CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonimapdovecotimapclient
Sean W.
Sean W.

Reputation: 5142

What is the proper way to create IMAP subfolders using imapclient for Python?

I have code that looks something like this

import imapclient

archive_folder = "Archive"

aggregate_reports_folder = "{0}/Aggregate".format(archive_folder)
forensic_reports_folder = "{0}/Forensic".format(archive_folder)

server = imapclient.IMAPClient("example.com", use_uid=True)
server.login("user", "foobar")

if not server.folder_exists(archive_folder):
    server.create_folder(archive_folder)
if not server.folder_exists(aggregate_reports_folder):
    server.create_folder(aggregate_reports_folder)
if not server.folder_exists(forensic_reports_folder):
    server.create_folder(forensic_reports_folder)

It works fine on Office 365/Exchange, but not dovecot. On dovecot it causes an error:

Error: create failed: [CANNOT] Invalid mailbox name: Name must not have '/' characters

I tried removing the /subfolder part of the folder name, and running select_folder(archive_folder) first, but that just creates folders at the same level as Archive. Yet, Thunderbird can create subfolders without a problem.

How can I create IMAP subfolders using imapclient, in a way that works with all IMAP servers? Also, How do I move mail to those subfolders?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1776

Answers (1)

Sean W.
Sean W.

Reputation: 5142

I found the answer in the dovecot mailing list.

Currently Dovecot supports only Maildir++ directory layout, which specifies that '.' character is used as the separator in the filesystem.

So when building subfolder paths, use . as the separator, not /.

Upvotes: 1

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