Re: nnimap subfolder problem

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

Nicolas KOWALSKI <Nicolas.Kowalski@imag.fr> writes:

>>> PS 2: when I use nnml or nnfolder backends, Gnus stores groups using
>>> subdirectories for group names like "foo.bar.geez" (gives
>>> foo/bar/geez). Is it possible to use the same functionnality for
>>> nnimap backend ?
>> 
>> I don't think so, it would mean making `.' and `/' equivalent, and
>> that is something the IMAP server should do (if at all).
> 
> I disagree : what happens if our Eudora/Messenger/Outlook users
> create folders containing dot in their names ? The Gnus beahviour to
> create subfolders with dot-named folders is Gnus specific, ans
> should stays IMHO as is.

But with nnimap, the directories and files exists on the server, so
Gnus has no control of how they are named other than by replacing `.'
with `/' in the group name but that would be confusing, I think.

I think everything would work fine if you create a group with a dot in
its name using another client (I do this all the time).  What problems
do you see?

Or were you talking about the NOV cache?  It could translate `.' into
`/' but I don't see the point, there would only be one file in most
directories anyway, wouldn't it?

Translating `.' into `/' is only something you need if your filesystem
is 8+3 or similar and can't store e.g. "foo.bar.baz", isn't it?  I
haven't seen any IMAP server that has this problem.