[Dovecot] backing up maildir dovecot files

[Steffen Kaiser]

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On Tue, 12 Feb 2013, David Mehler wrote:

> Thanks, if I did:
>
> rsync --force --delete-after -tPrlHpogEAXz /folder/ /backups/newmailstore/
>
> could I then tar up the newmailstore folder with something like tar
> zcf without messing anything up?

keep in mind, that the backup of the Maildir with rsync is no 100% 
consistent snapshot, because of the filename renames; otherwise: yes.

> On 2/12/13, Steffen Kaiser <skdovecot at smail.inf.fh-brs.de> wrote:
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>> On Mon, 11 Feb 2013, Reindl Harald wrote:
>>
>>> Am 11.02.2013 22:37, schrieb Steve Litt:
>>>> On Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:47:57 +0100
>>>> Reindl Harald <h.reindl at thelounge.net> wrote:
>>>>> Am 11.02.2013 21:34, schrieb David Mehler:
>>>>>> I'm having to migrate servers. Both are dovecot2 systems. I'm
>>>>>> wanting to copy over my mail store from one system to the other.
>>>>>> I'd like to preserve dates/times of emails. These are maildir
>>>>>> setups on both boxes, I'd like to be as transparent to the end user
>>>>>> as possible. I currently have the first dovecot system offline and
>>>>>> the second dovecot system is offline.
>>>>>
>>>>> assuming that BOTH servers are down as fro any other transfers
>>>>> like mysql-datadirs and any critical things which should go
>>>>> save and fast by preserve attributes:
>>>>>
>>>>> rsync --force --delete-after -tPrlHpogEAXz /folder/
>>>>> root at newserver:/folder/
>>>>>
>>>>> # -z compress
>>>>> # -t timestamps
>>>>> # -P progress
>>>>> # -r recursive
>>>>> # -l links
>>>>> # -H hard-links
>>>>> # -p permissions
>>>>> # -o owner
>>>>> # -g group
>>>>> # -E executability
>>>>> # -A acls
>>>>> # -X xtended attributes
>>>>
>>>> That's how I'd do it also. I think if you didn't mind including -D,
>>>> which from my understanding is --special and --devices, neither of
>>>> which I'd expect in a maildir, and if you wanted to do your deletion
>>>> manually after the fact, would this be equivalent?
>>>
>>> well, i have them ususally in my "rsync.sh" but did not expect
>>> such files in a maildir, but yes it does not hurt
>>>
>>>> rsync  -PaHAX /folder/
>>>>
>>>> The man page says -a (--archive) is equivalent to -rlptgoD, and you
>>>> have all but D listed up there.
>>>>
>>>> My thinking on later manually deleting the old maildir, instead of
>>>> letting rsync do it, is that if somehow, some weird thing goes wrong, I
>>>> have the old one for backup. Who knows, maybe I copied the thing on top
>>>> of the wrong other maildir and have to back it out -- I'd have the old
>>>> maildir as a reference of which files.
>>>
>>> you missunderstand "--delete-after"
>>>
>>> this is for delete files in the TARGET folder which is not
>>> or no longer in the source and IMHO very very important
>>> if you want sync folders 1:1 because old artefacts can have
>>> very bad effects
>>>
>>> without you merge folders and if i know "hey my source contains
>>> exactly what i need, not more and lot less" this is not what i
>>> would like and never did in 10 years IT
>>
>> If you use "--delete-after" you could add "--fuzzy", which theoretically
>> could save transfers because of filename renames.
>>
>> Anyway: Any form of "--delete" is required for Maildir, IMHO, because
>> Labels, Tags, Keywords (or whatever the MUA calls it) and status
>> information (seen, read, deleted) are reflected by the filename. Hence, if
>> one does not "--delete", the _same_ message might pop up in the Maildir
>> multiple times but with different status and/or tags. Same applies to new
>> messages, because they are storred in <maildir>/new and later moved to
>> <maildir>/cur. So one ends with the same message in "new" and in "cur".
>>
>> - --
>> Steffen Kaiser
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>

- -- 
Steffen Kaiser
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