Version controlled (git) Maildir generated by Dovecot

[Adam]

Hi David,

I've never heard about such feature in LibreOffice. Thank you for letting me know.

I don't really see myself using the feature since I'd have to remember it. I'm used to store all sort of stuff / binary files in git. My rule of thumb is that if the file is bellow 10M, just add/commit it. Is it proper way of using git? No. Does it work? Yes ;-).

I think that the difference between us is that I'm used to use git for everything and you aren't which means neither you or I are correct ;-).

Kind regards,
Adam

---------- Původní e-mail ----------
Od: David Myers <david.myers.24j74 at gmail.com>
Komu: Adam <adam.ranek at seznam.cz>
Datum: 7. 10. 2020 10:05:28
Předmět: Re: Version controlled (git) Maildir generated by Dovecot
> Hello Adam,
> 
> thanks for the reply. Sounds fair enough to me. I hadn't thought about that last benefit of git. I haven't deleted anything off my pc for years ... still got HDD from 15 years ago with 'something' on them ?
> 
> Sorry this is going to go off topic somewhat .... (ok, I've just read it again... its gone off topic a lot... again, apologies for that)
> 
> 
> One more question, if you are using exclusively LibreOffice, I understand it
> has a mode where it will separate the file into its constituent flat, text XML
> files (style, contents, formatting etc), all of which can then be stored in git
> with all the advantages that privides, no binary files needed. Do you use this
> functionality ? I haven't done this so I don't know how it impacts the work flow
> for a user, or how it will integrate into a git workflow, but would be
> interested to hear a user experience. I just use the inbuilt 'versioning' that
> is available within libreoffice (much better than multiple copies of the same
> file with just a few changes).
> 
> Hopefully my last set of 'novice questions' ;)
> 
> thanks in advance.
> 
> David
> 
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 10:41 AM Adam <adam.ranek at seznam.cz> wrote:
> Hi David, 
> 
> Please find answers bellow.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Adam
> 
> ---------- Původní e-mail ----------
> Od: David Myers <david.myers.24j74 at gmail.com>
> Komu: Adam <adam.ranek at seznam.cz>, Dovecot Mailing List <dovecot at dovecot.org>
> Datum: 7. 10. 2020 8:44:28
> Předmět: Re: Version controlled (git) Maildir generated by Dovecot
> Hello Adam, and the dovecot list
> 
> > Just a question, I hate to pollute the thread, so feel free to push these
> > questions into a new thread if deemed necessary. So as you can guess I'm a bit
> > of a newb here, so rather obvious questions are about to arrive....
> > 
> > As you are using GIT for your archive (which is a cool idea by the way) I'm
> > sure you are well aware that not all files types play nicely with version
> > control, my question therefore is : How do you plan to handle attachments ?
> 
> I use git for everything including for example LibreOffice / Word documents. Git works just fine with binary files. You can't use text tools like "git diff" but... it works.
> 
> > Also, although I appreciate the idea of using git, emails generally don't
> > 'change', but I guess that also depends on how you are storing them (single
> > email with links to previous / next ... etc, or as a single big file for each
> > specific thread). Although this is hitting my limits of understanding for how
> > dovecot works, so I probably need educating on this (a pointer to the docs would
> > be good).
> 
> As I mentioned in the first e-mail, I configured Dovecot to use Maildir format -> each e-mail is a single text file. Mail body + attachment(s) are in the same file, attachment(s) are Base64 encoded.
> 
> > You seem concerned regarding the files that you are ignoring that you will need
> > to 'recreate them', so why not do a complete git add . prior to adding them into
> > the git ignore, then you have an initial state for those files too.
> 
> But I don't want to store files that can be regenerated. I don't want to backup stuff, that doesn't have information value.
> 
> > Final thought, what advantage do you envisage by using git as opposed to simply
> > using a filter to select the files over a certain age, and place them into a
> > zipped TAR archive ? Although I guess you could eventually zip the git archive
> > too, and in the interim it would remain searchable by your users mail clients
> > whilt in git.
> 
> I like to use git ;-). Tar will work just fine.
> 
> In this use case the only real benefit of git is that it never forgets. Unless I delete whole .git directory, I can make a mistake, delete some e-mails (files), commit changes and rollback. I can't rollback if I delete tar archive.
> 
> > Thanks in advance, and apologies once again for polluting your question with my
> > own.