[Dovecot] namespaces...

[Jack Stewart]

John Doe wrote:
>> The SEPARATOR should just refer to the storage structure and the PREFIX 
>> should refer to the hierarchy. So if you use "/" as your SEPARATOR, then 
>> your storage structure will be user-directory/folder/sub-folder and if 
>> you use "." as your storage structure (the default), then your storage 
>> structure will be user-directory/.folder.sub-folder . A PREFIX of INBOX. 
>> should cause all of the folders & sub-folders to appear under the inbox; 
>> a PREFIX of "." should cause all of the folders to appear at the top 
>> level; and a PREFIX of Mail. will should all of the folders to appear 
>> under Mail with the exception of the INBOX.
> 
> Thx for your long post!  ^_^
> I understood that it was something like .<prefix><separator>folder1<separator>folder2
> But, from my tests, it seems not to work as expected...  At least not with thunderbird.
> By default, Tbird has "allow server to override namespaces"
> prefix=INBOX. and separator=.  => no prefix and Trash system not working.
> prefix= and separator=.  => INBOX. prefix (from tbird) and Trash system working.
> '/' in prefix and separator seems to be ignored (converted to '.').
> I guess I will leave it to prefix= and separator=. but one user who uses apple mail complained about some prefix problems...
> 
> Thx,
> JD
> 
> 

You're welcome.

I think I can help on the Trash, etc. issue. New client configurations 
(i.e. delete the old first) should be fine but you have have interesting 
issues if you change the server name in an existing setup (or change the 
PREFIX on the server).

With Thunderbird, and a number of other clients, the location of the 
Trash/Sent/Drafts folders appear to be 'fixed' and can only be manually 
re-configured. So even if all of the other folders automatically remap, 
you need to go to "Account Settings\Copies & Folders" and change the 
"Trash\Sent\Drafts" folder location by using the "Other" checkbox.

Otherwise what happens is that Thunderbird is looking for the old Trash 
folder (i.e. Foo.Trash) which no longer exists.

---Jack

P.S. Not all mail clients are sane, they don't all play by the rules, 
and their behaviors can be quite different. You should test each (major) 
one against your configuration. My favorite case is AppleMail. It works 
great Trash/etc mapping when using a INBOX. or . prefix but only if you 
have one accounts. Sigh.