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T'Bird12: Maildir support

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Maurice Batey

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May 26, 2012, 12:31:17 PM5/26/12
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I read somewhere that T'Bird 12 would have 'maildir' support, but that the GUI
to configure it was not there yet.

Anyone know the current status/prospects of that, please?

(I have been looking to move to T'Bird but do not want to have to use the 'mbox'
format.)

Many thanks,
--
/\/\aurice
(Retired in Surrey, UK)

Steve

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May 26, 2012, 1:33:39 PM5/26/12
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On 26/05/2012 11:31 AM, Maurice Batey wrote:
> I read somewhere that T'Bird 12 would have 'maildir' support, but that the GUI
> to configure it was not there yet.
>
> Anyone know the current status/prospects of that, please?
>
> (I have been looking to move to T'Bird but do not want to have to use the 'mbox'
> format.)
>
> Many thanks,
>
I think you will find this discussion useful:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58308#c174

Mike Easter

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May 26, 2012, 5:10:49 PM5/26/12
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That link above is to comment #174, but the salient post is actually #172:

ojab 2012-03-07 03:47:29 PST
You can set mail.serverDefaultStoreContractID =
"@mozilla.org/msgstore/maildirstore;1" in about:config to use berkeleydb
for new accounts. Default is "@mozilla.org/msgstore/berkeleystore;1",
which is mbox.

However...


... it appears in the later posts (in the 190s) that Tb's implementation
of maildir should be considered 'somewhat (like) maildir' as opposed to
strict adherence to the 'official' maildir spec or standards 100%.

It seems like nasty business of not being quite certain whether or not
the stores would or would not be interoperable with other agents'
maildir specs. That is, one would sidestep the disadvantages or issues
with Tb's particular implementation of mbox in exchange for the
disadvantages or issues with Tb's particular implementation of maildir
as opposed to 'pure maildir'.



--
Mike Easter


Maurice Batey

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May 27, 2012, 9:58:03 AM5/27/12
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On Sat, 26 May 2012 14:10:49 -0700, Mike Easter wrote:

> the salient post is actually #172:

Many thanks, Mike (and Steve).

I had seen elsewhere that 'maildir' can be specified by editing certain files,
which is what I meant by "no GUI yet for configuring maildir".

As for 'true maildir' or not, my needs would probably be met by the 'almost
maildir' that seems to be in there, with one proviso:

- that T'Bird would be able to cope with a maildir store into which I had
added email files, or deleted some.
That would presumably mean it would have to be aware of such changes and
automatically 're-index' to update what they call the 'metadata'.
(KMail 4.8.2 does that beautifully (but its Find Messages is broken) ...)

(I tried to login to that bug to ask the question, but bugzilla seems to have
lost my login info. Anyone know the answer?!)

--
/\/\aurice

Mike Easter

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May 27, 2012, 11:25:33 AM5/27/12
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Maurice Batey wrote:

> (I tried to login to that bug to ask the question, but bugzilla seems
> to have lost my login info. Anyone know the answer?!)

If you have/know your bugzilla account's email address, you should be
able to get emailed a password token.

The forgot password function sets up a change password which generates a
token sent to your email address.



--
Mike Easter


WLS

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May 27, 2012, 11:34:36 AM5/27/12
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Bugzilla now also uses PersonaID, so he could sign up for that if he
doesn't have/know his Bugzilla account's email address.

Just use the Sign In button, create a PersonaID, then use it everywhere
PersonaID is available.

--
Thunderbird Beta | openSUSE 12.1 | KDE 4.7.2
Humans aren't a color of skin, a religion, a sex, a sexual orientation,
or a flag. We are human beings and that is how we need to see and treat
each other. - Justin Sane


Jeff Grossman

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May 27, 2012, 11:47:52 AM5/27/12
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I am pretty sure that the Maildir-lite method that is currently
available in Thunderbird will not cope with changes to the message
store outside of Thunderbird.

There are a couple of outstanding bugs with maildir-lite, I can only
find one of them right now which is
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=753624.

Once that bug is fixed I will move to the maildir-lite storage method.

Jeff

Maurice Batey

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May 29, 2012, 1:00:29 PM5/29/12
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On Sun, 27 May 2012 08:25:33 -0700, Mike Easter wrote:

> you should be able to get emailed a password token.

Ys, I did that; many thanks!

--
/\/\aurice


Maurice Batey

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Sep 6, 2012, 4:08:53 PM9/6/12
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On Sun, 27 May 2012 08:47:52 -0700, Jeff Grossman wrote:

> I am pretty sure that the Maildir-lite method that is currently
> available in Thunderbird will not cope with changes to the message
> store outside of Thunderbird.
> ....
> ....
> Once that bug is fixed I will move to the maildir-lite storage method.

Anyone know of any progress on that front since May?

--
/\/\aurice
(Replace "nomail.afraid" by "bcs" to reply by email)

Maurice Batey

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Sep 9, 2012, 1:21:33 PM9/9/12
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On Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:08:53 +0100, I wrote:

> Anyone know of any progress on that front since May?

I came across the following in a T'Bird mailing list the other day:

"... we would like to switch to maildir as a default file
format, as that format does not need compacting. Unfortunately
this will not be ready for Thunderbird 17, though it is close,
so that may mean with the new release plans that it would not
be until Thunderbird 24 in September 2013 that this would be
available for common use."
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