On Sunday, February 9, 2003, at 03:50 PM, Bill Rising was confused about: > If I connect to my iTools account, I can create folders as expected and > move mail messages around as expected, for instance. > > Make a new folder called Foo > Put a couple of email messages in it. > Decide it should have a subfolder. > Make a subfolder of Foo called Bar > Put a couple of messages in it.
I don't think this behavior is correct. Doesn't that leave the location of the original messages within Foo undefined? > > Using athena or erdos (both are machines at UofL): > > When I create folders, unless the folder has a subfolder to start > with, I > cannot create a subfolder. So... > > Make a new folder (with a subfolder) called Foo > put a couple of email messages in it. > Decide it should have a subfolder. > Try to make a subfolder called Foo. > Get an Mailbox Creation Failed error message stating that Mail could > not > subscribe to the mailbox. > > If, however, I create a folder with a subfolder directly, I can create > any number of subfolders, so... I if > > I create the folder/subfolder Foo/Bar, I can then put more folders > inside > of Foo (like Snafu, IMHO, and TLA), BUT none of those folders can have > subfolders. It seems to me this is correct behavior. Here's the description from the original IETF document RFC-1730, in which IMAP4 is defined: "The CREATE command creates a mailbox with the given name. An OK response is returned only if a new mailbox with that name has been created. It is an error to attempt to create INBOX or a mailbox with a name that refers to an extant mailbox. Any error in creation will return a tagged NO response. "If the mailbox name is suffixed with the server's hierarchy separator character (as returned from the server by a LIST command), this is a declaration that the client may, in the future, create mailbox names under this name in the hierarchy. Server implementations that do not require this declaration MUST ignore it." So, I think the Apple mail server is in error. I have noticed that IMAP servers will convert a mailbox into a directory, if it is empty. This is probably also illegal under a strict reading of the rules. The whole IMAP definition is at asg.web.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1730.html. -- Lee Larson, Mathematics Department, University of Louisville Phone: 502-852-6826 FAX: 502-852-7132 | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be February 25. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
