Re: [courier-users] Management of maildir structures

[Lindsay H. <fmo...@fm...>]

On Sun, 2016-07-24 at 11:40 +0200, Alessandro Vesely wrote:
> However, the sentence became obviously false after that change.  So I also 
> alleviated the duty of a maildir reader by s/moves/may move/.  The sentence now 
> reads:
> 
>     When a maildir reading process finds messages in the /new/ directory it
>     may move them to /cur/
> 
> For example, consider rsync building a backup archive of a maildir.  It is 
> obviously a maildir reader, clearly not an MUA.  I'd say it shouldn't read tmp, 
> but I don't think it should move new to cur.  OTOH, MUAs display unread mail 
> subjects in bold irrespectively of the directory they're in.  What's the 
> purpose of having new and cur, then?

I don't think this is quite correct either. rsync operates at a file
level and should NOT move messages from new to cur. The distinction
should specify that a "mail retrieval agent" operating directly on a
Maildir MUST (not MAY) move files from new to cur. This includes a MUA
operating on a _local_ Maildir, as well as a daemon such as impad or
pop3d, all of which provide a message level interface in the mail
handling stack. rsync doesn't qualify as a "mail retrieval agent".

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