[Dovecot] Not using "." as separator?

[Timo Sirainen]

On Thu, 2008-03-06 at 23:15 +0000, Grant Edwards wrote:
> > With v1.1 you could use a "normal" directory layout for maildirs as well
> > with:
> >
> > mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir:LAYOUT=fs
> 
> That will be wonderful!  
> 
> I never really understood why people decided to try to emulate
> a filesystem using special characters in filenames. I don't
> know if that originated in the maildir camp or the IMAP server
> camp, but it's always been a real hassle for those of us who
> accessed thing both directly via local mail clients (who don't
> tread "." as special) and via an IMAP server (which does tread
> "." as special).  Were either maildir or IMAP servers really
> intended to run on an OS that didn't have such a thing as
> directories/folders/whatever?

It originated from Courier IMAP's Maildir++ idea. I think the main
reason was that this allowed MDAs to support Maildir++ quota easily when
delivering to subfolders:

1. If "maildirfolder" file doesn't exist, update maildirsize file
2. If "maildirfolder" file does exists, update ../maildirsize

> It all works, but having to use IMAP to
> access files that are right there in ~/Mail bugs me. :)

I think it's better to access everything via IMAP whenever possible,
because then you gain from Dovecot's indexing and caching. It should
work a lot faster than if your MUA reads and parses everything over and
over again.
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