Courier-IMAP FAQ

$Id: FAQ.html,v 1.5 2000/05/03 04:40:15 mrsam Exp $

Table of contents

Configuration script fails on Solaris in the waitlib subdirectory

This is a self-test check failing. A script tests the semantics of the wait() system call, and fails. Apparently something in Solaris's wait() logic is not working the way I expect it to work. This may or may not be a problem. I don't know yet. You can use the --with-waitfunc=wait3 option to the configure script to bypass this test, but you're own your own.

UPDATE: 5/3/2000, there's a Solaris bug ID that is fixed by a recent kernel update:

      4220394 wait3  library function fails after 248 days

Try installing this update to see if it fixes the problem. Some people reported that this kernel update fixes the configuration failure, but some people reported that the problem still exists.

Netscape Messenger displays an error message when new mail arrives

Use --enable-workarounds-for-imap-client-bugs option to the configure script.

I can't create any top-level folders, only subfolders of INBOX

This is a user-interface design issue with your mail client. IMAP servers are free to use any folder namespace arrangement that's technically convenient for them. Courier-IMAP uses "INBOX." as the namespace for private folders, and "shared." as the namespace for public, shared, folders. The IMAP NAMESPACE extension (see http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2342.txt) allows IMAP clients to automatically discover where the server creates folders, and your IMAP client should implement it.

This should be completely transparent to you, if your IMAP client properly uses the NAMESPACE extension. If your IMAP client were to automatically take advantage of self-configuration features offered by RFC 2060 and RFC 2342, it would automatically discover, without any additional configuration from the user, that:

  1. The folder namespace hierarchy separator is the . character

  2. Private folders are stored underneath the "INBOX." hierarchy

  3. Public folders are stored underneath the "shared." hierarchy

If you have to explicitly create folders that are subfolders of INBOX, or if you explicitly have to name that "INBOX.foldername", this is due to your IMAP client not being able to configure itself accordingly.