[Dovecot] Mixed IMAP/POP3 environment and message status flags

[Denis Sbragion]

Hello All,

I'm trying to migrate from UW Imap to Dovecot (latest 1.0 beta 2). The 
target is to go from the actual environment (Eudora + POP3) to a web based 
IMAP environment (IMAP + SquirrelMail). While migrating we will need to 
keep both environments for some time, with users having both the ability to 
use Eudora through POP3 while in the office and also the ability to check 
e-mail using the web based interface from time to time when they are out of 
office. Everything seems to work pretty well except for one little quirk.
	Whenever new mail messages are checked on-line through IMAP they are 
marked with "Status: O" or "Status: RO" in the main INBOX file (which is 
kept in the old mbox format now, and is one of the many reasons for the 
Dovecort choice). This is correct following the RFC standards but after 
that the POP3 server seems to completely ignore any message marked as "O" 
or "RO", making it impossible to download previously seen/read messages 
through Eudora. I've checked any available Eudora and Dovecot setting, 
including the pop3_no_flag_updates flag, but so far nothing worked.
	Looking at mailing list archives it looks like this behaviour is 
intentional and has been introduced to work around some problems with 
Eudora when the "Leave mail on server" option is enabled. Nevertheless it 
seems there's still something wrong. UW Imap seems to get this right, it 
lets Eudora download the already read message, which are correctly 
downloaded already marked as read. I haven't been able to identify the 
source of the problem, i.e. if it is either an Eudora problem which UW 
circumvent in some way or a real Dovecot problem.
	I'd really like to move to Dovecot, which provides many feature which are 
really useful for our situation, expecially maildir folders, which are fast 
and much more "differential backup" friendly than single file mailboxes. 
Unfortunately this IMAP/POP3 interaction problem would be a major 
showstopper because it will prevent a smooth migration from the old 
environment to the new one.
	Any hint about this issue? Anybody faced a similar problem so far? Thanks 
in advance for any help, and my compliments for the excellent job performed 
so far. Dovecot seems to be the right tool to fill the gap between the 
simpler UW and the Cyrus monster. Keep on going! :)

Bye,
--
	Denis Sbragion
	InfoTecna
	Tel: +39 0362 805396, Fax: +39 0362 805404
	URL: http://www.infotecna.it