GLEP:32

Abstract
Ebuilds that install mail delivery agents often need to know the default location of users' mailbox. When the mailbox is of a maildir type, there is no set standard what the name of the directory should be. The most popular extensions are "Maildir", ".Maildir" and Gentoo has adopted its own ".maildir" name.

This GLEP proposes a user-definable maildir location.

Motivation
To provide the means to change the default location of a maildir, that is currently hardcoded in ebuilds.

The ".maildir" name is not adequate for most situations.
 * "Maildir" is the defacto standard name for maildir mailboxes.
 * People transferring e-mail configuration from other systems prefer to keep the original naming conventions.
 * In a virtual hosting environment, having a hidden file in a directory dedicated for e-mail delivery is not a plus.
 * All postfix and qmail related documentation gives "Maildir" as an example name.

Rationale
The following comments were made in a discussion on the Gentoo bugzilla
 * The default location should be specified in
 * Preventing users from shooting themselves in the foot is not an issue

Implementation
A  has been submitted to Bug 52076

Patches that implement features similar to this GLEP have already been submitted to Bug 52076.

MAILDIR variable
The default location for maildir delivery is specified by the  variable. This variable is specified in.

maildir.eclass
This eclass exports a  the eclass exports for backwards compatibility reasons.

Patching ebuilds
Since most ebuilds that currently need to know what the maildir delivery location is already take the default  location into account when installing, modifying ebuilds to implement this GLEP is as simple as inheriting the   and substituting   in the ebuild with the   variable. Care should be taken, to also modify any patches or scripts that are used by the ebuild, that already have  hardcoded (vpopmail, exim).

Backwards Compatibility
The default location is ".maildir", unless it is overridden. This way, there would be no backwards compatibility issues.

Copyright
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.