Re: Dreamhost Compatibility

["Tom Purl" <tom@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, July 11, 2007 9:41 am, John Goerzen wrote:
> On Wed July 11 2007 9:26:28 am Tom Purl wrote:
>> Dreamhost support, and here's their response:
>> > Unfortunately it does not appear that our system is compatible with
>> > this application because the ID changing is part of our standard mai=
l
>> > setup.  Our servers are setup to fully support standard IMAP, which =
to
>> > my knowledge means that we support OfflineIMAP as well. You may want
>> > to see if you can find another application that supports IMAP folder=
s
>> > whose IDs change. Sorry that I couldn't be of further assistance.
>
> By IDs are you referring to the folder UIDVALIDITY?

I believe so.

> See the "UID VALIDITY PROBLEM FOR SERVER" section in the OfflineIMAP
> for more detail on that.

I've seen this in the past, but I missed the mailing list discussion
that is linked to it.  Thanks!

> It is not possible to guarantee an accurate sync if the server is not
> preserving UIDs.  While the server is probably complying with the IMAP
> protocol by at least indicating that it isn't preserving UIDs (which
> is why you get an error instead of losing mail), saying that it "fully
> supports standard IMAP" would be quite incorrect.  Failure to support
> UIDs will likely break -- or at least impair -- any mail reader with
> offline support (KMail's disconnected IMAP folders, Thunderbird,
> Evolution, etc.)
>
>> Will any of the new features planned in OfflineIMAP 6.0 make it possib=
le
>> for me to use it again?  Do you need more information from Dreamhost t=
o
>> make an educated guess?
>
> Probably what I need is the OfflineIMAP error you're getting.  If it's
> a UID validity problem for a folder, then no, OfflineIMAP will never
> work with that server and never can because the server isn't providing
> enough info to sync with.

It probably is a UID validity issue, but I'll try re-creating the error
tonight so I can confirm.

>> Also, if what I want isn't possible, then what would be a good
>> workaround so that I could use OfflineIMAP again?
>
> If you have direct access to your Maildir/mbox/whatever store, you coul=
d
> compile your own IMAP server and invoke it via a preauth tunnel (where
> OfflineIMAP invokes ssh to the server and runs the IMAP server from the
> command line -- so you don't have a running "server" process listening =
on
> any ports)

This sounds really interesting, but I'm not entirely clear on
everything.  By "direct access", do you mean ssh access?  Also, where
would I compile the IMAP server, on my local machine or on the remote
host?

Thanks for the informative and quick help!

Tom Purl