e-mail sync options?

[Ben Eisenbraun]

Hi Joshua,

> Thanks, Ben

Ha!  My brain totally skipped the last paragraph of your first email
in which you mention OfflineIMAP as a possibility and wonder about the
topology question.  Sorry.  That wasn't very helpful.

> --any thoughts on the `sync topology' question, since
> I've got 4+ machines where I want the mail-store kept in sync?

My set up was much simpler, since I was just syncing between a laptop and
a single IMAP server.  I suspect what you want to do is not a well-trod
path, and that you'll end up having to do some experimentation to figure
out what will work best.

Thinking more it seems like some combination of technology and policy
should get you pretty close to what you want.  Some local IMAP servers +
OfflineIMAP + shell scripts + "when I go to the woods, I will only sync the
Freerunner against the IMAP server on the laptop, and I will sync the
laptop IMAP to the hosted IMAP first thing when I return."

Since I'm being unhelpful, I will also suggest that while you can probably
design a set up to meet your requirements, maybe that time would be better
spent on other things.

There's a continuum of email-connectedness that goes like this:

Don "No email" Knuth                       Email, all the time, everywhere
       |---------------------------------------------------|

And I personally am finding that I'm happier if I live nearer the Knuth end
of things.  But I'm a cantankerous middle-aged man.  YMMV.

> Also, is it reasonable to start/stop offlineimap in my ifup/ifdown
> scripts, to have it keep a `running sync' while I'm online?

Yes, that's basically what I did.  Launchd in my case, since I was running
this on a Macbook.

-ben

--
i propose we leave math to the machines and go play outside.
                                                    <calvin>