[Dovecot] Evolution and Thunderbird do different things?

[Phil Howard]

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 12:07, Tom Hendrikx <tom at whyscream.net> wrote:

> The IMAP protocol does not define folder names and such. Servers and
> clients only know how to create/remove/rename/relocate folders and
> files, and some other basics. The names that are used by default, is a
> choice of the user (mostly the default settings in the users' client).

I was afraid of that.  A standard for syntax but not as much for
semantics at a higher level.


> 'Trash' is the default trashcan folder in thunderbird, but in MS Outlook
> it's 'Deleted Items' (not even mentioning differences related to locale
> settings). When interpreting your experience with Evolution (never used
> it myself), I guess that it doesn't use the trashcan folder concept at
> all, but in stead flags a message as 'Trash', in the same way that you
> would set 'Seen' or 'Important' flags, and treats these message
> different from a UI perpective. AFAIK only the INBOX is a well-known
> default (and maybe even part of some RFC).

But that would mean there is some mechanism in IMAP for these flags.
Dovecot is attaching the flag 'T'.  But what does 'T' mean?  If IMAP
allows setting flags with arbitrary letters, then 'T' could mean Trash
for one client and Terrorist for another client, or no meaning at all
for yet another.


> You could try to set up all clients' prefs to use the same naming
> scheme, and the same way of trash handling, when possible.

That'll be the hard part ... that I was was afraid of.  It will
require getting everyone to use their clients in the same way,
disrupting what they already do.  I guess it isn't much of a problem
for most people because they rarely share a mailbox between different
people with different clients.