[Dovecot] Feeature requests (server failure handeling)

[Thomas Wouters]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2005 at 09:37:47AM +0300, Tomi Hakala wrote:
> Andrew Hutchings wrote:
> >2. Have a dead server response setup.  Freeserve/Wanadoo do this by 
> >setting a flag in their software which accepts all POP connections regards 
> >of user/pass and says there is no mail (users don't panic and flood the 
> >phones for a while then).  Not sure how you would do this with IMAP though.

> I'v been thinking the same thing. One issue that has crossed my mind is
> that how POP3 clients work in case like this when user leaves his/hers
> mail on the server.

Depends on the client. Quite frequently, the pop-client will get confused
the next time it connects and gets the real mailbox, and will download
everything that was still on the server.

Same thing may happen in the case of IMAP and 'disappearing' namespaces and
subscriptions. I would personally not risk it, and instead have dovecot give
a customized error message "ERR Sorry, due to an unforseen problem our
mailservers are currently inaccessible. For more information, please see
http://our-website.us.org/news/?item=115" or such :)

-- 
Thomas Wouters <thomas at xs4all.net>

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