[Kde-pim] switching distributions, but keeping KDE... how do i migrate my email?

[Martin Steigerwald]

Am Samstag, 12. Januar 2013 schrieb Peter Humphrey:
> On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:02:01 +0100
> Martin Steigerwald <Martin at lichtvoll.de> wrote:

Hi!

> > The newer system has the older KMail.
> > 
> > Which can import folders. But not complete directory structures AFAIK.
> 
> Yes, it can import a complete mail tree if it's in its own format.
> 
> > It might also [be] possible to import filters.
> 
> It is. Open the Filters menu and click Import. Navigate to the kmailrc
> file and import from there. You'll get the complete set of filters,
> together with several other things that I can't think of at the moment.
> 
> > I am not sure whether its a good idea to try the old KMail with the
> > configuration file of the new one directly tough.
> 
> Don't even think of it. It must be a recipe for disaster, surely?

Well I don´t know. Did you try it? I didn´t recommend it as an good idea, 
but it might work and unless someone tested it or analyzed the code and 
comes to the conclusion "This can´t work" your assumption is unproven.

I wouldn´t recommend it as I would not recommend 

Upgrading Debian From i386 To amd64
AKA Upgrading Debian From 32-bit To 64-bit
http://users.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/hobbies/debian_arch_up/

while still I believe that these instructions worked in pre-multiarch times 
of Debian. I never tried this, cause I used the 64-bit installation as a way 
to have a clean restart back then although I usually never reinstall my 
private systems. With multiarch maybe at some time there could even be a 
supported way to do this.

> > And I think nothing of this is officially supported.
> 
> I think what I've described must be official as it's in the standard
> menus.
> 
> > Once KDEPIM 2 there is IMHO no officially supported way to go back to
> > KMail from KDEPIM 1.
> 
> So I've had to switch to another client, kmail2 having completely
> wrecked my e-mail system.

Does that mean that you did these steps and it worked?

Well then that obsoletes my "I didn´t do it, but it could work that way" 
statements that I wrote cause there was no one else writing anything like 
steps that might work in this thread so far. I wouldn´t have written 
anything like these statements if you posted before me. And without trying 
out it myself, that was the best bet I had and thus I was cautious in my 
recommendations. So no need to be picky at me for trying to help by trying 
to remember what might be possible.

So or so that way is still not *lossless* regarding anything thats not 
stored in maildir mail file names. I.e. everything that was stored in Akonadi 
or Nepomuk is gone for good, it won´t be migrated back to KMail 1 ".index" 
files, it there are old ones still in Maildir, KMail might pick them up. I 
bet it does for following my advice to just create an account with the same 
maildir location. I am not sure whether it does in the importing step. Well 
you could copy Nepomuk and Akonadi databases over, but if you migrate or 
import again when you upgrade from KMail 1 to KMail 2, I am not sure whether 
the old data may just be overwritten or not be applicable for this new 
imported account, so I wouldn´t do this, as I am also not sure whether 
especially the Nepomuk database is safely downgradable.

Anyway, AFAIK most of the mail flags, if not all meanwhile, are stored in 
maildir mail file name flags. So I believe this to be an acceptable loss if 
any, but your mileage may vary.

Did you miss anything important after the downgrade?

Once I can get KDE SC 4.10 or later for Debian including KDEPIM 2 as 
packages I plan to wipe out my Nepomuk and Akonadi databases one last time 
to have a clean start without any legacy or old data in it due to format 
changes. Well for Nepomuk I have read there is some cleaner for such kind of 
cruft data, so that might not be required.

PS: Your hints would be a nice addition to the KDE userbase wiki I think. 
Granted they might be obsoleted at some time and at the moment I think 
Debian is the only distribution which will ship KDEPIM 1 for its next stable 
release AFAIK. Actually I understand the reason for that decision, which the 
Debian devs made about 4-5 months ago or so. Due to the Debian release 
process it likely will take quite some more time till KDEPIM 2 appears in a 
stable release tough and thats a bit of a pity IMHO. Well I follow unstable 
so I bet to get KDE SC 4.10 or 4.11 soon after Wheezy release, depending on 
man power in Debian Qt/KDE team tough. Some packaging efforts for KDE SC 4.10 
by some users appeared on debian-kde mailinglist already.

Thanks,
-- 
Martin 'Helios' Steigerwald - http://www.Lichtvoll.de
GPG: 03B0 0D6C 0040 0710 4AFA  B82F 991B EAAC A599 84C7
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