Using imaplib, how can I create a mailbox without the \\NoSelect attribute

Question

I'm attempting to create directory trees in an gmail IMAP account. I've used the "create()" command in imaplib, but it seems to add the \\Noselect attribute to the created folder. This breaks gmail's nested labels feature - is there a way to remove the \\Noselect attribute, or avoid it being created in the first place?

Example:

>> imap.create("foo/bar")
('OK', [b'Success'])
>> imap.list()
[b'(\\Noselect \\HasChildren) "/" "foo"', b'(\\HasNoChildren) "/" "foo/bar"',...

Answer 1

I figured out a solution - Not sure if it's the 'best' way though. When creating a nested mailbox in one command, the top level mailboxes automatically are flagged \\Noselect. While it may be hacky, you can remove this flag by creating each level explicitly.

Example:

folder = "abc/def/ghi/jkl"

target = ""

for level in folder.split('/'):
    target += "{}/".format(level)
    imap.create(target)

I'll leave the question open to see if anyone has a better solution.