Offline IMAP¶

Offline IMAP is a command line program written in Python which can be used to sync your remote IMAP account to local Maildirs on your computer. This is an advanced topic: you should not attempt to use offline imap unless you understood all the words in the previous sentence.

install¶

On debian or ubuntu, you would do this:

% sudo apt-get install offlineimap

On Mac OS X, visit offlineimap.darwinports.com

configure ~/.offlineimaprc¶

[general]
accounts = riseup

[Account riseup]
localrepository = localriseup
remoterepository = remoteriseup
autorefresh = 10

[Repository localriseup]
type = Maildir
localfolders = ~/mail

[Repository remoteriseup]
type = IMAP
ssl = yes
remotehost = mail.riseup.net
remoteuser = <your login>
remotepass = <your password>
folderfilter = lambda foldername: foldername in ['INBOX','INBOX.Sent', 'INBOX.Drafts', 'INBOX.Mistakes']

run¶

In a shell window, run ‘offlineimap’. Alternately, you can choose to run it from cron.

mail clients that support maildir¶

On linux, there is mutt for the console and Evolution for gnome.