From Sigmon

backup evolution

http://embraceubuntu.com/2005/12/03/how-to-backup-evolution/

From an old mailing list gem, I got the right method to back up your Evolution (mail + calendar + contacts) data the right way:

Step 1:
Shutdown evolution and gconftool-2:

$gconftool-2 --shutdown
$evolution --force-shutdown

Step 2:
Create an archive with the data and configuration files:
Note: To completely save the Evolution data and configuration, you need to save the following directories/files:

   1. ~/.evolution/
   2. ~/.gconf/apps/evolution/
   3. ~/.gnome2_private/Evolution

The following command will take care of these
$cd
$tar -cvzf evolution-backup.tar.gz .evolution .gconf/apps/evolution .gnome2_private/Evolution

Now the file evolution-backup.tar.gz is the backup you want. You can move the data over to another Ubuntu computer if you like, and just un-tar the archive while in your /home/username/ directory to restore it.

To restore, use:

$gconftool-2 --shutdown
$evolution --force-shutdown
$tar xzf evolution-backup.tar.gz
$gconftool-2 --unload evolution_setting.xml
$gconftool-2 --load evolution_setting.xml

There are two evolution backup scripts that promise to make things easier for you:
Script 1 – in French and English
Script 2: In German

I really don’t see the need for a script, the scripts pretty much do the same thing as the commands above. If you run the commands one by one you will know if something fails immediately. However, I understand someone might want a script to make things easier. A script for backing up is kind of funny since if it fails, you will have no backups, so tread carefully :) 

Sig 14:47, 10 June 2010 (UTC) I used this:

tar -czf evolution-backup.tar.gz .evolution .gconf/apps/evolution