[Dovecot] Shutting down my Dovecot server?

[Steve Litt]

On Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:52:37 +0100, Bjørn T Johansen said:
> On 28.11.2012 18:10, Steve Litt wrote:
> > On Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:12:15 +0100, Bjørn T Johansen said:
> >> I am planning to shut down my own Dovecot server and start using
> >> the other Dovecot server I am administering together with a
> >> friend..
> >>
> >> And I was thinking that I don't want to copy the emails I have on
> >> my server so I want to start from scratch on the other server..
> >> But I would like to be able to look at the old emails if I need
> >> to, so was wondering if there is a way to do this without using an
> >> imap server? Can I convert my mails stored in the maildir format
> >> to mbox or is there a better way to solve my problem?
> >
> > I'm not sure why you want to convert to mbox, especially when there 
> > are
> > multiple mbox versions.
> >
> > I'm also not sure why you don't want to copy emails. How else would
> > they appear on the new server. I suppose you could use rsync to copy
> > the data itself.
> >
> > You use Claws-Mail. If I were in your shoes, I'd bring up the empty
> > Dovecot server and make a new Claws-Mail account for that empty 
> > server.
> > Then in Claws-Mail I'd use the copy feature to copy whole folder 
> > trees
> > to the new server. Once that's done, I'd reconfigure your original
> > Dovecot so it can serve only on its local machine, and bang, you
> > have your new server, with old emails you can look at.
> >
> > This is similar to the procedure I used to move my Kmail folders 
> > (over
> > 100K messages) to Dovecot.
> >
> > http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/201202/201202.htm
> >
> > HTH,
> >
> > SteveT
> 
> Well, I could do that... But you see, there is not much of the emails
> I have at the moment that I really need, I might need one now and
> then... So that is why I don't want to copy almost 10GB of email to
> the new server...
> 
> But I guess that might be the most practical solution perhaps... 
> Doesn't seem to be a better solution....
> 
> 
> BTJ



Hi Bjørn,

Here's the thought process that led me to the suggestion. All email
clients suck. Right now Claws-Mail sucks the least, but that could
change in a heartbeat. In my experience, a Dovecot server is a much
more reliable place to *keep* email than is any client, because you can
access it from *any* IMAP aware email client. A localhost-only Dovecot
isn't any harder to set up than an email client, but in my experience
it's a much better steward of your email.

Imagine if, two years ago, you had kept such emails in Kmail, and then
upgraded your Linux and been forced into Kmail2. It would have been a
disaster.

The other thing is, I'm not really sure what your goal is. It sounds
like you want your emails on yours and your friends IMAP server, and
then a copy locally. Or perhaps you wanted your old email only locally.
Either of those speaks to a local Dovecot server.

Thanks

SteveT

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