silly question: how does mail get in the sent folder?

[Mike Brodbelt]

Jochen Staerk wrote:

> hmm. As long as you're referring to POP, I completely agree and 
> understand. But since IMAP-"Sent mail" is stored on a server folder, my 
> question is: how does it get there?

Your mail client puts it there. In the case of your "Sent Mail" being
local, it just writes the files directly; where "Sent Mail" is an IMAP
folder, the client uses the IMAP protocol to store a copy of the message
in the appropriate mail folder on the server.

> My MTA (Postfix) handles the incoming SMTP-Connections from my MUA, so I 
> could image there is some kind of SMTP command "store following content 
> in folder XYZ(sent) for user ABC".

There is no command like that in SMTP, but there is in IMAP. You mail
client does the sending over SMTP and the storing over IMAP as two
completely separate actions. If you're using Mozilla, you can experiment
- remove your own permissions on your sent folder, then send an email.
The message will get sent fine, but the IMAP action to store it in your
sent folder will fail with an error, and you'll get no copy in your sent
box.

> But this would mean that the 
> MX-Server always had to be identical to the Server where you get your 
> mail from, wouldn't it?

If it was done over SMTP, yes. But it isn't.

With regard to the way Cyrus actually stores your mail, that's basically
entirely up to Cyrus - you access your mail only via IMAP and LMTP, the
rest is dealt with only by Cyrus.

HTH,

Mike.
---
Cyrus Home Page: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus
Cyrus Wiki/FAQ: http://cyruswiki.andrew.cmu.edu
List Archives/Info: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/mailing-list.html