Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> writes:

> It's really pretty simple. There is no concept of a trash folder in
> IMAP. Deleting a message means marking it with the \Deleted flag. The UA
> is expected to take that into account when showing the mailbox contents
> (e.g. by hiding such messsages or showing them crossed out). A message
> can be physically deleted by "expunging" it (that would correspond to
> emptying the trash).

OK, but it seems many MUAs have a notion of moving messages to a trash
folder instead of just IMAP deletion.

Do MUAs that behave the way you say have  "trash" mailbox in the UI
that is  really the set of messages in other mailboxes (or inbox)
that have the \Deleted flag set?

> Any trash folder in an IMAP mailbox is a totally ordinary folder, and if
> there are messages in it it means that they have been moved there (i.e.,
> not deleted). To empty the trash, you still have to mark the message as
> \Deleted, *and* then expunge it.

But I empty trash by total-expire in gnus, on the trash mailbox :-)