[Dovecot] Dovecot Maildir - How to Seperate mail folders

[Guido Weiler]

Hi Timo,

thank you very much for your quick reply. I tried that but it is not possible to SELECT such a mailbox.

I have in dovecot.conf:
---
mail_location=maildir:/data/messages%h

namespace private {
  separator = /
  prefix =
  location = maildir:/data/messages%h
  inbox = yes
  list = yes
}

namespace public {
  separator = /
  prefix = greetings/
  location = maildir:/data/greetings%h
  inbox = no
  list = yes
  hidden = yes
}
---

Messages are coming in from EXIM separated by a special HEADER into this two folders.
For INBOX this works fine but not for greetings, although the maildir files are being created upon delivery.

Sample IMAP Session AFTER delivering a greeting-type message:

---
01 OK Logged in.
>> 02 list "" "*"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "INBOX"
* LIST (\Noselect \HasChildren) "/" "greetings"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "greetings/INBOX"
02 OK List completed.
>> 03 select "greetings/INBOX"
03 NO Mailbox doesn't exist: INBOX
>> 04 select greetings
04 NO Mailbox doesn't exist: greetings

---

What is this "\Noselect" mailbox showing up and why is it saying "greetings/INBOX" in the third row when in fact there isn't a mailbox with this name?

I am very sorry for having to bother you again, but I don't know what we are doing wrong here.
(Dovecot version is 1.1.16)



Guido Weiler


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Timo Sirainen [mailto:tss at iki.fi] 
Gesendet: Montag, 11. Juni 2012 22:48
An: Guido Weiler
Betreff: Re: Dovecot Maildir - How to Seperate mail folders

You should be able to do this with namespaces.

namespace {
  prefix = INBOX/VeryImportantMessages/
  location = maildir:/very/important/messages
  hidden = yes
}

On 8.6.2012, at 18.09, Guido Weiler wrote:

> Hello Timo,
> 
> for one of our latest dovecot/IMAP-projects, we need to separate physical locations of some special IMAP folders. 
> So to make, for example the "INBOX/VeryImportantMessages"-Folder is on a completely different volume or mount point than the mails in INBOX or other user generated imap subfolders.
> 
> Can you tell me if there is any possible way to implement this / change it in dovecots maildir implementation, or maybe it is already planned to do so in further versions of dovecot?
> 
> We have to treat all messages in that one special folder with an extended backup scenario, and I think it would be the best if we can implement to have an additional mail_location parameter in dovecot.conf (e.g. important_mail_location).
> 
> We are somewhat familiar with the dovecot source code since we already implemented plugins and other modifications to dovecot 1.1.16 but any advise or information is very appreciated.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> 
> Guido Weiler