Re: [Evolution] Evolution migration from Computer to Notebok

[Ralf Mardorf <ralf mardorf rocketmail com>]

On Fri, 2015-07-10 at 11:36 +0100, Pete Biggs wrote:
> > I didn't follow this thread, but I once linked pop account mails 
> > from
> > one install to another. This worked without issues while using
> > different versions on both installs.
> >
> > $ ls -hAl /mnt/u1.precise/home/spinymouse/.local/share/evolution/
> > drwx------ Dec 23  2011 addressbook
> > -rw-rw-r-- Feb 15  2013 backup-restore-gconf.xml
> > drwx------ Dec 12  2011 calendar
> > -rw------- Dec 16  2011 camel-cert.db
> > -rw-r--r-- Dec 12  2011 categories.xml
> > lrwxrwxrwx Apr 28  2012 mail -> 
> > /mnt/archlinux/home/spinymouse/.local/share/evolution/mail
> > drwx------ Dec 12  2011 memos
> > -rw-rw-r-- May  3  2012 printing.ini
> > drwx------ Jul 26  2012 signatures
> > drwx------ Dec 12  2011 tasks
> >
> > IOW sharing mails isn't an issue. Instead of a link, a sync should 
> > work
> > too, as long as the versions use the same mail format.
>
> Messing around with Evolution's internal & private data is NOT
> recommended.  It may appear to work, but Evolution is NOT designed to
> work in such a way and as such is not tested to a level where anyone
> can be certain that it will work now or in the future.
>
> What you should be aware about is that Evolution uses a UUID for the
> mail account (and virtually everything else) - those UUIDs are unique
> to a machine.  They are not just used as a directory name for the 
> local
> data, but also referenced in the configuration files.  So copying (or
> sharing) data requires that all the configuration files on the two
> machines are also identical - but there is no synchronisation between
> the configurations, so changes on one machine will not be propagated
> leading to a miss-match between the data and the configuration.
>
> Yes, it may work if you are careful or if your setup is particularly
> simple, but it won't work in all cases.  You seriously risk 
> corrupting
> your Evolution data store.
>
> Use a remote server.  It works.

If I remember correctly, I first used
File > Back up Evolution Data... and
File > Restore Evolution Data...
or copied data in a similar way, then removed
~/.local/share/evolution/mail and replaced it with a link.
Even when updating different versions of Evolution for both installs,
there never were issues. I at least wasn't careful, resp. just backuped
my complete installs, but never needed to restore user space or data
from the backups. Perhaps I just had good luck, but I did it several
years without experiencing serious problems. If I remember correctly
there once was just a minor issue with folder names, regarding the
character encoding of the folder names, but character encoding for
anything else was ok and even the folder name issue wasn't really a
problem.

However, if it's not recommended, it might be not a good idea to do it
for a production environment.