[Dovecot] remove messages once downloaded

[Ed W]

On 26/02/2012 12:31, Timo Sirainen wrote:
> On 26.2.2012, at 13.52, Ed W wrote:
>
>> On 25/02/2012 00:39, Timo Sirainen wrote:
>>> On 24.2.2012, at 19.44, julioarr at fisica.uh.cu wrote:
>>>
>>>> I need some help with the dovecot configuration. I want to remove
>>>> downloaded messages from Mail Server once the messages have been
>>>> successfully downloaded by pop3-clients, even when the clients have been
>>>> configured to save copy of messages in the Server.
>>> Not possible.
>>>
>> If you were thinking about longer term TODOs then I have a similar problem (just adding a "me too"...)
>>
>> In my industry, competing solutions offer a kind of server side "been downloaded" notification when customers have actually downloaded (ie "read" via POP) the message.  The customers are all on the far side of expensive satellite links, so this serves as an inexpensive proxy for "message read" notifications.
> What does the notification do?

Sends another email... (you know like the annoying "message read" 
indicators that lots of mail readers support)...

(Several of our competitors have implemented these solutions very badly 
and we get mail loops and other nasties...)


>> I think our competition implement such features because they are Exchange based and I believe you can write server side hooks in various scripting languages quite easily (I personally don't like the idea, but someone obviously did it once and it rolled from there...) - this obviously harking to the "is it feasible to imagine some higher level hook solution for simpler plugin creation" suggestion from a few days ago?
>>
>> All these "do something when it's accessed" or "do something when it's deleted" problems all feel kind of related to me (ie we need some hook which runs on a per message basis). Perhaps someone smarter than me can think of a better way to unify them?
> Dovecot has a "notify" plugin that makes things like this pretty easy to implement, but it still needs C coding.

Thanks - it's off my radar for a while due to other pressures, but the 
hint is appreciated and I will look into it in the future - many thanks!

Ed W