Steve
2015-Jun-04 12:40 UTC
Does Dovecot allow different clients to subscribe different subsets of IMAP folders?
I have a working Dovecot IMAP server (v. 2.2.9) where I have a single user but a lot of folders (over 800 in total, hierarchically arranged, about 50 of which are in active use.) I have multiple clients (including k9Mail on Android and Thunderbird on Linux and Windows). These clients all present a consistent subscription to a single subset of the available folders . What I'd like to be able to do is (somehow) allow different devices (different email clients) to subscribe to a different subset of folders. For example, I may want K9mail on my phone to be subscribed only to my "main Inbox" - but for Thunderbird on Windows to also be subscribed to active mailing-list folders. Does Dovecot support such a mode of operation? If so, how do I configure it? If not, what options are there to achieve the desired end result - i.e. different devices/IMAP clients subscribed to different subsets of the universe of folders available to a single user. Mandatory details: Version : 2.2.9 Configuration: See http://paste.ubuntu.com/11564807/
b-dovecot.org at grmbl.net
2015-Jun-04 14:09 UTC
Does Dovecot allow different clients to subscribe different subsets of IMAP folders?
Hi Steve, I don't know if dovecot can use different 'subscriptions' but you can create different accounts and then link (ln -s) the relevant folders in each respective maildir. Cheers, B On Thu, Jun 04, 2015 at 01:40:57PM +0100, Steve wrote:> I have a working Dovecot IMAP server (v. 2.2.9) where I have a single > user but a lot of folders (over 800 in total, hierarchically > arranged, about 50 of which are in active use.) > > I have multiple clients (including k9Mail on Android and Thunderbird > on Linux and Windows). These clients all present a consistent > subscription to a single subset of the available folders . > > What I'd like to be able to do is (somehow) allow different devices > (different email clients) to subscribe to a different subset of > folders. For example, I may want K9mail on my phone to be subscribed > only to my "main Inbox" - but for Thunderbird on Windows to also be > subscribed to active mailing-list folders. > > Does Dovecot support such a mode of operation? If so, how do I > configure it? If not, what options are there to achieve the desired > end result - i.e. different devices/IMAP clients subscribed to > different subsets of the universe of folders available to a single > user. > > Mandatory details: > Version : 2.2.9 > Configuration: See http://paste.ubuntu.com/11564807/
Daniel Tröder
2015-Jun-04 14:24 UTC
Does Dovecot allow different clients to subscribe different subsets of IMAP folders?
Hi Steve, I don't think the IMAP protocol has the concept of a "user agent". So there is no way for an IMAP server to distinguish between client programs. You could use POP and poll different mailboxes - but your clients probably don't support that. So you'll have to use different users. But that give you a cool solution: Use shared mailboxes. You could share all mailboxes of you main user to all the "device-users" and then use the clients to subscribe only to those mailboxes that are of interest. That way you can change what a client sees using the client program, without logging into the server as root. Especially nice, when you are traveling and decide you need to read a mailbox with your mobile you hadn't though about before. Greetings Daniel Am 04.06.2015 um 14:40 schrieb Steve:> I have a working Dovecot IMAP server (v. 2.2.9) where I have a single > user but a lot of folders (over 800 in total, hierarchically arranged, > about 50 of which are in active use.) > > I have multiple clients (including k9Mail on Android and Thunderbird on > Linux and Windows). These clients all present a consistent subscription > to a single subset of the available folders . > > What I'd like to be able to do is (somehow) allow different devices > (different email clients) to subscribe to a different subset of folders. > For example, I may want K9mail on my phone to be subscribed only to my > "main Inbox" - but for Thunderbird on Windows to also be subscribed to > active mailing-list folders. > > Does Dovecot support such a mode of operation? If so, how do I configure > it? If not, what options are there to achieve the desired end result - > i.e. different devices/IMAP clients subscribed to different subsets of > the universe of folders available to a single user. > > Mandatory details: > Version : 2.2.9 > Configuration: See http://paste.ubuntu.com/11564807/-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 819 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: <http://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/attachments/20150604/6ea802dc/attachment.sig>
Steve
2015-Jun-04 14:43 UTC
Does Dovecot allow different clients to subscribe different subsets of IMAP folders?
Hi Daniel, Hmm - I'm happy to use different 'user names' to log into Dovecot... as long as each of these logins can still subscribe to the same universe of folders I have available at present. I can envision using steve_mobile and steve_desktop as logins, as long as these still provide access to the same mailboxes as I have in steve's Maildir folder. I'm guessing that this would mean I can't/shouldn't use PAM for Dovecot authentication? I don't really want to create 'dummy' (shell-account) "users" on my server... but, I guess, it would be OK if I were to use some other authentication mechanism, and pointed all these Dovecot-only logins to the same Maildir folder. By any chance, is there a 'howto' detailing a suitable sample configuration for such a setup? BTW - I would definitely want to be able to change subscriptions from any device... I just want independent subscriptions for my tablet/phone/desktop/VM clients - as I use email in different ways from these different environments. On 04/06/2015 15:24, Daniel Tr?der wrote:> Hi Steve, > > I don't think the IMAP protocol has the concept of a "user agent". So > there is no way for an IMAP server to distinguish between client programs. > > You could use POP and poll different mailboxes - but your clients > probably don't support that. So you'll have to use different users. > > But that give you a cool solution: Use shared mailboxes. > > You could share all mailboxes of you main user to all the "device-users" > and then use the clients to subscribe only to those mailboxes that are > of interest. > > That way you can change what a client sees using the client program, > without logging into the server as root. Especially nice, when you are > traveling and decide you need to read a mailbox with your mobile you > hadn't though about before. > > Greetings > Daniel >