Re: [Evolution] Message Filter vs. Search Folders - Open Discussion

[Patrick O'Callaghan <poc usb ve>]

On Wed, 2010-11-03 at 19:41 -0400, Reid Thompson wrote:
> looking to see if offlineimap could filter, and found another alternative
> use *imapfilter*
> imapfilter <http://imapfilter.hellug.gr/> does just what the name implies: it filters email on IMAP 
> servers. 
> The general idea is you have imapfilter running via a cron job on some always-on computer. It is then run 
> every 3-5 minutes, connects to any number of IMAP servers, and filters the email. And the filtering doesnât 
> even need to happen only on the INBOX (like gmail) but can be for any mailbox.

This is potentially interesting, in that it separates the filter
function from the mail-reading function, as does Sieve, but unlike Sieve
doesn't require server-side cooperation beyond a conforming IMAP
implementation. One of the arguments for Sieve is that you get the same
filters no matter what MUA you use (copying filter rules between MUAs
being so agonizing as to be impractical) so this could be an
alternative.

I'd perhaps worry about race conditions given that IMAP has no provision
for concurrent clients accessing the same mailbox simultaneously, and
imapfilter counts as a client which is always on.

poc