Back up Gmail with fetchmail ARTICLE

[Bill Holmes]

http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/geek-to-live--back-up-gmail-with-fetchmail-235207.php

Geek to Live: Back up Gmail with fetchmail

by Gina Trapani

While I love the convenience and features of Gmail, I hate that all my
messages live on Google's servers. Without a local copy, if I can't
get online, or if Gmail has an outage, my email's inaccessible.

While it's possible to download your Gmail with a POP client like
Thunderbird, constantly running a program just to backup your email
consumes CPU cycles and memory.

Instead, today we'll set up a nightly automated Gmail backup using the
command line program fetchmail, which will go out, grab your newest
messages, save 'em to your hard drive and exit, all while you sleep
soundly in the knowledge that you've got an offline copy of your
important email.

Warning: This process involves scripting, Unix commands and
configuration file changes, so if you're a command line newb, hold
onto your hat, cuz this'll be an adventure. It's not difficult, but if
the thought of the command line makes you want to run the other way,
your best bet is to use a regular point and click POP email client to
back up your Gmail.

You game? Let's get started.

Bill
--
Manage your GoogleGroup:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/GGroups

[VMX]

Its a damn good idea... As mentioned in the article any Mail Client like TB would consume a lot of memory, especially if you are just looking at backing up your email from gmail.