[Dovecot] Providing shared folders with multiple backend servers

[Timo Sirainen]

On 9.1.2012, at 21.45, Sven Hartge wrote:

>>> |   location = imapc:~/imapc-shared
> 
> What is the syntax of this location? What does "imapc-shared" do in this
> case?

It's the directory for index files. The backend IMAP server is used as a rather dummy storage, so if for example you do a FETCH 1:* BODYSTRUCTURE command, all of the message bodies are downloaded to the user's Dovecot server which parses them. But with indexes this is done only once (same as with any other mailbox format). If you want SEARCH BODY to be fast, you'd also need to use some kind of full text search indexes.

If your users share the same UID (or 0666 mode would probably work too), you could share the index files rather than make them per-user. Then you could use imapc:/shared/imapc or something.

BTW. All message flags are shared between users. If you want per-user flags you'd need to modify the code.

>> Right. Also in this Dovecot you want a regular namespace without prefix:
> 
>> namespace inbox {
>> separator = /
>> list = yes
>> inbox = yes
>> }
> 
>> You might as well use the proper separator here in case you ever change it for users.
> 
> Is this seperator converted to '.' on the frontend?

Yes, as long as you explicitly specify the separator setting to the public namespace.