[Dovecot] 2nd REPOST: mbox vs maildir

[Ashley M. Kirchner]

Timo Sirainen wrote:
> Things would probably be simpler if you used prefix="" here.
    The reason I used a prefix is for the way things show up in 
Thunderbird and Outlook.  Without the prefix, it all falls under the 
same "tree" as their INBOX.  By adding the prefix, they get an extra 
level called 'mail' where everything lives in.  It's a visual thing.

>> namespace private {
>>     separator = /
>>     prefix = "mail-Archives/"
>>     location = maildir:~/mail-Archives:LAYOUT=fs
>
> Are these really maildirs? Seems like exactly the opposite of what
> they're good at :) (Maildir is good for active mails, mbox for
> unchanging archives.)
    I guess this is where I'm confused and would love a primer on what 
the differences are, and when to use what.  In our setup, we have:

       /var/mail/%u
            where the user's INBOX resides

       /home/%u/mail/
            where all the *active* mailboxes are, for example things
            they pull out of INBOX and put in these boxes for short
            term and they refer to them daily

       /home/%u/mail-Archives/
            this is where long term archives are, this is stuff that
            comes OUT of their /home/%u/mail/ and put here, and always
            stored in a yearly hierarchy, for example:

               /home/%u/mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/Ashley-Dec09
               /home/%u/mail-Archives/2009/Ashley/Ashley-Nov09
               /home/%u/mail-Archives/2010/Ashley/Ashley-Jan10
               etc.

    So, am I using the wrong setup for the namespaces?  Possibly, I went 
by what I found online.  This is the first time I've ever tried to run 
Dovecot.  Previously we ran uw-imap.

    A