[Dovecot] Subscription file

[Steven F Siirila]

On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 06:12:35AM -0600, Jackie Hunt wrote:
> > 
> > Background:
> > 
> > We are a UW-IMAP shop, using mbox format.  (!)
> 
> So are we!
> 
> > We are in the process of upgrading to Dovecot, hopefully to 1.0 proper. :)
> 
> Ditto!
> 
> > One of the modifications we have been using in test versions of Dovecot
> > involve the move of the user subscription file from:
> > 
> > 	IMAP-root/.subscriptions
> > 
> > to:
> > 
> > 	$HOME/.mailboxlist
> > 
> > ....
> > 
> > While it makes sense to me to have the subscription file where it is in
> > Dovecot by default, it would be a substantial undertaking to determine
> > where to move the .mailboxlist to in our environment for each user, since
> > there is no easy way to determine what a user's IMAP root directory is set 
> > to in their client.
> 
> Our documentation has always recommended during client setup
> that users specify a /mail directory as their root folder path.
> So, our thoughts were to leave Dovecot alone.  We also don't want to
> be changing source code in future release.  As new users come on
> board, the .subscriptions file will be created.  For our existing
> users, we plan to create a $HOME/mail/.subscriptions link to 
> $HOME/.mailboxlist before the switch to Dovecot.  I haven't tested 
> this yet, but think it should work.

That sounds like a great plan, provided that Dovecot never removes the
file and recreates it (like some software does) in order to replace it.
If it were to do that, then so much for the symbolic link!

> Is it too late to standardize your IMAP-root for users?

Nope.  Thanks for sharing your ideas!

> Jackie
> ---
> Jackie Hunt                                                       
> ACNS                                    Voice:  (970) 663-3789     
> Colorado State University               FAX:    (970) 491-1958
> Fort Collins, CO  80523                 Email:  jackie.hunt at colostate.edu

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