Notmuch tags when OfflineIMAP creates a new folder with the same messages

Notmuch tags when OfflineIMAP creates a new folder with the same messages

[Jorge]

Hi.  I work at Dataprev (a Brazilian state-owned federal IT company),
and here we use an email implementation called Expresso 3.0.  I access
it via OfflineIMAP 7.2.1 on Debian buster.  Recently I have gained
access to a shared folder hierarchy called "demandas.dica" (with Drafts,
Sent and Trash subfolders).  OfflineIMAP could not handle it because its
name contains a "." which is the default sep character.

On the OfflineIMAP mailing list, Nicolas Sebrecht recommended I choose
another sep character.  I would choose '+', but I have not yet
configured it.  What is holding me back is the fear that, when I set
sep = "+", OfflineIMAP will create a new 'INBOX+Sent' folder in place of
the current 'INBOX.Sent' and ditto for lots of other folders.  Nicolas
confirmed this is how OfflineIMAP will behave.

So my last doubt is, will Notmuch recognize that the emails are the
same, and keep my tags?  Then after Notmuch indexes the "new" (renamed
copies) folders, can I delete the original folders?

Regards

- I am Brazilian.  I hope my English is correct and I welcome feedback
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Re: Notmuch tags when OfflineIMAP creates a new folder with the same messages

[David Bremner]

"Jorge" <jorge+list@disroot.org> writes:

> Hi.  I work at Dataprev (a Brazilian state-owned federal IT company),
> and here we use an email implementation called Expresso 3.0.  I access
> it via OfflineIMAP 7.2.1 on Debian buster.  Recently I have gained
> access to a shared folder hierarchy called "demandas.dica" (with Drafts,
> Sent and Trash subfolders).  OfflineIMAP could not handle it because its
> name contains a "." which is the default sep character.
>
> On the OfflineIMAP mailing list, Nicolas Sebrecht recommended I choose
> another sep character.  I would choose '+', but I have not yet
> configured it.  What is holding me back is the fear that, when I set
> sep = "+", OfflineIMAP will create a new 'INBOX+Sent' folder in place of
> the current 'INBOX.Sent' and ditto for lots of other folders.  Nicolas
> confirmed this is how OfflineIMAP will behave.
>
> So my last doubt is, will Notmuch recognize that the emails are the
> same, and keep my tags?  Then after Notmuch indexes the "new" (renamed
> copies) folders, can I delete the original folders?

I _think_ it should be OK. Notmuch
  1) Tracks file renames
  2) Attaches tags to message-ids, not to files.

As a precaution, it is always worthwhile to have a "notmuch dump" and or
full backup before attempting anything drastic.

d

Re: Notmuch tags when OfflineIMAP creates a new folder with the same messages

[Jorge P. de Morais Neto]

David Bremner <david@tethera.net> writes:

> I _think_ it should be OK.  Notmuch
>   1) Tracks file renames
>   2) Attaches tags to message-ids, not to files.
>
> As a precaution, it is always worthwhile to have a "notmuch dump" and or
> full backup before attempting anything drastic.

I did that and it worked fine.  Thank you for the help!

-- 
- I am Brazilian.  I hope my English is correct and I welcome feedback
- Please adopt free formats like PDF, ODF, Org, LaTeX, Opus, WebM and 7z
- Free/libre software for Android: https://f-droid.org/
- [[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html][What is free software?]]