[Dovecot] Problem using Apple Mail with Dovecot (fwd)

29 Aug 2006

      ---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bruce Arthur barthur@apple.com
To: dovecot@dovecot.org
Cc: Bruce Arthur barthur@apple.com
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:04:35 -0700
Subject: Problem using Apple Mail with Dovecot
Server Configuration:
dovecot-1.0.rc6
Built with: ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
OS: FreeBSD 4.10-STABLE i386  running on ufs
Client configuration
Mac OS X 10.4.7, using Apple Mail client.
Issue:
Apple Mail is able to connect to the server, but it is not seeing the
available folder correctly.
I did a little debugging and it looks like dovecot is failing to
provide the separator in response to the LIST command. I did not spend
anytime trying to figure out how other mail clients are getting this
(my tcpdump is a little rusty these days). Here is what I see Mail
sending to the server, and it's responses.
1 LOGIN applecot ********
1 OK Logged in.
2 CAPABILITY

CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SASL-IR SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND
UNSELECT LITERAL+ IDLE CHILDREN NAMESPACE LOGIN-REFERRALS
2 OK Capability completed.
3 LIST "" ""
3 OK List completed.

The "LIST" command should be sending back the mailbox separator. The
IMAP spec seems pretty clear about this (but reading RFC's is always a
bit of a challenge).
From the RFC: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2060.txt
6.3..8.  LIST Command
 Arguments:  reference name
             mailbox name with possible wildcards

 Responses:  untagged responses: LIST

 Result:     OK - list completed
             NO - list failure: can't list that reference or name
             BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

    An empty ("" string) reference name argument indicates that the
    mailbox name is interpreted as by SELECT. The returned mailbox
    names MUST match the supplied mailbox name pattern.  A non-empty
    reference name argument is the name of a mailbox or a level of
    mailbox hierarchy, and indicates a context in which the mailbox
    name is interpreted in an implementation-defined manner.

    An empty ("" string) mailbox name argument is a special request
to
return the hierarchy delimiter and the root name of the name
given
in the reference.  The value returned as the root MAY be null if
the reference is non-rooted or is null.  In all cases, the
hierarchy delimiter is returned.  This permits a client to get
the
hierarchy delimiter even when no mailboxes by that name currently
exist.

  Example:    C: A101 LIST "" ""
             S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" ""
             S: A101 OK LIST Completed
             C: A102 LIST #news.comp.mail.misc ""
             S: * LIST (\Noselect) "." #news.
             S: A102 OK LIST Completed
             C: A103 LIST /usr/staff/jones ""
             S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" /
             S: A103 OK LIST Completed
             C: A202 LIST ~/Mail/ %
             S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" ~/Mail/foo
             S: * LIST () "/" ~/Mail/meetings
             S: A202 OK LIST completed
-- Bruce

[Dovecot] Problem using Apple Mail with Dovecot (fwd)

Jason Fesler