# dovecot: how to enable THREAD and SORT extensions?



## cbrace (Feb 21, 2010)

Hi all,

I have just set up Squirrelmail on my mailserver. The docs recommend IMAP THREAD and SORT extensions on the IMAP server to improve performance. I am using Dovecot, and according to the website: 



> Supports multiple commonly used IMAP extensions, including SORT, THREAD and IDLE.



However, I can't find anywhere on the Dovecot site exactly _how_ to configure these extensions. Likewise, Google returns plenty of hits that these features are supported, but no explicit instructions on how to enable them:

http://www.google.nl/search?q=~configure+dovecot+IMAP+extension+SORT

Does anyone know how to configure these extensions in Dovecot? I have v1.2.10 installed.

Thanks.


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## dennylin93 (Feb 21, 2010)

SORT, THREAD, and IDLE should work out of the box. No configuration is necessary. See Dovecot Features/Protocols.


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## cbrace (Feb 21, 2010)

This appears not to be the case:


```
$ telnet localhost imap
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN] Dovecot ready.
```

According to the Squirrelmail docs I should see this:


```
> telnet imapserver.example.com imap
* OK

1 capability
* CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE [B]THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT[/B] QUOTA IDLE AUTH=PLAIN STARTTLS
1 OK CAPABILITY completed
```


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## cbrace (Feb 22, 2010)

The author of Dovecot confirmed that THREAD and IDLE are enabled by default: enabling-IMAP-SORT-and--THREAD-extensions

As you can see in the followups there, when one logs into imap via telnet, one also needs to issue the command "1 capability" to see the full list, which I neglected to do; the initial banner doesn't list everything.


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