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Re: maildir structure and change dir



On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 06:52:17AM -0500, David T-G wrote:
> Mike --
> 
> ...and then M. Mueller said...
> % 
> % Noob here.  3 days.  Started email with M$ 10y. Then KMail 2y. Now Mutt 3d. 
> If I
> 
> Good for you!  You're definitely on the right path :-)
> 
Control  in the hands of the user.  
> 
> % need to adjust my thinking, just slap me.
> 
> Well, I don't know about slap, and I don't know about 'need', but
> personally I think perhaps you should.
> 
> A Maildir is designed to have exactly three subdirectories: cur, new,
> tmp.  No more, no less.  

Clear. Concise. Thank you.  It's probably in docs out there, but I'm
covering a lot of ground quickly. This explaination fits my experience
exactly.

> There are also a couple of files that might be
> in there, but that's it.  Some IMAP server folks came out with the idea
> of this "extended Maildir" or "Maildir++" or whatever but that doesn't
> make it right.  Is it a big deal?  I don't know for sure; mutt tries to
> be liberal about what it accepts and seems to be able to handle it.  But,
> then, you have this little xyg problem...

No warts for me right now thank you.  I converted all of my mailboxes to
be subdir directly from the folder and c-<tab> navigation works
predictably now.  I create the impression of levels in the names; for
example, =Maildir/xyg.client.timecards/

Now when I enter c-<tab> in any mailbox folder I get the entire list I
specify using "mailboxes" command in .muttrc.  It's flat structure instead of 
an hierarchy.  The GUI email clients I've used are hierarchical.
> 
> Assuming your Maildir/ isn't really trying to be a Maildir/ because you
> have your mbox, it looks like all you need to do is make a Maildir
> xyg/spool/ or xyg/xyg/ or whatever for your xyg mail.  [Of course, if
> Maildir/ *is* trying to be a maildir, then make Maildir/spool/ as well.]

If I understand correctly, my spool is /var/mail/myusername on my setup.
I am running nullmailer (instead of exim/qmail/sendmail/etc. - trying to
limit quantity of learning for now).  The spool is mbox format.

I think my spool (defined by $MAIL) is only used when procmail runs out
of recipes. 

I guess I would export MAIL = /home/myusername/Maildir to make ~/Maildir
the spool file?
> 
> This has come up a few times in the past; check the list archives.  As I
> say above, I don't know if you 'need' to, but not only is it the right
> thing to do but it might also solve your problem :-)

The important thing for me is to identify the warts and avoid them.  It's good 
to have experience on your side when trying to 
tell a wart from the Right Way (tm).  As my experience
grows I can try out the warts.
> 
> Don't worry about the long explanation; detail is good!  And welcome to
> mutt :-)

Thanks. Good to be here. I'm enjoying the power and knowledge.