Subject: UTF-7 and Linux filesystem

From: Arnar Birgisson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 12:31:37 +0000

Hello there..

I'm using imap3d with good results to read my mail in Outlook.

The problem is however, that I also read my mail using mutt when working
on the Linux system. I have some folders with names containing 8-bit
characters.

In mutt, folder names are displayed as they are in the filesystem, in my
case, in ISO-8859-1 8-bit encoding. However, this means that I can't use
those folders from Outlook. I see them in the folder list ok, but
Outlook can't make a request for them as it utf-7 encodes the name.

If I however use the utf-7 encoding for the name in the filesystem, the
folders are correct and usable in Outlook, but of course they look ugly
in mutt.

Is there any setting in UW imapd that makes this conversion, i.e. when
Outlook requests an utf-7 encoded folder name, it looks in the
filesystem for the ISO-8859-1 encoding of the same name?

Arnar
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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 08:24:02 -0800 (PST)

> filesystem for the ISO-8859-1 encoding of the same name?

No, there isn't any support for ISO-8859-1 (or any other local character
set) mailbox names, and there won't be.  If/when 8-bit octets in mailbox
names are supported in IMAP, they will be exclusively UTF-8.

The entire purpose of using the modified UTF-7 convention in IMAP was to
provide a transition, one in which all software can use and interoperate
(because it is 7-bit).  Supporting legacy character sets in mailbox names
would be a major step backwards.

In other words, my answer is that you should not use 8-bit octets in
mailbox names at all during this transition period, and mutt should be
fixed to know about the modified UTF-7 convention.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.