[Evolution] Issues with labels and flags

[Mark Foley <mfoley novatec-inc com>]

On Date: Wed, 02 Dec 2015 09:49:12 +0000 Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk> wrote:

> On Wed, 2015-12-02 at 01:24 -0500, Mark Foley wrote:
> > 3. I've "labeled" one of the messages as 'Important' (right-click message >
> > Label > Important). This is indicated on the 'Label' drop-down as a red square.
> > However, the message does not show this anywhere. I can select 'Show >
> > Important' and it does filter by that, but I'd like to see the red square
> > somewhere in my message list view. Doable? 
> Messages marked as "Important" will be coloured red in the message list
> and have a flag/indicator in the third column (the actual icon used
> depends on your window manager and theme).  There is no indication in
> the message view of the flag status.
>
> But you should also be aware that there is a difference between the
> "Important" flag (Right click > Mark as Important) and the Evolution
> internal label "Important" (Right click > Label > Important).  The
> labels only apply to the messages on a specific machine - i.e. they are
> held in a local database; the flag, which is an IMAP property, will be
> present on whatever client is using the IMAP store.
>
> Yes, I know it's confusing, it's historical.  The rationale is that the
> labels can be modified to say anything - it just so happens one of them
> says "Important" by default; the Flag is a marker that by convention
> means "this message is important" on mail clients.

Yes, confusing. Here is another comment from Milan Crha in response to
your comment:

On Wed, 02 Dec 2015 13:13:20 +0100 Milan Crha <mcrha redhat com> wrote:

> this is true only if the server doesn't support custom flags. If it
> does, then even the labels are stored server-side (IMAP speaking).
> Furthermore, Evolution uses the same standard labels as Thunderbird,
> thus you can see what you've set in Thunderbird when opening the same
> folder in the Evolution and vice versa.

Milan's point about Thunderbird answers another question (why label names are
the same in Tbird and Evolution).  But here's the thing: When I 'tag' something
to e.g.  "Personal" in Thunderbird (green), it shows up as green in Evolution. 
But when I 'label' something as "Personal" (green) in Evolution, it does not
show in Thunderbird.  'Tagging' in Thunderbird adds tag letters to the IMAP
filename (e.g.  the trailing "b" in cur/1449002747.6406_0.mail:2,Sb). 
'Labeling' in Evolution does not. 

So, does Evolution have the ability to do actual IMAP flagging like Thunderbird?
Evolution does seem to be able to properly render IMAP flags, but can it set the
flags? Evolution 'labels' appear to be an internal thing.

--Mark