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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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How to keep all email locally in a useful format that can be searched across devices? (self.linux)

submitted 1 year ago by crank to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I have an account on an SMTP server. The server has a storage quota. I'd like the delete stuff from the server but keep it locally in case I need it. Just in case.

I'd like to be able to access the mail somehow on other computers and hopefully mobile devices on my network so that it can be searched when needed. I'm not sure what the best interface for that would be. A webmail client?

One option would be to use Thunderbird or another client to download the mail once in a while but disable deleting local messages when they are removed from the server. Would Thunderbird store the messages in a format I can use readily with other applications? Or should I use something else to download the mail?

What about situations where messages are moved from one folder to another on the server? Would I get a duplicate locally of the message appearing in both locations? Not sure how the storage and metadata actually are.

Also, is it possible in such a situation to put a message back on the server if I realize it was deleted in error?

Any idea would be welcome. I am a bit stuck.

I can use the command line comfortably but ideally I'd have a solution that doesn't rely on the terminal to find find messages and such. I don't really like terminal mail clients.

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[–] chillytuna@universeodon.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

@danielquinn @crank That's pretty cool. How much storage does 20 years of personal emails actually take up?

[–] danielquinn@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's actually not as crazy as you might think:

$ du -sh .Maildir/
13G	.Maildir/

That's going back to ~~2000~~ 1995, both sent & received. The first email I have in there is from a friend of mine offering to send me an MP3 she downloaded.

[–] maxprime@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You were downloading and sharing mp3s in 1995?? Didn’t the file extension only come out in 1995?

[–] danielquinn@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wikipedia says it was 1991.

I think she would have gotten the file via hot... something, this little file sharing network that predates Napster.

Edit: It was probably Hotline, which was launched in '97, so there's probably some corruption to the received email date somewhere. I wasn't exactly tech savvy 25 years ago ;-)