maildir-backup

Introduction

This tool provides a simple and robust solution for backing up local Mail directories (Maildirs) on Linux systems. It is designed to be lightweight, reliable, and easy to inspect.

System Requirements

Please note that this software is specifically designed for Linux operating systems (tested and developed on Fedora). It requires the following system utilities:

make (for building the project) zip (for creating the archives) sbcl (Steel Bank Common Lisp, required for compilation)

Technologies Used

Common Lisp

Common Lisp is a high-performance, general-purpose programming language. Unlike interpreted script languages, this project is compiled into a native binary. This results in fast execution times and a standalone tool that does not require a Lisp installation to run once compiled.

Texinfo

Texinfo is the official documentation format of the GNU project. It allows us to generate high-quality manuals. You can read the documentation as an interactive "Info" page within your terminal or Emacs, or export it to other formats.

Installation and Compilation

The project uses Makefiles to automate the build and installation process.

Compiling the Program

To compile the source code into a native executable, run the following command in the root directory:

make

This will resolve all dependencies via Quicklisp, compile the application, and install the binary to ~/bin/maildir-backup.

Building the Documentation

To build the manual and register it with your system's info directory, navigate to the doc/ folder:

cd doc
make install

After installation, you can access the full manual, including the developer tutorial and glossary, by running:

info maildir-backup

Licensing

This project is committed to software freedom:

Source Code: Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). Any improvements or modifications must be shared with the community. Documentation: Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL).