[Users] claws mail question [solved] Sharing Claws-mail data between OS's

[work at mykot.com]

Thanks to all for the help.  Thanks particularly to Abhay for the
specifics.  Below is my contribution back to the community on this topic
of sharing Claws-mail data between dual boot OS's (Windows and Linux).

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How to share mail data and settings in Claws-mail on a dual boot
Windows/Linux system

1 - starting in Windows, You need to locate two Claws-mail folders:
    a.  Claws-mail  -  is your config directory
        typically in C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\
    b.  Mail  -  is your mailbox folder.  (It may have multiple
mailboxes)
        typically in C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\ as well

Note: If you have multiple accounts set up, you may have other folders
in that file, such as, “dad”, “mom”, etc.

2 - We need a path that can be used by both Windows and Linux.  The best
option is a FAT32 partition.  This folder will be R/W to both systems. 
It will most likely be the D: drive in Windows.  In Linux mount it as
whatever you want.

3 - Move "Mail" (and any other mailbox folders) to D: at the root level.
 Do not place them within any other folder. 

You can do it in C: if you want to use a single partition in Windows
(bad idea BTW).  Pro tip: On Windows, try to keep all your personal
files in a separate partition than the primary Windows system (C:).  If
possible, better still, a completely different drive.

4 - Now open up folderlist.xml and edit your mailbox path (line 3). It
should look like this:
     <folder type="mh" path="C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Mail"

Change it to:  <folder type="mh" path="D:\Mail"

If you have additional mailboxes, there will be additional lines futher
down in this file.  You need to do this for each of them. 

Do a find/replace of "\" with "/". Replace all.
 
Linux requires “/”.  Windows will read either “\” or “/”.

Save

5 – Exit Windows and launch Linux.  

6 - Verify that you have both Windows C: and D: drives (partitions)
mounted (i.e. C: as windows-C,  and D: as windows-D).  Make note of the
mount path for each.

7 – Assuming you have installed Claws-mail and started a simple mail
account, enter your /home/%user% folder.  You will need to set up two
symlinks, one for the Claws-mail profile and one for Mail folder(s).    
     < ln (link)   -s (symbolic)   mount path    target >

 a.   ln  -s /mnt/windows-C/Users/%username%/AppData/Roaming/Claws-Mail
.claws-mail
Makes the Linux Claws-mail settings read the Windows settings

 b.   ln -s /mnt/windows-D D: 
Makes the mailbox path of D:\Mail accessible to Claws-Mail in Linux. You
should probably verify that the mount is writable and in your home
folder you can do "cd D:\Mail" and see your mailbox folders.

That's it. Fire up Claws-mail in Linux and enjoy.

8 – Other changes that might be needed:
a.  If you have actions defined, copy "actionswinrc" to "actionsrc".
Edit out any actions that are Windows specific, for example, those that
fire a Windows command.
b.  Review your Accounts, especially if you had signatures configured.
The windows paths won't work here.  You may want to move those to the
shared drive and use the same logic.
c.  You'll have to load-up all the plug-ins again. 
d.  Review the fonts defined in Preferences->Display->Fonts
e.  If you use gpg, you'll have to symlink path to your gnupg data
folder to .gnupg in your home folder as well.
f.  If you create any folders in Windows, you'll have to open up
folderlist.xml and do a find/replace of "\" with "/".



You can switch back-and-forth any time and your mail will be current in
either OS.

Solution provided by: "Abhay S. Kushwaha"
<kushwaha at netsolutionsindia.com> on users-request at lists.claws-mail.org

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