[kdepim-users] adding maildir files

[Johann Rohwer]

On Wednesday, 4 May 2016 20:45:07 SAST Martin Steigerwald wrote:
> On Mittwoch, 4. Mai 2016 09:42:16 CEST Bruce Byfield wrote:
> > On May 4, 2016 11:56:56 AM Martin Steigerwald wrote:
> > >What I think also works is placing directories into
> > >~/.local/share/local-mail or wherever your local folders resource
> > >points to.
> > 
> > I tried that, but had no luck, even with a single file.  Although I
> > haven't followed up, I suspect that Akonadi somehow needs to rescan the
> > folder.
> 
> Strange. Some years ago it definately worked at least with single files I 
> placed there (to restore by copying from my postfix/dovecot mailserver after 
> data loss bug in Akonadi).

It seems the maildir implementation is different in akonadi as compared to dovecot (and standard maildir).
Consider a mail folder structure:
fol1/fol2/fol3

When creating this in kmail under local folders (i.e. a local akonadi maildir resource), the directory structure on disk is as follows:
fol1/{cur|new|tmp}
.fol1.directory/fol2/{cur|new|tmp}
.fol1.directory/.fol2.directory/fol3/{cur|new|tmp}

In dovecot (and standard maildir) the directory structure is as follows:
.fol1/{cur|new|tmp}
.fol1.fol2/{cur|new|tmp}
.fol1.fol2.fol3/{cur|new|tmp}

There is no nested directory structure on disk and mail (sub)folders are indicated by a dot in the filename. I have noticed this before and it is an incompatibility that prevents simple copying from a dovecot server to a local akonadi maildir resource. Anyone know the reason for this difference? The dovecot implementation seems cleaner.