[Dovecot] backup & restore mailbox files manually

[Steffen Kaiser]

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On Mon, 25 Jan 2010, coolatt wrote:

> Am working on a solution to backup maildir mailboxes using rsync.
> All mailbox directories are mirrored on another machine.
>
> I need advise regarding restore of the INBOX & SENT files from the backup.
>
> For e.g , [1] Can I just copy  "file-x-y-z" from /Maildir/cur to restore it
> on /Maildir/cur on the mailserver.
>             [2] Can I do same for SENT emails ?

You can do so. But it can lead to duplicate mail, because the filename is 
not static, e.g. message status or keyword changes are reflected there.

There had been a thread lastly about this topic (well, a minor bit 
differently); I restore the mails to a completely different folder and let 
the user pick the messages and re-file them into specific mailfolders.

Others suggested to use a script to verify filename stem (before the 
colon), e.g. restore to tmp/, then check new/ and cur/, if there exists a 
file with the same stem. However, there had been said that there is a 
possible race condition, if the message flags are changed simultaneously.

Regards,

- -- 
Steffen Kaiser
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