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ietf-tools
Hash-style filename suboptimal in maildir exports
owner:[email protected] type_enhancement | by [email protected]
This really is a niggle. If you ask it to download messages as a maildir, the filenames in the maildir are semi-random text. Some of the names start with hyphens, most (all?) end with = signs both of which can confuse software that expects normal maildir names, since they implement message flags by renaming the files with punctuated stuff.
A normal maildir naming convention would be something like this:
tttttttttt.rrrrr.listname.ietf.org
where ttttttttt is the timestamp of the message, the usual Unix 1970 epoch in seconds, and rrrrr is a number random enough to keep messages delivered at the same time from colliding. The rest of the name is something that looks like a domain name; a name with the listname could make debugging easier. Tnx.
Regards, John Levine, [email protected], Taughannock Networks, Trumansburg NY
Are the current file names particularly troublesome in practice?
The ones that start with hyphens certainly are, the mixed upper and lower case can be a problem on file systems that fold case (MacOS and Windows), and the # at the end of each name can confuse software that puts tags like ,U=1234 at the ends of maildir file names when it's updating message flags since maildir file names don't normally contain anywhere else.
Since maildir names normally start with a time stamp, you can use that to sort them into date order by sorting the filenames.
R's, John
Issue migrated from trac:1797 at 2022-03-03 06:49:13 +0000
