Sync mail rules

Question

Upgrading to Lion was not smooth on one machine. But I'm managing.
The current issue is that my mail rules are now independent. My set of rules on my Desktop and my Laptop don't sync, nor can I find a place to have them sync. As I did not upgrade the two machines at the same time (I had to find a few replacement programs for non-lion compatibility) they have some significant differences.
Short of overwriting one set with the other with the .plist file, any suggestions? iCloud does not seem to take on this issue.
Adam

Answer 1

I use Dropbox so  have the following two aliases setup in .bashrc (actually, in .bashrc I source a bashrc that's on Dropbox so that it's the same everywhere, see further below...):
Rename these aliases to something that makes sense for you (see further below for the actual aliases):
cpmd (stands for 'copy mailRules to dropbox')
cpdm (stands for 'copy dropbox to mailRules')
I keep a template .bashrc file on Dropbox which I copy to all new macs:
mini:bash me$  cat $HOME/Dropbox/bash/template.bashrc
# .bashrc
# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
    . /etc/bashrc
fi
# Source Dropbox definitions
if [ -f $HOME/Dropbox/bash/bashrc ]; then
        . $HOME/Dropbox/bash/bashrc
fi
And edit only the centralized bashrc in $HOME/Dropbox/bash/bashrc, which the above sources
Terminal.app opens a login shell, which reads .bash_profile instead of .bashrc, so you'll want to use a .bash_profile that sources .bashrc e.g.
mini:bash me$  cat $HOME/Dropbox/bash/template.bash_profile
[[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc
For each new Mac I use, simply copy the template files from Dropbox into my home directory:
cd $HOME
cp $HOME/Dropbox/bash/template.bashrc $HOME/.bashrc
cp $HOME/Dropbox/bash/template.bashrc $HOME/.bash_profile
Now, in $HOME/Dropbox/bash/bashrc, add the following aliases:
alias cpmd="cp $HOME/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/MessageRules.plist $HOME/Dropbox/MailRules/MessageRules.plist"
alias cpdm="cp $HOME/Dropbox/MailRules/MessageRules.plist $HOME/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/MessageRules.plist"
To copy Mail's rules to Dropbox, just type "cpmd" in Terminal.
To copy the rules from Dropbox to the local Mac's Mail folder, first quit Mail, then type "cpdm" in terminal.
There are ways to automate this, or to symlink things, but I think that's dangerous since there's no file locking  so  instances of Mail.app on different macs could overwrite each others changes.
ETA to add caveat wrt to trying to automate this...