[imp] UW-IMAP Folders

[Joseph Brennan]

--On Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:59 -0500 Earnie Boyd 
<earnie at users.sourceforge.net> wrote:

>>> > Quoting Earnie Boyd <earnie at users.sourceforge.net>:
>>> >> I have a Linux server running UW-IMAP.  When creating folders in IMP
>>> >> it is impossible to create a subfolder under the basename folder
>>> >> since the basename folder is a file and not a directory.  I'm
>>> >> wondering if anyone has a backend or method for IMP so that when a
>>> >> folder is created a file container is created but hidden from view?


No, I think no one has ever done this.

In my opinion it would be a bad idea, because it would not be consistent
with any other client accessing the same mail store.  Maybe you have a
case where only one particular IMP client is able to access that IMAP
server, but I think that's unusual.

This is why people have directed your attention to the server.  It
would be possible to patch U Wash so that it treats all folder names
as directories and silently appends a standard filename to the end
of all paths.  This would be the 'right' way to do it, because that
would work for IMP and also for any other client accessing that mail
store.

By the way I don't consider U Wash's behavior a 'shortcoming'.  It's
one reasonable way to handle a hierarchy, and it's a familiar way to
people who use any popular filesystem from DOS to Windows to Mac to
unix.  Only newsgroups and certain imap servers work the way you prefer.
Rather than patching IMP or U Wash, you might want to simply install
a server that works to your liking.  This is fairly on topic, because
it touches on what is appropriate for the client and server sides of
an installation.  To me what you're asking about is a server issue.


Joseph Brennan
Columbia University Information Technology