[Dovecot] Using MySQL to store email?

[Geo Carncross]

On Wed, 2006-06-07 at 08:22 -0700, Marc Perkel wrote:
> nodata wrote: 
> > > Here's an example of what I would do with a MySQL backend.
> > > 
> > > I have an inbox where I get email for a wide variety of subjects. One of
> > > those classifications are customers. So I would create a customers
> > > folder and have a rule that if an incoming email from address match any
> > > email address in my customers folder then the mail would be delivered
> > > there. That way if I get a new customer then all I have to do is drag
> > > the first message into the customers folder and all other mail from that
> > > person would go into that folder.
> > > 
> > > To do this with MySQL would be trivial. To do it without a database
> > > isn't possible.
> > >     
> > 
> > You can do this with mail rules.
> >   
> But you would have to add a rule for each new customer. 

I would most certainly not have to add a rule for each new customer.

I have these in some of my .qmail files:

|/var/qmail/bin/maildirmake .maildir/.Archive-`date +%Y-%m` >/dev/null
2>&1;exit 0
|/var/qmail/bin/maildir ./.maildir/.Archive-`date +%Y-%m`
./.maildir/

Are you going to tell me that in order to sort my data by date I have to
create a rule for each date that I'm interested in?

Are you going to tell me there's any reason I couldn't have used
"$SENDER" instead of `date +%Y-%m` ?

> What I'm talking about is that the presence of email in the folder
> would determine what new email would be delivered into that folder -
> without writing a rule. Dragging a message into the folder makes all
> future message from that sender go to that folder.

That's a really poorly thought-out user-interface. When people use their
IMAP clients and move one message into a folder, they do not expect
potentially a thousand more messages get moved along with it.

In any event, that kind of magic doesn't require SQL. It can be done
with some folder hooks, and a little bit of thinking.

My email client allows me to have a kind of view or virtual folder based
on some criteria, and automation allows me to create those views
automatically.

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