Re: [Courier-imap] NO Mailbox does not exist, or must be subscribed to.

[Sam V. <mr...@co...>]

Chris writes:

> a02 STATUS INBOX.directory
> a02 NO Mailbox does not exist, or must be subscribed to.
> a03 logout
> * BYE Courier-IMAP server shutting down
> a03 OK LOGOUT completed
> Connection closed by foreign host.
>
> Mailbox.directory is subscribed to in my folder listing.

Which is not sufficient, since the STATUS command requires that the folder  
must exist, not just that it's subscribed to.

The concept of mailbox subscriptions is a frequently misunderstood part of  
IMAP. It is nothing more than a list of mailboxes, or folders, which may or  
may not exist. This is explicitly required by RFC 3501, see section 6.3.6:

6.3.6. SUBSCRIBE Command

      A server MAY validate the mailbox argument to SUBSCRIBE to verify
      that it exists.  However, it MUST NOT unilaterally remove an
      existing mailbox name from the subscription list even if a mailbox
      by that name no longer exists.

An IMAP server is not obligated to do anything with the list of subscribed  
mailboxes other than maintaining the list itself. The subscribed to  
mailboxes may or may not exist. What it means for a mailbox to be  
"subscribed" to, is entirely up to the client.

If a client sends a STATUS command for a non-existent mailbox, it can  
certainly expect to receive an error response, if the mailbox does not  
exist. Whether the mailbox is subscribed to, does not change that.

> and the issue that when trying to mark all messages in the 'Inbox'
> folder only I get:
>
> Failed to mark messages as read.
> The reported error was "No IMAP namespace for folder path 'INBOX'".

This looks like an error message coming from your IMAP client.