[Dovecot] problem with subscriptions file version 1.0.1

[Liz]

Hello,

I am currently working on a patch to add IMAPdir support to dovecot. 
(For those who do not know, IMAPdir is exactly like Maildir except that 
instead of having a folder .foo it would just be foo. The advantage is 
that the file system is slightly easier to search through without the 
dot in front of the folders.)

The first thing I did was get the configuration file working for 
Maildir. So I know that the problem has nothing to do with the 
configuration file. Next I looked through the actual source code to find 
any place where a dot might be added to the beginning of a folder. It 
transpired that there is a constant, MAILDIR_FS_SEP_S, which is assigned 
the value ".". I deleted all the occurrences of this constant, compiled 
the source code again, and ran into a rather interesting problem.

When I try to create a new folder through Thunderbird on a separate 
machine, the folder is not visible unless I restart Thunderbird. I 
checked on the machine acting as a server and the folder is created and 
the subscriptions file is updated, and the dot at the beginning is 
indeed absent. So I see no reason why this should not work.

If I had deleted some of the constants that ought not have been deleted, 
the subscriptions file would not be readable at all and I would not be 
able to see the folder when Thunderbird restarts. If there were some 
sort of deadlock going on with the subscriptions file, one would think 
that it would not be caused by deleting the constants. I would have run 
into the problem before editing any of the source code. I know for fact 
that the only thing different about my source code and the code 
available for downloading is the deleted constants.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. If you need more 
information, please feel free to prompt me for it because I have no idea 
what might be useful that I have not already provided.

Regards,
Elizabeth Bermel