[Imap-uw] Simultaneous access to imap mailbox?

[Mark Crispin]

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007, David Carter wrote:
> While I agree just about everything that Mark has to say about NFS (been 
> there, done that, got the T-shirt as well), it is probably worth pointing out 
> that the Cyrus Murder is just a (very clever) IMAP proxy.
> Other, generic, IMAP proxies can be used with the UW server.

I didn't want to mention the P-word since proxies are all too often a 
nightmare.  Long, sad, experience shows that proxies are VERY difficult to 
get right.  IETF history is littered with the wreckage of the foolish and 
ignorant who thought otherwise, even with relatively simple protocols such 
as SMTP.

Nonetheless, people who ordinarily know better (including yours truly!) 
have been known to venture into the world of proxies.  Hence my own 
personal reticence.

That doesn't mean that it is impossible to build a working IMAP proxy; 
people have succeeded in doing just that.  Murder is one.  Perdition had 
teething pains in the past, but it's been quite a while since I've heard 
of any problems with it.

The other issue that I have with proxies is that their main benefit seems 
to be in directing the user to the appropriate server but they don't 
always pull themselves out from the middle.  UW's DNS-based approach makes 
that unnecessary.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.