+------------------+ | FAQ for imapsync | +------------------+ ======================================================================= Q. Where I can read IMAP RFCs ? R. http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3501.html ======================================================================= Q. We have found that the sent time and date have been changed to the time at which the file was synchronised. R. This is the case with: - Eudora - Zimbra - Outlook 2003 but not with - Mutt - Thunderbird Eurora shows by default the time the imap server received the email. I think it is quite a strong behavior since the messages can have travelled some time before the reception. The sent time and date are given by the "Date:" header and it is set most of the time by the MUA (Mail User Agent, Mutt, Eudora, Thunderbird etc.). imapsync does not touch any header since the header is used to identify the messages in both parts. Solutions: a) Don't use buggy Eudora. b) Use the --syncinternaldates option and keep using Eudora :-) ======================================================================= Q. imapsync failed with a "word too long" error from the imap server, What can I do ? R. Use imapsync release 1.172 or at least 1.166 with options --split1 500 --split2 500 or a old old imapsync (before 1.94) ======================================================================= Q. Does imapsync support IMAP over TLS (IMAPS)? R. Yes natively since release 1.161. still, 2 ways, at least : a) Use --ssl1 and/or --ssl2 options --ssl1 tells imapsync to use ssl on host1 --ssl2 tells imapsync to use ssl on host2 b) Use stunnel http://www.stunnel.org/ Assuming there is an imaps (993) server on imap.foo.org, on your localhost machine (or bar machine) run : stunnel -c -d imap -r imap.foo.org:imaps or using names instead of numbers stunnel -c -d 143 -r imap.foo.org:993 then use imapsync on localhost (or bar machine) imap (143) port. ======================================================================= Q: How to have an imaps server ? R. a) Install one b) or use stunnel : Assuming there is an imap (143) server on localhost stunnel -d 993 -r 143 -f c) or use stunnel on inetd imaps stream tcp nowait cyrus /usr/sbin/stunnel -s cyrus -p /etc/ssl/certs/imapd.pem -r localhost:imap2 ======================================================================= Q: Multiple copies when I run imapsync twice ore more. R. Multiple copies of the emails on the destination server. Some IMAP servers (Domino for example) add some headers for each message transfered. The message is transfered again and again each time you run imapsync. This is bad of course. The explanation is that imapsync considers the message is not the same since headers have changed (one line added) and size too (the header part). You can look at the headers found by imapsync by using the --debug option (and search for the message on both part). The way to avoid this problem is by using options --skipheader and --skipsize, like this (avoid headers beginning whith the string "X-"): imapsync ... --skipheader '^X-' --skipsize You can use --skipheader only one time; if you need to skip several different headers use the "or" perl regex caracter which is "|". Example: imapsync ... --skipheader '^X-|^Status|^Bcc' ====================================================================== Q. I want the --folder 'MyFolder' option be recurse. R. Do not use the --folder option. Instead, use --include '^MyFolder' Then the folder "MyFolder" and all its subfolders will be handled and only them. ====================================================================== Q. How to migrate from cyrus with an admin account ? R. Use --ssl1 --authuser1 AdminAccount ----password1 AdminAccountPassword Do not forget the option --ssl1 since PLAIN auth is only supported with tls encryption most of the time. Here is an example: imapsync \ --host1 server1 \ --user1 joe \ --authuser1 AdminAccount \ --password1 AdminAccountPassword \ --ssl1 \ --host2 server2 \ --user2 joe \ --password2 joespassonserver2 \ --exclude '^user\.' ====================================================================== Q. imapsync fails with the following error: flags from : [\Seen NonJunk]["10-Aug-2006 13:00:30 -0400"] Error trying to append string: 58 NO APPEND Invalid flag list R. Flags have to begin with a \ character. The flag "NonJunk" is not a valid flag so use for example: imapsync ... --regexflag 's/NonJunk//g' ====================================================================== Q. I have moved from Braunschweig to Graz, so I would like to have my whole Braunschweig mail sorted into a folder INBOX.Braunschweig of my new mail account. R. 1) First try (safe mode): imapsync \ ... --regextrans2 's/INBOX(.*)/INBOX.Braunschweig$1/' \ --dry --justfolders 2) See if the output says everything you want imapsync to do, --dry option is safe and does nothing real. 3) Remove --dry Check the imap folder tree on the target side 4) Remove --justfolders ======================================================================= Q. Give examples about --regextrans2 R. Examples: 1) To remove INBOX. in the name of destination folders: --regextrans2 's/^INBOX\.(.+)/$1/' 2) To sync a complete account in a subfolder called FOO: --regextrans2 's/^INBOX(.*)/INBOX.FOO$1/' ======================================================================= Q. I would like to move emails from InBox to a sub-folder called , say "2005-InBox" based on the date (Like all emails received in the Year 2005 should be moved to the folder called "2005-InBox"). R. 2 ways : a) Manually: ------------ 1) You create a folder INBOX.2005-INBOX 2) Mostly every email software allow sorting by date. In inbox, you select from 1 january to 31 december messages with the shift key. 3) Cut/paste in INBOX.2005-INBOX b) With imapsync: ----------------- You have to calculate the day of year (and add 365). For example, running it today, Sat Mar 11 13:06:01 CET 2006: imapsync ... --host1 imap.truc.org --host2 imap.trac.org \ --user1 foo --user2 foo \ ... --maxage 435 --minage 70 \ --regextrans2 's/^INBOX$/INBOX.2005-INBOX/' \ --folder INBOX To know the day of year: $ date Sat Mar 11 13:06:01 CET 2006 $ date +%j 070 Also, you must take imapsync 1.159 at least since I tested what I just wrote above and found 2 bugs about --mindate --maxdate options behavior. ======================================================================= Q. My imap server does not accept a message and warns "Invalid header". What is the problem ? R. You fall in the classical mbox versus Maildir/ format problem. May be you use a misconfigured procmail rule. A header beginning like the following one is in the mbox format, header line 1 has no colon behind "From", header lines 2 through N do have a colon : From foo@yoyo.org Sat Jun 22 01:10:21 2002 Return-Path: Received: ... Any Maidir/ configured imap server may refuse this message since its header is invalid. The first "From " line is not valid. It lacks a colon character ":". To solve this problem you have several solutions a) or b): a) Remove these first "From " line manually for each message before using imapsync. Don't think to add a colon to this line since you will end with two "From:" lines (just look at the other lines) b) Run imapsync with the following option : --regexmess 's/\AFrom \w .*\n//' ======================================================================= Q. I'm migrating from WU to Cyrus, and the mail folders are under /home/user/mail but the tool copies everything in /home/user, how can i avoid that? R. Use imapsync ... --include '^mail' or (better) imapsync ... --subscribed --subscribe ======================================================================= Q. I'm migrating from WU to Cyrus, and the mail folders are under /home/user/mail directory. When imapsync creates the folders in the new cyrus imap server, it makes a folder "mail" and below that folder puts all the mail folders the user have in /home/user/mail, i would like to have all those folders directly under INBOX. R. Use imapsync ... --regextrans2 's/^mail/INBOX/' --dry look at the simulation and if all transformations seem good then remove the --dry option. ======================================================================= Q. Migrating from Groupwise to Cyrus R. By Jamie Neil: I eventually managed to get the mail to migrate without errors using the following options: --sep1 / - doesn't report separator so has to be set explicitly. --nosyncacls - doesn't support ACLs. --skipheader '^Content-Type' - MIME separator IDs seem to change every time a mail is accessed so this is required to stop duplicates. --maxage 3650 - some messages just don't seem to want to transfer and produce the perl errors I mentioned before. This prevents the errors, but the bad messages don't transfer. Even though the mail migrated OK, there are a couple of gotchas with Groupwise IMAP: 1) Some of the GW folders are not real folders and are not available to IMAP, the main problem one being "Sent Items". I could find no way of coping the contents of these folders. The nearest I got was to create a "real" folder and copy/move the sent items into it, but imapsync still didn't see the messages (I think because there is something funny about the reported dates/sizes). It think this problem has been rectified in GW6.5. 2) The "skipheader '^Content-Type'" directive is required to stop duplicate messages being created. GW seems to generate this field on the fly for messages that have MIME separators and so it's different every time. 3) Version 6.0.1 of the Groupwise Internet Connector sucks. I was getting server abends when I pushed it a bit hard! I eventually had to upgrade to 6.0.4 which seems to be a lot more stable. ======================================================================= Q. Migrating from iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 Patch 2 (built Jul 14 2004)) to Groupwise 7.0 I encounter many errors like this: "Error trying to append string: 17847 BAD APPEND" R. GroupWise 7 seems buggy. Apply GroupWise 7 support pack 1 ======================================================================= Q. Migrating from David Tobit V8 R. Use the following options : imapsync ... --prefix1 INBOX. --sep1 / --subscribe ======================================================================= Q. I need to migrate 1250 mailboxes from one cyrus-IMAP server to another (empty) one. (Box-swap). The passwords are in a MySQL Database. Can you tell me if your script suits my needs? R. Partially, mailboxes must exist before running imapsync. May be, Box-swap is not listed in "Failure stories" nor "Success stories" in the README file. You have to extract user and password in a csv file. See the "HUGE MIGRATION" section in the README file. ====================================================================== Q. From Cyrus to Notes Juhu! --useheader 'Message-ID' --skipsize does wonders! :)