On 2008-03-06, pod pod@herald.ox.ac.uk wrote:
GE> When using maildir storage, is there any way to use something GE> besides "." as the folder separator?
Please note that the following relates to dovecot 1.0. I've not looked to see if 1.1 behaves differently.
Yes you can use a namespace
namespace private { # empty prefix indicates the default namespace prefix = inbox = yes separator = / }However using just this dovecot will still not allow maildir mailbox names to contain a '.'.
Ah. The main point of using "/" as the separator is to allow "." to appear in mailbox names. [I don't _use_ subfolders, so I don't really need any separator at all.]
GE> I like to use folder names that match people's e-mail addresses GE> (that's a default behavior in mutt), and "." is a pretty popular GE> character in e-mail addresses. Ideally, I'd like to use "/".
The (unofficial) listescape plugin
http://www.dovecot.org/patches/1.0/listescape-plugin.c
will allow maildir folder names to contain '.' (and '~' at the start incidentally). Note however that this is only a good solution if you are offering exclusively IMAP/POP3 access to the mailstore.
I'm not.
If you are also exposing mailboxes directly by a filesystem interface
I am.
then standard Maildir++ utilities are likely to get confused because a folder known to the client as "a.b" will appear in the filesystem with a name of 'a\2eb'.
That's a pain.
We have used this feature to migrate from a UW imapd based service to a dovecot based service with (what I believe to be) no user visible change. [1]
GE> Is "." allowed in mailbox names when using mbox storage?
Yes, I believe so.
I guess I'll use mbox format for now. I really can't believe that somebody thought that not allowing "." in mailbox names was a good idea since "." is such a common character in e-mail addresses.
-- Grant Edwards grante Yow! Did an Italian CRANE at OPERATOR just experience visi.com uninhibited sensations in a MALIBU HOT TUB?