In MS Outlook, actual deletion from the imap server is a two-step process. First, the item is marked for deletion. Here the message is not really gone because it can be undeleted. While marked for deletion, however, it can be hidden from view such that the user can pretend as if it really deleted. This is useful because it allows you to hold-on to messages you may need later, but are reluctant to delete. This is why I like imap.
When one truly wants to delete a message in MS Outlook, the "purge" command is chosen whereupon all messages on the imap server that happen to be marked for deletion are purged, i.e., truly deleted and gone forever. I use purge when my server space quota is approached. Is mutt capable of simulating this behavior; does it retain the "marked for deletion" and "purged" distinction? So far, mutt takes my messages off of the imap server, and is so impolite that it does *not* leave a copy for future reference. I.e., there is nothing left to purge. I perused http://www.mutt.org/doc/manual/manual-6.html#commands and I did not see that mutt follows the MS Outlook conventions I described. I saw "mh_purge" is related to "renaming deleted messages," but it's not clear if this is what I am referring to. Can someone please speak to this? Van
