[MlMt] How do changes to tag setup in MailMate affect messages in Gmail?

[Jody Foo]

I have a few questions regarding how changes in tag setup in MailMate 
are propagated/reflected to Gmail. This email is a bit long, but its 
because I think there are a lot of details :P

**Background**: I recently tidied up my tag set and their location and 
basically did what I am asking in question 4. I had some temporary 
glitches (semi duplicate folders in MailMate, e.g. both folders 
`labelmappedtotag` and a new folder `_labelmappedtotag`. I don't 
remember the exact details, but this went away. Possibly after a 
MailMate crash..

I have three gmail accounts set up in MailMate. For all of these I have 
set up a gmail label[^label] called '`#`' under which all labels I am 
going to use as tags in MailMate should be stored. For example, the tag 
'#`purchase`' might have the following mapping in the MailMate 
preferences: '`#purchase` = '`#purchase` = '`#/purchase`'. I created all 
the labels in gmail first, some with messages.

I also discovered that if a *label structure defined in MailMate* *does 
not exist in gmail*, MailMate will *create* the label structure in gmail 
and then MailMate will add the newly created label to the message (or if 
its the Gmail API that does this?)

Now to my questions...

1. Am I correct that the above is the same thing as specifying a label 
path without the path existing in gmail? This would mean that I _do not_ 
have to create the label in (at least one of) the gmail accounts I have 
configured in MailMate before adding it as a Tag in the MailMate 
Preferences?

2. If I change the mapping of an existing tag in MailMate, what happens 
on the gmail side?
  1. messages get both new and old labels in gmail (*MailMate using IMAP 
flags* to _add_ gmail labels or
  2. the existing gmail label is renamed or
  3. only future tag assignments are affected and the old tagged 
messages are no longer considered to be tagged with the previous gmail 
label is again shown as a mailbox in Mailmate, or
  4. something completely different?

3. With regard to the previous question, what steps should I perform to
  1. Change the mapping of a previously used tag to a new one? E.g. the 
tag "#todo" has been mapped to messages with the gmail label "todo" and 
now I want to use the label !todo in gmail?
  2. Change the IMAP flag used for a tag? E.g. if the flag `todo` has 
been used but now I want to use the flag `#todo` and therefore replace 
all occurrences of the flag `todo` with `#todo`?
  3. Change the displayed string used by MailMate for a tag

4. Finally, what would happen if I did two or more of the above 
operations? E.g. if I changed the display string to `TODO`, the flag 
used to `#todo` and the gmail mapping to `tags/todo`? Is it _always_ 
"sort of" safe (I did this and no data was lost but there were some 
glitches)?

regards,

Jody

[^label]: I'll say *label* for gmail labels, tag for MailMate's 
implementation, and folder for IMAP-folders or MailMate folders (should 
that be Mailboxes technically?)
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