From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by olra.theworths.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DE60B4196F2 for ; Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:22:59 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at olra.theworths.org X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: -4.2 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.2 tagged_above=-999 required=5 tests=[BAYES_00=-1.9, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED=-2.3] autolearn=ham Received: from olra.theworths.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (olra.theworths.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 5rCj4XpYmC6X for ; Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:22:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ipex4.johnshopkins.edu (ipex4.johnshopkins.edu [128.220.161.141]) by olra.theworths.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7702F431FC1 for ; Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:22:49 -0700 (PDT) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.53,408,1272859200"; d="scan'208";a="373872188" Received: from c-69-255-36-229.hsd1.md.comcast.net (HELO lucky.home) ([69.255.36.229]) by ipex4.johnshopkins.edu with ESMTP/TLS/AES256-SHA; 12 Jun 2010 09:22:44 -0400 Received: from jkr by lucky.home with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ONQfN-0000hk-7D; Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:22:29 -0400 From: Jesse Rosenthal To: David Bremner , Christoph Groth Subject: Re: syncing mail by simply syncing the filesystem In-Reply-To: <87vd9o5rtj.fsf@rocinante.cs.unb.ca> References: <87631obu64.fsf@falma.de> <87vd9o5rtj.fsf@rocinante.cs.unb.ca> User-Agent: Notmuch/0.3.1-58-g6607fd6 (http://notmuchmail.org) Emacs/23.2.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu) Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:22:29 -0400 Message-ID: <87y6eke67e.fsf@lucky.home> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: notmuch@notmuchmail.org X-BeenThere: notmuch@notmuchmail.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.13 Precedence: list List-Id: "Use and development of the notmuch mail system." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:23:00 -0000 > Another, potentially more elegant approach is to use "notmuch remote" > scripts written by Jesse Rosenthal. I haven't done this myself, but I > did think was feasible when I looked at them. I'd certainly be happy to get some feedback on this idea, but I'm not sure if it's the right tool for this problem, since it deals with namespaces and he wants the universal namespace. In other words, I think it mainly reduces to 'notmuch dump' and 'curl' there (though I could be forgetting some cleverness on my part). > On Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:13:07 +0200, Christoph Groth wrote: > > The ideal setup would be one which would allow to use any of my > > computers independently (for example when I'm away with my laptop). > > When necessary, the local mail stores would be synchronized by simply > > syncing the home directory (I'm using unison for this). Christoph -- some other ideas to think about: 1. If your other computers will have a consistent fast internet connection (or a sufficient connection to use IMAP) consider remote usage, keeping your database on one computer: http://notmuchmail.org/remoteusage/ 2. You could brute-force it. Include a nm_dump file as one of your unison paths, along with your Maildir, then always run: notmuch dump > nm_dump unison notmuch restore nm_dump If you take a bit of care in how you tell unison nm_dump files, this also has the benefit of not just assuming the most recent state is the correct one. But the syntax is pretty easy, so that shouldn't be a problem. I don't think unison lets you run hooks (I could be wrong), but this could be easily scriptable. 2a. Just a thought -- would merging be easier if you used git/hg instead of unison? Just make sure to gitignore your notmuch db. 3. Have an IMAP server on one computer, a notmuch-computer on another. Have rsync passively pull down from your IMAP maildir. This doesn't synchronize tags, but it might be good enough if you just want to check on your phone occasionally. FWIW, I have a combination of #3 and #1 above. University --getmail/maildrop--> IMAP server --rsync--> home / \ remote / \ work laptop Anyway, just some ideas. I'm sure there are plenty of others. (Sort of curious to see them, since I'm sure there has been all sorts of interesting hacks and workarounds). Everything above is sort of a hacks, but it all works well enough for me. Hopefully there will be a canonical solution to this sooner rather than later, though. Best, Jesse