gmane.mail.imap.offlineimap.general

Re: What happens when contents of a mail message change?

Cameron Simpson — 2012-05-19T22:41:53

| Thanks for offlineimap; I'm using it with mu4e, a new email client for
| emacs (http://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e.html).
| 
| I'd like to investigate whether I can reliably delete attachments from
| email, based on e.g. python scripts like
| http://code.activestate.com/recipes/302086/
| 
| But I'm just wondering -- can offlineimap detect and sync cases when a
| Maildir file has changed its content (e.g. after deleting an
| attachment, or by adding a X-Tag: header).  Is it better to keep the
| original filename, or create a new file with the edited message and
| delete the original file?

Even if offlineimap got to check on things like message size etc, I
would not rely on the IMAP service noticing and reporting the hange; it
may keep "seen" message metadata in a db for fast lookup.

Therefore I would create a new Maildir file and delete the old.
Besides, that's safer - you get to defer the deletion until after the
successful creation.

BTW, that is also what the mutt mailreader does if you edit a mes

What happens when contents of a mail message change?

Stephen Eglen — 2012-05-19T20:10:05

Thanks for offlineimap; I'm using it with mu4e, a new email client for
emacs (http://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e.html).

I'd like to investigate whether I can reliably delete attachments from
email, based on e.g. python scripts like
http://code.activestate.com/recipes/302086/

But I'm just wondering -- can offlineimap detect and sync cases when a
Maildir file has changed its content (e.g. after deleting an
attachment, or by adding a X-Tag: header).  Is it better to keep the
original filename, or create a new file with the edited message and
delete the original file?

Best wishes, Stephen


_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

New release due next week

Sebastian Spaeth — 2012-05-18T07:42:01

Hi all,

sorry I still haven't been able to catch up on the huge backlog of
email. I am in the process of applying for a job and have been traveling
like crazy.

I will push out the current "next" branch as the new release next week
unless something dramatically happens. It contains enought fixes and
features. Starting WEdnesday next week, I will have more time hopefully
(when job talks are over). All the emails are duefully stored in my
inbox and I'll go through all of them, promised.

THanks for your patience,
Sebastian

_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Re: Moving to a new imap server

Sriram Karra — 2012-05-16T01:46:24

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 9:00 PM, Nicolas Sebrecht <nicolas.s-dev< at >laposte.net




Thank you Nicolas.

-Sriram
_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Problems with dovecot imap server

Eric Scheibler — 2012-05-15T18:45:47

Hello,

on my server I've installed a dovecot imap server. Now I want to sync this
mailbox to my local machine. But dovecot doesn't create an inbox folder on
the server so the "cur", "new" and "tmp" folders are located in the mailbox
root directory (~/.maildir/). The problem is that offlineimap doesn't sync
this folders. Although my "cur" folder on the server contains more than
1000 mails the folder on the notebook is empty. All subfolders like
for example ~/.maildir/.news are synched correctly.

Is there anything I can do to fix this issue? I run debian squeeze,,
dovecot v1.1.15 and offlineimap v6.3.4-1 (from the debian testing
repository).

Thanks for help
Regards
Eric

_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Re: Moving to a new imap server

Nicolas Sebrecht — 2012-05-15T15:30:44

I would do the following:

0. Make a tarball of the local maildir.
1. Write a new offlinerc for newserver.
2. Make a first sync (mostly empty).
3. Untar the archive to the updated maildir of newserver.
4. Have fun with nametrans rules.
5. Sync again to have local mail on newserver.
6. Live happily ever after.

In the past, I've migrated my mails from one server to another this way.

Moving to a new imap server

Sriram ET. — 2012-05-15T09:42:42

Due to a very strange manner in which our IT folks have managed a mail
server migration, I am forced to deal with the following situation.

I was using offlineimap to sync my email with 'oldserver' (Lotus Domino)
till now. I have to start using 'newserver' (on Courier) from now on. None
of my email has been migrated from oldserver to newserver. However since I
have all my mail on my local drive, I was hoping something along the
following lines should work:


   1. Update .offlinerc RemoteRepository account details with credentials
   of newserver
   2. Update nametrans to deal with differences between Lotus and Courier
   3. Clear any synchronization state on Local so the next run will trigger
   a bulk copy from Local to newserver
   4. Live happily ever after.

Can someone suggest if this approach can work in practise or theory? If
yes, what exactly should I do for Step 3?

Thanks.
Karra
_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Oon-Ee Ng — 2012-05-15T01:03:01

give it

Would a systemd service be easier/harder (sounds like such a wrapper script
would basically be in rc.d).

Am not very familiar with systemd, just started using it, but AFAIK it can
monitor the processes it runs, though I'm not sure what degree of control
it has.
_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Thomas Kahle — 2012-05-14T18:20:05

There is one version of this in my mail guide:

http://dev.gentoo.org/~tomka/mail.html

under "the mail-update script".  It's a bit outdated, but you should get
the idea and tweak it for yourself.

Cheers,
Thomas

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Tim Gray — 2012-05-14T17:36:27

Actually, it seems I mispoke.  I *used* to use some script like that for 
several years, up until alst fall.  I still have that script but I can't 
vouch that it works anymore.  I was forced to stop using it because an 
upgrade to OS X made a change which impacted how offlineimap got the 
account passwords.  So I moved to running it in single mode.

It still does hang periodically for unknown reasons (once every 2-3 
weeks), but I've not yet automated restarting it.  If I notice my mail 
not coming in, I kill it and remove the lock file.  I could repurpose 
the original script, but haven't gotten around to it.

All the script really did was to write a simple file with the time of 
last sync, PID of offlineimap, and my IP address.  offlineimap was then 
started.  Upon the next run, if the information existed but hadn't 
changed and the timeout hadn't elapsed (either because it was too recent 
or because offlineimap was syncing properly) then the script exited and 
let the current offlineimap process live.  I

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Sriram ET. — 2012-05-14T17:06:11



Can you share you wrapper scripts? Others have similar issues could give it
a try, and we could possibly include it in the main distribution?
_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Tim Gray — 2012-05-14T16:42:53

I like offlineimap and have been using it for years, but definitely have 
some issues with it hanging.  Most of these happen when I put my laptop 
to sleep and/or change networks and offlineimap is in the middle of a 
sync.  I use to run it in the background as a process, but eventually 
had to move to running it in single sync mode every 5 minutes.  This of 
course precludes using it in IDLE mode.  Just sticking it in my cronfile 
wasn't enough; I had to wrap it in a shell script that checked for 
network connectivity, checked to see if it had hung, etc.

It works great now and I can close my laptop with impunity, but it was a 
process that took a fair amount of time to iron out which could have 
been saved if offlineimap handled that situation better.  I'm not 
blaming offlineimap for not including those capabilities - it does what 
it says on the box.  But it certainly would be a welcome addition since 
it's an issue many users of offlineimap probably run into.

__________________________________________

Error in UIDMapping file

Chris Dennis — 2012-05-14T16:40:46

Hello OfflineIMAP people

Here's some information about an error with OfflineIMAP 6.5.2.1 which 
might possibly be helpful for future debugging.

I started getting the following error for one user, but not for others:

----------------------------------------------------------
OfflineIMAP 6.5.2.1
   Licensed under the GNU GPL v2+ (v2 or any later version)
*** Processing account 1and1
Establishing connection to imap.1and1.co.uk:993
Establishing connection to localhost:143
ERROR: While attempting to sync account '1and1'
   need more than 1 value to unpack
*** Finished account '1and1' in 0:00
----------------------------------------------------------

I then noticed that 
~/offlineimap-meta/Repository-LocalIMAP/UIDMapping/INBOX contained this 
near then end:

----------------------------------------------------------
[many lines deleted]
18424:800
18425:801
18427:803
18428:804
22526:3308

18430:806
[end of file]
----------------------------------------------------------

Note the blank line before the last line

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Sriram ET. — 2012-05-14T14:46:49




Perhaps my views are a bit old fashioned, but non-constructive criticism
and tough language are generally better received from users who do other
than just bitch about the 'good old days' or the general poor state of
affairs.
_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Re: Reliability and shutdown

ael — 2012-05-14T14:16:24

It is an extremely useful piece of software and it is very actively
maintained.

But concurrency issues are subtle and without formal methods it is
exceedingly hard to diagnose such problems. As in this case, they tend
to show up in rare cases, and developers generally don't see them. If
they did, they would find a solution - often something that works
for the vast majority.

So almost by definition, only a few people see them in rare
circumstances. Most people using the software are very happy.

That the problems have a root in race conditions can only be
speculation. There is also the issue of all the different
implementations of the imap protocol and whether they conform
to an imprecise specification.

I run a number of different machines with widely varying speeds and 
architectures. offlineimap behaves differently on all and the apparent
deadlocks may only occur on 1 or 2 of the systems. But which often
changes with the offlineimap release. This, and the fact that others see
such problems, all smacks s

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Oon-Ee Ng — 2012-05-13T21:43:27

this
anyone uses

Ditto that. For me the new updates fixed some annoying infinite timeouts.
If that's not your experience then you'd be better served debugging it than
making unfounded speculative comments...
_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Thomas Kahle — 2012-05-13T20:00:10

[...]


There's also the possibility that other people use offlineimap without
many problems.

I am running offlineimap every 5 minutes using a cronjob.  It checks for
an internet connection and already running instances so that it never
runs twice (although it also has internal checks, but better safe than
sorry).  I use the -o option, to make offlineimap quit after one sync.
Additionally I use the option

socktimeout = 120

in my offlineimaprc to ensure that it dies if the socket is silent for 2
minutes.  This configuration is running without any major trouble for a
couple of years now.

Cheers,
Thomas

Re: Reliability and shutdown

Tracy Reed — 2012-05-13T18:15:15

On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 12:58:26PM +0100, ael spake thusly:

That's a real shame. I use imapfilter to sort my mail and as approximately the
same class of program it has been highly reliable. I wish offlineimap could be
as solid.


I have tried reducing maxsyncaccounts to 1 thinking that would prevent
simultaneous syncing and remove the possibility of race conditions but the
current behavior of that option seems to limit the number of accounts on the
accounts= line to be synced. This seems fairly useless to me.

I'll give the -1 option a try. I hadn't noticed that before. It has probably
been continuing to use multiple connections/threads per account.

I'm surprised these problems have persisted for so long. The offlineimap
website and docs actually make it look like someone really cares about this
project. But the persistent bugs suggest otherwise or that hardly anyone uses
this piece of software.

Re: Reliability and shutdown

ael — 2012-05-12T11:58:26

You are not alone. offlineimap has shown these sorts of problems for
many years. Mostly it is possible to work around the faults, but the
latest version seems to have got somewhat worse.

Using the "-1" option usually modifies the behaviour but does not
consistently fix the problems in the latest version.

I know that this is not a very helpful answer - for anyone. But
it seems clear that there is some sort of underlying design problem
which I strongly suspect involves races. If only I had time to spare...

ael


_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-project mailing list
OfflineIMAP-project< at >lists.alioth.debian.org
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/offlineimap-project

OfflineIMAP homepage: http://software.complete.org/offlineimap

Re: better nametrans documentation available

John Steele Scott — 2012-05-12T10:26:38

The example for reverse nametrans against a Courier server converts "INBOX" to "INBOXINBOX".

Could be fixed along the following lines:

diff --git a/docs/doc-src/nametrans.rst b/docs/doc-src/nametrans.rst
index ca25345..3400b22 100644
--- a/docs/doc-src/nametrans.rst
+++ b/docs/doc-src/nametrans.rst
< at >< at > -104,9 +104,10 < at >< at > Take the above examples. If your remote nametrans setting was::
 
    nametrans = lambda folder: re.sub('^INBOX\.', '', folder)
 
-then you will want to have this in your local repository, prepending "INBOX" to any local folder name::
+then you will want to have this in your local repository, prepending "INBOX" to
+any local folder name (apart from "INBOX" itself)::
 
-   nametrans = lambda folder: 'INBOX' + folder
+   nametrans = lambda folder: folder if folder == 'INBOX' else 'INBOX.' + folder
 
 Failure to set the local nametrans rule will lead to weird-looking error messages of -for instance- this type::

cheers,

John


_______________________________________________
OfflineIMAP-projec

Reliability and shutdown

Tracy Reed — 2012-05-11T20:06:22

I've been using offlineimap for about 5 months. It seems to be the right tool
for the job and does exactly what I want (bi-directional IMAP sync so I can
read mail locally). 

My only complaint is that it has been terribly unreliable.

The primary sympton is that it simply stops synching one or more accounts and I
miss time-sensitive emails for hours.  It is very difficult to reproduce the
problem or describe exactly what is going on. 

Versions:

CentOS 5.8
offlineimap 6.5.3.1 (from git)
Python 2.7.2

When I run offlineimap from cron I eventually (after a number of hours) end up
with several offlineimap processes running. And one or more accounts are not
being synched. Sometimes I try running it in a terminal set to autorefresh
instead of cron. Both methods seem to have issues.

Right now I somehow have two offlineimap processes running:

treed     3818  5326  4 May09 pts/10   01:57:13 /usr/local/bin/python /usr/local/bin/offlineimap
treed    21508  3818  0 May10 pts/10   00:00:00 /usr/local/bin/python /usr