1

Topic: Unify folder alias (missing alias)

==== Required information ====
- iRedMail version (check /etc/iredmail-release): 0.9.2
- Linux/BSD distribution name and version: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
- Store mail accounts in which backend (LDAP/MySQL/PGSQL): MySQL
- Web server (Apache or Nginx): both
- Manage mail accounts with iRedAdmin-Pro? Yes
- Related log if you're reporting an issue:
====

Hi,

Could iRedMail go further in folder unification and include additional alias in the default configuration? Checking dovecot configuration I noticed few thing... first, commit  97e26f4 already took care of 'Sent Messages' for 'Sent', 'Spam' for 'Junk' and that's good but the default configuration is missing the 'Sent Items' and few others (which I would like to be included if possible at all). Let's look at the default configuration:

# dovecot.conf
...
namespace {
   ...
    mailbox Sent {
        auto = subscribe
        special_use = \Sent
    }
    # This is an alias mailbox for "Sent".
    # Reference: http://wiki2.dovecot.org/MailboxSettings
    mailbox "Sent Messages" {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Sent
    }
   ...

Unless I missed it (dovecot -n didn't list it either) 'Sent Items' is missing in the mailbox settings:

...
 mailbox "Sent Items" {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Sent
    }
...

Also, maybe 'Sent Messages' should be considered? Looking at Mail App and Outlook, perhaps it will be useful to unify all the mess created by different clients:

...
 mailbox "Sent Items" {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Sent
    }

 mailbox "Sent Messages" {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Sent
    }

 mailbox "Junk E-mail" {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Junk
    }

 mailbox "Deleted Messages" {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Trash
    }
...

Also I fail to understand why it needs to assign SPECIAL-USE as well as mailbox alias definition but there must be a reason. Is it to prevent the mailbox from being subscribed specifically?

...
    mailbox_alias_old = Sent
    mailbox_alias_new = Sent Messages
    mailbox_alias_old2 = Sent
    mailbox_alias_new2 = Sent Items
...
    mailbox Sent {
        auto = subscribe
        special_use = \Sent
    }

    mailbox "Sent Messages" {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Sent
    }
   ...

Other considerations:

Archives => Thunderbird
Templates => Thunderbird

Pine/Alpine uses "sent-mail"

----

Spider Email Archiver: On-Premises, lightweight email archiving software developed by iRedMail team. Supports Amazon S3 compatible storage and custom branding.

2

Re: Unify folder alias (missing alias)

Thanks for the feedback. Added 3 folders for Dovecot-2.2.x:

- Sent Items
- Deleted Messages
- Junk E-mail

About Thunderbird, since all these special folders are choosable and not hard-coded, it's ok to not handle them in Dovecot.

3

Re: Unify folder alias (missing alias)

Thank you so much Zhang. That's awesome. Could the 'Archive' mailbox be reconsidered or added somewhere in the documentation? Per RFC6154:

\Archive
        This mailbox is used to archive messages.  The meaning of an "archival" mailbox is server-dependent; typically, it will be used to get messages out of the inbox, or otherwise keep them out of the user's way, while still making them accessible.

It happens that 'Archive' is in fact used if defined. I have seen several users ending up with 2 different folders 'Archive' used by Mail.app and 'Archives' used by Thunderbird. By RFC (and not that it must be mandatory) the standard is defined as 'Archive'. As such we ended up with the resulting configuration file:

...
 mailbox Archive {
        auto = subscribe
        special_use = \Archive
    }
    # Alias mailbox for "Archive"
    mailbox Archives {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Archive
    }
...

Maybe, it doesn't have to be subscribed by default:

...
 mailbox Archive {
        auto = create
        special_use = \Archive
    }
    # Alias mailbox for "Archive"
    mailbox Archives {
        auto = no
        special_use = \Archive
    }
...

The reason to subscribe it (in my case) is based on the usability and cleaner folder listing it provides. We saw users creating folders 'cabinet', 'backup', 'storage', etc. because the 'Archive folder wasn't created or subscribed by default.

Cheers.

4

Re: Unify folder alias (missing alias)

OK, let's use 'auto = subscribe'. Code committed.