IMAPSYNC(1)

NAME
imapsync - IMAP synchronisation, sync, copy or migration tool. Synchronises mailboxes between two imap servers. Good at IMAP migration. More than 52 different IMAP server softwares supported with success, few failures.

$Revision: 1.637 $

SYNOPSIS
To synchronize imap account "foo" on "imap.truc.org"
           to imap account "bar" on "imap.trac.org"
           with foo password "secret1"
           and bar password "secret2":

  imapsync \
   --host1 imap.truc.org --user1 foo --password1 secret1 \
   --host2 imap.trac.org --user2 bar --password2 secret2

INSTALL
 imapsync works fine under any Unix OS with perl.
 imapsync works fine under Windows (2000, XP, Vista, Seven)
 with Strawberry Perl (5.10, 5.12 or higher)
 or as a standalone binary software imapsync.exe

imapsync can be available directly on the following distributions: FreeBSD, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Fedora, NetBSD, Darwin, Mandriva and OpenBSD. See http://oswatershed.org/pkg/imapsync

 Purchase latest imapsync at
 http://imapsync.lamiral.info/

 You'll receive a link to a compressed tarball called imapsync-x.xx.tgz
 where x.xx is the version number. Untar the tarball where
 you want (on Unix):

 tar xzvf  imapsync-x.xx.tgz

 Go into the directory imapsync-x.xx and read the INSTALL file.
 The INSTALL file can be found at
 http://imapsync.lamiral.info/INSTALL
 It is now split in several files for each system
 http://imapsync.lamiral.info/INSTALL.d/

 The frozen freecode (was freshmeat) record is at
 http://freecode.com/projects/imapsync

USAGE
 imapsync [options]

To get a description of each option just run imapsync like this:

  imapsync --help

or simply

  imapsync

This description of all options is available at http://imapsync.lamiral.info/OPTIONS

The option list:

  imapsync [--host1 server1]  [--port1 <num>]
           [--user1 <string>] [--passfile1 <string>]
           [--host2 server2]  [--port2 <num>]
           [--user2 <string>] [--passfile2 <string>]
           [--ssl1] [--ssl2]
           [--tls1] [--tls2]
           [--authmech1 <string>] [--authmech2 <string>]
           [--proxyauth1] [--proxyauth2]
           [--domain1] [--domain2]
           [--authmd51] [--authmd52]
           [--folder <string> --folder <string> ...]
           [--folderrec <string> --folderrec <string> ...]
           [--include <regex>] [--exclude <regex>]
           [--prefix2 <string>] [--prefix1 <string>]
           [--regextrans2 <regex> --regextrans2 <regex> ...]
           [--sep1 <char>]
           [--sep2 <char>]
           [--justfolders] [--justfoldersizes] [--justconnect] [--justbanner]
           [--syncinternaldates]
           [--idatefromheader]
           [--syncacls]
           [--regexmess <regex>] [--regexmess <regex>]
           [--skipmess <regex>] [--skipmess <regex>]
           [--maxsize <int>]
           [--minsize <int>]
           [--maxage <int>]
           [--minage <int>]
           [--search <string>]
           [--search1 <string>]
           [--search2 <string>]
           [--useheader <string>] [--useheader <string>]
           [--nouid1] [--nouid2]
           [--usecache]
           [--noskipsize]
           [--delete]
           [--delete2] [--delete2duplicates]
           [--expunge] [--expunge1] [--expunge2] [--uidexpunge2]
           [--delete2folders] [--delete2foldersonly] [--delete2foldersbutnot]
           [--subscribed] [--subscribe] [--subscribeall]
           [--nofoldersizes] [--nofoldersizesatend]
           [--dry]
           [--debug] [--debugimap][--debugimap1][--debugimap2] [--debugcontent]
           [--timeout <int>]
           [--noreleasecheck]
           [--releasecheck]
           [--pidfile <filepath>] [--pidfilelocking]
           [--tmpdir  <dirpath>]
           [--nolog]
           [--logfile <filepath>]
           [--version] [--help]
           [--tests] [--testsdebug] [--testslive]

DESCRIPTION
Imapsync command is a tool allowing incremental and recursive imap transfers from one mailbox to another.

By default all folders are transferred, recursively, all possible flags (\Seen \Answered \Flagged etc.) are synced too.

We sometimes need to transfer mailboxes from one imap server to another. This is called migration.

Imapsync reduces the amount of data transferred by not transferring a given message if it resides already on both sides. Same specific headers and the transfer is done only once; taken into account are by default Message-Id and Received header lines. All flags are preserved, unread will stay unread, read will stay read, deleted will stay deleted. You can stop the transfer at any time and restart it later, imapsync works well with bad connections and interruptions.

You can decide to delete the messages from the source mailbox after a successful transfer, it can be a good feature when migrating live mailboxes since messages will be only on one side. In that case, use the --delete option. Option --delete implies also option --expunge so all messages marked deleted on host1 will be really deleted. (you can use --noexpunge to avoid this but I don't see any good real world scenario for the combination --delete --noexpunge).

A different scenario is synchronizing a mailbox B from another mailbox A in case you just want to keep a "live" copy of A in B. In that case --delete2 has to be used, it deletes messages in host2 folder B that are not in host1 folder A. If you also need to destroy host2 folders that are not in host1 then use --delete2folders (see also --delete2foldersonly and --delete2foldersbutnot).

Imapsync is not adequate for maintaining two active imap accounts in synchronization when the user plays independently on both sides. Use offlineimap (written by John Goerzen) or mbsync (written by Michael R. Elkins) for 2 ways synchronizations.

OPTIONS
To get a description of each option just invoke:

  imapsync

or read http://imapsync.lamiral.info/OPTIONS

HISTORY
I wrote imapsync because an enterprise (basystemes) paid me to install a new imap server without losing huge old mailboxes located on a far away remote imap server accessible by a low bandwidth link. The tool imapcp (written in python) could not help me because I had to verify every mailbox was well transferred and delete it after a good transfer. imapsync started its life as a copy_folder.pl patch. The tool copy_folder.pl comes from the Mail-IMAPClient-2.1.3 perl module tarball source (in the examples/ directory of the tarball).

EXAMPLE
While working on imapsync parameters please run imapsync in dry mode (no modification induced) with the --dry option. Nothing bad can be done this way.

To synchronize the imap account "buddy" (with password "secret1") on host "imap.src.fr" to the imap account "max" (with password "secret2") on host "imap.dest.fr":

 imapsync --host1 imap.src.fr  --user1 buddy --password1 secret1 \
          --host2 imap.dest.fr --user2 max   --password2 secret2

Then you will have max's mailbox updated from buddy's mailbox.

SECURITY
You can use --passfile1 instead of --password1 to give the password since it is safer. With --password1 option any user on your host can see the password by using the 'ps auxwwww' command. Using a variable (like $PASSWORD1) is also dangerous because of the 'ps auxwwwwe' command. So, saving the password in a well protected file (600 or rw-------) is the best solution.

imasync is not totally protected against sniffers on the network since passwords may be transferred in plain text if CRAM-MD5 is not supported by your imap servers. Use --ssl1 (or --tls1) and --ssl2 (or --tls2) to enable encryption on host1 and host2.

You may authenticate as one user (typically an admin user), but be authorized as someone else, which means you don't need to know every user's personal password. Specify --authuser1 "adminuser" to enable this on host1. In this case, --authmech1 PLAIN will be used by default since it is the only way to go for now. So don't use --authmech1 SOMETHING with --authuser1 "adminuser", it will not work. Same behavior with the --authuser2 option. Authenticate with an admin account must be supported by your imap server to work with imapsync.

When working on Sun/iPlanet/Netscape IMAP servers you must use --proxyauth1 to enable administrative user to masquerade as another user. Can also be used on destination server with --proxyauth2

You can authenticate with OAUTH when transfering from Google Apps. The consumer key will be the domain part of the --user, and the --password will be used as the consumer secret. It does not work with Google Apps free edition.

EXIT STATUS
imapsync will exit with a 0 status (return code) if everything went good. Otherwise, it exits with a non-zero status.

So if you have an unreliable internet connection, you can use this loop in a Bourne shell:

        while ! imapsync ...; do
              echo imapsync not complete
        done

LICENSE
imapsync is free, open, public but not always gratis software cover by the NOLIMIT Public License. See the LICENSE file included in the distribution or just read this simple sentence as it is the licence text: No limit to do anything with this work and this license.

MAILING-LIST
The public mailing-list may be the best way to get free support.

To write on the mailing-list, the address is: <imapsync@linux-france.org>

To subscribe, send any message (even empty) to: <imapsync-subscribe@listes.linux-france.org> then just reply to the confirmation message.

To unsubscribe, send a message to: <imapsync-unsubscribe@listes.linux-france.org>

To contact the person in charge for the list: <imapsync-request@listes.linux-france.org>

The list archives are available at: http://www.linux-france.org/prj/imapsync_list/ So consider that the list is public, anyone can see your post. Use a pseudonym or do not post to this list if you want to stay private.

Thank you for your participation.

AUTHOR
Gilles LAMIRAL <gilles.lamiral@laposte.net>

Feedback good or bad is very often welcome.

Gilles LAMIRAL earns his living by writing, installing, configuring and teaching free, open and often gratis softwares. It used to be "always gratis" but now it is "often" because imapsync is sold by its author, a good way to stay maintening and supporting free open public softwares (see the license) over decades.

BUG REPORT GUIDELINES
Help me to help you: follow the following guidelines.

Report any bugs or feature requests to the public mailing-list or to the author.

Before reporting bugs, read the FAQ, the README and the TODO files. http://imapsync.lamiral.info/

Upgrade to last imapsync release, maybe the bug is already fixed.

Upgrade to last Mail-IMAPClient Perl module. http://search.cpan.org/dist/Mail-IMAPClient/ maybe the bug is already fixed there.

Make a good title with word "imapsync" in it (my spam filters won't filter it), Try to write an email title with more words than just "imapsync" or "problem", a good title is made of keywords summary, but not too long (one visible line).

Help us to help you: in your report, please include:

 - imapsync version.

 - output near the first failures, a few lines before is good to get the context
   of the issue. First failures messages are often more significant than
   the last ones.

 - if the issue is always related to the same messages, include the output
   with --debug --debugimap, near the failure point. For example,
   Isolate a buggy message or two in a folder 'BUG' and use

     imapsync ... --folder 'BUG' --debug --debugimap

 - imap server softwares on both sides and their version number.

 - imapsync with all the options you use,  the full command line
   you use (except the passwords of course).

 - IMAPClient.pm version.

 - the run context. Do you run imapsync.exe, a unix binary
   or the perl script imapsync.

 - operating system running imapsync.

 - virtual software context (vmware, xen etc.)

 - operating systems on both sides and the third side in case
   you run imapsync on a foreign host from the both.

Most of those values can be found as a copy/paste at the begining of the output, so a carbon copy of the output is a very easy and very good debug report for me.

One time in your life, read the paper "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html and then forget it.

IMAP SERVERS
Failure stories reported in the past with the following 6 imap servers. Maybe last imapsync release can run successfully with them. Don't hesitate to have a try, It's been a long time since last failure occured, I will help you and make efforts to switch them to the success list, that's my job.

 - MailEnable 1.54 (Proprietary) but MailEnable 4.23 is supported.
 - DBMail 0.9, 2.0.7 (GPL). But DBMail 1.2.1 is supported.
   Patient and confident testers are welcome.
 - Imail 7.04 (maybe).
 - (2011) MDaemon 12.0.3 as host2 but MDaemon is supported as host1.
   MDaemon is simply buggy with the APPEND IMAP command with
   any IMAP email client.
 - Hotmail since hotmail.com does not provide IMAP access
 - Outlook.com since outlook.com does not provide IMAP access

Success stories reported with the following 62 imap servers (software names are in alphabetic order):

 - 1und1 H mimap1 84498 [host1] H mibap4 95231 [host1]
 - a1.net imap.a1.net IMAP4 Ready [host1]
 - Apple Server 10.6 Snow Leopard [host1]
 - Archiveopteryx 2.03, 2.04, 2.09, 2.10 [host2], 3.0.0 [host2]
   (OSL 3.0) http://www.archiveopteryx.org/
 - Atmail 6.x [host1]
 - Axigen Mail Server Version 8.0.0
 - BincImap 1.2.3 (GPL) (http://www.bincimap.org/)
 - CommuniGatePro server (Redhat 8.0) (Solaris), CommuniGate Pro 5.2.17[host2] (CentOS 5.4)
 - Courier IMAP 1.5.1, 2.2.0, 2.1.1, 2.2.1, 3.0.8, 3.0.3, 4.1.1 (GPL)
   (http://www.courier-mta.org/)
 - Critical Path (7.0.020)
 - Cyrus IMAP 1.5, 1.6,
   2.1, 2.1.15, 2.1.16, 2.1.18
   2.2.1, 2.2.2-BETA, 2.2.3, 2.2.6, 2.2.10, 2.2.12, 2.2.13,
   2.3-alpha (OSI Approved), 2.3.1, 2.3.7, 2.3.16
   (http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/)
 - David Tobit V8 (proprietary Message system).
 - Deerfield VisNetic MailServer 5.8.6 [host1] (http://www.deerfield.net/products/visnetic-mailserver/)
 - DBMail 1.2.1, 2.0.4, 2.0.9, 2.2rc1 (GPL) (http://www.dbmail.org/).
   2.0.7 seems buggy.
 - DBOX 2.41 System [host1] (http://www.dbox.handshake.de/).
 - Deerfield VisNetic MailServer 5.8.6 [host1]
 - dkimap4 [host1]
 - Domino (Notes) 4.61 [host1], 6.5 [host1], 5.0.6, 5.0.7, 7.0.2, 6.0.2CF1,
   7.0.1 [host1], 8.0.1 [host1], 8.5.2 [host2], 8.5.3 [host1]
 - Dovecot 0.99.10.4, 0.99.14, 0.99.14-8.fc4, 1.0-0.beta2.7,
   1.0.0 [dest/source] (LGPL) (http://www.dovecot.org/)
 - Eudora WorldMail v2
 - FirtClass 9 [host1] Read the FAQ! (http://www.firstclass.com/)
 - FTGate (http://www.ftgate.com/)
 - Fusemail imap.fusemail.net:143 (https://www.fusemail.com/).
 - Gimap (Gmail imap)
 - GMX IMAP4 StreamProxy.
 - Groupwise IMAP (Novell) 6.x and 7.0. Buggy so see the FAQ.
 - hMailServer 5.40-B1950 [host12], 5.3.3 [host2], 4.4.1 [host1] (see FAQ)
 - IceWarp Server 10.4.5 [host1] (http://www.icewarp.com/)
 - iPlanet Messaging server 4.15, 5.1, 5.2
 - IMail 7.15 (Ipswitch/Win2003), 8.12, 11.03 [host1]
 - Kerio 7.2.0 Patch 1 [host12], Kerio 8 [host1]
 - Mail2World IMAP4 Server 2.5 [host1] (http://www.mail2world.com/)
 - MailEnable 4.23 [host1] [host2], 4.26 [host1][host2], 5 [host1]
 - MDaemon 7.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.1, 9.5.4 (Windows server 2003 R2 platform),
   9.6.5 [host1], 12 [host2], 12.0.3 [host1], 12.5.5 [host1],
   13.5 [host2], 14.5 [host2]
 - Mercury 4.1 (Windows server 2000 platform)
 - Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, 6.0.6249.0[host1], 6.0.6487.0[host1],
   6.5.7638.1 [host2], 6.5 [host1], Exchange 2007 SP1 (with Update Rollup 2),
   Exchange2007-EP-SP2,
   Exchange 2010 RTM (Release to Manufacturing) [host2],
   Exchange 2010 SP1 RU2[host2],
 - Mirapoint, 4.1.9-GA [host1]
 - Netscape Mail Server 3.6 (Wintel !)
 - Netscape Messaging Server 4.15 Patch 7
 - Office 365 [host1] [host2]
 - OpenMail IMAP server B.07.00.k0 (Samsung Contact ?)
 - OpenWave
 - Oracle Beehive [host1]
 - Parallels Plesk Panel 9.x [host2] 11.x [host2] (http://www.parallels.com/)
 - Qualcomm Worldmail (NT)
 - QQMail IMAP4Server [host1] [host2] https://en.mail.qq.com/
 - RackSpace hoster secure.emailsrvr.com:993 http://www.rackspace.com/
 - Rockliffe Mailsite 5.3.11, 4.5.6
 - Samsung Contact IMAP server 8.5.0
 - Scalix v10.1, 10.0.1.3, 11.0.0.431, 11.4.6
 - Sendmail Mail Store IMAP4rev1 (5.5.6/mstore-5-5-build-1874 [host1].
 - SmarterMail, Smarter Mail 5.0 Enterprise, Smarter Mail 5.5 [host1],
   SmarterMail Professional 10.2 [host1], Smarter Mail 11.7 [host1][host2].
 - Softalk Workgroup Mail 7.6.4 [host1].
 - SunONE Messaging server 5.2, 6.0 (SUN JES - Java Enterprise System)
 - Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.2-2.05,  6.2-7.05, 6.3
 - Surgemail 3.6f5-5, 6.3d-72 [host2]
 - UW-imap servers (imap-2000b) rijkkramer IMAP4rev1 2000.287
   (RedHat uses UW like 2003.338rh), v12.264 Solaris 5.7 (OSI Approved)
   (http://www.washington.edu/imap/)
 - UW - QMail v2.1
 - VMS, Imap part of TCP/IP suite of VMS 7.3.2
 - Yahoo [host1]
 - Zarafa 6,40,0,20653 [host1] (http://www.zarafa.com/)
 - Zarafa ZCP 7.1.4 IMAP Gateway [host2]
 - Zimbra-IMAP 3.0.1 GA 160, 3.1.0 Build 279, 4.0.5, 4.5.2, 4.5.6,
   Zimbra 5.0.24_GA_3356.RHEL4 [host1], 5.5, 6.x

Please report to the author any success or bad story with imapsync and do not forget to mention the IMAP server software names and version on both sides. This will help future users. To help the author maintaining this section report the two lines at the begining of the output if they are useful to know the softwares. Example:

 Host1 software:* OK louloutte Cyrus IMAP4 v1.5.19 server ready
 Host2 software:* OK Courier-IMAP ready

You can use option --justconnect to get those lines. Example:

  imapsync --host1 imap.troc.org --host2 imap.trac.org --justconnect

HUGE MIGRATION
Pay special attention to options --subscribed --subscribe --delete --delete2 --delete2folders --maxage --minage --maxsize --useuid --usecache

If you have many mailboxes to migrate think about a little shell program. Write a file called file.txt (for example) containing users and passwords. The separator used in this example is ';'

The file.txt file contains:

user001_1;password001_1;user001_2;password001_2 user002_1;password002_1;user002_2;password002_2 user003_1;password003_1;user003_2;password003_2 user004_1;password004_1;user004_2;password004_2 user005_1;password005_1;user005_2;password005_2 ...

On Unix the shell program can be:

 { while IFS=';' read  u1 p1 u2 p2; do
        imapsync --host1 imap.side1.org --user1 "$u1" --password1 "$p1" \
                 --host2 imap.side2.org --user2 "$u2" --password2 "$p2" ...
 done ; } < file.txt

On Windows the batch program can be:

  FOR /F "tokens=1,2,3,4 delims=; eol=#" %%G IN (file.txt) DO imapsync ^
  --host1 imap.side1.org --user1 %%G --password1 %%H ^
  --host2 imap.side2.org --user2 %%I --password2 %%J ...

The ... have to be replaced by nothing or any imapsync option. Welcome in shell programming !

You will find already written scripts at http://imapsync.lamiral.info/examples/

Hacking
Feel free to hack imapsync as the NOLIMIT license permits it.

Links
Entries for imapsync: https://web.archive.org/web/20070202005121/http://www.imap.org/products/showall.php

SIMILAR SOFTWARES
  imap_tools    : http://www.athensfbc.com/imap_tools
  offlineimap   : https://github.com/nicolas33/offlineimap
  mbsync        : http://isync.sourceforge.net/
  mailsync      : http://mailsync.sourceforge.net/
  mailutil      : http://www.washington.edu/imap/
                  part of the UW IMAP tookit.
  imaprepl      : http://www.bl0rg.net/software/
                  http://freecode.com/projects/imap-repl/
  imapcopy      : http://home.arcor.de/armin.diehl/imapcopy/imapcopy.html
  migrationtool : http://sourceforge.net/projects/migrationtool/
  imapmigrate   : http://sourceforge.net/projects/cyrus-utils/
  wonko_imapsync: http://wonko.com/article/554
                  see also file W/tools/wonko_ruby_imapsync
  exchange-away : http://exchange-away.sourceforge.net/
  pop2imap      : http://www.linux-france.org/prj/pop2imap/

Feedback (good or bad) will often be welcome.

$Id: imapsync,v 1.637 2015/04/01 01:36:37 gilles Exp gilles $