MAILSYNC(1)

📦
version 5.2.7 · 2 versions
, in debian bookworm, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing

✨ MAILSYNC(1) ✨

okay bestie, pull up a chair because this is the General Commands Manual page for mailsync and honestly? it's giving main character energy for your inbox 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

mailsync — synchronize IMAP mailboxes 🦋

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

mailsync [options] channel
mailsync [options] store
mailsync [options] channel store

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so, mailsync is a command line tool that keeps collections of mailboxes in sync with each other. no cap. and those mailboxes can live on your local filesystem or on an IMAP server — wherever, honestly, it doesn't care 🌈

you can invoke it in three different ways, and each one is a different vibe:

  • mailsync channel — synchronizes two sets of mailboxes. quick taxonomy moment: in c-client taxonomy (c-client is the library mailsync relies on to actually implement mailbox access, iykyk), mailboxes are referred to as "stores". so yeah, stores. that's the word. ✨
  • mailsync store — lists the contents of a store. and bestie, please run this one before you sync two stores, because it lets you check whether mailsync is actually seeing what you think it's seeing. vibe check your mailboxes first, fr fr 👑
  • mailsync channel store — lists what has changed in a store since the last sync. it's the "what did I miss" recap episode 🍓

🫶 OPTIONS 🫶

  • -f file — use an alternative config file. not feeling the default? pick your own 💜
  • -n — don't delete messages when synchronizing. your mail stays put, no casualties 🙈
  • -D — delete any empty mailboxes after synchronizing. it's the declutter arc ✨
  • -m — show from, subject, etc. of messages that are killed or moved when synchronizing. receipts for every message that gets moved or yeeted 👀
  • -M — also show message-ids. heads up: this turns on -m too, so you get the full spread 💅
  • -s — says what would be done without doing it. it's the dress rehearsal 🎀 and it turns on -n as well.
⚠️ ATTENTION bestie, this one is serious: this will change the "Seen" flag of emails and will create new, empty mailboxes in order to be able to compare them. so it's "dry run" but it's not free. 😭
  • -v — show IMAP chatter. all the server gossip, live 🗣️
  • -vb — show warning about braindammaged message ids 💀 (yes, that's the spelling, I don't make the rules)
  • -vw — show warnings ⚠️
  • -vp — show RFC 822 mail parsing errors 📜
  • -h — show help. the classic "help me" button 🫶
  • -d — show debug info. and it has little sub-flavours:
    • -di — debug/log IMAP protocol telemetry 📡
    • -dc — debug config 🛠️
  • -t mid_type — use mailsync with a specified message-id algorithm. right now your choices are md5 and msgid (which is the default 🌱).
    • msgid uses the Message-ID in the mail header to identify a message.
    • md5 calculates a MD5 hash from the "From", "To", "Subject", "Date" and "Message-ID" headers and uses that as the message identifier.
💡 pro tip from the page itself: if you use mail clients and servers that allow empty Message-IDs (f.ex. in mail drafts), then you should use the md5 algorithm. periodt.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

there is more documentation in /usr/share/doc/mailsync, and in /usr/share/doc/libc-clientxxxxxx/internal.txt 📚 (yes, literally libc-clientxxxxxx, that's the path, don't come for me)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

originally written by Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar@debian.org> for the Debian GNU/Linux system. Updates by T. Pospisek <tpo_deb@sourcepole.ch>. icons only 💅

and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎉 this version was dated October 26, 2012, and it's from the MAILSYNC(1) manual — so go forth, sync those stores, and remember: vibe check with mailsync store first. slay 💖🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from