Hi,
I'm in the process of migrating several years worth of mail to be
accessible via an IMAP server. Some time ago, I evaluated both Binc
IMAP and Dovecot and found Dovecot to be much faster on large folders,
which is quite important to me. One thing I did not however manage to
determine from the documentation on namespaces is whether or not it is
possible to implement what Binc IMAP calls an "IMAPdir" style layout.
IMAPdir lets me layout mailboxes in the filesystem like so:
$HOME/
Maildir/ <---- users mail goes here
Mail/ <---- IMAP root
INBOX -> ../Maildir/ <---- (symlink)
folder/ <---- some other mailbox in Maildir format
folder.subfolder/ <---- '.' is the hierarchy separator
folder.subfolder-2/
other-folder/
So IMAP clients subscribe to 'INBOX' and 'folder' and
'folder/subfolder'
respectively.
This gives me two features that I want:
1) The ability to easily access all my mail using a command line Maildir
capable client such as nail, for when I'm connection over a super-slow
SSH over GPRS connection. Also, I can actually see my folders (and
their subfolders) without having to look for Maildir++ style names with
'ls -a' (e.g. Maildir/.subfolder/).
2) Mail folders are organized logically, unlike the standard Maildir++
layout where everything is a subfolder of 'INBOX', which strikes me as
stupid.
Is such a thing possible with Dovecot? Any help would be much
appreciated.
Thanks,
-mato
Hi,>IMAPdir lets me layout mailboxes in the filesystem like so: > >$HOME/ > Maildir/ <---- users mail goes here > Mail/ <---- IMAP root > INBOX -> ../Maildir/ <---- (symlink) > folder/ <---- some other mailbox in Maildir format > folder.subfolder/ <---- '.' is the hierarchy separator > folder.subfolder-2/ > other-folder/ > >So IMAP clients subscribe to 'INBOX' and 'folder' and 'folder/subfolder' >respectively. > >The current layout I get with default is: $HOME/ Maildir/ INBOX/ INBOX.subfolder-of-inbox-if-you-have-any-I-dont/ folder/ folder.subfolder/ etc. Dovecot can even handle (afaik) having inbox in a different place by simply configuring default_mail_env = maildir:/home/%u/Maildir:INBOX=/home/%u/Mail/ I think. Not sure if it can handle INBOX being a maildir. Check the wiki/docs. johannes
On 2.7.2005, at 17:32, Martin Lucina wrote:> This gives me two features that I want: > > 1) The ability to easily access all my mail using a command line > Maildir > capable client such as nail, for when I'm connection over a super-slow > SSH over GPRS connection. Also, I can actually see my folders (and > their subfolders) without having to look for Maildir++ style names with > 'ls -a' (e.g. Maildir/.subfolder/).This can't be currently done. Shouldn't be too difficult to hack the code to do it though. I might add support for it sometimes after v1.0 release.> 2) Mail folders are organized logically, unlike the standard Maildir++ > layout where everything is a subfolder of 'INBOX', which strikes me as > stupid.Dovecot doesn't use the "INBOX." -namespace even with Maildir++ unless you explicitly tell it to. So this isn't a problem. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: PGP.sig Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 186 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part URL: <http://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/attachments/20050704/b438400a/attachment-0001.bin>
tss at iki.fi said:> >1) The ability to easily access all my mail using a command line > >Maildir > >capable client such as nail, for when I'm connection over a super-slow > >SSH over GPRS connection. Also, I can actually see my folders (and > >their subfolders) without having to look for Maildir++ style names with > >'ls -a' (e.g. Maildir/.subfolder/). > > This can't be currently done. Shouldn't be too difficult to hack the > code to do it though. I might add support for it sometimes after v1.0 > release.Can you give me a pointer to where this change would have to be made in the code? I'll give it a go... -mato
On Sat, Jul 02, 2005 at 04:32:51PM +0200, Martin Lucina wrote:> Hi, > > I'm in the process of migrating several years worth of mail to be > accessible via an IMAP server. Some time ago, I evaluated both Binc > IMAP and Dovecot and found Dovecot to be much faster on large folders, > which is quite important to me. One thing I did not however manage to > determine from the documentation on namespaces is whether or not it is > possible to implement what Binc IMAP calls an "IMAPdir" style layout.<etc> See, for example, http://www.dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2003-July/001923.html :-) -mm-
On Jul 2, 2005, at 07:32, Martin Lucina wrote:> Hi, > > I'm in the process of migrating several years worth of mail to be > accessible via an IMAP server. Some time ago, I evaluated both Binc > IMAP and Dovecot and found Dovecot to be much faster on large folders, > which is quite important to me. One thing I did not however manage to > determine from the documentation on namespaces is whether or not it is > possible to implement what Binc IMAP calls an "IMAPdir" style layout. > > IMAPdir lets me layout mailboxes in the filesystem like so: > > $HOME/ > Maildir/ <---- users mail goes here > Mail/ <---- IMAP root > INBOX -> ../Maildir/ <---- (symlink) > folder/ <---- some other mailbox in Maildir > format > folder.subfolder/ <---- '.' is the hierarchy separator > folder.subfolder-2/ > other-folder/ > > So IMAP clients subscribe to 'INBOX' and 'folder' and 'folder/ > subfolder' > respectively. > > This gives me two features that I want: > > 1) The ability to easily access all my mail using a command line > Maildir > capable client such as nail, for when I'm connection over a super-slow > SSH over GPRS connection. Also, I can actually see my folders (and > their subfolders) without having to look for Maildir++ style names > with > 'ls -a' (e.g. Maildir/.subfolder/).[snip] One problem I've had with using dovecot (and it looks like other imap servers do this as well) and a CLI Maildir client (mutt) is that whenever I access the Maildirs via IMAP, all new messages get moved to cur/. Mutt (w/ my config) marks unread messages in cur/ as O (old) rather than N (new). Messages in new/ are marked N, and (the kicker) only mailboxes with messages in new/ are marked as having new messages. I'd really like to have messages that are accessed via dovecot (IMAP) stay in new/, is there a reason that they get moved to cur/ ? I've dug around some (both in dovecot and general maildir googling), haven't found an answer. Thanks much, -eric