Re: [Evolution] From POP3 to IMAP

[Paul van der Vlis <paul vandervlis nl>]

Hi Pete,

On 28-03-13 11:01, Pete Biggs wrote:
> > I use Evolution on a thin-client server with over 100 users.
> > At the moment POP3 is used, the mail is stored in maildir.
> >
> > I would like to change to IMAP and I am looking for a way without
> > loosing flags like "read".
> >
> > Do I loose the flags when I would install an IMAP server like Dovecot or
> > Courier?
> >
> > And does an IMAP server like Dovecot or Courier change anything in the
> > existing maildir?
> >
> > I would like to use Cyrus IMAP, but Cyrus does not use maildir. When I
> > install Dovecot or Courier I could use the program ImapSync to migrate
> > everything over IMAP to Cyrus.
>
> Either I've misunderstood what you are trying to do or you are not aware
> what POP and IMAP do.

First of all, I did misunderstand my customer. The mail is stored in the
mbox format and not in maildir.

> If you are using POP to currently access your mail, then your mail is on
> a remote server (otherwise, why would you use POP) - in Evolution POP as
> a protocol downloads all your mail from the server and places it under
> "On This Computer".

It stores it in the homedir of the user.

> Conversely with IMAP all your mail is left on the server and in
> Evolution you have another account (as well as "On This Computer") at
> the top level where all your mail is displayed.  The mail is never
> transferred to your local machine (other than as a cache).
>
> Most importantly though in all this, the POP and IMAP servers run on the
> remote machine, not your local one, and as such the backend format of
> the mail store is largely irrelevant.

It is interesting when you want to convert is.

Maybe you don't know what a thin-client server is. It's a server where
all the people login from remote.

So I have a server with 100+ homedirectories with "local mail", and I
want to transfer the mail to an IMAP server.

> If you do indeed have access to the mail server and you are talking
> about installing a different IMAP server on there, then it will know
> nothing about the status of the mail on your client.  However, once you
> setup the connection to the IMAP server in Evolution, you will be able
> to copy the mail from your local mailstore to the IMAP account within
> Evolution and all your mail flags will be preserved.

Doing this from Evolution is a lot of work. It are 100+ accounts.

> Two other things I will mention - I know of no modern mail client server
> (such as Dovecot, Courier etc.) that doesn't support both POP and IMAP.

It was about maildir, Cyrus dus not know maildir.
But I was wrong, the mail is stored in mbox and not in maildir.

> Second, if your mail is delivered locally to the machine your are logged
> in on (whether that be a thin client or a server), then you really
> shouldn't be using POP (or IMAP) to access your mail - you need to find
> out what format the mail spool uses and configure an account
> appropriately in Evolution.

It's about the old mail. This is now in mbox format and I would like to
transfer it to imap.

With regards,
Paul.


> P.
>
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-- 
Paul van der Vlis Linux systeembeheer, Groningen
http://www.vandervlis.nl/