[Alpine-info] strange imap directory/folder [.] thing

[Eduardo Chappa]

On Mon, 31 Mar 2008, Patrick J. Collins wrote:


:) > I don't remember all of the details, but I *think* if you turn on

:) >       [X]  Hide Empty Directories                                               

:) > that it will seem more sane.

:) 

:) Ahhh.. Yes, that fixed it.  Thank you!


There is, however, a big drawback that everyone needs to understand.

The setting above is GLOBAL. That means that it will work on every 
collection. For example, if you have two collections, one in that IMAP 
server, the other local, then the setting will apply to both.

Why is this important?

Because Directories may disappear. Either in that collection or in another 
collection.

Consider the situation in which a directory is inside another directory. 
As in "Direc1/Direct2/folder". If you remove "folder" and "Direct2" is 
left empty, then opening "Direc1" will not see Direct2, and you will not 
be able to delete Direc1, because it contains Direct2 (well, you would 
have to disable the configuration option first, but then you probably 
forgot you enabled it in the first place, so you will waste a  lot of time 
chasing that problem around).

In other words, the solution that you are using, is not a solution but a 
workaround. It does not solve the problem, it hides it.

You have been warned!

-- 
Eduardo
http://staff.washington.edu/chappa/alpine/