Re: [exim] IMAP and Maildir?

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Author: Phil Pennock
Date:  
To: Morgan Gangwere
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [exim] IMAP and Maildir?
On 2010-09-16 at 10:25 -0600, Morgan Gangwere wrote:
> I'm trying to get IMAP and Maildir delivery working... Only to see something
> odd happen.
>
> I want mail to live in ~/Maildir/[folders]
> I don't want the directories my MUA thinks should exist cluttering up my home
> dir.
>
>
> What I want is something like this:
> ~/Maildir/inbox/...
> ~/Maildir/sent/...
> ~/Maildir/[etc...]
>
> How can I configure uw-imapd to do this? /can/ uw-imapd do this?


(1) This is exim-users, for the Exim MTA.  If you want to know whether
    or not Exim can be configured to deliver directly in this format,
    that's an appropriate question for this list.
(2) uw-imapd does not support Maildir, last I checked.  This is a
    deliberate decision.  You might be able to patch it in, but that's
    no longer uw-imapd.  Here we go:
    http://www.washington.edu/imap/IMAP-FAQs/index.html#1.31
(3) Maildir hierarchies are a Maildir++ feature.  The name of the
    directory holding a sub-folder *always* starts with a ".", thus
    you'd have:
    ~/Maildir/        <- the main inbox
    ~/Maildir/.sent/    <- send mail
    ~/Maildir/.Trash/    <- garbage, rubbish, and other 4am posts
    [...]


Exim can certainly be configured to deliver as per point (3) above, but
first choose IMAP software which can support Maildir storage formats and
then look at the requirements of that software. Many use their own
delivery tools which should be invoked for delivery to get a supported
configuration. I recommend using such tools and only trying to
short-circuit them out of the loop later, *if* it proves necessary and
once you already have a working configuration to fall back to.

Regards,
-Phil