Removed more FAQ stuff from the manual

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John Goerzen 2006-12-02 12:39:49 +01:00
parent 8dbfbb7ed9
commit 612e89964f

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@ -801,145 +801,6 @@ rm -r ~/.offlineimap/Repository-<replaceable>RepositoryName</></programlisting>
</para> </para>
</refsect2> </refsect2>
</refsect1> </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>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>nametrans</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> <refsect1>
<title>Conforming To</title> <title>Conforming To</title>
<itemizedlist> <itemizedlist>
@ -999,35 +860,6 @@ rm -r ~/.offlineimap/Repository-<replaceable>RepositoryName</></programlisting>
</para> </para>
</refsect2> </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> <refsect2>
<title>Mailing List</title> <title>Mailing List</title>