Re: IMAP-problems

[Peter Bloomfield <PeterBloomfield bellsouth net>]

On 04/17/2003, Darko Obradovic wrote:
[ snip ]
> Well, I finally got Sylpheed running (old GTK1...) and it handles the
> IMAP account just like expected. INBOX is a folder, and all other
> folders, which are below it on the filesystem, but shouldn't be in the
> namespace, are listed on the same level. Reading through the
> Namespace-RFC doesn't help me, now I'm asking myself how the hell any
> mail-clients gets to the idea that INBOX is a mailbox, it's just
> described as namespace... Maybe that is covered in the IMAP4-RFC...
> 
> As much as I've read, the webmail-interface Squirrelmail has/had the
> same problem, and it is considered a problem, as couriers own
> webmail-interface handles that "correctly", and they should know what
> they intended at least. :)

This is my (probably confused) sense of how IMAP namespaces work (see 
RFC 2342 for the real scoop).  Your IMAP server can offer you three 
types of namespace: personal, other users' personal spaces, and shared. 
There can be zero, one, or more of each type.  The output in your bug 
report shows that you have one personal namespace, `INBOX', and one 
shared, `shared':

0x8282bb0 s: * NAMESPACE (("INBOX." ".")) NIL (("shared." "."))

So I'm guessing that your mailbox list looks something like:

Name
     INBOX
         queue
         draft
         ...
         lists
     shared

with the `Descriptive name' at the top level in the list, and with no 
children on `shared'.  Since INBOX doesn't have the NOSELECT flag, and 
does have children, it's both a mailbox and a folder containing other 
mailboxes.  `lists' on the other hand *does* have the NOSELECT flag 
set, and is therefore just a folder.

The way Balsa shows these folders and mailboxes seems natural to me. - 
You want a top-level entry for the server, to distinguish it from any 
other IMAP folders, and from local folders;
- It surely must have an entry immediately beneath the top level for 
each namespace exposed by the server; and
- It surely must have a folder tree attached to each namespace, 
reflecting the folders with names like `INBOX.queue'.

The mailbox tree may not look exactly like the directory tree that the 
IMAP server is using as a mail store, but that seems to be an issue 
with the server, not with the way Balsa displays what the server is 
delivering.

So how do these other MUAs show this tree?

Peter