Import/Migrate messages from Linux

Question

I'm installing a new Xserve to replace a Linux server running RedHat 9 and I need to bring all the existing mail to the Xserve. All accounts on the RedHat machine are IMAP and will be on the Xserve, but the storage formats are very different.
Anyone recommend the best way to perform this import/migration?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I, too, have had good luck with imapsync. I installed imapsync-1.241 as per INSTALL directions in source tar-ball, with the inclusion of Perl Digest::HMAC_MD5 module, which helps for CRAM-MD5 logins (like for the remote server). I installed on the copy-to machine, in my case the Xserve, and copied from a Linux machine running Courier IMAP server.
There is also a imapsync2 version that can be installed, but I found the version 1 to work OK for my transfer.
Here is a simple shell script I wrote to transfer many mailboxes:
#!/bin/bash
dhusers=("someuser" "anotheruser")
dhpass=("somepassword" "anotherpassword")
xsusers=("myuser" "myotheruser")
xspass=("mypassword" "myotherpassword")
len=${#dhusers\[*\]}
i=0
while \[ $i -lt $len \]; do
echo -e "\nSyncing Mail from User ${dhusers\[$i\]} to User ${xsusers\[$i\]}:\n"
imapsync \
--host1 'old.server.com' --user1 "\"${dhusers\[$i\]}\"" \
--authmech1 'LOGIN' --password1 "\"${dhpass\[$i\]}\"" --expunge1 \
--host2 'new.xserve.com' --user2 "\"${xsusers\[$i\]}\"" \
--authmech2 'CRAM-MD5' --password2 "\"${xspass\[$i\]}\"" \
--syncinternaldates --subscribed --subscribe --prefix1 'INBOX.' \
--exclude 'Trash|FlaggedSpam'
echo -e "\n\n"
let i++
done
exit 0
You may notice a couple of things I did. First, you want to expunge any "marked as deleted" files on the from server, then only copy subscribed folders (if that is what you want), then subscribe to them once they are made on the new server. Also, Courier uses . instead of / for its folder delimiter (INBOX. instead of INBOX/) like on the default Leopard server Cyrus setup. I did not have to expressly tell the --prefix for the to server, it handled it when asked to create new folders. Lastly, if there were folders setup for the Linux system that are not part of your new system, exclude their transfer.
Since the shell script contains passwords, you'll want to keep it writable and executable by root only. Also, imapsync requires being run as root or sudo. If one of your passwords includes a $ then you will need to excape it with \$ or imapsync will fail on connect, since the script will try to expand whatever is after the $ as if were a variable.
Larry