LEI-MAIL-SYNC-OVERVIEW(7)

📦
version 2.1.0 · 5 versions
, in arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

💌 LEI-MAIL-SYNC-OVERVIEW(7) — the lei mail sync vibe check ✨

okay bestie, so this is the overview page for lei mail synchronization — lei itself lives over in lei(1), and this page is all about the syncing situation 🎀

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So lei(1) has a bunch of plumbing-level commands whose whole job is syncing mail and keywords (that's flags to you and me 💅) between lei/store and your existing IMAP and Maildir stores. Slay.

But listen — nothing documented on this manpage is required for day-to-day use against externals. Like, zero. You do not need any of this to just live your life 🫶

Also, ngl, mail and keyword synchronization is currently a clunky process 😭. Future work is gonna happen to make it better and to add IMAP IDLE support. It's giving "we're working on it."

✨ TYPICAL WORKFLOW ✨

Here's the iconic path from zero to synced, no cap:

# import mail from a user's IMAP inbox and give it the "inbox" label:
lei import +L:inbox imaps://user@example.com/INBOX

# dump "inbox" labeled files from the past week to a Maildir
lei q L:inbox rt:last.week.. -o /tmp/results

# Open /tmp/results in your favorite mail agent.  If inotify or kevent
# works, keyword changes (e.g. marking messages as `seen') are
# synchronized automatically.

# If the inotify queue overflows, or if lei-daemon crashes,
# "lei index" will tell lei about keyword changes:
lei index /tmp/results

# Optional: cleanup stale entries from mail_sync.sqlite3
lei refresh-mail-sync /tmp/results

# to export keyword changes back to IMAP
lei export-kw imaps://user@example.com/INBOX

Let me break that down, because the way that this flow eats 🔥

  1. lei import +L:inbox imaps://user@example.com/INBOX — pull mail from a user's IMAP inbox and hand it the "inbox" label 👑
  2. lei q L:inbox rt:last.week.. -o /tmp/results — dump the "inbox"-labeled files from the past week into a Maildir at /tmp/results 🍓
  3. Open /tmp/results in your favorite mail agent 💖 if inotify or kevent is working, keyword changes (like marking messages as seen) get synchronized automatically. main character behavior honestly
  4. If the inotify queue overflows, or if lei-daemon crashes 😭, lei index /tmp/results will tell lei about the keyword changes. literally your safety net
  5. Optional but cute: lei refresh-mail-sync /tmp/results cleans up stale entries from mail_sync.sqlite3 🧚
  6. And to export keyword changes back to IMAP: lei export-kw imaps://user@example.com/INBOX 🌈

💜 CONTACT 💜

Feedback is welcome, fr fr — plain-text mail to <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org> 🫶

The mail archives are hosted at <https://public-inbox.org/meta/> and <http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/> — yes that second one is a whole onion address, iykyk 🧅

Copyright all contributors <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt> — read it, love it, respect it 💅

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and sync 🌸💖✨

public-inbox.git — 1993-10-02 — LEI-MAIL-SYNC-OVERVIEW(7) 🦋 mwah, catch you in the group chat 💜

📦 where this page comes from