[offlineimap] / offlineimap / head / offlineimap.sgml

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  <!ENTITY OfflineIMAP "<application>OfflineIMAP</application>">
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<reference>
  <title>OfflineIMAP Manual</title>

  <refentry>
    <refentryinfo>
      <address><email>jgoerzen@complete.org</email></address>
      <author><firstname>John</firstname><surname>Goerzen</surname></author>
      <date>$Date$</date>
    </refentryinfo>

    <refmeta>
      <refentrytitle>offlineimap</refentrytitle>
      <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
      <refmiscinfo>John Goerzen</refmiscinfo>
    </refmeta>

    <refnamediv>
      <refname>OfflineIMAP</refname>
      <refpurpose>Powerful IMAP/Maildir synchronization
        and reader support</refpurpose>
    </refnamediv>

    <refsynopsisdiv>
      <cmdsynopsis>
        <command>offlineimap</command>
        <arg>-1</arg>
        <arg>-P <replaceable>profiledir</replaceable></arg>
        <arg>-a <replaceable>accountlist</replaceable></arg>
        <arg>-c <replaceable>configfile</replaceable></arg>
        <arg>-d <replaceable>debugtype[,...]</replaceable></arg>
        <arg>-o</arg>
        <arg>-u <replaceable>interface</replaceable></arg>
      </cmdsynopsis>
      <cmdsynopsis>
        <command>offlineimap</command>
        <group choice="plain"><arg>-h</arg><arg>--help</arg></group>
      </cmdsynopsis>
    </refsynopsisdiv>

    <refsect1>
      <title>Description</title>

      <para>&OfflineIMAP; is  a  tool  to  simplify  your  e-mail
        reading.  With &OfflineIMAP;, you can read the same mailbox
        from multiple computers.  You get a current copy of your
        messages on each computer, and changes you make one place will be
        visible on all other systems.  For instance, you can delete a message
        on your home computer, and it will appear deleted on your work
        computer as well.  &OfflineIMAP; is also useful if you want to
        use a mail reader that does not have IMAP support, has poor IMAP
        support, or does not provide disconnected operation.
      </para>

      <para>&OfflineIMAP; is <emphasis>FAST</emphasis>; it synchronizes
        my two accounts with over 50 folders in 3 seconds.  Other
        similar tools might take over a minute, and achieve a
        less-reliable result.  Some mail readers can take over 10
        minutes to do the same thing, and some don't even support it
        at all.  Unlike other mail tools, &OfflineIMAP; features a
        multi-threaded synchronization algorithm that can dramatically
        speed up performance in many situations by synchronizing
        several different things simultaneously.
      </para>

      <para>&OfflineIMAP; is <emphasis>FLEXIBLE</emphasis>; you can
        customize which folders are synced via regular expressions,
        lists, or Python expressions; a versatile and comprehensive
        configuration file is used to control behavior; two user
        interfaces are built-in; fine-tuning of synchronization
        performance is possible; internal or external automation is
        supported; SSL and PREAUTH tunnels are both supported; offline
        (or "unplugged") reading is supported; and esoteric IMAP
        features are supported to ensure compatibility with the widest
        variety of IMAP servers.
      </para>

      <para>&OfflineIMAP; is <emphasis>SAFE</emphasis>; it uses an
        algorithm designed to prevent mail loss at all costs.  Because
        of the design of this algorithm, even programming errors
        should not result in loss of mail.  I am so confident in the
        algorithm that I use my own personal and work accounts for
        testing of &OfflineIMAP; pre-release, development, and beta
        releases.  Of course, legally speaking, &OfflineIMAP; comes
        with no warranty, so I am not responsible if this turns out
        to be wrong.
      </para>

      <refsect2>
        <title>Method of Operation</title>
       
        <para>&OfflineIMAP; operates by maintaining a hierarchy of
          mail folders in Maildir format locally.  Your own mail
          reader will read mail from this tree, and need never know
          that the mail comes from IMAP.  &OfflineIMAP; will detect
          changes to the mail folders on your IMAP server and your own
          computer and bi-directionally synchronize them, copying,
          marking, and deleting messages as necessary.
        </para>
      </refsect2>
    </refsect1>
    
    <refsect1>
      <title>Quick Start</title>
      <para>If you have already installed &OfflineIMAP; system-wide,
        or your system adminstrator has done that for you, your task
        for setting up &OfflineIMAP; for the first time is quite
        simple.  You just need to set up your configuration file, make
        your folder directory, and run it!
      </para>

        <para>You can quickly set up your configuration file.  The distribution
          includes a file <filename>offlineimap.conf.minimal</filename>
          (Debian users
          may find this at
          <filename>/usr/share/doc/offlineimap/examples/offlineimap.conf.minimal</filename>) that is a basic example of setting of &OfflineIMAP;.  You can
          simply copy this file into your home directory and name it
          <filename>.offlineimaprc</filename> (note the leading period).  A
          command such as <command>cp offlineimap.conf.minimal ~/.offlineimaprc</command> will do it.  Or, if you prefer, you can just copy this text to
          <filename>~/.offlineimaprc</filename>:
        </para>

        <PROGRAMLISTING>[general]
accounts = Test

[Test]
localfolders = ~/Test
remotehost = examplehost
remoteuser = jgoerzen
</PROGRAMLISTING>

        <para>Now, edit the <filename>~/.offlineimaprc</filename> file with
          your favorite editor.  All you have to do is specify a directory
          for your folders to be in (on the <property>localfolders</property>
          line), the host name of your IMAP server (on the
          <property>remotehost</property> line), and your login name on
          the remote (on the <property>remoteuser</property> line).  That's
          it!</para>

        <para>To run &OfflineIMAP;, you just have to say
          <command>offlineimap</command> -- it will fire up, ask you for
          a login password if necessary, synchronize your folders, and exit.
          See?  You can just throw away the rest of this finely-crafted,
          perfectly-honed manual!  Of course, if you want to see how you can
          make &OfflineIMAP; FIVE TIMES FASTER FOR JUST $19.95 (err, well,
          $0), you have to read on!
        </para>

    </refsect1>

    <refsect1>
      <title>Installation</title>

      <para>If you are reading this document via the "man" command, it is
        likely
        that you have no installation tasks to perform; your system
        administrator has already installed it.  If you need to install it
        yourself, you have three options: a system-wide installation with
        Debian, system-wide installation with other systems, and a single-user
        installation.  You can download the latest version of &OfflineIMAP; from
        <ulink url="http://quux.org/devel/offlineimap/">the &OfflineIMAP;
        website</ulink>.
      </para>

      <refsect2>
        <title>Prerequisites</title>

        <para>In order to use &OfflineIMAP;, you need to have these conditions
          satisfied:
        </para>

        <itemizedlist>
          <listitem>
            <para>Your mail server must support IMAP.  Most Internet Service
              Providers
              and corporate networks do, and most operating systems
              have an IMAP
              implementation readily available.
            </para>
          </listitem>
          <listitem>
            <para>
              You must have Python version 2.2.1 or above installed.
              If you are
              running on Debian GNU/Linux, this requirement will automatically be
              taken care of for you.  If you do not have Python already, check with
              your system administrator or operating system vendor; or, download it from
              <ulink url="http://www.python.org/">the Python website</ulink>.
              If you intend to use the Tk interface, you must have Tkinter
                (python-tk) installed.  If you intend to use the SSL interface, your
                Python must have been built with SSL support.
            </para>
          </listitem>
          <listitem>
            <para>
              Have a mail reader that supports the Maildir mailbox format.  Most
              modern mail readers have this support built-in, so you can choose from
              a wide variety of mail servers.  This format is also known as the
              "qmail" format, so any mail reader compatible with it will work with
              &OfflineIMAP;.
        </itemizedlist>
      </refsect2>

      <refsect2>
        <title>System-Wide Installation, Debian</title>
        <para>
          If you are tracking Debian unstable, you may install
          &OfflineIMAP; by simply running the following command as root:
        </para>
        <para>
          <command>apt-get install offlineimap</command>
        </para>
        <para>
          If you are not tracking Debian unstable, download the Debian .deb
          package from the <ulink url="http://quux.org/devel/offlineimap/">&OfflineIMAP; website</ulink>
          and then run <command>dpkg -i</command> to install the downloaded
          package.  Then, skip to <xref linkend="configuration" endterm="configuration-title"> below.  You will type <command>offlineimap</command> to
          invoke the program.
        </para>
      </refsect2>

      <refsect2>
        <title>System-Wide Installation, Other</title>
        <para>
          Download the tar.gz version of the package from the
          <ulink url="http://quux.org/devel/offlineimap/">website</ulink>.
          Then run
          these commands, making sure that you are the "root" user first:
        </para>

        <ProgramListing>tar -zxvf offlineimap_x.y.z.tar.gz
cd offlineimap-x.y.z
python2.2 setup.py install</ProgramListing>
        <para>On some systems, you will need to use
          <command>python</command> instead of <command>python2.2</command>.
          Next, proceed to <xref linkend="configuration" endterm="configuration-title"> below.  You will type <command>offlineimap</command> to
          invoke the program.
        </para>
      </refsect2>

      <refsect2>
        <title>Single-Account Installation</title>
        <para>
          Download the tar.gz version of the package from the
          <ulink url="http://quux.org/devel/offlineimap/">website</ulink>.
          Then run these commands:
        </para>

        <ProgramListing>tar -zxvf offlineimap_x.y.z.tar.gz
cd offlineimap-x.y.z</ProgramListing>

        <para>When you want to run &OfflineIMAP;, you will issue the
          <command>cd</command> command as above and then type
          <command>./offlineimap.py</command>; there is no installation
          step necessary.
        </para>
      </refsect2>
    </refsect1>

    <refsect1 id="configuration">
      <title id="configuration-title">Configruation</title>
      <para>
        &OfflineIMAP; is regulated by a configuration file that is normally 
        stored in <filename>~/.offlineimaprc</filename>.  &OfflineIMAP;
        ships with a file named <filename>offlineimap.conf</filename>
        that you should copy to that location and then edit.  This file is
        vital to proper operation of the system; it sets everything you need
        to run &OfflineIMAP;.  Full documentation for the configuration file
        is included within the sample file.
      </para>
      <para>
        &OfflineIMAP; also ships a file named
        <filename>offlineimap.conf.minimal</filename> that you can also try.
          It's useful if you want to get started with
          the most basic feature set, and you can read about other features
          later with <filename>offlineimap.conf</filename>.
      </para>
    </refsect1>



    <refsect1>
      <title>See Also</title>
      <para>This is also a test.  Foo bar.</para>
    </refsect1>
  </refentry>
</reference>