What does the list_folders() method of mailbox.Maildir actually ?do (if anything)?

[Jeff McNeil]

On Sep 25, 4:28 pm, Jeff McNeil <j... at jmcneil.net> wrote:
> On Sep 25, 4:13 pm, tinn... at isbd.co.uk wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Jeff McNeil <j... at jmcneil.net> wrote:
> > > On Sep 25, 3:22 pm, tinn... at isbd.co.uk wrote:
> > > > I can't get the list_folders() method of the mailbox.Maildir class to
> > > > do anything remotely useful.  It seems to do nothing at all.  I have a
> > > > directory which contains a number of maildir malboxes:-
>
> > > >     chris$ ls -l /home/chris/Mail/apex
> > > >     total 24
> > > >     drwx------ 5 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:45 charles.rustin
> > > >     drwx------ 5 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:45 greg
> > > >     drwx------ 5 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:45 maureenMcgoldrick
> > > >     drwx------ 5 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:45 ram
> > > >     drwx------ 5 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:46 sarahLagley
> > > >     drwx------ 5 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:46 symonSmith
> > > >     chris$ ls -l /home/chris/Mail/apex/ram
> > > >     total 12
> > > >     drwx------ 2 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:45 cur
> > > >     drwx------ 2 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:45 new
> > > >     drwx------ 2 chris chris 4096 2009-04-30 09:45 tmp
>
> > > > If I run the following code:-
>
> > > >     #!/usr/bin/python
> > > >     #
> > > >     #
> > > >     # Mail archiving utility
> > > >     #
> > > >     import mailbox
>
> > > >     topLevel=mailbox.Maildir("/home/chris/Mail/apex")
> > > >     print topLevel.list_folders()
>
> > > > It just outputs "[]".
>
> > > > Am I doing something totally wrong or is list_folders() completely broken?
>
> > > > --
> > > > Chris Green
>
> > > The Maildir++ spec states that folders need to begin with a period.
> > > The list_folders method enforces that:
>
> > >     def list_folders(self):
> > >         """Return a list of folder names."""
> > >         result = []
> > >         for entry in os.listdir(self._path):
> > >             if len(entry) > 1 and entry[0] == '.' and \
> > >                os.path.isdir(os.path.join(self._path, entry)):
> > >                 result.append(entry[1:])
> > >         return result
>
> > > The above example is from 2.6.  Your structure is simply a list of
> > > Maildir compliant directories below '/home/chris/Mail/apex.' They're
> > > not, in the Maildir++ sense of the word, folders.
>
> > So where does it say in the Python documentation that list_folders()
> > works only with Maildir++?  It's a big and non-obvious limitation to
> > my mind.
>
> > My maildir hierarchy is created by mutt which is a *very* standards
> > compliant MUA, surely standard python libraries should work with
> > standard maildirs not some wierd extension thereof.
>
> > --
> > Chris Green
>
> The doc says that "Folders of the style introduced by the Courier mail
> transfer agent are also supported. Any subdirectory of the main
> mailbox is considered a folder if '.' is the first character in its
> name."  It's not an explicit endorsement of Maildir++, but it touches
> on what it considers a folder definition. I'm treading on hazy memory
> here, but I believe Maildir++ is the definition provided by the
> Courier folks.
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff
> mcjeff.blogspot.com

http://wiki.mutt.org/?MuttFaq/Maildir

That might help as well. You can have Mutt setup your folders using
that extended method.

--
Thanks,

Jeff
mcjeff.blogspot.com