Problem copying kmail 'mail' directory to flash drive
Maurice Batey
I have tried both GUI drag-and-drop and rsync to copy the 245MB
directory onto a flash drive (which has 833MB free).
Both approaches soon grind to a halt. In the case of rsync:
rsync -avx /home/mab/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/
/media/disk/mab-mail
it ends with several such as:
rsync: chgrp "/media/disk/mab-mail/inbox/tmp" failed: Operation
not permitted (1)
rsync: chgrp "/media/disk/mab-mail/trash/new" failed: Operation
not permitted (1)
and finally:
sent 256780374 bytes received 110476 bytes 30222452.94
bytes/sec
total size is 256345825 speedup is 1.00
rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at
main.c(981) [sender=2.6.9]
Wonder what's going on with the 'chgrp' operation...
--
/\/\aurice
Linux Mandriva 2.6.22.19-desktop-2mdv 2008.0 PP 32-bit
KDE 3.5.7 Virtualbox 1.5.6
(Remove 'removethis.' to reply by email)
Maurice Batey
(presumably) FAT32 and 'permissions'.
So perhaps I shall have to use an external (ext3) drive as a
medium of transfer of 'mail' to laptop...
dnoyeB
> Wanting to sync my laptop with desktop Kmail's 'mail' directory, I have
> tried both GUI drag-and-drop and rsync to copy the 245MB directory onto
> a flash drive (which has 833MB free).
>
> Both approaches soon grind to a halt. In the case of rsync:
>
> rsync -avx /home/mab/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/
> /media/disk/mab-mail
>
> it ends with several such as:
>
> rsync: chgrp "/media/disk/mab-mail/inbox/tmp" failed: Operation
> not permitted (1)
> rsync: chgrp "/media/disk/mab-mail/trash/new" failed: Operation
> not permitted (1)
>
> and finally:
>
> sent 256780374 bytes received 110476 bytes 30222452.94
> bytes/sec
> total size is 256345825 speedup is 1.00 rsync error: some files
> could not be transferred (code 23) at
> main.c(981) [sender=2.6.9]
>
> Wonder what's going on with the 'chgrp' operation...
you are not using the mail program at this time are you?
CL
Maurice Batey
> you are not using the mail program at this time are you?
No.
youcan
all files you want to save you can obtain success in the operation.
Best regards
Doug Laidlaw
> P.S. I suspect it is to do with the falsh drive being
> (presumably) FAT32 and 'permissions'.
>
> So perhaps I shall have to use an external (ext3) drive as a
> medium of transfer of 'mail' to laptop...
>
I found that with maildir, even with the -R switch, only some
sub-directories were copied, so now I change all new ones to mbox. But
that doesn't sound like your problem.
Doug.
Maurice Batey
> if you do a tarball (compressed file) of
> all files you want to save you can obtain success in the operation
Thanks for the idea, but part of my aim is to merge the
desktop's Mail directories with those on the laptop (as - for
example - there are emails in the laptop's Sent directory that
are not in the desktop's) and I was aiming to do that using
Rsync. (I am using the Kmail one-email-per-file format (can't
remember the name of that).)
But I've now realised that this may not work, as Kmail may keep
some index file to arrange the presentation of email files, and
the Rsync approach would merge 2 sets of email files but
result in only one (incomplete) index file...
Anyone know about that, please?
Maurice Batey
> I've now realised that this may not work, as Kmail may keep some index
> file to arrange the presentation of email files,
Well yes - it does, I've found.
And so any added files are ignored. But if - after copying the
mail files over - you delete the various mail index files, Kmail
re-gerenerates them to cover all the mail files.
dnoyeB
> Wanting to sync my laptop with desktop Kmail's 'mail' directory, I have
> tried both GUI drag-and-drop and rsync to copy the 245MB directory onto
> a flash drive (which has 833MB free).
>
> Both approaches soon grind to a halt. In the case of rsync:
>
> rsync -avx /home/mab/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/
> /media/disk/mab-mail
>
> it ends with several such as:
>
> rsync: chgrp "/media/disk/mab-mail/inbox/tmp" failed: Operation
> not permitted (1)
> rsync: chgrp "/media/disk/mab-mail/trash/new" failed: Operation
> not permitted (1)
>
This means you dont have permission to perform the operation on the givven
file. Are you doing this as the super user? Are you doing this as
someone permitted to access the source and target directories, and write
to them?
Maurice Batey
> This means you dont have permission to perform the operation on the givven
> file.
It was because I was trying to write them to a FAT32 file
system, which does not operate 'permissions'.
No problem when I used an external ext3 drive as the transfer
medium.
Maurice Batey
> if - after copying the
> mail files over - you delete the various mail index files, Kmail
> regenerates them to cover all the mail files.
I've just used that to add mail sent from the laptop (whilst
away from base) to the desktop's sent-mail directory.
(No need to do that with Inbox, as laptop does not erase mail
from POP server.)
Big Yellow Hats
> On Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:03:34 +0100, I wrote:
>
>> if - after copying the
>> mail files over - you delete the various mail index files, Kmail
>> regenerates them to cover all the mail files.
>
> I've just used that to add mail sent from the laptop (whilst
> away from base) to the desktop's sent-mail directory.
>
> (No need to do that with Inbox, as laptop does not erase mail
> from POP server.)
>
From watching this thread, my solution has evolved into the following,
which I will now spell out for future archive searchers:
1) Install/setup unison.
Tried it, and like it mostest bestest!
Using ssh... here's a sample preferences file:
root = /home/me/.Mail
root = ssh://m...@192.168.2.4//home/me/.Mail
ignore = Name {,.}*{.index}
ignore = Name {,.}*{.ids}
ignore = Name {,.}*{.sorted})
2) Right Click on Desktop--> "Create New"--> "Link to Application"-->
change icon to default unison icon--> Application Tab--> command:
rm ~/.Mail/.*.index* && unison
3) Next time the two machines are connected... clicky click, easy peasy.
--
The Man in the Yellow Hat
Linux with a monkey, since 1996.