IMAP Tools FAQ

Updated: March 23, 2021

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the IMAP Tools?
2. Where can I get the IMAP Tools?
3. What is IMAP?
4. What operating systems do they run on?
5. What language are the IMAP Tools written in?
6. Where can I get Perl?
7. What do I get with the IMAP Tools?
8. Which E-Mail servers are suppported? How about Gmail?
9. Can I see an example?
10. Is SSL supported?"
11. Is there a mailing list for the IMAP Tools?
12. Got a question?

1. What are the IMAP Tools?

It is a set of programs which make it easy for you to do a lot of things such as copying a user's messages from one server to another, synchronizing accounts on two servers, mass-migrating hundreds or thousands of users, purging duplicate messages, backing up and restoring IMAP accounts, moving messages based on a set of rules you define, loading messages from Maildir and Mbox servers into IMAP, and many other things.
See the list of the tools here.

2. Where can I get the IMAP Tools?

Go to imap-tools

3. What is IMAP?

IMAP is a protocol for accessing e-mail folders and messages on a server. See IMAP for details.

4. What operating systems do the IMAP tools run on?

The IMAP tools will run on any server or PC on which a Perl interpreter is installed. Linux (all of the various flavors), Unix, Windows, and Apple are all supported.

5. Where can I get Perl?

One source is ActiveState which offers both free and commercial editions of their ActiveState Perl product for Windows, Unix/Linux, and Mac OS X. See Perl, or ActiveState Perl for all the available possibilities. NOTE Almost all current Operating Systems come with Perl pre-installed.

6. What language are the tools written in?

Perl.

7. What do I get when I order the IMAP Tools set?

When you place an order you will receive an e-mail message with an attachment containing the full set of twenty tools (or the individual tool you ordered). You get support for questions, problems, and advice from the developer along with upgrades when new versions are released, bug fixes, and enhancements.

8. Which E-mail servers are supported? How about Gmail?

Virtually all e-mail servers are supported by IMAP Tools. IMAP Tools will work correctly with any server which supports the IMAP4 protocol. Gmail is definitely one of those although it has certain characteristics which make it unique.

9. Can I see an example?

Let's say we want to copy all of a user's folders and messages from one server to another. Using imapcopy.pl nothing could be easier. We just need to know the username and password on the "old" server and the username and password on the "new" server. To do the copy we type the following command and imapcopy does the rest, creating new folders on the new server if they don't already exist and copying all of the messages into them.

./imapcopy.pl -S old-host/rick/pwd -D new-host/richard/secret

imapcopy.pl starting
Connected to old-host on port 143
Connected to new-host on port 143
Number of mailboxes to process: 7
   Copied 60 messages to Big-Box
   Copied 31 messages to Drafts
   Copied 6025 messages to INBOX
   Copied 32 messages to NOTES/2010
   Copied 900 messages to NOTES/2011
   Copied 525 messages to NOTES/2012/DRAFTS
   Copied 633 messages to Sent
Copied 9226 total messages
Done

Nested mailboxes (subfolders) are automatically copied and the read/unread status of messages are preserved along with the Sent dates.

10. Is SSL supported?

Yes. You'll need it to talk to Gmail which accepts only SSL connections. Please click here for notes on SSL connections.

11. Is there a mailing list for IMAP Tools?

No. Not at this time.

12. Got a question?

Send your question to rfs9999@earthlink.net. If you have a question don't hesitate to ask.

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