I've looked into using synchronization programs like Unison, rsync, and CVS, but they're not exactly what I'm looking for. My problem comes when I want to use Thunderbird to check my email but I want to be able to use either of my two laptops or my desktop. I guess I'm looking for something like Microsoft's Exchange server (although I've never used it so I'm not sure). I can't just sync the files because they may be changing simultaneously. I'm skeptical of programs that merge changes like CVS because the mail for Thunderbird is stored in one big file and I don't think it's encoded in a standard format like ASCII. I don't know much about this either.

Additionally it would be nice if I didn't have to synchronize everything before I ran out with my laptop. I have a server thats on 24/7 and it would be great if it would sync with that every time it checked mail.... or maybe the server could just check the mail and the clients would check with the server. But then other issues could get messy like keeping sent items current on all machines.

Another plus is if this method can be used to synchronize the Address Book, Calendar, Tasks, etc.

I am willing to switch to another program like Evolution if it can do the job. I know there is such a thing as evolution connector, but I'm just a small business and can't afford MS Exchange Server or even the Suse Open Exchange Server. I'm sort of looking for a free option here

What is the best option for someone in my position?

Thanks,
Zac

I'd just store all our mail on the desktop machine and server it up with an IMAP server. I search through the threads here and read up on Postfix and Courier IMAP, those are my personal favorites for new mail systems.

IMAP is deffinately a good start, but I don't think it's enough for me. The biggest problem being it's lack of organization. I keep my actual inbox folder very small and archive every email I get into different folders so I have a sort of complicated directory structure that would need to be maintained on the server. I don't think that's possible with IMAP because it would require a standardized directory structure protocal supported by all IMAP clients, which I don't think exists. Maybe in IMAP5 Or maybe there's already an extention for it? I couldn't find one after a bit of googling.

The second problem is that I'd like to retain all sent emails in the sent folder. I suppose I could configure the email client to BCC every email to my own email address and I could file it in a sent folder manually, but that still requires that the IMAP server maintain directory structures.

I do too, and that's not a problem with IMAP. If needed, just specify the directories which should be treated like IMAP mail directories. Default are usually ~/Mail, ~/mail, ~/mailbox and so on.

The easiest solution for this is to have your email client use the Sent folder on the IMAP server.


Håkan

I use Bincimap. It is an IMAP server relying on the Maildir format. So a user's mail is simply stored in ~/Maildir, and you can create all the subdirectories you want.

Yves.

OK, I'll try that out. Now here's another issue. How do I transfer my old email from Thunderbird to maildir format?

Just set-up the IMAP server, then connect to it with Thunderbird, and finally copy mail from your current account to the IMAP one.

What you gain from the transition:
+ Mail will be accessible from any IMAP client: Mozilla-based, Netscape, Evolution, ...
+ Mail will be in a standard format (Maildir), thus readable with mutt for example (direct access).
+ Maildir (so Bincimap too) allows both subfolders and messages in the same folder, contrary to the simple "imap" server.
+ Maildir stores each mail in its own file: less risk of corrupting a whole lot of messages, easier to grep/sed/...

Yves.