backup without stopping the imap server?

[Andreas Hasenack]

On Mon, Jun 13, 2005 at 12:22:30PM -0500, Richard Wohlstadter wrote:
> mailboxes.db  - critical database containing list of all mailboxes in 
> system.  Cannot be reconstructed without reliable backup copy (or text 
> based copy you can import in)

I also do not understand this one.

> deliver.db - duplicate delivery database ( if gets corrupted, can we 
> delete and restart to reconstruct an empty one?? )

Yes, can be removed.

> db directory - not sure what the heck is going into this directory.  For 
> us it is berkeley database.  Can someone explain what data is in this 
> directory??  Is is used in conjuction with other database files?  If 
> files are deleted/corrupted in here can it be reconstructed?

Transaction logs and db environment. Think of it as being used by all
berkeley databases you have.

> The .seen and .sub databases - Looks like these per-user databases 
> contain listings of what mail is read and what folders are subscribed 
> to.  I assume these can be removed/reconstructed fairly easily if needed.

But does the reconstruct procedure preserve the data? I would hate to
have all my messages being marked as NEW, for example, in the event of a
crash.

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