Hi Gene!


Let's see if I get it right this time:

incomming mail:
external mailserver --> fetchmail --> local mailbox --> kmail --> kmail mailbox in ~

You have kmail running 24/7, because it should transfer "local mailbox --> kmail --> kmail mailbox in ~"

If this is correct, then imap will not be your solution, because there is no mailbox with mail in it, that a imap sever could deliver. Reason: "kmail mailbox in ~" is not compatible with any imap server.



The easy solution: 

Do not run kmail 24/7, but only when you want to use email on the machine in front of you. Then you can use kmail over the ssh, no more work needed.



The more complex solution:

incomming mail:
external mailserver --> fetchmail --> local mailbox --> dovecot --> local dovecot mailbox in ~
kmail has to be configured for imap only, that has to be done for all kmails on all other machines that would like access to the mails. Be aware that there was an error with kmail and imap some time ago, I don't know if it still exists.

Nik



 
> > Hi Gene!
> >
> > There is a misunderstanding I think. I was assuming you use this
> > scenario:
> >
> > - you have a machine that fetches your mail. On that machine you do
> > nothing, you are not logged in, kmail is not running. let's call it
> > "remote"
> 
> No, this machine does it all, and kmail runs 24/7 on this machine as it 
> is what gets the mail that procmail usually delivers 
> to /var/spool/mail/gene, on this machine.  Because kmail is single 
> threaded, it has huge freezes of the user gui, including the composer, 
> while its going out on the net to check/fetch new mail from the 2 
> mailservers I have access to.  So all that has been offloaded to a 
> fetchmail/procmail setup. So all kmail has to do is go get it from the 
> local /var/spool/mail/mailfile, sort it and write it to the correct 
> folder.  This its can do in a fraction of a second, reducing the frozen 
> time from 20 or more seconds to just noticeable.
> 
> Then, while kmail remains running to do all that, I want to access what 
> it has pulled in, from a 2nd session of kmail running from the remote 
> machine while I am at its keyboard/monitor.
> 
> As I see it, its one of telling the remote copy where the email corpus 
> is, and some method of file locking to keep the two copies from stepping 
> on each others toes.
> 
> I thought maybe dovecot could serve it, but have not been able to make an 
> imap setup connect, and with no logs being made by dovecot, no means of 
> determining why they can't connect.
> 
> Dovecot has currently been purged, but that is of course fixable, if I 
> knew what the heck I was doing, but I've no previous experience with 
> dovecot.
> 
> > - you sit in front of a second machine, where TDE is running, but not
> > kmail. let's call it "here"
> 
> I would if I was 'there' yes.
> 
> > - you do "$ ssh -X gene@remote /opt/trinity/bin/kmail". kmail (running
> > on "remote") sends the GUI over to  "here"
> 
> But as the error comes back, kmail is already running and objects.
> 
> So what I want is to serve up the kmail email corpus that exists on this 
> machine, with a large fraction of a million mailfiles in 42 directories, 
> using something like dovecot, to a second copy of kmail running on the 
> remote machine I am working with/on from its own keyboard at the 
> instant, without shutting down the copy of kmail running on this machine 
> that is doing all the incoming mail housekeeping.  Sure, I can't be two 
> places at once, but the scripts that drive all this never sleep, even if 
> I am.  That means new mail needs to be processed anytime it arrives, 
> regardless of which machine I am on at the instant.  Shutting down this 
> copy of kmail means no new mail will be processed until its restarted.  
> 
> Shutting it down so dcop has no receiver eventually constipates dcop and 
> that seems to take a reboot to fix.
> 
> And I don't want to have dovecot make a copy of whats here just to get it 
> all in one directory for dovecots convenience.  One folder alone, the 
> biggest, is at 90,000 msgs now.  And kmail takes about 10 seconds to 
> find a new message in all that.  I do expire the majority of the folders 
> in a week or so, but keep several for archival purposes too.
> 
> I can reinstall dovecot, and set the source path up as it was before, but 
> I think my 'failure to communicate' from the remote machine was in not 
> telling dovecot who might come calling.
> 
> So, how should I proceed?  Or should I continue to come to this machine 
> to do all the email?
> 
> > Nik
> 
> 
> Cheers, Gene Heskett



-- 
Please do not email me anything that you are not comfortable also sharing with the NSA.

Dr. Nikolaus Klepp
Einnehmerstraße 14
A-4810 Gmunden
Tel.: +43 650 82 11 724
email: office@...