computers. The REMOTE repository is some IMAP server, while LOCAL can be
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either a local Maildir or another IMAP server.
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Missing folders will be automatically created on the LOCAL side, however
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NO folders will currently be created on the REMOTE repository
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automatically (it will sync your emails from local folders if
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corresponding REMOTE folders already exist).
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Configuring OfflineImap in basic mode is quite easy, however it provides
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an amazing amount of flexibility for those with special needs. You can
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specify the number of connections to your IMAP server, use arbitrary
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python functions (including regular expressions) to limit the number of
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folders being synchronized. You can transpose folder names between
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repositories using any python function, to mangle and modify folder
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names on the LOCAL repository. There are six different ways to hand the
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IMAP password to OfflineImap from console input, specifying in the
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configuration file, .netrc support, specifying in a separate file, to
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using arbitrary python functions that somehow return the
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password. Finally, you can use IMAPs IDLE infrastructure to always keep
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a connection to your IMAP server open and immediately be notified (and
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synchronized) when a new mail arrives (aka Push mail).
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Most configuration is done via the configuration file. However, any setting can also be overriden by command line options handed to OfflineIMAP.
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OfflineImap is well suited to be frequently invoked by cron jobs, or can run in daemon mode to periodically check your email (however, it will exit in some error situations).
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Check out the `Use Cases`_ section for some example configurations.
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OPTIONS
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=======
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-1 Disable most multithreading operations
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Use solely a single-connection sync. This effectively sets the
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@ -152,8 +157,7 @@ Blinkenlights
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---------------
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Blinkenlights is an interface designed to be sleek, fun to watch, and
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informative of the overall picture of what OfflineIMAP is doing. I consider it
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to be the best general-purpose interface in OfflineIMAP.
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informative of the overall picture of what OfflineIMAP is doing.
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Blinkenlights contains a row of "LEDs" with command buttons and a log.
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@ -230,30 +234,27 @@ English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety as follows:
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TTYUI
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---------
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TTYUI interface is for people running in basic, non-color terminals. It
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prints out basic status messages and is generally friendly to use on a console
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or xterm.
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TTYUI interface is for people running in terminals. It prints out basic
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status messages and is generally friendly to use on a console or xterm.
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Basic
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--------------------
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------
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Basic is designed for situations in which OfflineIMAP will be run
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non-attended and the status of its execution will be logged. You might use it,
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for instance, to have the system run automatically and e-mail you the results of
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the synchronization. This user interface is not capable of reading a password
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from the keyboard; account passwords must be specified using one of the
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configuration file options.
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non-attended and the status of its execution will be logged. This user
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interface is not capable of reading a password from the keyboard;
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account passwords must be specified using one of the configuration file
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options.
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Quiet
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-----
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Quiet is designed for non-attended running in situations where normal
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status messages are not desired. It will output nothing except errors
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and serious warnings. Like Basic, this user interface is not capable
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of reading a password from the keyboard; account passwords must be
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specified using one of the configuration file options.
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It will output nothing except errors and serious warnings. Like Basic,
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this user interface is not capable of reading a password from the
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keyboard; account passwords must be specified using one of the
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configuration file options.
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MachineUI
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---------
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@ -262,8 +263,98 @@ MachineUI generates output in a machine-parsable format. It is designed
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for other programs that will interface to OfflineIMAP.
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Signals
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=======
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Synchronization Performance
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===========================
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By default, we use fairly conservative settings that are safe for
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syncing but that might not be the best performing one. Once you got
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everything set up and running, you might want to look into speeding up
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your synchronization. Here are a couple of hints and tips on how to
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achieve this.
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1) Use maxconnections > 1. By default we only use one connection to an
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IMAP server. Using 2 or even 3 speeds things up considerably in most
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cases. This setting goes into the [Repository XXX] section.
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2) Use folderfilters. The quickest sync is a sync that can ignore some
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folders. I sort my inbox into monthly folders, and ignore every
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folder that is more than 2-3 months old, this lets me only inspect a
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fraction of my Mails on every sync. If you haven't done this yet, do
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it :). See the folderfilter section the example offlineimap.conf.
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3) The default status cache is a plain text file that will write out
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the complete file for each single new message (or even changed flag)
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to a temporary file. If you have plenty of files in a folder, this
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is a few hundred kilo to megabytes for each mail and is bound to
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make things slower. I recommend to use the sqlite backend for
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that. See the status_backend = sqlite setting in the example
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offlineimap.conf. You will need to have python-sqlite installed in
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order to use this. This will save you plenty of disk activity. Do
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note that the sqlite backend is still considered experimental as it
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has only been included recently (although a loss of your status
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cache should not be a tragedy as that file can be rebuild
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automatically)
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4) Use quick sync. A regular sync will request all flags and all UIDs
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of all mails in each folder which takes quite some time. A 'quick'
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sync only compares the number of messages in a folder on the IMAP
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side (it will detect flag changes on the Maildir side of things
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though). A quick sync on my smallish account will take 7 seconds
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rather than 40 seconds. Eg, I run a cron script that does a regular
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sync once a day, and does quick syncs (-q) only synchronizing the
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"-f INBOX" in between.
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5) Turn off fsync. In the [general] section you can set fsync to True
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or False. If you want to play 110% safe and wait for all operations
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to hit the disk before continueing, you can set this to True. If you
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set it to False, you lose some of that safety, trading it for speed.
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Security and SSL
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================
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Some words on OfflineImap and its use of SSL/TLS. By default, we will
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connect using any method that openssl supports, that is SSLv2, SSLv3, or
|
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TLSv1. Do note that SSLv2 is notoriously insecure and deprecated.
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Unfortunately, python2 does not offer easy ways to disable SSLv2. It is
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recommended you test your setup and make sure that the mail server does
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not use an SSLv2 connection. Use e.g. "openssl s_client -host
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mail.server -port 443" to find out the connection that is used by
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default.
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Certificate checking
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--------------------
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Unfortunately, by default we will not verify the certificate of an IMAP
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TLS/SSL server we connect to, so connecting by SSL is no guarantee
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against man-in-the-middle attacks. While verifying a server certificate
|
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fingerprint is being planned, it is not implemented yet. There is
|
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currently only one safe way to ensure that you connect to the correct
|
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server in an encrypted manner: You can specify a 'sslcacertfile' setting
|
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in your repository section of offlineimap.conf pointing to a file that
|
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contains (among others) a CA Certificate in PEM format which validating
|
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your server certificate. In this case, we will check that: 1) The server
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SSL certificate is validated by the CA Certificate 2) The server host
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name matches the SSL certificate 3) The server certificate is not past
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its expiration date. The FAQ contains an entry on how to create your own
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certificate and CA certificate.
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StartTLS
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--------
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If you have not configured your account to connect via SSL anyway,
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OfflineImap will still attempt to set up an SSL connection via the
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STARTTLS function, in case the imap server supports it. Do note, that
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there is no certificate or fingerprint checking involved at all, when
|
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using STARTTLS (the underlying imaplib library does not support this
|
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yet). This means that you will be protected against passively listening
|
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eavesdroppers and they will not be able to see your password or email
|
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contents. However, this will not protect you from active attacks, such
|
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as Man-In-The-Middle attacks which cause you to connect to the wrong
|
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server and pretend to be your mail server. DO NOT RELY ON STARTTLS AS A
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SAFE CONNECTION GUARANTEEING THE AUTHENTICITY OF YOUR IMAP SERVER!
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UNIX Signals
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============
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OfflineImap listens to the unix signals SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2.
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@ -310,7 +401,7 @@ KNOWN BUGS
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storing messages. Such files can be written to windows partitions. But
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you will probably loose compatibility with other programs trying to
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read the same Maildir.
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- Exclamation mark was choosed because of the note in
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- Exclamation mark was chosen because of the note in
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http://docs.python.org/library/mailbox.html
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- If you have some messages already stored without this option, you will
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have to re-sync them again
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@ -322,91 +413,145 @@ KNOWN BUGS
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- not available anymore since cygwin 1.7
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Synchronization Performance
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===========================
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PITFALLS & ISSUES
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=================
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By default, we use fairly conservative settings that are good for
|
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syncing but that might not be the best performing one. Once you got
|
||||
everything set up and running, you might want to look into speeding up
|
||||
your synchronization. Here are a couple of hints and tips on how to
|
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achieve this.
|
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Sharing a maildir with multiple IMAP servers
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--------------------------------------------
|
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1) Use maxconnections > 1. By default we only use one connection to an
|
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IMAP server. Using 2 or even 3 speeds things up considerably in most
|
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cases. This setting goes into the [Repository XXX] section.
|
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Generally a word of caution mixing IMAP repositories on the same
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Maildir root. You have to be careful that you *never* use the same
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maildir folder for 2 IMAP servers. In the best case, the folder MD5
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will be different, and you will get a loop where it will upload your
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mails to both servers in turn (infinitely!) as it thinks you have
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placed new mails in the local Maildir. In the worst case, the MD5 is
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the same (likely) and mail UIDs overlap (likely too!) and it will fail to
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sync some mails as it thinks they are already existent.
|
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|
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2) Use folderfilters. The quickest sync is a sync that can ignore some
|
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folders. I sort my inbox into monthly folders, and ignore every
|
||||
folder that is more than 2-3 months old, this lets me only inspect a
|
||||
fraction of my Mails on every sync. If you haven't done this yet, do
|
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it :). See the folderfilter section the example offlineimap.conf.
|
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I would create a new local Maildir Repository for the Personal Gmail and
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use a different root to be on the safe side here. You could e.g. use
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`~/mail/Pro` as Maildir root for the ProGmail and
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`~/mail/Personal` as root for the personal one.
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3) The default status cache is a plain text file that will write out
|
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the complete file for each single new message (or even changed flag)
|
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to a temporary file. If you have plenty of files in a folder, this
|
||||
is a few hundred kilo to megabytes for each mail and is bound to
|
||||
make things slower. I recommend to use the sqlite backend for
|
||||
that. See the status_backend = sqlite setting in the example
|
||||
offlineimap.conf. You will need to have python-sqlite installed in
|
||||
order to use this. This will save you plenty of disk activity. Do
|
||||
note that the sqlite backend is still considered experimental as it
|
||||
has only been included recently (although a loss of your status
|
||||
cache should not be a tragedy as that file can be rebuild
|
||||
automatically)
|
||||
If you then point your local mutt, or whatever MUA you use to `~/mail/`
|
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as root, it should still recognize all folders. (see the 2 IMAP setup
|
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in the `Use Cases`_ section.
|
||||
|
||||
4) Use quick sync. A regular sync will request all flags and all UIDs
|
||||
of all mails in each folder which takes quite some time. A 'quick'
|
||||
sync only compares the number of messages in a folder on the IMAP
|
||||
side (it will detect flag changes on the Maildir side of things
|
||||
though). A quick sync on my smallish account will take 7 seconds
|
||||
rather than 40 seconds. Eg, I run a cron script that does a regular
|
||||
sync once a day, and does quick syncs inbetween.
|
||||
USE CASES
|
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=========
|
||||
|
||||
5) Turn off fsync. In the [general] section you can set fsync to True
|
||||
or False. If you want to play 110% safe and wait for all operations
|
||||
to hit the disk before continueing, you can set this to True. If you
|
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set it to False, you lose some of that safety trading it for speed.
|
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Sync from GMail to another IMAP server
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--------------------------------------
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|
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Security and SSL
|
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================
|
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This is an example of a setup where "TheOtherImap" requires all folders to be under INBOX::
|
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|
||||
Some words on OfflineImap and its use of SSL/TLS. By default, we will
|
||||
connect using any method that openssl supports, that is SSLv2, SSLv3, or
|
||||
TLSv1. Do note that SSLv2 is notoriously insecure and deprecated.
|
||||
Unfortunately, python2 does not offer easy ways to disable SSLv2. It is
|
||||
recommended you test your setup and make sure that the mail server does
|
||||
not use an SSLv2 connection. Use e.g. "openssl s_client -host
|
||||
mail.server -port 443" to find out the connection that is used by
|
||||
default.
|
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[Repository Gmailserver-foo]
|
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#This is the remote repository
|
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type = Gmail
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remotepass = XXX
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remoteuser = XXX
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# The below will put all GMAIL folders as sub-folders of the 'local' INBOX,
|
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# assuming that your path separator on 'local' is a dot.
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nametrans = lambda x: 'INBOX.' + x
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Certificate checking
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--------------------
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[Repository TheOtherImap]
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#This is the 'local' repository
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type = IMAP
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remotehost = XXX
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remotepass = XXX
|
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remoteuser = XXX
|
||||
#Do not use nametrans here.
|
||||
|
||||
Unfortunately, by default we will not verify the certificate of an IMAP
|
||||
TLS/SSL server we connect to, so connecting by SSL is no guarantee
|
||||
against man-in-the-middle attacks. While verifying a server certificate
|
||||
fingerprint is being planned, it is not implemented yet. There is
|
||||
currently only one safe way to ensure that you connect to the correct
|
||||
server in an encrypted manner: You can specify a 'sslcacertfile' setting
|
||||
in your repository section of offlineimap.conf pointing to a file that
|
||||
contains (among others) a CA Certificate in PEM format which validating
|
||||
your server certificate. In this case, we will check that: 1) The server
|
||||
SSL certificate is validated by the CA Certificate 2) The server host
|
||||
name matches the SSL certificate 3) The server certificate is not past
|
||||
its expiration date. The FAQ contains an entry on how to create your own
|
||||
certificate and CA certificate.
|
||||
Selecting only a few folders to sync
|
||||
------------------------------------
|
||||
Add this to the remote gmail repository section to only sync mails which are in a certain folder::
|
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|
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StartTLS
|
||||
--------
|
||||
folderfilter = lambda folder: folder.startswith('MyLabel')
|
||||
|
||||
If you have not configured your account to connect via SSL anyway,
|
||||
OfflineImap will still attempt to set up an SSL connection via the
|
||||
STARTTLS function, in case the imap server supports it. Do note, that
|
||||
there is no certificate or fingerprint checking involved at all, when
|
||||
using STARTTLS (the underlying imaplib library does not support this
|
||||
yet). This means that you will be protected against passively listening
|
||||
eavesdroppers and they will not be able to see your password or email
|
||||
contents. However, this will not protect you from active attacks, such
|
||||
as Man-In-The-Middle attacks which cause you to connect to the wrong
|
||||
server and pretend to be your mail server. DO NOT RELY ON STARTTLS AS A
|
||||
SAFE CONNECTION GUARANTEEING THE AUTHENTICITY OF YOUR IMAP SERVER!
|
||||
To only get the All Mail folder from a Gmail account, you would e.g. do::
|
||||
|
||||
folderfilter = lambda folder: folder.startswith('[Gmail]/All Mail')
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Another nametrans transpose example
|
||||
-----------------------------------
|
||||
|
||||
Put everything in a GMX. subfolder except for the boxes INBOX, Draft, and Sent which should keep the same name::
|
||||
|
||||
folderfilter = lambda folder: re.sub(r'^(?!INBOX$|Draft$|Sent$)',r'GMX.', folder)
|
||||
|
||||
2 IMAP using name translations
|
||||
------------------------------
|
||||
|
||||
Synchronizing 2 IMAP accounts to local Maildirs that are "next to each other", so that mutt can work on both. Full email setup described by Thomas Kahle at `http://dev.gentoo.org/~tomka/mail.html`_
|
||||
|
||||
offlineimap.conf::
|
||||
|
||||
[general]
|
||||
accounts = acc1, acc2
|
||||
maxsyncaccounts = 2
|
||||
ui = ttyui
|
||||
pythonfile=~/bin/offlineimap-helpers.py
|
||||
socktimeout = 90
|
||||
|
||||
[Account acc1]
|
||||
localrepository = acc1local
|
||||
remoterepository = acc1remote
|
||||
autorefresh = 2
|
||||
|
||||
[Account acc2]
|
||||
localrepository = acc2local
|
||||
remoterepository = acc2remote
|
||||
autorefresh = 4
|
||||
|
||||
[Repository acc1local]
|
||||
type = Maildir
|
||||
localfolders = ~/Mail/acc1
|
||||
|
||||
[Repository acc2local]
|
||||
type = Maildir
|
||||
localfolders = ~/Mail/acc2
|
||||
|
||||
[Repository acc1remote]
|
||||
type = IMAP
|
||||
remotehost = imap.acc1.com
|
||||
remoteusereval = get_username("imap.acc1.net")
|
||||
remotepasseval = get_password("imap.acc1.net")
|
||||
nametrans = oimaptransfolder_acc1
|
||||
ssl = yes
|
||||
maxconnections = 2
|
||||
# Folders to get:
|
||||
folderfilter = lambda foldername: foldername in [
|
||||
'INBOX', 'Drafts', 'Sent', 'archiv']
|
||||
|
||||
[Repository acc2remote]
|
||||
type = IMAP
|
||||
remotehost = imap.acc2.net
|
||||
remoteusereval = get_username("imap.acc2.net")
|
||||
remotepasseval = get_password("imap.acc2.net")
|
||||
nametrans = oimaptransfolder_acc2
|
||||
ssl = yes
|
||||
maxconnections = 2
|
||||
|
||||
One of the coolest things about offlineimap is that you can inject arbitrary python code. The file specified with::
|
||||
|
||||
pythonfile=~/bin/offlineimap-helpers.py
|
||||
|
||||
contains python functions that I used for two purposes: Fetching passwords from the gnome-keyring and translating folder names on the server to local foldernames. The python file should contain all the functions that are called here. get_username and get_password are part of the interaction with gnome-keyring and not printed here. Find them in the example file that is in the tarball or here. The folderfilter is a lambda term that, well, filters which folders to get. `oimaptransfolder_acc2` translates remote folders into local folders with a very simple logic. The `INBOX` folder will simply have the same name as the account while any other folder will have the account name and a dot as a prefix. offlineimap handles the renaming correctly in both directions::
|
||||
|
||||
import re
|
||||
def oimaptransfolder_acc1(foldername):
|
||||
if(foldername == "INBOX"):
|
||||
retval = "acc1"
|
||||
else:
|
||||
retval = "acc1." + foldername
|
||||
retval = re.sub("/", ".", retval)
|
||||
return retval
|
||||
|
||||
def oimaptransfolder_acc2(foldername):
|
||||
if(foldername == "INBOX"):
|
||||
retval = "acc2"
|
||||
else:
|
||||
retval = "acc2." + foldername
|
||||
retval = re.sub("/", ".", retval)
|
||||
return retval
|
||||
|
||||
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Reference in New Issue
Block a user