Socket error - too many reads. (Gmail)

[ael]

I am not sure if anyone is actively maintaining offlineimap just now,
but I have just hit what seems to be a long standing problem
when syncing with a (badge-engineered) gmail imap server: here is
the tail end of a run with dubugging on:-

----------------------------------------------
imap:   35:23.41 Copy message from ntlspamserv:INBOX CAPABILITY:PAPF3.ready.wait
imap:   35:23.74 Copy message from ntlspamserv:INBOX _get_untagged_response(CAPABILITY) => ['IMAP4rev1 UNSELECT IDLE NAMESPACE QUOTA ID XLIST CHILDREN X-GM-EXT-1 UIDPLUS COMPRESS=DEFLATE ENABLE MOVE CONDSTORE ESEARCH']
imap:   35:23.74 Copy message from ntlspamserv:INBOX _untagged_response(OK, ?, CAPABILITY) => ['IMAP4rev1 UNSELECT IDLE NAMESPACE QUOTA ID XLIST CHILDREN X-GM-EXT-1 UIDPLUS COMPRESS=DEFLATE ENABLE MOVE CONDSTORE ESEARCH']
ERROR: Exceptions occurred during the run!
ERROR: command: UID => socket error: <type 'exceptions.IOError'> - Too many read 0

Traceback:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/folder/IMAP.py", line 216, in getmessage
    '(BODY.PEEK[])')
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/imaplib2.py", line 1153, in uid
    return self._simple_command('UID', command, *args, **kw)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/imaplib2.py", line 1596, in _simple_command
    return self._command_complete(self._command(name, *args), kw)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/imaplib2.py", line 1362, in _command_complete
    typ, dat = rqb.get_response('command: %s => %%s' % rqb.name)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/imaplib2.py", line 173
  , in get_response
    raise typ(exc_fmt % str(val))

ERROR: command: UID => socket error: <type 'exceptions.IOError'> - Too many read 0

Traceback:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/folder/IMAP.py", line 216, in getmessage
    '(BODY.PEEK[])')
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/imaplib2.py", line 1153, in uid
    return self._simple_command('UID', command, *args, **kw)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/imaplib2.py", line 1596, in _simple_command
    return self._command_complete(self._command(name, *args), kw)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/imaplib2.py", line 1362, in _command_complete
    typ, dat = rqb.get_response('command: %s => %%s' % rqb.name)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/offlineimap/imaplib2.py", line 173, in get_response
    raise typ(exc_fmt % str(val))

ERROR: command: UID => socket error: <type 'exceptions.IOError'> - Too many read 0
ERROR: 'str' object has no attribute 'tb_frame'
ERROR: Exceptions occurred during the run!
ERROR: 'str' object has no attribute 'tb_frame'

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The INBOX has more than 1560 messages and offlineimap has started to
"hang" after around the 1400 mark. 

This is on debian testing, python 2.7.5+
 offlineimap version 6.5.3.1

ael