Re: destination/maildir: Manuals seem to use different standards / how to configure correctly?

On 2018-07-08 20:37, Larry Fahnoe wrote:
> Hi Peter,
> 
> If your goal is to read a remote mailbox via IMAP, filter the messages
> into folders, and store them into a maildir structure for later
> consumption via an IMAP client like Thunderbird, then you're on the
> right path with getmail, dovecot-lda, and sieve. I use these tools to
> maintain a mirror of a gmail mailbox and they work extremely well, but
> it takes a bit of head scratching to get figured out initially. I
> don't use Thunderbird, so can't comment on that.
> 
> Here's how I feed dovecot-lda from getmail:
> 
>> [destination]
>> type = MDA_external
>> path = /usr/libexec/dovecot/DOVECOT-LDA
>> arguments = ("-e",)
>> unixfrom = true
> 
> After you've got getmail working, focus on dovecot & sieve. Here are
> the pointers I'd offer:
> 
> https://wiki2.dovecot.org/LDA
> 
> https://wiki2.dovecot.org/MailboxFormat/Maildir
> 
> https://wiki2.dovecot.org/Pigeonhole/Sieve
> 
> The relevant Dovecot config bits are more or less (& where these are
> located depends on how you've got Dovecot configured):
> 
>> protocols = imap
>> mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
>> postmaster_address = [email protected]
>> lda_mailbox_autocreate = yes
>> mail_plugins = $mail_plugins sieve
> 
> I wouldn't spend any time on procmail, while it was a great tool, it
> has long since been replaced by modern tools like sieve. You'll spend
> most of your time getting your mail.sieve file figured out as this
> controls which folders the messages are stored in. Dovecot provides a
> very powerful set of tools to manage the various flavors of mail
> stores including maildir and of course it also provides mailbox access
> via IMAP. Keep reading the manuals and you'll get it!
> 
> Apologies to the rest of the list as this has strayed far from
> getmail!
> 
> --Larry
> 
> On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 8:54 AM, mick crane <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> On 2018-07-08 13:31, Peter Nabbefeld wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi Larry,
>>> 
>>> thank You for Your reply! getmail works fine, however, it seems I
>>> cannot use Sieve - the purpose for using dovecot is to make
>>> Thunderbird happy.
>>> 
>>> I want to get my emails from the provider's server into a maildir,
>>> so
>>> mails are already stored when dovecot "sees" them.
>>> 
>>> So I need to organize my emails while they are received by
>>> getmail,
>>> before putting them into the maildir - do You have any idea?
>> 
>> If you can't use sieve ? guess you can use procmail to deliver
>> although I think people don't use it so much now.
>> 
>> "path = /usr/bin/procmail" in getmailrc0
>> 
>> then make a .procmailrc with the filter options
>> I'm not sure of the exact syntax as I don't have my .procmailrc
>> anymore.
>> also can't remember how setup maildir structure before, may have
>> done it manually, but this time think used roundcube and the folders
>> plugin to make the directories.
>> 
>> mick
>> 
>> Am 08.07.2018 um 13:03 schrieb Larry Fahnoe:
>> Hi Peter,
>> 
>> Yes, if you have delete = false you can make many different test
>> runs without making any changes to the source IMAP server. For your
>> initial tests, use something like:
>> 
>> message_log_verbose = true
>> verbose = 2
>> message_log = ~/.getmail/log
>> 
>> max_messages_per_session = 10
>> 
>> delete = false
>> read_all = true
>> 
>> Once you're happy with the way getmail/dovecot_lda/sieve is working,
>> turn down the logging, remove max_messages_per_session and set
>> delete = true. Takes a few reads of the various bits of
>> documentation, but these tools work really well together.
>> 
>> --Larry
>> 
>> On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 4:34 AM, Peter Nabbefeld
>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> syncing isn't a solution, as I want to remove all my messages
>> from
>> the provider's server, when I'm ready, so offlineimap and
>> imapsync
>> won't help. getmail's maildir shall be used by dovecot as "mail
>> buffer".
>> 
>> I've noticed the following two options:
>> * read_all (boolean) — if set, getmail retrieves all available
>> messages. If unset, getmail only retrieves messages it has not
>> seen before. Default: True.
>> * delete (boolean) — if set, getmail will delete messages
>> after
>> retrieving and successfully delivering them. If unset, getmail
>> will leave messages on the server after retrieving them.
>> Default:
>> False.
>> 
>> If I understand that correctly, this is exactly what I'd expect
>> for a "dry run", when using defaults: Just copy but change
>> nothing
>> (with the exception of some headers after receiving).
>> 
>> Kind regards
>> 
>> Peter
>> 
>> Am 07.07.2018 um 15:05 schrieb RW:
>> 
>> On Sat, 7 Jul 2018 09:44:42 +0200
>> Peter Nabbefeld wrote:
>> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> I'm trying to setup a dovecot installation with getmail
>> and found
>> these instructions:
>> 
>> 1.
>> 
>> 
> http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/configuration.html#destination-maildir
>> [1]
>> 
>> 
> <http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/configuration.html#destination-maildir
>> [1]>
>> using "~/Maildir/"
>> 
>> 2.
>> 
>> https://wiki2.dovecot.org/HowTo/TriggerGetmailOnIMAPAccess [2]
>> 
>> <https://wiki2.dovecot.org/HowTo/TriggerGetmailOnIMAPAccess [2]>
>> using "~/.maildir"
>> 
>> 3. Using Arch Linux, I've set "mail_location =
>> maildir:~/Maildir" in
>> "/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf" as advised in their
>> wiki.
>> 
>> As these folder names seem having to do with storage
>> format, I don't
>> want just to guess, so which variant would be correct?
>> 
>> It doesn't matter, unless there's something else that cares.
>> 
>> Just to make sure, I'm using the correct toolset:
>> 
>> I want to move all my mail documents off of my provider
>> (GMX), and I
>> want everything to be stored locally. So I want getmail
>> to
>> fetch
>> everything, including folder structure
>> 
>> getmail doesn't do that itself, but you might be able to get
>> dovecot sieve to read the folder name from the
>> X-getmail-retrieved-from-mailbox header and file
>> automatically
>> creating missing folders as it goes. It would rely on some
>> sieve
>> extensions that I don't use, so I'm not sure.
>> 
>> Alternately there are IMAP syncing programs, such as
>> offlineimap and
>> imapsync, that can sync directly to the maildir folders or
>> through imap.
>> Note that there is no standard for creating maildir
>> subfolders
>> so, if
>> you sync directly make sure that any such program creates
>> them
>> in a way
>> that they can be read by dovecote.
>> 
>> If you just a one-off transfer from the remote imap server
>> to the
>> local imap server it might be easier to just use a mail
>> client
>> to move
>> the mail manually - and then switch to getmail for new mail.
> 
> --

I use sieve with manage sieve plugin for roundcube it took me a while to 
figure out I only needed dovecot-lda but I think something changed with 
the new release of dovecot ?

mick