[Dovecot] Prayer, Maildir and Folders whose names begin with "."

[Mike Brudenell]

Greetings -

I think I've just had one of my fears confirmed: not Dovecot-specific  
exactly, but it affects how we will use of Prayer (Webmail Software)  
with Dovecot...

Currently our production service uses MBX-format mailboxes with the  
UW IMAP server; we also use the University of Cambridge "Prayer"  
software for Webmail.

By default Prayer saves its preference settings, address book and so  
on in a regular IMAP folder called ".prayer"  And one of the nice  
things about the UW IMAP server is that you can tell it not to  
include files whose names start "." when returning the list of  
folders for a LIST command.  This means:

   * People don't see the secret ".prayer" folder when they look at  
the list;
   * But if something (eg, Prayer) knows its name it can open this  
folder to
     get at its content.

The combination of these is that (a) Prayer can store its settings  
and (b) users don't see where, so can't open/tamper with the secret  
settings folder for Prayer.

But I've just discovered that I can't create a folder called  
".prayer" using Maildir-format mailboxes.  The problem appears to be  
the leading "."  I suspect it's because the Maildir++ specification at
     http://www.inter7.com/courierimap/README.maildirquota.html
says this:

 > Folders are created as subdirectories under the main Maildir. The  
name of
 > the subdirectory always starts with a period. For example, a  
folder named
 > "Important" will be a subdirectory called ".Important". You can't  
have
 > subdirectories that start with two periods.

A folder named ".prayer" would lead to a subdirectory being created  
called "..prayer" I think.

Q.  Can anyone confirm that you can't create Maildir folders called
     ".somename"?

Q.  Are there any other Prayer users out there using Dovecot and Maildir
     format mailboxes?  What are you doing about the user-settings  
folder
     for Prayer?  (And do you manage to hide it from view, so they can't
     tamper with its contents?)

Cheers,
Mike B-)

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