I use the tar/bzip method, and have been wondering about the rsync. All my users have system accounts on the dovecot server, and use Maildir format. If i rsync the mail to another box where the users do not have system accounts, will the ownerships/ permissions etc. be goofed up ?
Correctly, or incorrectly, I've been using tar to preserve all that information.
Cal Gordon
Sotiris Tsimbonis wrote:
Scott Silva wrote, On 10/30/2008 12:34 AM:
on 10-29-2008 3:18 PM Dave McGuire spake the following:
> What is the best way to do a (server-side) backup of all mail in a > user's mail? I usually just rsync the /home directories to another server. The inital sync can take a while, but it gets faster after there is a base to work from. ...and it's much less painful if you're using maildir instead of mbox! Not for rsyncing. Tons of small files means much slower rsync. Due to connection turnaround latency, I assume? (I've never looked at
On Oct 29, 2008, at 5:32 PM, Arkadiusz Miskiewicz wrote: the rsync protocol) If that's the case, then I stand very much corrected, thank you. I was going from the same logic regarding mbox vs. maildir in the context of backups. One new message delivered and a 400MB mail spool gets backed up again..
-Dave
Rsync adds some latency as it indexes and compares files on both ends. Obviously it would take more time to compare 40,000 1K files then 1000 40K files even though the data size is similar. It would still be better than tar/bzip/scp which has to compress everything and transfer the lot every time.
Maildirsync it an "Online synchronizer for Maildir-format mailboxes" See http://hacks.dlux.hu/maildirsync/
Sot.