Keep a local IMAP mirror, painlessly
git clone https://github.com/mkropat/standalone-dovecot-imap.git
cd standalone-dovecot-imap
sudo make install
Use the sdimap tool to set up a standalone Dovecot IMAP instance in seconds:
mkdir mail-mirror
cd mail-mirror
sdimap init
sdimap start
The new instance runs under your user account and keeps all of its files within
its instance directory (mail-mirror in the example). By being self-contained,
it is trivial to place the instance directory inside an encrypted volume,
ensuring all your emails are encrypted.
Before you connect to the local IMAP mirror, you'll want to download all your email from your server:
sdsync mirror youruser@yourdomain.com youruser@yourserver.yourdomain.com
Replace youruser@yourdomain.com with your email account, and
youruser@yourserver.yourdomain.com with the system username and hostname of
the server that hosts your email with Dovecot.
Now you're ready to connect to the local IMAP mirror with your mail client of
choice. Instead of port 143, use the output of sdimap get port:
$ sdimap get port
10143
For the username, specify the same email account you supplied to sdsync
(youruser@yourdomain.com in the example).
For the password, use the output of sdimap get password:
$ sdimap get password
4IpKjzZmu24Cq3wqpPo6jUYuQSVLoCJb
Now you can access all your mail locally. Run sdsync at any time to pull
down the latest email to your local mirror. If your mail server dies and has
to be rebuilt, run sdync to restore all your email back to the server.