[plug] Backup of Cyrus Imap Mail

[Shannon Carver]

Bernd Felsche wrote:
> "Shannon Carver" <shannon.carver at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> I'm about to go abroad for a couple of years,
>>     
>
> Look, just because astronomers have spotted a "habitable" planet
> orbiting a red dwarf some 20 lightyears away, doesn't mean you
> should pack your bags just yet! :-)
>
>   
>> and take my home mail server off line.  I've got approximately 3GB
>> of personal mail stored in .maildir/<mailbox>/cur/* format (in
>> plain text).  If I was to take a backup of this, can this be copied
>> directly into a similar IMAP server that uses .maildir format?
>>     
>
>   
>> The huge bulk of the mail isn't important at all, but, like a library, I'd
>> rather keep it and realise I need something later than lose it altogether.
>>     
>
>   
>> Anyone had any experience with this in the past?
>>     
>
>   
>> It's a Cyrus IMAP server, using postfix for the MTA, but I've played with
>> similar setups in the past using dovecot and other imapd's and the layout
>> of the maildir seems to be the same.
>>     
>
> I've transferred mailboxes from one Cyrus system to another with
> "identical" configuration. (Not .maildir, as that's not afaik a
> _Cyrus_ format. Perhaps you're thinking Courier?)
>
> There's a "rebuild" of sorts that should be run to bring the
> articles "online" -- don't remember exactly what it's called.
> Cyrus maintains a database of articles and mailboxes in
> e.g. /var/lib/imap
>
> I suggest that instead of feeding the "backup" into an existing
> user's mailbox, set up a fresh one, load the articles, "rebuild" the
> cyrus databases and give access to the real users who need it.
>
> You will of course organize folders within the main IMAP folder,
> won't you? I had one user complain that his Outlook was slow
> starting (and so was Thunderbird) and would lock up for minutes
> at a time. He had 13 GB in roughly 60,000 articles in his Inbox.
> One can probably recognize his house by the 18-metre shipping
> container that he uses as his letter-box at the front of his house.
>
>   
Yes, of course! Sorry, it's a Courier IMAP system, not Cyrus.

Definitely, in different folders, nothing in my inbox apart from maybe 
10 messages.  And Outlook/Thunderbird takes no time at all to load..

So I'm guessing with standard .maildir setup, its fine to restore it 
later on??