dovecot - May 2006 - Problems with subfolders in Thunderbird

Dear All

Server:
dovecot-1.0.beta8 (compiled from source)
centos 4.3

Client:
thunderbird 1.0.8 on Fedora Core 4
on port 993

Using maildir

Normally (with the current UW-IMAP) I can create a folder
which may contain only messages or only folders.
If I create a folder which will contain only folders,
it is listed in thunderbird in light-grey italics. Subsequently
I can create message folders within this folder.

When doing the same thing using dovecot as the server, the
same options are available, but any attempt to create a folder
containing only folders is silently ignored and nothing
happens (nothing is created anywhere on the server filesystem).

Is this a known problem ?

I do not want to use the setting which allows you to create folders
which may contain both messages and folders.

Thanks

Ian

-- 
Ian Thurlbeck                http://www.stams.strath.ac.uk/
Statistics and Modelling Science, University of Strathclyde
Livingstone Tower, 26 Richmond Street, Glasgow, UK,  G1 1XH
Tel: +44 (0)141 548 3667           Fax: +44 (0)141 552 2079

Ian Thurlbeck wrote:
> 
> Dear All
> 
> Server:
> dovecot-1.0.beta8 (compiled from source)
> centos 4.3
> 
> Client:
> thunderbird 1.0.8 on Fedora Core 4
> on port 993
> 
> Using maildir
> 
> Normally (with the current UW-IMAP) I can create a folder
> which may contain only messages or only folders.
This is a limitation normally inflicted by using mbox.  It is not suffered by 
Maildir, which may explain why this "issue" is occurring.
> When doing the same thing using dovecot as the server, the
> same options are available, but any attempt to create a folder
> containing only folders is silently ignored and nothing
> happens 
Thunderbird will have no idea what storage format the IMAP server is using, so 
it's offering you the choice just in case.  I, personally, have Thunderbird 
happily working with folders containing both messages and folders.

 > (nothing is created anywhere on the server filesystem).

You are looking for hidden files, right?  Maildir folders all being with a . and
so will be hidden normally.  Just making sure.
> Is this a known problem ?
It's really a side-effect of _removing_ a limitation.
> I do not want to use the setting which allows you to create folders
> which may contain both messages and folders.
I don't understand what your issue is here.  All Maildir folders may contain
messages AND folders.  If you want to force people to not be able to do this, 
you may want to consider switching to mbox instead of Maildir.

Which storage format is better is a holy war we don't want to get into here.
They both have their advantages in given situations.  Most people consider the 
"messages or folders, but not both" property of mbox a
"limitation", not a
"feature".

--
Curtis Maloney
cmaloney at cardgate.net