Mail.app namespaces

[Dan Mahoney (Gushi)]

On Sun, 14 Feb 2021, @lbutlr wrote:

> On 14 Feb 2021, at 01:21, Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <danm at prime.gushi.org> wrote:
>> To answer my own question here, I added the following namespace:
>>
>> namespace {
>>  separator = /
>>  prefix = partial/
>>  location = mbox:~%u/.partial-mail/
>>  list = yes
>>  hidden = no
>> }
>>
>> And then, in my home directory, created a ~/.partial-mail folder, that I could add symlinks to for mailboxes I actually care about (really, just inbox, but I like having options).
>
> Interesting solution, but I have concerns and I wonder how this will actually work for you, long term.
>
>> Despite the fact that I have hidden set to "no", any user who doesn't have this magic folder will simply not see it.  (That said, I'll try setting it to "yes" to see if it behaves.)
>
> I don't think that is what hidden means in the config. The path would not be visible in the client because it doesn't fit the maildir pattern of having a leading / for the name.

Hidden apparently ONLY affects the imap NAMESPACE command, which I don't 
even know if mail.app uses.  For my use case, it worked with it both on 
and off.

>> Now let's just hope icloud keychain doesn't helpfully set this same variable on other systems, like my ios devices.
>
> And that is my main concern. I think you will find that iCloud sync WILL, in fact, synchronize those settings across devices. If I were you I would set this up as a different account on your Mac (in Internet accounts), disable that account use on your iOS device and only have it enabled on your Mac and then it should not matter.

The new path did get added to keychain under "internet accounts", but did 
not sync over to my phone (which still shows a prefix of /).  I 
suspect the new setting would get pulled in if I provisioned a "new" 
device.

Apple documents this poorly.  But if it does turn out to be painful, two 
different accounts (one "thin", one "thick") is the right answer.
>
>> I should *probably* for the sake of completeness, symlink in the "Special" folders.  (Drafts, etc)
>
> That should work, I would think, as long as everything in the chain is OK with symlinks (which is my other main concern with this).

Thusfar, seems to be.  Symlinks (permissions willing) are listed as one of 
the ways recommended to do shared/public folders.  They would break if 
dovecot did a chroot, but it doesn't.

> I might set up my iOS clients with something like this that shows all the mail folders EXCEPT Archives on those devices.

IOS doesn't attempt to download every message in the list to cache and 
index it, only MacOS.  That *coupled* with the broken "subscribe" 
mechanism is the issue.  Ironically I'm working with a 128G flash macbook 
air, and a 256G flash iphone, so if IOS did do this, it would be easier on 
the phone.

This was a tuneable until about OSX lion, after which the option became to 
not download *attachments*.

(Apologies to those on-list, I realize this is slightly off-topic, but 
maybe it will help someone else.  Dovecot is powerful enough to help with 
this stupidity).

Stay safe out there, everyone.

-Dan

-- 

"It's three o'clock in the morning.  It's too late for 'oops'.  After
Locate Updates, don't even go there."

-Paul Baecker
  January 3, 2k
  Indeed, sometime after 3AM

--------Dan Mahoney--------
Techie,  Sysadmin,  WebGeek
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