Axel Luttgens escreveu:
No, I don't think to have omitted anything: I already replied to the OP wrt the 'leave messages on server' matter.
Here, I was replying to Leonardo (who's not the OP) who started a new idea (a potentially misleading POP vs IMAP debate) within the original thread.
Starting the POP vs IMAP war was not my intention and i really would like to say i'm sorry for that. My intention was to show the OP that, in the proposed scenario (same user with multiple MUAs trying to use leave message on server and have a intelligent behavior of that client-side feature), working with IMAP would a better choice (and smart one, in MY opinion), because keeping messages synced between several MUAs (let's not forget webmail is a pretty common second MUA used by users, usually a IMAP MUA) and server is part of IMAP protocol and does not depends on MUA behaviors or 'algorithms'. Everything is part of IMAP protocol, the $imapuser could even change MUA how many times he wants to and there would be no accidental loss of messages.
Of course if some IMAP MUA has some client-side feature configured, like 'delete messages older than N days' configured, we can have some messages being deleted despite of user's will ... but that would NOT be an accidental loss of messages, that would be a EXPECTED loss of messages because of some MUA configuration.
All the 'leave message on server' used by POP clients is NOT part of the POP protocol (yes i know POP is pretty well RFC-defined, but not those client-side features, as well as some IMAP client-side features are not RFC-defined as well).
The major problem here seems to be the fact that for the POP3 server (dovecot or any other), the 'leave messages on server' feature simply does not exists. It may be guessed by the 'RETR' not followed by 'DELE' which usually happens, but that would be just a guess. There's no way to the server to control what will happen with that client-side feature and different MUAs accessing the same mailbox with POP3. The proposed of used the expire plugin would solve a different situation, not the initially proposed one.
I use IMAP4 in some situations and use POP3 in others as well. I think IMAP4 is a better protocol nowadays, with fast internet connections and storages on server becaming cheaper each day. But it doesnt means POP3 is dead. But in some situations, like users who really needs the 'leave messages on server' feature, using pop3 is not a smart decision anymore. Which doesnt means everybody should stop using POP3 and changing to IMAP4 ....
Dimitrios, i really think you'll have a hard time trying to find a server-side feature to control that mess of using leave messages on server with different MUAs by the simply fact that, in the server side, that thing simply does not exist.
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Atenciosamente / Sincerily,
Leonardo Rodrigues
Solutti Tecnologia
http://www.solutti.com.br
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