Re: using shared mail folders

On Mon, 12 Apr 2010, Andrew Daviel wrote:
> - question: if using the MIX format, what happens to the ownership and
> permissions of new folder fragments (whatever .mixnnn files are called)
> in shared folders ? Do they get set with mode 600 hence become unreadable
> by other group members ?

Mailboxes in #shared are created with mode 660 for files and 770 for
directories.

> If I create a regular account with appropriate file permissions and group
> memberships I can access it easily in Alpine
> as {mail.example.com/user=jane}~dick/INBOX
> But in Thunderbird I can't see how to easily subscribe.

I wish that I could help you on this, but I can't.

Thunderbird's implementation of the IMAP subscription mechanism is broken
by design, and has been for 15+ years.  I wrote, years ago:

 	9. Thou shalt not abuse subscriptions, for verily the
 	LIST command is the proper way to discover mailboxes
 	on the server.  Thou shalt not subscribe names to the
 	user's subscription list without explicit instructions
 	from the user; nor shalt thou assume that only
 	subscribed names are valid.  Rather, thou shalt treat
 	subscribed names as akin to bookmarks, or perhaps akin
 	to how Windows shows the "My Documents" folder -- a
 	set of names that are separate from the hierarchy, for
 	they are such.

Thunderbird (and its predecessors such as Netscape Messenger) is the worst
violator, followed closely by Outlook.

Regrettably, the simple answer is that Thunderbird users are screwed.

> I also get a complaint from sendmail that ~dick is group-writable, and
> sendmail refuses to read ~dick/.forward. Not perhaps a problem since
> forwarding a group account is unlikely.

~dick needs to be group-writeable only if you need to allow other users to
create new mailboxes in ~dick.  If you do, then you are probably best off
using the mailsubdir mechanism to put mailboxes in a subdirectory; that
way you can make the subdirectory group-writeable without making the home
directory group-writeable and then sendmail won't have a hissy-fit.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
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