Dovecot Virtual Keywords Plugin

This plugin needs some testing.

This plugin will automatically create a virtual mailbox whenever a new keyword is set on a message. It will also create the dovecot-virtual file needed to map the new keyword onto a virtual mailbox:

Virtual.All
  keyword Important

On user login, it will also create the following default mailboxes if necessary:

• All (all messages expect Trash)

  *
  -Trash
  -Trash/*
    all
  

• Starred (all flagged messages)

  Virtual.All
    FLAGGED
  

Install

We use CMake. Make sure to install Dovecot headers before building.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

Then copy libvirtual_keywords_plugin.so into Dovecot modules directory, usually /usr/lib/dovecot/modules.

Dovecot configuration

In order for this plugin to work, you need to configure a new namespace in Dovecot for hosting virtual mailboxes.

mail_plugins = $mail_plugins virtual notify virtual_keywords

namespace {
  type = private
  prefix = Virtual.
  separator = .
  location = virtual:~/Maildir/virtual
  list = yes
}

The plugin accepts the following parameters:

plugin {
  ...

  # namespace prefix where virtual storage is configured
  virtual_keywords_prefix = "Virtual."

  # excluded keywords (no default)
  virtual_keywords_exclude = "$MDNSent,\NonJunk,\Junk,\Recent,$Forwarded,\Answered,\Flagged,\Deleted,\Seen,\Draft"
}

TODO

• When a keyword is set on a message, set the same keyword to all messages in that thread
• Delete a virtual mailbox if there are no more messages with that keyword