OfflineIMAP"> ]>

jgoerzen@complete.org

JohnGoerzen $Date$ offlineimap 1 John Goerzen OfflineIMAP Powerful IMAP/Maildir synchronization and reader support offlineimap -1 -P profiledir -a accountlist -c configfile -d debugtype[,...] -o -u interface offlineimap -h--help &OfflineIMAP; is a tool to simplify your e-mail reading. With &OfflineIMAP;, you can read the same mailbox from multiple computers. You get a current copy of your messages on each computer, and changes you make one place will be visible on all other systems. For instance, you can delete a message on your home computer, and it will appear deleted on your work computer as well. &OfflineIMAP; is also useful if you want to use a mail reader that does not have IMAP support, has poor IMAP support, or does not provide disconnected operation. &OfflineIMAP; is FAST; it synchronizes my two accounts with over 50 folders in 3 seconds. Other similar tools might take over a minute, and achieve a less-reliable result. Some mail readers can take over 10 minutes to do the same thing, and some don't even support it at all. Unlike other mail tools, &OfflineIMAP; features a multi-threaded synchronization algorithm that can dramatically speed up performance in many situations by synchronizing several different things simultaneously. &OfflineIMAP; is FLEXIBLE; you can customize which folders are synced via regular expressions, lists, or Python expressions; a versatile and comprehensive configuration file is used to control behavior; two user interfaces are built-in; fine-tuning of synchronization performance is possible; internal or external automation is supported; SSL and PREAUTH tunnels are both supported; offline (or "unplugged") reading is supported; and esoteric IMAP features are supported to ensure compatibility with the widest variety of IMAP servers. &OfflineIMAP; is SAFE; it uses an algorithm designed to prevent mail loss at all costs. Because of the design of this algorithm, even programming errors should not result in loss of mail. I am so confident in the algorithm that I use my own personal and work accounts for testing of &OfflineIMAP; pre-release, development, and beta releases. Of course, legally speaking, &OfflineIMAP; comes with no warranty, so I am not responsible if this turns out to be wrong. &OfflineIMAP; operates by maintaining a hierarchy of mail folders in Maildir format locally. Your own mail reader will read mail from this tree, and need never know that the mail comes from IMAP. &OfflineIMAP; will detect changes to the mail folders on your IMAP server and your own computer and bi-directionally synchronize them, copying, marking, and deleting messages as necessary. If you have already installed &OfflineIMAP; system-wide, or your system adminstrator has done that for you, your task for setting up &OfflineIMAP; for the first time is quite simple. You just need to set up your configuration file, make your folder directory, and run it! You can quickly set up your configuration file. The distribution includes a file offlineimap.conf.minimal (Debian users may find this at /usr/share/doc/offlineimap/examples/offlineimap.conf.minimal) that is a basic example of setting of &OfflineIMAP;. You can simply copy this file into your home directory and name it .offlineimaprc (note the leading period). A command such as cp offlineimap.conf.minimal ~/.offlineimaprc will do it. Or, if you prefer, you can just copy this text to ~/.offlineimaprc: [general] accounts = Test [Test] localfolders = ~/Test remotehost = examplehost remoteuser = jgoerzen Now, edit the ~/.offlineimaprc file with your favorite editor. All you have to do is specify a directory for your folders to be in (on the localfolders line), the host name of your IMAP server (on the remotehost line), and your login name on the remote (on the remoteuser line). That's it! To run &OfflineIMAP;, you just have to say offlineimap -- it will fire up, ask you for a login password if necessary, synchronize your folders, and exit. See? You can just throw away the rest of this finely-crafted, perfectly-honed manual! Of course, if you want to see how you can make &OfflineIMAP; FIVE TIMES FASTER FOR JUST $19.95 (err, well, $0), you have to read on! This is also a test. Foo bar.