[kdepim-users] Preparing for KDEPIM 2

[O. Sinclair]

On 12/04/12 16:46, Martin Steigerwald wrote:
> Hi!
>
> This is a bit longer. I want to get some handle on my migration to KDEPIM
> 2 instead of doing it ad-hoc without any previous planning and
> preparations.
>
>
> I talked about that I like to try KDEPIM 2 soon, and sooner or later I
> intend to migrate to it completely. I am still a bit reluctant cause of
> fear of data loss - I did not read anything regarding this for IMAP / POP3
> for quite some time tough - and my relatively big mail setup.
>
> Current situation:
>
> KMail 1.13.7 from KDEPIM 4.4.5 within KDE SC 4.7.4. crm114 as very efficent
> local spam filter that I am using within KMail.
>
> martin at merkaba:~>  du -sh Mail
> 14G     Mail
> martin at merkaba:~>  find Mail -type f | wc -l
> 455006
>
> (on ext4 and an Intel SSD320)
>
> There are way more mails than that, but the rest of them I archived as
> mboxes in my main mail account which is a mixed maildir/mbox resource. I
> tend to archive so that mail folders do not get bigger than about
> 30000-40000 mails. Easily 100 folders, which should not be an issue. Also
> quite many filtering rules.
>
> I still use POP3. In Mail are also some more POP3 accounts stored, which
> do not need archiving. They do not contain many mails.
>
> I think I like to continue using POP3 for freemail providers as I do not
> like to store personal data there for long periods of time. But I am
> considering to switch to disconnected IMAP for my main mail account with
> should be about 99% of above mails. And another smaller mail account on
> the same server.
>
> These two mail accounts are Dovecot + Postfix + policyd-weight on a Debian
> Squeeze VM.
>
>
>
> Intended end results:
>
> KDEPIM 4.8.2 or later.
>
> Maybe main account as IMAP. But I could do this later to have only one
> change at a time as well. Then I maybe would just start all over with an
> empty account and let the server fill it over time. I think I would move my
> inbox and some other important mails to the IMAP server, but I do not need
> to copy old mailing list mails on it. Currently I would have about 8 GB of
> free space on the server, which is not enough to hold all mails. I think I
> could add more space to it tough.
>
> I might be using dovecot-antispam plugging with CRM114 on the server then.
> And hopefully Sieve will do for on-server filtering. Since its quite some
> change I like to separate it from my migration to KDEPIM 2. Maybe before
> or later. Before might ease the KDEPIM 2 migration.
>
>
> Intended interim result:
>
> KDEPIM 4.8.2 or later and my current setup alongside with different mail
> sets and configurations. So I can safely try out KDEPIM 2 with a duplicated
> mail user while still being able to use KDEPIM 1 for production.
>
>
> Preparations that I intend to do:
> - Migrate the mboxes to a different mbox only resource? I thought about the
> following steps:
>    - Create a new mail account and needed folders as MBox only if possible
>    - Stop KMail
>    - Move mbox and index files over to the new mail account manually
>    - Start KMail
>    - I think that would be way faster than trying to move several hundred
> thousand of mails within KMail
>
> - Maybe preparations for a test mail account, maybe IMAP on the server
>
>
> Where I am bit stuck is to the best approach to test import of my current
> mail set into KDEPIM 4.8.2 while still keeping my old setup around for the
> time being. I can easily deliver mails to my main mail account to two
> different mail users on the server, basically duplicating them there.
>
> But what would be a good approach to handle two installations of KDEPIM
> together with two different data sets and configurations?
>
> I read that KDEPIM 2 uses different configuration files. But I am not sure
> whether two different KDEPIM 2 installations can run alongside on the same
> machine - except when using a VM on it. I know it is possible to compile
> KDEPIM into a different directory, but what about two running Akonadi
> servers? Well I have that when I fire up my private and my work KDE
> sessions (different users).
>
> Maybe the safest approach would be, to use a VM, copy ~/Mail and old mail
> configuration to it and try from there. Or is there a reasonable approach
> to have both KDEPIM versions concurrently on bare metal? Maybe just using
> another local user and give it a newer KDEPIM version? Would KDEPIM 4.8.x
> work together with KDE SC 4.7.4, or should I have a complete KDE SC 4.8.2
> for the user?
>
> Thing is I would like to have a way to test KDEPIM 2 without disrupting my
> existing known-to-work setup. I would like to see KDEPIM 2 working nicely
> for a while before switching to it altogether.
>
>
> Anyway, next step is likely to take care of these mbox folders first and
> separate them into a different account so that my main account can be
> imported as maildir-only. I should be able to do that while using KDEPIM 1
> already.
>

Just a few comments from my own experience: creating an empty fresh 
kmail and the set up new accounts, import old backup-emails worked far 
better than an earlier "migrate" attempt. Kubuntu has a wiki on this 
actually.

Crm114 is botched in 64-bit at least, I had to change to spambayes. 
Export/save your filters or be prepared to recreate them.

Pop3 seems far less problem-prone than IMAP (I only use pop myself and 
have few problems).

Email address autocompletion seems not to work in any 4.8.x version and 
that also goes for Distribution Lists. One way to get around it is to 
save template emails based on your lists. Clumsy but works.

For that very reason I am still on 4.7.4 and awaiting a version where 
addressbooks work as I expect them once more.

good luck,
Sinclair

_______________________________________________
KDE PIM users mailing list
Subscription management: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kdepim-users