For years I've used Kmail (under Debian + Gnome) as sole email app. Most recent version running is Kmail 1.13.5.

In order to keep my data separate from the machinery, I've kept all mail files on a separate partition, pointed to by a line in ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc as follows:
folders[$e]=/cr11/Mail-kmail

Then all I had to do for backups was copy the entire directory (with cp -Ruv ) to a a different partition. If I installed a new version of OS with new Kmail instance I just had to edit kmailrc and Kmail would happily 'adopt' the whole mail store and use it. Very simple, very flexible.

I've just set up a new server with current Debian and Kmail 4.14.1, and copied the complete mail-store across. I've located ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc (which is mostly blank) and added the line folders[$e]=/cr33/Mail-kmail, and also added it to kmail2rc which seems to be more active (it's full of parameters).
But Kmail 4 doesn't seem to want to know about it.

Is there a config file for Kmail 4 where I can insert the line to point to my mailstore? (There's a swag of akonadi files but none are obvious).

Chris

You have to point your Akonadi maildir (or mixed_maildir) resource to the correct location.
On a default setup, this should be ~/.kde/share/config/akonadi_maildir_resource_0rc (this might differ though), or use "kcmshell4 akonadi" or akonadiconsole to configure it.

Alternatively, you could just add another maildir or mixed_maildir resource with that location.

Thanks wolfi.

My current mail store was mostly filled with Maildir, but a few old Mbox files there too. Kmail 1.13 treated them transparently, happily moving files from one folder to another regardless of type. So for consistency, under 1.13, I just created new Maildir folders with almost the same name, moved the files across from the Mbox ones, and deleted all the Mbox folders. And then recopied the entire directory to its new location.

~/.kde/share/config/akonadi_maildir_resource_0rc was the right file thanks, I just changed the line to say
Path[$e]=/cr33/Mail-kmail
I left in the following line,
TopLevelIsContainer=true

Kmail when started then showed all my folders.

As soon as I started trying to configure POP3 on it, it would only accept Local Folders as a destination for incoming mail, and all my folders disappeared. Also I found 'TopLevelIsContainer=true' had disappeared from the config file. I had to restore it and log out and back in to get my folders back.
After a lot of fiddling and cursing I have two 'receiving' accounts, one 'Local folders' and the other from my ISP POP3 server. Kmail seems to have reluctantly accepted that 'Local Folders' are located in /cr33/Mail-kmail. This setup seems to work.

Thanks again.

cr01 wrote:My current mail store was mostly filled with Maildir, but a few old Mbox files there too. Kmail 1.13 treated them transparently, happily moving files from one folder to another regardless of type.

"Mail stores" with maildir *and* Mbox files are still supported.
Just use a mixedmaildir resource instead of a maildir one.

And there's a dedicated mbox resource too.

I would not suggest mixedmaildir for anything but migrated accounts, though.

einar wrote:I would not suggest mixedmaildir for anything but migrated accounts, though.

Well, I'm using it since years here as my only "local folders" resource (yes, my "mixed maildir" is migrated from KMail1), and have no problems with it.

But yes, it probably makes no sense for new mail stores, only if you want to import such a mixed mail folder from KMail1 (that's what it's actually created for IIRC).