dovecot - Apr 2005 - message status changed from new to old on read

Hi.  I'm new to IMAP, but just tried uw-imapd and then dovecot in
conjuction with offlineimap.  I'm using Debian package version 0.99.14-1
and have my mail in mbox format.

One of the first things that annoys me about both programs is that as
soon as you read a mailbox over imap, the imapd changes all "new"
messages to "old".  It seems to have the assumption that the IMAP
client
is "reading" the messages, but particularly in the case of
offlineimap,
this assumption is not justified:  I might not read the message on the
client on which I've just synced, I might read it on the server or
another client.  So I would like dovecot to leave the mailbox alone, and
leave it up to the client to write any changes to message status.  Is
there any option to dovecot that would accomplish this?

While experimenting, I noticed that dovecot sometimes doesn't notice
changes to the status made directly on the server.  For example, if I
create new mbox mailbox with one message (initially "new"), and access
it with imap (using mutt in this example), it shows up "new" in the
client.  When I next access it with imap, it shows up "old", because
dovecot modified the status as described above.  If I then run mutt
directly on the mailbox and change the status back to "new", then
access
it with imap, it still shows up "old".  If I then remove the .imap
directory containing the caches, it is back to "new".  I assume that
dovecot is supposed to pick up changes made directly on the server,
right?

Thanks for your help,
Andrew

There are two relevant flags associated with a message in IMAP, "SEEN"
and "RECENT". "New" messages might be considered unread ones
(don't
have the "SEEN" flag set) or "recent" ones.

The client gets to modify "SEEN", which it typically does when it
reads
the message. The server is the only thing that can modify "RECENT", 
which it does when it has notified a client that has "SELECT"-ed 
(i.e. opened) the folder about new messages.

I assume "offlineimap" is behaving just like a normal client and 
"SELECT"-ing the folder in order to download messages. If it
doesn't
want to change the "RECENT" status, then it should use
"EXAMINE"
(opens mailbox readonly) instead of "SELECT". Likewise, it
shouldn't
set the "SEEN" flag unless it wants to signal that the message has
been
read.

In other words, Dovecot is behaving correctly as far as I can tell, and 
offlineimap is probably to blame. See RFC 3501 (e.g. 
"http://rfc.net/rfc3501.html#s2.3.2.") for details!

Best Wishes,
Chris

On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 17:03:49 -0700 Andrew Pimlott <andrew at pimlott.net> 
wrote:
> Hi.  I'm new to IMAP, but just tried uw-imapd and then dovecot in
> conjuction with offlineimap.  I'm using Debian package version
0.99.14-1
> and have my mail in mbox format.
> 
> One of the first things that annoys me about both programs is that as
> soon as you read a mailbox over imap, the imapd changes all "new"
> messages to "old".  It seems to have the assumption that the IMAP
client
> is "reading" the messages, but particularly in the case of
offlineimap,
> this assumption is not justified:  I might not read the message on the
> client on which I've just synced, I might read it on the server or
> another client.  So I would like dovecot to leave the mailbox alone, and
> leave it up to the client to write any changes to message status.  Is
> there any option to dovecot that would accomplish this?
--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--
Christopher Wakelin,                                c.d.wakelin at reading.ac.uk
IT Services Centre, The University of Reading,       Tel: +44 (0)118 378 8439
Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 2AF, UK                   Fax: +44 (0)118 975 3094