[Dovecot] Problems with subfolders in Thunderbird

[Curtis Maloney]

Ian Thurlbeck wrote:
> 
> Dear All
> 
> Server:
> dovecot-1.0.beta8 (compiled from source)
> centos 4.3
> 
> Client:
> thunderbird 1.0.8 on Fedora Core 4
> on port 993
> 
> Using maildir
> 
> Normally (with the current UW-IMAP) I can create a folder
> which may contain only messages or only folders.

This is a limitation normally inflicted by using mbox.  It is not suffered by 
Maildir, which may explain why this "issue" is occurring.

> When doing the same thing using dovecot as the server, the
> same options are available, but any attempt to create a folder
> containing only folders is silently ignored and nothing
> happens 

Thunderbird will have no idea what storage format the IMAP server is using, so 
it's offering you the choice just in case.  I, personally, have Thunderbird 
happily working with folders containing both messages and folders.

 > (nothing is created anywhere on the server filesystem).

You are looking for hidden files, right?  Maildir folders all being with a . and 
so will be hidden normally.  Just making sure.

> Is this a known problem ?

It's really a side-effect of _removing_ a limitation.

> I do not want to use the setting which allows you to create folders
> which may contain both messages and folders.

I don't understand what your issue is here.  All Maildir folders may contain 
messages AND folders.  If you want to force people to not be able to do this, 
you may want to consider switching to mbox instead of Maildir.

Which storage format is better is a holy war we don't want to get into here. 
They both have their advantages in given situations.  Most people consider the 
"messages or folders, but not both" property of mbox a "limitation", not a 
"feature".

--
Curtis Maloney
cmaloney at cardgate.net