[Dovecot] message status changed from new to old on read

[Chris Wakelin]

There are two relevant flags associated with a message in IMAP, "SEEN" 
and "RECENT". "New" messages might be considered unread ones (don't 
have the "SEEN" flag set) or "recent" ones.

The client gets to modify "SEEN", which it typically does when it reads 
the message. The server is the only thing that can modify "RECENT", 
which it does when it has notified a client that has "SELECT"-ed 
(i.e. opened) the folder about new messages.

I assume "offlineimap" is behaving just like a normal client and 
"SELECT"-ing the folder in order to download messages. If it doesn't 
want to change the "RECENT" status, then it should use "EXAMINE" 
(opens mailbox readonly) instead of "SELECT". Likewise, it shouldn't 
set the "SEEN" flag unless it wants to signal that the message has been 
read.

In other words, Dovecot is behaving correctly as far as I can tell, and 
offlineimap is probably to blame. See RFC 3501 (e.g. 
"http://rfc.net/rfc3501.html#s2.3.2.") for details!

Best Wishes,
Chris

On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 17:03:49 -0700 Andrew Pimlott <andrew at pimlott.net> 
wrote:

> Hi.  I'm new to IMAP, but just tried uw-imapd and then dovecot in
> conjuction with offlineimap.  I'm using Debian package version 0.99.14-1
> and have my mail in mbox format.
> 
> One of the first things that annoys me about both programs is that as
> soon as you read a mailbox over imap, the imapd changes all "new"
> messages to "old".  It seems to have the assumption that the IMAP client
> is "reading" the messages, but particularly in the case of offlineimap,
> this assumption is not justified:  I might not read the message on the
> client on which I've just synced, I might read it on the server or
> another client.  So I would like dovecot to leave the mailbox alone, and
> leave it up to the client to write any changes to message status.  Is
> there any option to dovecot that would accomplish this?

--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--
Christopher Wakelin,                                c.d.wakelin at reading.ac.uk
IT Services Centre, The University of Reading,       Tel: +44 (0)118 378 8439
Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 2AF, UK                   Fax: +44 (0)118 975 3094