Re: IMAP server-to-server replication?

[Simon Josefsson <jas@pdc.kth.se>]

(A discussion started in comp.mail.imap. Since my answer is rather
nnimap specific, I sent a cc to the nnimap list.)

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE writes:

> Well, this is all very simple stuff.  I'm thinking of using IMAP for
> more advanced things.  Here are the kinds of things I expect to be
> able to do when disconnected:
> 
>   - mark a message as read
>   - remove the `read' mark from a message
>   - mark a message as important (if that's supported by IMAP)

I've made some patches to nnagent for theese, they just store all
invokations of `nnagent-request-set-mark' and when going online,
invoke them on the real backend (nnimap).

(Yes, IMAP has a "important" flag.)

>   - move a message from one folder to another
>   - delete a message

Theese are really the same thing, neither Gnus or IMAP has primitives
for moving articles so moving is just copy+delete, and delete is just
delete, of course.

The problem with offline moving of articles with Gnus is that Gnus
insists on having `nnfoo-request-accept-article' return the article
number that the article was stored as, and we can't possibly know that
in disconnected mode. I'm not sure how much of a trouble that would
be. I'm also not sure if Gnus does anything with the article number
(hopefully not).

We could do something like returning negative article numbers so we at
least easily can spot if they cause any trouble. But negative article
numbers might in itself cause problem, so I dunno...

>   - edit a message

IMAP doesn't support article editing, which solve that one. :-)

-s