[Dovecot] Problem using Apple Mail with Dovecot

[Jason Fesler]

> Server Configuration:
> dovecot-1.0.rc6
> Built with: ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
> OS: FreeBSD 4.10-STABLE i386  running on ufs

Thanks, Bruce.  Timo et all; Bruce specifically has been looking
at my instance of dovecot after a friend of his reported problems
with Mail.app and my server.

More information:
   Stock dovecot namespaces work;

   This name space does not:

namespace private {
    separator = .
    prefix = INBOX.
    inbox = yes
    hidden = no
}
namespace private {
     separator = /
     inbox = no
     hidden = yes
     prefix = "#mail/"
     location = mbox:/home/%u/mail
}


>
> 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
>
>