maildirs, dovecot, mail client help

[Derek Broughton]

wade at wadesmart.com wrote:

> 11022006 0809 GMT-6
> 
> Im in a massive crunch here.
> 
> I have changed all my existing email from mbox to maildirs. I have
> installed fetchmail, postfix, dovecot on my system. I finally got
> dovecot to see the right folder where my mail is stored, which is in
> /home/wadesmart/Maildir. I am downloading email from gmail and my
> hosted email accts. I have only played with my gmail as there is little
> there to download so its good for testing. When I start evolution it
> sees those 9 gmails I have but, it doesnt see any of the converted
> emails.
> 
> When I was on mbox I would download my emails and then filter them into
> folders and subfolders for storage. When I ran mb2md I ended up with
> all my folders and subfolders but it looks a mess to me.
> 
> For example, under the folder .Business I have /new /cur /tmp and then I
> have .Business_sbd.Beryl I have my 127 emails there.
> 
> 
> total 456
> drwx------ 104 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-11-01 18:57 .
> drwxr-xr-x  35 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-11-01 19:57 ..
> drwx------   5 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-10-31 13:37 .Business
> drwx------   5 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-10-31 13:37 .Business_sbd
> drwx------   5 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-10-31 13:38
> .Business_sbd.Awarenes s Life
> drwx------   5 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-10-31 13:38
> .Business_sbd.Beryl
> drwx------   5 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-10-31 13:38
> .Business_sbd.Currency
> drwx------   5 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-10-31 13:38
> .Business_sbd.Drafts
> drwx------   5 wadesmart wadesmart  4096 2006-10-31 13:38
> .Business_sbd.Early To  Rise
> 
> 
> 
> Im thinking about taking all my email out of their folders and putting
> them all under one folder. With my old mbox format, as mail would come
> in I had it filtered to its own folder, which may or may not be a
> sub-folder of a parent folder. I like doing that. But this imap thing
> is not throwing me for a loop.

I can't figure out what your problem is.  This maps (at least on a default
Dovecot install) to a folder structure where you have a "Business" folder,
and a "Business_sbd" folder.  The latter has subfolders "Awarenes s
Life", "Beryl", "Currency", "Drafts" and "Early to  Rise" (I'm suspecting
both of the longer ones are actually showing a surplus space).  

I'm not sure why the normal implementation of IMAP servers seems to be to
keep every folder at the same level, but it's perfectly fine.   After all,
it makes no difference to whatever you use to filter - you just exchange
a "/" with a "." in the rule.
-- 
derek