On Wed, Mar 28, 2001 at 09:52:58AM -0600, Charles Cazabon wrote:
> The right way to do it is clearly spelled out at:
> http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html
That's true.
> It's necessary for all agents to use the same rules to prevent
> collisions.
Ok as far as it goes, but..
> > The format is listed as follows,
> >
> > -rw------- 1 subba users 3599 Mar 28 07:32 985764747.20966_23.myhost:2,S
> > -rw------- 1 subba users 28883 Mar 28 01:55 __XE,5RUw6.myhost:2,S
>
> The first one is correct. The second one does not follow djb's rules
> for naming the file. If procmail wrote it, your version of procmail is
> broken.
I disagree. To quote from the webpage: "A unique name can be anything
that doesn't contain a colon (or slash) and doesn't start with a
dot.".
On that basis, the procmail filename is fine. Sure the webpage goes on
to *suggest* one method for generating unique names, but there is no
suggestion that that is the only way.
One could argue that procmail is being smart by ensuring that the
unique namespace it uses can only possibly collide with itself.
> > How are these random names generated?
Anyway the MDA wants. The primary requirement is that it be
unique. You should not infer any meaning beyond uniqueness for
everything before the colon.
> > Is this name generation the property of MUA such as mutt also? I
> > thought it was the domain of MDAs.
Well, mutt lives within the rules of Maildir by only appending the
:info data to the filename rather than generating new filenames
(postponed messages notwithstanding).
Regards.
