[Arm-netbook] offlineimap syncing off of gmail...

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On 12/16/16, Julie Marchant <onpon4 at riseup.net> wrote:
> I'm pretty sure Gmail has an option to ignore emails before a certain
> point for POP3.

 yeah i came across that when enabling imap last night

> I don't know about IMAP, though.

 it doesn't

> Is there a particular reason you're using IMAP rather than POP?

 from what i understand it's a far better protocol.  POP3 if i recall
correctly, if you want to get even just the most recent messages you
have to get EVERYTHING.  there's absolutely no practical way i can
grab 9.8gb of mail each time.

 IMAP4 has a means to tell you which messages are most recent, it has
UIDs per message... it's basically designed for synchronisation.

> You
> could very easily just download the new emails, leave them on the Gmail
> server, and delete them from your computer when you're done with them at
> the moment (with some custom settings on Gmail and/or on your email
> client).

 i need access to the full ten years of history of the messages that
i've sent and received: it's proved invaluable numerous times.  so
deleting is not an option.  also, it's simply flat-out impractical to
consider at this point.

OfflineImapError: Server 'imap.gmail.com' closed connection, error on
SELECT '[Gmail]/Important'. Server said: command: EXAMINE => socket
error: <type 'exceptions.IOError'> - Too many read 0

 ... gotta love that... :)

 so the combination of "need offline access" with "deleting
impractical and undesirable" basically means "use IMAP because it's
designed specifically for sychronisation.

 offlineimap does *two way* synchronisation, so everything i write on
the laptop will be *uploaded* to gmail, so that i can continue to use
gmail in unusual circumstances.

 later, once i'm confident with this setup, i can increase the hard
drive space on my server, replicate the synchronisation, and shut down
the gmail account (or turn it into a redirector).

 l.