Linux CLI software to pull all emails from IMAP server

salakis

Hi everyone, I actually need some help and I assume that someone around here might know the answer.
I quickly need to make a full and complete backup of an old mail server. All the mails are on there right now, however I do not have the space nor time to do it locally to my laptop via Outlook or whatever.

Is there any CLI tool for Linux that can handle this kind of thing without breaking everything? It would be nice if the folder structure would stay intact.
Ideally it would give me some output which I can open in Outlook or Thunderbird.

Thanks!

Gamma17

I've been using getmail to make backups of some number email accounts on gmail and other free services.

Available Packages: Name : getmail Arch : noarch Version : 5.4 Release : 1.el7 Size : 188 k Repo : epel/x86_64 Summary : POP3, IMAP4 and SDPS mail retriever with Maildir delivery URL : http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/ License : GPLv2 Description : getmail is a secure, flexible, reliable and easy-to-use : mail retriever for POP3, IMAP4 and SDPS. : It delivers mail into a Maildir or mbox file. : It is designed to replace other mail retrievers such as fetchmail. : Getmail is written entirely in python.

psb777

offlineimap is another good choice. getmail tampers your email headers (adding Received:, fixing broken headers, etc) iirc, but offlineimap retrieves mails authentically.

Just note that offlineimap syncs between your local repository and remote IMAP server, so it will delete files on the IMAP server if you remove local files.

Dustlab

You can use Imapsync

404error

Another vote for imapsync, works pretty well.

NodePing

I prefer rsync over ssh or simple scp if you ssh access.

hostechsupport

Fetchmail program is a classic UNIX and Unix-like utility(Linux) used to retrive email from remote servers and deliver it to local users on a server. You can fetch mail from POP, IMAP, ETRN, or ODMR-capable server