pre-define or alter list of IMAP keywords

[spi]

Am 11.08.22 um 11:15 schrieb Aki Tuomi:
> The reason for this is that keywords cannot be currently deleted, and
> they do not become deleted when nothing uses them.
>>> If you ever use a keyword for a specific mailbox it stays there until you delete the mailbox (or the indexes).
>>>
>>> Aki
>>
>> Ok, that explains what I figured out. Is this behavior intended? I could
>> imagine there is a limit of keywords the IMAP server may respond with
>> after a select mailbox.
>>
>> What would happen if the list is full and the user needs to change a
>> keyword?
>>
>> Is it safe then to delete the index files on sdbox from time to time?
>>
>> Is there any way you might think of to get the response overwritten? so
>> no matter what is in the index file the server responds with "a b c"?
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cheers
>> spi
> The maximum limit is pretty large, so it's unlikely you end up with that many keywords.
>
> It's not safe to delete index files from sdbox, it will reset e.g. unseen flags making the mailbox seem like no emails have been read yet.
>
> Aki


Hm, that scares me as after some time users get hit by dozens of
keywords, most of them not in use anymore. That's what happened to me
and that's why I started this discussion.

I understand that the mail client needs to support the definition of
(user) keywords, but it seems to me that there needs to be some 'garbage
collection' process on dovecot to clean up keywords. BTW - how about
other mailbox formats - do they have same issues about collecting keywords?

I am stuck now with that issue. Even tried to alter the IMAP server
response on my IMAP reverse proxy.

Is there anything else you could think of and recommend to solve that
issue? Like rebuilding still existent index files or like I already
asked rewrite the IMAP response?

--
Cheers
spi