[imp] UW-IMAP Folders

[Earnie Boyd]

Quoting Joseph Brennan <brennan at columbia.edu>:

>
>
> --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.
>

Ah, finally an answer to my question. :)

> 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.
>

I'm not asking for a semantics change; I'm asking if the IMP client can 
create a mail store of FOO/.mbox instead of FOO and then hide the .mbox 
parts from the display.  Other clients would simply see the .mbox parts.

Ok, so if an external client connects to the IMAP server it would have 
to use folder FOO/.mbox and not folder FOO.  I can see now why this 
would be a confusion point.

> 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.
>

I understand that this would remove the confusion point.

> 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.
>

I happen to like it.  Thanks for the thorough explaination.

Earnie Boyd

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