maildirmake — create maildirs and maildir folders
maildirmake
[options...] {maildir
}
The maildirmake command creates maildirs, and maildir folders. This documentation describes the maildirmake command from the Courier mail server, which creates an extended form of maildirs that implements additional extensions beyond the basic maildir properties that were first implemented in the Qmail mail server.
-S
-q
quota
-f
folder
-F
folder
-f
option, except
that the folder's name is given using the system locale's
character set. Non-Latin characters in the folder's name
must be given to the -f
option using IMAP's
modified-UTF7 encoding. The -F
option
takes the folder name specified using the console's character
set..-s
mode
-S
option to
create a sharable maildir.
Then, run maildirmake again with the
-s
option to create
publicly accessible folders.
mode
is a comma-separated list of
the following keywords: read
- readonly folder, only you can
write messages to this folder;
write
- anyone can read and
write messages to this folder;
group
- only allow members of
your own system group to access messages in this folder (instead of
everyone).--add
name
=pathname
,
--del
name
This maildirmake command supports enhanced maildirs that contain folders.
By itself, maildirmake makes a new subdirectory
maildir
,
and creates all the necessary structures.
The -f
option
creates a new "folder" within an existing
maildir
. maildir
must
already exist, and the maildirmake command will create a new
folder in the maildir.
Folders are simply subdirectories inside the main maildir whose names start
with a period, and which are themselves maildirs.
For example, the command
"maildirmake -f Drafts mail/Maildir" creates
mail/Maildir/.Drafts
,
that has the usual tmp
,
new
and cur
.
You MUST use the -f
option, instead of
specifying mail/Maildir/.Drafts
directly,
in order to correctly
initialize certain enhanced maildir features.
Folders cannot be created directly within other folders.
Running
maildirmake -f Urgent mail/Maildir/.Drafts will not work.
Instead, the period character is designated as a hierarchy separator, run
maildirmake -f Drafts.Urgent mail/Maildir instead.
This creates
mail/Maildir/.Drafts.Urgent
, and all mail software
that supports
enhanced maildirs will interpret it as a subfolder Urgent of the Drafts
folder.
This is another extension to the Maildir format that allows folders to be shared between multiple clients.
The Courier IMAP server implements two types of shared folders: filesystem permission-based shared folders, as well as virtual shared folders based on IMAP access control lists. Use the maildirmake command to implement shared folders based on filesystem permissions. The maildiracl(1) command manages access control lists, which are used by virtual shared folders.
See the Courier IMAP server documentation for more information.
First, you need to create a collection of sharable folders, as a separate maildir:
maildirmake -S /usr/local/share/maildirs/notices
Then, create individuals folders that will be accessed in shared mode:
maildirmake -s write -f Weekly /usr/local/share/maildirs/notices
In this example, the "Weekly" folder is created,
with read/write access to everyone.
Multiple folders can be created in the same maildir, with different access
permissions. Everyone can create a sharable maildir. The access privileges
for individual folders are set by the -s
option, and are
implemented using traditional filesystem permissions.
Use the --add
and
--del
options to add a sharable maildir to
an existing maildir. Client software that implements this extension will now
know where to find sharable folders:
maildirmake --add notices=/usr/local/share/maildirs/notices $HOME/Maildir
$HOME/Maildir
is your main maildir.
The argument to -add
is nick
=path
.
nick
is a nickname for this collection of
sharable folders, and path
is the location of the
sharable maildir.
All folders in the sharable maildir that you have access to -- such
as "Weekly", in this case, will now be accessible.
Multiple sharable maildirs can be added, by giving each one a unique
nick
.
The --del
option "disconnects" the sharable maildir from
the main maildir.
Normally -add
command must be run for every maildir
which needs
to access the sharable maildir. Alternatively the file
/usr/local/etc/maildirshared
can be created,
to specify a default set of sharable maildirs.
Each line in this file takes the following format:
nick
<tab>path
nick
is a short nickname for
the sharable maildir, <tab>
is a single tab character, path
is the pathname to the sharable maildir.
You may have read or write access to a shared folder. If you have write access, you can add messages to the shared folder. You can also delete messages that you've added.
Anyone can create a sharable maildir, so if the sharable maildir is actually created by you, can can delete any message, not just your own.