mirror of
https://github.com/imapsync/imapsync.git
synced 2024-11-17 00:02:29 +01:00
77 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
77 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
#!/bin/cat
|
|
$Id: FAQ.Dates.txt,v 1.3 2016/07/27 13:14:30 gilles Exp gilles $
|
|
|
|
This documentation is also at http://imapsync.lamiral.info/#doc
|
|
|
|
===============================
|
|
Imapsync tips about dates.
|
|
===============================
|
|
|
|
|
|
=======================================================================
|
|
Q. We have found that the time and date displayed have been changed to
|
|
the time at which the file was synchronized.
|
|
|
|
R. This is the case by default with some email readers like:
|
|
- Outlook 2003
|
|
- Ipad
|
|
|
|
but not with:
|
|
|
|
- Mutt
|
|
- Thunderbird
|
|
- Zimbra
|
|
- Gmail
|
|
|
|
A thing to keep in mind, imapsync does not touch any byte of messages
|
|
unless told to do so by option --regexmess or --pipemess
|
|
Messages on both parts should be exactly identical.
|
|
|
|
Now I explain the whole picture about dates of messages.
|
|
|
|
There are several different dates for any message.
|
|
First, there is the "Date:" header, which belongs to the message itself.
|
|
You can see this "Date:" header line by asking View->Message Source
|
|
in most email client software (Ctrl-u in Thunderbird).
|
|
Most of the time, this date is set by the MUA, MUA stands for "Mail User Agent".
|
|
MUA can be Outlook, Thunderbird, a webmail or Mutt etc.
|
|
The Date header is usually the date the message was written
|
|
or sent the first time, at the writer side.
|
|
This "Date:" header line is never changed by any transfer or copy.
|
|
If an email reader uses the "Date:" header for displaying the date of a
|
|
message then no problem should arise.
|
|
|
|
Another date is the internal date. In IMAP, the internal date is handled
|
|
by the server and normally it corresponds to the arrival date in the mailbox.
|
|
This date is not part of the email message itself, it's a metadata kept
|
|
by the imap server.
|
|
The IMAP protocol allows the internal date to be set by a email client
|
|
when a message is delivered by the imap APPEND command.
|
|
Imapsync synchronizes internal dates by default, internal dates on host2
|
|
should then be the same as the internal dates on host1.
|
|
If an email reader uses the internal date for displaying the date of a
|
|
message then the sync date problem only occurs when the host2 server software
|
|
ignores the internal date given by imapsync during the APPEND imap
|
|
command. It happens with some imap servers.
|
|
|
|
There are also the "Received:" header lines. Each time a message travels
|
|
a SMTP server, this one adds a "Received:" header line. Sometimes
|
|
some email clients use the last "Received:" header date as the date of the
|
|
message. And some IMAP servers software add a "Received:" line after
|
|
and imap transfer. If those both conditions are met then the date
|
|
displayed become the transfer date even if imapsync
|
|
has done its best to keep all the dates synchronized. Bad luck.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Solutions:
|
|
a) Use a another email client or configure it in order it sorts messages
|
|
by sent date, the "Date:" header line.
|
|
|
|
b) Use a imap server that respects the imap RFC and accepts
|
|
the internal date set by imapsync.
|
|
|
|
c) Try to understand why the reader shows another date than the "Date:" line.
|
|
|
|
=======================================================================
|
|
|