[Dovecot] Problem listing SPECIAL-USE flags

[Patrick Ben Koetter]

Timo,

we want to implement SPECIAL-USE in Thunderbird (TB), but we've run into
problems. I believe you could help change that.

Here's the problem:

By default TB only lists subscribed (LSUB) folders when it accesses an IMAP
server. However when I do a LSUB on recent Dovecot 2.1 code from mercurial I
don't get to see the SPECIAL-USE flags. Therefore TB fails to identify which
folders it should use and map to until someone tells it to list all folders
(LIST) manually.

Central part of the SPECIAL-USE idea was/is to require as little user
interaction as possible to automatically setup a MUA to do the right thing.

Speculating that probably most MUAs will do a LSUB by default and never will
get to see SPECIAL-USE flags I think it is easier to have the server-side
promote the flags.

Do you think that would be possible?


Just to verify I configured Dovecot as you would expect for SPECIAL-USE:

I've set Dovecot 2.1 to autocreate and autosubscribe SPECIAL-USE mailboxes
like this:

namespace inbox {
  ...
  mailbox AltDrafts {
    special_use = \Drafts
    auto = subscribe
  }
  ...
}

This is what I get:

* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN AUTH=CRAM-MD5] Dovecot 2.1 ready.
t1 login alice at example.com secret
t1 OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE SORT SORT=DISPLAY THREAD=REFERENCES THREAD=REFS MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT CHILDREN NAMESPACE UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 CONDSTORE QRESYNC ESEARCH ESORT SEARCHRES WITHIN CONTEXT=SEARCH LIST-STATUS FUZZY SPECIAL-USE] Logged in
t2 LSUB "" "%"
* LSUB () "." "Trash"
* LSUB () "." "AltDrafts"
* LSUB () "." "AltSent"
* LSUB () "." "Archives"
* LSUB () "." "AltTrash"
* LSUB () "." "AltJunk"
* LSUB () "." "AltArchive"
* LSUB () "." "Junk"
t2 OK Lsub completed.
t3 LIST "" "%"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Sent) "." "AltSent"
* LIST (\HasChildren) "." "Archives"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Archive) "." "AltArchive"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Junk) "." "AltJunk"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Junk"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Trash) "." "AltTrash"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Drafts) "." "AltDrafts"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "Trash"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "INBOX"
t3 OK List completed.
t4 logout
* BYE Logging out
t4 OK Logout completed.
Connection closed by foreign host.

Thanks,

p at rick

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