Bastien <bzg@gnu.org> writes:

> Hi Rainer,
>
> Rainer M Krug <Rainer@krugs.de> writes:
>
>> There is one program accessing the mail folder: dovecot - no conflicts, race
>> conditions, no slightly different formats, standards, ... And you can
>> also remotely access dovecot if you want to.
>>
>> By the way: the dovecot daemon is not permanently running, as I am using
>> the shell access from gnus:
>>
>> ,----
>> | (nnimap-shell-program "/usr/local/opt/dovecot/libexec/dovecot/imap -o mail_location=maildir:$HOME/Maildir")))
>> `----
>>
>> The same from offlineimap:
>>
>> ,----
>> | preauthtunnel = /usr/local/opt/dovecot/libexec/dovecot/imap -o mail_location=maildir:$HOME/Maildir
>> `----
>
> Interesting -- can you detail this parts of your configuration?

This is how I define my secondary select method in GNUS, which is my
local, with offlineimap synched, mail:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods          
                      ;; (nnimap-stream network)
                      ;; (nnimap-server-port 143)
                      ;; (nnimap-address "localhost")))
                      (nnimap-stream shell)
                      (nnimap-shell-program "/usr/local/opt/dovecot/libexec/dovecot/imap -o mail_location=maildir:$HOME/Maildir")))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

To ose the daemon, you have to toggle the comments (I hope - haven't
done it in a long time...).

In offlineimap, I have the following for my local mail location:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
[Repository LocalRMKrugGMAIL]
type = IMAP
preauthtunnel = /usr/local/opt/dovecot/libexec/dovecot/imap -o mail_location=maildir:$HOME/Maildir
holdconnectionopen = yes
maxconnections = 3
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

So offlineimap uses the binary (.../imap) to connect to my maildir.

>
> I am not using dovecot locally so far, just nnmaildir from Gnus.
>
> But I've encountered some annoying race conditions, while sync'ing
> through mbsync *and* reading/replying from Gnus, so I'm interested
> in knowing how to avoid them -- ideally letting mbsync to run in
> the background.

Interesting.

I have seen that mbsync can also sync to a *running* imap server, but I
do not if you can use something like I use in gnus and offlineimap.

Thinking about the race conditions more, I do not know if my approach
actually avoids them, as there are two different processes of imap
running (one offlineimap, one gnus) accessing the same mail.
I can only say this worked perfectly for me so far.
If you really want to be sure, run everything through a local docecot imap
server.

Cheers,

Rainer


>
> Thanks!

-- 
Rainer M. Krug
email: Rainer<at>krugs<dot>de
PGP: 0x0F52F982