Editing Maildir (section)

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="djbspec-2000">{{cite web |first=Daniel J. |last=Bernstein. |author-link=Daniel J. Bernstein |year=c. 2000 |url=http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html |title=Using maildir format |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000902121438/http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html |archive-date=2000-09-02 |orig-year=First published 2000 or earlier |url-status=live |access-date=2018-11-23 }}</ref>
<ref name="djbspec-2003">{{cite web |first=Daniel J. |last=Bernstein. |author-link=Daniel J. Bernstein |year=2003|url=http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html |title=Using maildir format |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030401082238/https://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html |archive-date=2003-04-01 |orig-year=The earliest version of this document was first published in 2000 or earlier |url-status=live |access-date=2018-11-23}}</ref>
<ref name="djbspec-hist">{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230503185934/cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html |publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=2023-11-23 |title=Wayback Machine snapshots of cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html |year=2023}}</ref>
<ref name="courier-maildir">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.courier-mta.org/maildir.html
 |title=maildir(5)
 |first=Sam
 |last=Varshavchik
 |year=2009
 |access-date=2024-08-09
 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240417195248/https://www.courier-mta.org/maildir.html
 |archive-date=2024-04-17
}}</ref>
<ref name="courier-msg38512">{{cite mailing list |url=http://www.mail-archive.com/courier-users@lists.sourceforge.net/msg38512.html |title=Management of maildir structures |date=25 July 2016 |access-date=26 July 2016 |mailing-list=courier-users |author=Sam Varshavchik }}</ref>
<ref name="courier-plusplus">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.courier-mta.org/imap/README.maildirquota.html
 |title=Maildir++
 |first=Sam
 |last=Varshavchik
 |year=2011
 |access-date=2024-08-09
 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529081454/https://www.courier-mta.org/imap/README.maildirquota.html
 |archive-date=2024-05-29
}}</ref>
<ref name="dovecot">[https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/maildir/ Dovecot Wiki: maildir format]</ref>
<ref name="mutt-colons">[http://marc.info/?l=mutt-users&m=131644437917477&w=2 mutt maildir support: workaround for filesystems that don't accept colons]</ref>
<ref name="dovecot-2006-crit">{{cite web
 |url=https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/maildir/#mail-delivery
 |title=Maildir Mailbox Format: Mail Delivery'
 |first=Timo
 |last=Sirainen
 |author-link=Timo Sirainen
 |access-date=2024-08-09
 |orig-date=2006-12-05<!--
      The diff for the original 2006-12-05 critique added in the Dovecot wiki is archived at:
      https://web.archive.org/web/20210820172330/https://wiki2.dovecot.org/MailboxFormat/Maildir?action=diff&rev1=11&rev2=12 -->
 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240624123136/https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/maildir/#mail-delivery
 |archive-date=2024-06-24
 |quote="All this trouble is rather pointless. Only the first step is what really guarantees that the mails won’t get overwritten, the rest just sounds nice. Even though they might catch a problem once in a while, they give no guaranteed protection and will just as easily pass duplicate filenames through and overwrite existing mails.¶ Step 2 is pointless because there’s a race condition between steps 2 and 3. PID/host combination by itself should already guarantee that it never finds such a file. If it does, something’s broken and the stat() check won’t help since another process might be doing the same thing at the same time, and you end up writing to the same file in tmp/, causing the mail to get corrupted.¶ In step 4 the link() would fail if an identical file already existed in the Maildir, right? Wrong. The file may already have been moved to cur/ directory, and since it may contain any number of flags by then you can’t check with a simple stat() anymore if it exists or not.¶ Step 2 was pointed out to be useful if clock had moved backwards. However, this doesn’t give any actual safety guarantees because an identical base filename could already exist in cur/. Besides if the system was just rebooted, the file in tmp/ could probably be even overwritten safely (assuming it wasn’t already link()ed to new/).¶ So really, all that’s important in not getting mails overwritten in your Maildir is step 1: Always create filenames that are guaranteed to be unique. Forget about the 2 second waits and such that the Qmail’s man page talks about."
}}</ref>
<ref name="dovecot-2006-crit-2">{{cite web
 |url=https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/maildir/#locking
 |title=Maildir Mailbox Format: Locking
 |first=Timo
 |last=Sirainen
 |author-link=Timo Sirainen
 |access-date=2024-08-09
 |orig-date=2006-12-05<!--
      The diff for the original 2006-12-05 description of locking in the Dovecot wiki is archived at:
      https://web.archive.org/web/20181123154140/https://wiki2.dovecot.org/MailboxFormat/Maildir?action=diff&rev1=13&rev2=14  -->
 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240624123136/https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/maildir/#locking
 |archive-date=2024-06-24
}}</ref>
<ref name="opengroup-rename">{{cite web |url=http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/rename.html |title=rename |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |year=2013 |publisher=[[The Open Group]] |access-date=23 July 2016 |quote=That specification requires that the action of the function be atomic.}}</ref>
<ref name="qmail-manpage">{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19971012032244/http://www.qmail.org/qmail-manual-html/man5/maildir.html |url=http://www.qmail.org/qmail-manual-html/man5/maildir.html |first=Daniel J. |last=Bernstein |author-link=Daniel J. Bernstein |title=maildir(5) |archive-date=1997-10-12 |year=1995 |access-date=2018-11-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
}}