Version controlled (git) Maildir generated by Dovecot

[David Myers]

Adam,

Just for completions sake, and in case someone else comes here in the
future;

This is a link to the current (2020 LO 7) wiki page describing the XML
format
<https://help.libreoffice.org/7.0/en-GB/text/shared/00/00000021.html?&DbPAR=WRITER&System=UNIX>
.

However it doesn't mention about being able to save a document directly as
its constituent XML docs ??? so maybe the function has been removed, I have
miss remembered, or I am going mad (I vote for the 4th option ;) ).

David



On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 12:31 PM Adam <adam.ranek at seznam.cz> wrote:

> 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.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/attachments/20201007/012f6275/attachment-0001.html>