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@ -1475,388 +1475,12 @@ TARGET="_top"
> of the problem there.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><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"
></A
><H2
>Conforming To</H2
><P
@ -1894,14 +1518,14 @@ TARGET="_top"
><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
@ -1933,7 +1557,7 @@ CLASS="APPLICATION"
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN530"
NAME="AEN403"
></A
><H3
>Multiple Instances</H3
@ -1962,7 +1586,7 @@ CLASS="PROPERTY"
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN537"
NAME="AEN410"
></A
><H3
>Copying Messages Between Folders</H3
@ -1992,77 +1616,7 @@ CLASS="APPLICATION"
><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
@ -2081,17 +1635,17 @@ TARGET="_top"
><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
@ -2163,12 +1717,12 @@ CLASS="APPLICATION"
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN581"
NAME="AEN438"
></A
><H2
>Copyright</H2
><P
>OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright &copy; 2002, 2003 John Goerzen.</P
>OfflineIMAP, and this manual, are Copyright &copy; 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
@ -2201,7 +1755,7 @@ CLASS="APPLICATION"
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN590"
NAME="AEN447"
></A
><H2
>Author</H2
@ -2228,27 +1782,13 @@ CLASS="APPLICATION"
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
@ -2266,7 +1806,7 @@ CLASS="APPLICATION"
><DIV
CLASS="REFSECT1"
><A
NAME="AEN606"
NAME="AEN460"
></A
><H2
>History</H2

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@ -539,161 +539,13 @@ ERRORS
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>.
@ -701,55 +553,38 @@ CONFORMING TO
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-
@ -758,9 +593,9 @@ NOTES
<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,
@ -786,7 +621,7 @@ UPGRADING TO 4.0
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
@ -815,12 +650,6 @@ AUTHOR
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)
@ -859,4 +688,4 @@ HISTORY
John Goerzen 29 November 2006 OFFLINEIMAP(1)
John Goerzen 01 December 2006 OFFLINEIMAP(1)

199
offlineimap.1
View File

@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
.\" <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
@ -636,166 +636,6 @@ This question comes up frequently on the
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
@ -847,29 +687,6 @@ delete it from your local folder. Then, on your next sync, the
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.
@ -879,9 +696,9 @@ offlineimap@complete.org. Archives are available at
<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"
@ -914,7 +731,7 @@ your mail from the server and then you can continue using it
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
@ -942,12 +759,6 @@ copyright is held as stated in the COPYRIGHT section.
.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),