imap-backup

Backup GMail (or other IMAP) accounts to disk

• Source Code
• API documentation
• Rubygem
• Continuous Integration

Installation

$ gem install 'imap-backup'

Setup

Run:

$ imap-backup setup

The setup system is a menu-driven command line application.

It creates ~/.imap-backup directory and configuration file. E.g.:

{
  "accounts":
  [
    {
      "username": "my.user@gmail.com",
      "password": "secret",
      "local_path": "/path/to/backup/root",
      "folders":
        [
          {"name": "[Gmail]/All Mail"},
          {"name": "my_folder"}
        ]
    }
  ]
}

It connects to GMail by default, but you can also specify a server:

{  
  "accounts":
  [
    {
      "username": "my.user@gmail.com",
      "password": "secret",
      "server": "my.imap.example.com",
      "local_path": "/path/to/backup/root",
      "folders":
        [
          {"name": "[Gmail]/All Mail"},
          {"name": "my_folder"}
        ]
    }
  ]
}  

Security

Note that email usernames and passwords are held in plain text in the configuration file.

The directory ~/.imap-backup, the configuration file and all backup directories have their access permissions set to only allow access by your user.

Run Backup

Manually, from the command line:

$ imap-backup

Altertatively, add it to your crontab.

Result

Each folder is saved to an mbox file. Alongside each mbox is a file with extension '.imap', which lists the source IMAP UIDs to allow a full restore.

Other Usage

List IMAP folders:

$ imap-backup folders

Get statistics of emails to download per folder:

$ imap-backup status

Design Goals

• Secure - use a local file protected by permissions
• Restartable - calculate start point based on already downloaded messages
• Standalone - do not rely on an email client or MTA

Similar Software

• https://github.com/thefloweringash/gmail-imap-backup
• https://github.com/mleonhard/imapbackup
• https://github.com/rgrove/larch - copies between IMAP servers

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Added some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request