-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
I'm trying to convert a courier-imap installation over to using
Dovecot, but I'm having some problems with Mail.app on OS X. FTR, we
use both Mail.app and Thunderbird. Note that in the Mail.app
preferences, I have a blank IMAP Path Prefix. I'm using Dovecot
1.0_rc15 on Gentoo, and Mail.app from OS X 10.4.8, Thunderbird 1.5.0.9.
With the old courier setup, in Mail.app I would see a top level Inbox
folder, with an inbox icon'd folder underneath that representing the
IMAP account. That IMAP account subfolder would be the inbox of that
account. Under that, I'd see all the subfolders for that account.
Something like:
Inbox
Account1
Folder1
Folder2
...
Account2
FolderA
Outbox
Drafts
Sent
Junk
SmartFolder1
SmartFolder2
Note that a straight copy from the courier Maildir leaves me with
directories like ~/Maildir/.Folder1 and ~/Maildir/.Folder2 -- IOW,
they do not have .INBOX. prefix. I tried adding a "namespace
private" section, with separator, prefix, and inbox values as
specified in the docs.
This gives me the same layout in the Mail.app u/i as with Courier,
but there's a big problem: none of the folders under Account1 have
any contents. The folders are there, and in the right location, but
they have zero messages (even though they certainly have messages in
the filesystem). Nothing in the Dovecot log file indicates any
problem. But if I hover over say Folder1 in the Mail.app u/i, I see
a popup message like:
Mail was unable to open this mailbox on the server
"imap.example.com". The
server error encountered was: Unknown namespace
Moving over to Thunderbird though, I see exactly what I want to see.
Top level expandable is the account, with Inbox under that, which
expands to all my folders. Of course Thunderbird supports
subscriptions, which Mail.app does not, so I only see the folders
I've subscribed to. Clearly, there's some weird interaction between
Mail.app and Dovecot.
Next, I tried removing the 'prefix' value from the "namespace
private" section, and restarted Dovecot. Now the Mail.app u/i is
different, but all the folders have their contents back! The u/i now
shows:
Inbox
Account1
Account2
FolderA
Outbox
Drafts
Sent
Junk
SmartFolder1
SmartFolder2
Account1
Folder1
Folder2
IOW, all of account1's folders live under a separate expandable
section below the top level Inbox expandable (that section has a
little world icon instead of the little inbox icon). Account1's
inbox lives in a different section from its folders, but it has no
subfolders.
Looking back at Thunderbird, I notice that all the subscribed folders
are now at the same level as the Inbox, just under the account name.
I.e.
Account1
Inbox
Trash
Folder1
Folder2
...
I suppose I can live with the Mail.app behavior sans the prefix
setting in the namespace section, but it's not ideal. I'd really
like to know why Mail.app has a problem with this! Why are the
folders there but the contents empty? Is there any way to increase
the logging that Dovecot does to understand what the Mail.app client
is sending and why Dovecot is sending back that error?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
- -Barry
P.S. I wasn't able to use courier2dovecot.sh from the wiki (I think
others had problems with running it on Linux as well, probably due to
the different rename(1) syntax). The courier2dovecot.py file was no
longer available, so I wrote my own. I can make that available to
folks if there's any interest.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (Darwin)
iQCVAwUBRZC8sXEjvBPtnXfVAQK90gQAjFhEH+vIPh7pnY4MuOTU8ChWfJ57ppIQ
g0HvHidiD5nOfd8pfpsfacdD1nC40cRlpnJkR6vcahvqQsLzSUzUMwVlUqP2IDSE
jGvZGpGSBpjTHV/ktWbyJhPo9+ehVxiq+qEfbDgfw9iqBtulOXe4M25iUKO8tsuA
n2bCHHoUXuk=hxad
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Barry, default_mail_env = mbox:%h/mail/:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u This is what I used to get Mail.app to work with dovecot. Just modify the paths to match your system. Keep your mail prefix empty in the Account settings. James On Dec 26, 2006, at 1:09 AM, Barry Warsaw wrote:> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > I'm trying to convert a courier-imap installation over to using > Dovecot, but I'm having some problems with Mail.app on OS X. FTR, > we use both Mail.app and Thunderbird. Note that in the Mail.app > preferences, I have a blank IMAP Path Prefix. I'm using Dovecot > 1.0_rc15 on Gentoo, and Mail.app from OS X 10.4.8, Thunderbird > 1.5.0.9. > > With the old courier setup, in Mail.app I would see a top level > Inbox folder, with an inbox icon'd folder underneath that > representing the IMAP account. That IMAP account subfolder would > be the inbox of that account. Under that, I'd see all the > subfolders for that account. Something like: > > Inbox > Account1 > Folder1 > Folder2 > ... > Account2 > FolderA > Outbox > Drafts > Sent > Junk > SmartFolder1 > SmartFolder2 > > Note that a straight copy from the courier Maildir leaves me with > directories like ~/Maildir/.Folder1 and ~/Maildir/.Folder2 -- IOW, > they do not have .INBOX. prefix. I tried adding a "namespace > private" section, with separator, prefix, and inbox values as > specified in the docs. > > This gives me the same layout in the Mail.app u/i as with Courier, > but there's a big problem: none of the folders under Account1 have > any contents. The folders are there, and in the right location, > but they have zero messages (even though they certainly have > messages in the filesystem). Nothing in the Dovecot log file > indicates any problem. But if I hover over say Folder1 in the > Mail.app u/i, I see a popup message like: > > Mail was unable to open this mailbox on the server > "imap.example.com". The > server error encountered was: Unknown namespace > > Moving over to Thunderbird though, I see exactly what I want to > see. Top level expandable is the account, with Inbox under that, > which expands to all my folders. Of course Thunderbird supports > subscriptions, which Mail.app does not, so I only see the folders > I've subscribed to. Clearly, there's some weird interaction > between Mail.app and Dovecot. > > Next, I tried removing the 'prefix' value from the "namespace > private" section, and restarted Dovecot. Now the Mail.app u/i is > different, but all the folders have their contents back! The u/i > now shows: > > Inbox > Account1 > Account2 > FolderA > Outbox > Drafts > Sent > Junk > SmartFolder1 > SmartFolder2 > Account1 > Folder1 > Folder2 > > IOW, all of account1's folders live under a separate expandable > section below the top level Inbox expandable (that section has a > little world icon instead of the little inbox icon). Account1's > inbox lives in a different section from its folders, but it has no > subfolders. > > Looking back at Thunderbird, I notice that all the subscribed > folders are now at the same level as the Inbox, just under the > account name. I.e. > > Account1 > Inbox > Trash > Folder1 > Folder2 > ... > > I suppose I can live with the Mail.app behavior sans the prefix > setting in the namespace section, but it's not ideal. I'd really > like to know why Mail.app has a problem with this! Why are the > folders there but the contents empty? Is there any way to increase > the logging that Dovecot does to understand what the Mail.app > client is sending and why Dovecot is sending back that error? > > Any help would be greatly appreciated! > > - -Barry > > P.S. I wasn't able to use courier2dovecot.sh from the wiki (I think > others had problems with running it on Linux as well, probably due > to the different rename(1) syntax). The courier2dovecot.py file > was no longer available, so I wrote my own. I can make that > available to folks if there's any interest. > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (Darwin) > > iQCVAwUBRZC8sXEjvBPtnXfVAQK90gQAjFhEH+vIPh7pnY4MuOTU8ChWfJ57ppIQ > g0HvHidiD5nOfd8pfpsfacdD1nC40cRlpnJkR6vcahvqQsLzSUzUMwVlUqP2IDSE > jGvZGpGSBpjTHV/ktWbyJhPo9+ehVxiq+qEfbDgfw9iqBtulOXe4M25iUKO8tsuA > n2bCHHoUXuk> =hxad > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Dec 26, 2006, at 1:09 AM, Barry Warsaw wrote:> I suppose I can live with the Mail.app behavior sans the prefix > setting in the namespace section, but it's not ideal. I'd really > like to know why Mail.app has a problem with this! Why are the > folders there but the contents empty? Is there any way to increase > the logging that Dovecot does to understand what the Mail.app > client is sending and why Dovecot is sending back that error?I did a little packet snooping and I think I might have discovered what's going on. Apparently, Mail.app uses mailbox names like INBOX/ Foo and INBOX/Bar while Thunderbird uses mailbox names like INBOX.Foo and INBOX.Bar. IOW, adding these two namespace sections seems to support both clients: # For Mail.app namespace private { separator = / prefix = INBOX/ inbox = yes } # For Thunderbird namespace private { separator = . prefix = INBOX. inbox = yes } I need to play with this some more to be sure. Can anybody corroborate this? If true, the information should probably be added to the Dovecot wiki. - -Barry -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (Darwin) iQCVAwUBRZECC3EjvBPtnXfVAQILIAP+KbOSJHr4yEJEgCO3H/VtkTlbhNof/Tbq qy8zKqoPW8rv5GqZnkhFFzfm4Uebbivp+JmQIAbqgI9El8LK7vNnDP9dQ21WN3oC 9e8T3NyMyZSDFQ+JhYC+YkY/jbpR0sOkdJdEV3x74fLp7/eksRBk3lQZhkpSBwCG dgPozrykB9k=g9OU -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----