NAME

       offlineimapui - The User Interfaces

DESCRIPTION

       OfflineIMAP comes with different UIs, each aiming its own purpose.

TTYUI

       TTYUI interface is for people running in terminals. It prints out basic status messages
       and is generally friendly to use on a console or xterm.

BASIC

       Basic is designed for situations in which OfflineIMAP will be run non-attended and the
       status of its execution will be logged.

       This user interface is not capable of reading a password from the keyboard; account
       passwords must be specified using one of the configuration file options. For example, it
       will not print periodic sleep announcements and tends to be a tad less verbose, in
       general.

BLINKENLIGHTS

       Blinkenlights is an interface designed to be sleek, fun to watch, and informative of the
       overall picture of what OfflineIMAP is doing.

       Blinkenlights contains a row of "LEDs" with command buttons and a log. The log shows more
       detail about what is happening and is color-coded to match the color of the lights.

       Each light in the Blinkenlights interface represents a thread of execution — that is, a
       particular task that OfflineIMAP is performing right now. The colors indicate what task
       the particular thread is performing, and are as follows:

       •   Black

               indicates that this light's thread has terminated; it will light up again
               later when new threads start up.  So, black indicates no activity.

       •   Red (Meaning 1)

               is the color of the main program's thread, which basically does nothing but
               monitor the others.  It might remind you of HAL 9000 in 2001.

       •   Gray

               indicates that the thread is establishing a new connection to the IMAP
               server.

       •   Purple

               is the color of an account synchronization thread that is monitoring the
               progress of the folders in that account (not generating any I/O).

       •   Cyan

               indicates that the thread is syncing a folder.

       •   Green

               means that a folder's message list is being loaded.

       •   Blue

               is the color of a message synchronization controller thread.

       •   Orange

               indicates that an actual message is being copied.  (We use fuchsia for fake
               messages.)

       •   Red (meaning 2)

               indicates that a message is being deleted.

       •   Yellow / bright orange

               indicates that message flags are being added.

       •   Pink / bright red

               indicates that message flags are being removed.

       •   Red / Black Flashing

               corresponds to the countdown timer that runs between synchronizations.

       The name of this interfaces derives from a bit of computer history. Eric Raymond’s Jargon
       File defines blinkenlights, in part, as:

           Front-panel diagnostic lights on a computer, esp. a dinosaur. Now that
           dinosaurs are rare, this term usually refers to status lights on a modem,
           network hub, or the like.

       This term derives from the last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic sign in mangled
       pseudo-German that once graced about half the computer rooms in the English-speaking
       world. One version ran in its entirety as follows:

           ACHTUNG!  ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!

           Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben.
           Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken
           mit spitzensparken.  Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.
           Das rubbernecken sichtseeren keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das
           pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.

QUIET

       It will output nothing except errors and serious warnings. Like Basic, this user interface
       is not capable of reading a password from the keyboard; account passwords must be
       specified using one of the configuration file options.

SYSLOG

       Syslog is designed for situations where OfflineIMAP is run as a daemon (e.g., as a systemd
       --user service), but errors should be forwarded to the system log. Like Basic, this user
       interface is not capable of reading a password from the keyboard; account passwords must
       be specified using one of the configuration file options.

MACHINEUI

       MachineUI generates output in a machine-parsable format. It is designed for other programs
       that will interface to OfflineIMAP.

SEE ALSO

           offlineimap(1)

                                            03/31/2020                           OFFLINEIMAPUI(7)