[Dovecot] Can you POP a specific folder in Dovecot?
Hi all,
I am in the middle of migrating from an old, Windows based mailserver, and have run into a small challenge I hope someone here can help me with.
In my old setup, a user could have folders on the server, and by using his login with the mailbox appended, could pop a given folder specifically.
For instance, logging in with user@example.com would pop INBOX, and logging in with user-folder@example.com would pop just that specific folder.
Is it possible to do something like this in Dovecot, or is the only possible way of popping folders by using the virtual plugin?
Med Venlig Hilsen,
Peter Reinhold, peter@reinhold.dk / peter@geekhouse.dk
On 28.10.2010, at 12.26, Peter Reinhold wrote:
For instance, logging in with user@example.com would pop INBOX, and logging in with user-folder@example.com would pop just that specific folder.
Might be possible.. Assuming you're using Maildir?
First you'll need to extract the folder from the username in passdb and change the username to user@example.com. Put the folder into userdb_folder or something, so that you can access it in post-login script. The post-login script then would do something like:
if [ "$FOLDER" != "" ]; then MAIL=maildir:$HOME/Maildir/.$FOLDER fi
Probably needs some more complexity, but basically I think that idea should work.
On 28/10/2010 11:26, Peter Reinhold wrote:
In my old setup, a user could have folders on the server, and by using his login with the mailbox appended, could pop a given folder specifically.
For instance, logging in with user@example.com would pop INBOX, and logging in with user-folder@example.com would pop just that specific folder.
Is it possible to do something like this in Dovecot, or is the only possible way of popping folders by using the virtual plugin?
Though this is of course "Paradigm error" or "Trying to ice-skate up hill".
If you want to access folders, then use IMAP.
Historically IMAP has difficult, slow, unreliable and generally gnarly.
But nowadays Dovecot makes IMAP work well.
Of course you have to pick the right client. I've never had good experiences with MS-Outlook over IMAP, but then I haven't even bothered with it for several years. My current favourite is Thunderbird 3.
Bill
Someone wrote (Probably you), and the time was 14:23 28-10-2010
Though this is of course "Paradigm error" or "Trying to ice-skate up hill". If you want to access folders, then use IMAP.
This might be, but I like to be able to access my mail via webmail during the day, and then pop it to my local computer when I get home.
Being on a couple of medium to high traffic mailinglists, and you quickly loose overview when in the webmail, and thats when its nice to be able to file the mails into folders.
While you may not agree on the practice, it has worked pretty well for me the past many years, and i'd like to continue doing so, even on a new mailserver (and Dovecot has many nice features that my old one didn't)
Kind Regards, Peter Reinhold - peter@reinhold.dk
http://www.reinhold.dk & http://www.geekhouse.dk <
QOTD : <gh-kh> .. Jan, Thomas, Mario, Niels og Peter, Tengslemark lyng - 1998
On Thursday 28 October 2010 wrote Peter Reinhold:
Someone wrote (Probably you), and the time was 14:23 28-10-2010
Though this is of course "Paradigm error" or "Trying to ice-skate up hill". If you want to access folders, then use IMAP.
This might be, but I like to be able to access my mail via webmail during the day, and then pop it to my local computer when I get home.
Being on a couple of medium to high traffic mailinglists, and you quickly loose overview when in the webmail, and thats when its nice to be able to file the mails into folders.
While you may not agree on the practice, it has worked pretty well for me the past many years, and i'd like to continue doing so, even on a new mailserver (and Dovecot has many nice features that my old one didn't)
You might consider fetching the mails with fetchmail, it supports retrieving from a given folder with IMAP.
Amon Ott
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On 28/10/2010 16:04, Peter Reinhold wrote:
Someone wrote (Probably you), and the time was 14:23 28-10-2010
Though this is of course "Paradigm error" or "Trying to ice-skate up hill". If you want to access folders, then use IMAP.
This might be, but I like to be able to access my mail via webmail during the day, and then pop it to my local computer when I get home.
Even easier then. Just reconfigure your home computer for IMAP. Then the webmail and the home computer will both see the same folderised mail store.
Being on a couple of medium to high traffic mailinglists, and you quickly loose overview when in the webmail, and thats when its nice to be able to file the mails into folders.
OK. File it into folders on the IMAP. IMAP supports server-side filing --- the message does not have to be downloaded to the client and re-uploaded; the client just tells the IMAP server to re-file it.
(Yes yes yes pedants, I know, IMAP doesn't support MOVE in the core, and by default it's copy-then-delete. The point is there is no download-upload cycle --- in any case under Dovecot, under Maildir, sdbox or mdbox, copies are all done by some form of reference-copying and therefore cheap.)
While you're at it, you might as well set up rules on the server to file it for you.
Then when you file stuff at home (or the server-side rules file it for you), it will all appear magically filed on the webmail.
While you may not agree on the practice, it has worked pretty well for me the past many years, and i'd like to continue doing so, even on a new mailserver (and Dovecot has many nice features that my old one didn't)
Weird because you seem to have a perfectly good folderised mail store on the server, then go and break the paradigm by moving everything down on to a single client machine.
Bill
Peter Reinhold put forth on 10/28/2010 10:04 AM:
This might be, but I like to be able to access my mail via webmail during the day, and then pop it to my local computer when I get home.
Being on a couple of medium to high traffic mailinglists, and you quickly loose overview when in the webmail, and thats when its nice to be able to file the mails into folders.
While you may not agree on the practice, it has worked pretty well for me the past many years, and i'd like to continue doing so, even on a new mailserver (and Dovecot has many nice features that my old one didn't)
What issue do you have with leaving your mail in IMAP folders on your new Dovecot server? Why must you POP the mail down to your home PC? Is the server not reliable enough? Do you not fully own/control said Dovecot server? If you already have the IMAP folders on it with the emails in them, why do you not simply point your MUA to TCP 143/993 at the IP address of your Dovecot server? In Tbird you can create multiple accounts. You could do this, and simply right click and copy all the IMAP folders to your "local" Tbrid account.
You are leaving sooo much flexibility and functionality on the table by continuing the POP behavior...
-- Stan
participants (5)
-
Amon Ott
-
Peter Reinhold
-
Stan Hoeppner
-
Timo Sirainen
-
William Blunn