Package: thunderbird
Version: 1:52.8.0-1~deb9u1
Severity: normal
Tags: upstream
Dear Maintainer,
The whole the described tests should been did one by one.
Thunderbird is connecting an UW-IMAP server without any problem on normal
folders and mail.
Generally UW-IMAP is using simple directory/mbox structure to store the mails
in a mail tree structure.
The underlying filesystem is ext3/4 which does not support mails and
directories with same name.
In thunderbird server connection details it is needed not to select "server
support mails and dirs in same
folder" to support such kind of IMAP servers, like UW-IMAP.
A special behavior is the inbox which is normally located on the imap server as
a mbox file under
/var/spool/mail/$(whoami) or /var/mail/$(whoami).
I use default Archives on IMAP configuration "copies & folders" setup. This
will results to an Archives folder
in the mail directory where all other mail directories of the connected account
are stored.
In Archive extension menu I use for better understanding the problem "A single
folder" selection and the
"Keep existing filder structure of archived messages" option.
My suggestion was that all my mail folder structure will create under the
Archives special folder shown in
Thunderbird. In respect to the setup all mails should be stored in mbox files
on the servers filesystem
directory structure which is located under Archives and the related mail
directory structure of the archived
files:
Thunderbird shows:
/Inbox
/Test mail dir
/Test/mails
/ordner sub dir
/ordner/otest mail dir
/ordner/otest/mails
IMAP Server directory filesystem stucture
/var/mail/$(whoami)
~/Test mbox file
~/ordner filesystem directory
~/ordner/otest mbox file
* What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
ineffective)?
There 2 problems in archive maybe which could have same base problem:
Test 1: Archive inbox mails will create and moved files directly to Archives
instead of Archives/Inbox
If no Archive (Archives on IMAP Server) exitst Mails from inbox will create in
Thunderbird the Archive directory
(Archives-mbox file) and the mail will moved to this servers mbox file.
Archiving all other mails in different folders will not further work, because
they need to create mbox file
in the Archives IMAP-Server directory, but this is allready a mbox file.
After test situation of Archives
Thunderbird
/Archives mail dir
/Archives/mails from Inbox
IMAP server
~/Archives mbox file contains moved mails
At the end I removed manually the mbox Archives file on the IMAP Server. I
removed the flags for Archive in
"Subscribe" menu of this server setup. Restart and reconnection is needed to
show that the Archive is gone.
This is important for further steps.
Test 2: Archive subfolder mails will create and moved mails directly to
Archives against respects the settings
In my Thunderbird on my own test folder I archived one mail. This will results
in a new Archive (Archives mbox
file on IMAP server) and breaks the setup "Keep existing folder structure of
archived messages" if no Archive
(Archives folder on Imap server) exists.
After test situation of Archives
Thunderbird
/Archives mail dir
/Archives/mails from Inbox
IMAP server
~/Archives mbox file contains moved mails
The situation here is the same as like to move the Inbox files. This was
completly wrong behavior. It should
be:
Thunderbird:
/Archives mail dir created
/Archives/test maildir created
/Archives/test/mail has to been moved from /test mail
IMAP Server:
~/Archives fs directory created
~/Archives/test mbox file created with the moved mail from ~/test mbox file
At the end I removed manually the mbox Archives file on the IMAP Server. I
removed the flags for Archive in
"Subscribe" menu of this server setup. Restart and reconnection is needed to
show that the Archive is gone.
This is important for further steps.
Test 3: Create the Archives mail folder manually (supports Folders only). Rerun
Test 2
I created on base a new Mailfolder by right click on server "New folder ..."
with name Archives pointed
to IMAP Server and select option "This server restricts folders to two special
kinds. Allow your new folder
contain: Folders only". This will create in Thunderbird the Archives folder (on
IMAP server the Archives
directory).
Thunderbird:
/Archives created
IMAP server:
~/Archives fs directory created
In my Thunderbird on my own test folder I archived one mail.
This now created a mailfolder in Archives and the mail is shown (as expected):
Thunderbird:
/Archives folder
/Archives/test mail folder created which contains the moved mail from /test
IMAP server
~/Archives fs directory
~/Archives/test mbox file with the moved mail from ~/test mbox file.
This is the expected behavior if the Archives folder/directory allready exist.
Test 4: Archive mails from subfolder will not work completly if subfolder not
allready exist
It is the same situation like in Test 2 but here now the mail will not moved.
Only the folder
and a wrong mbox file (should be a directory on the server) with the name of
the subfolder will
created:
Thunderbird:
/Archives/ordner mail folder is created but without mail content. Archived mail
still left in
source mail folder (/ordner).
IMAP server:
~/Archives/ordner mbox file is created but without mail content.
At the end I removed the /Archive/ordner mail folder from Thunderbird without
any problem.
Also the mbox file on IMAP server has been removed in ~/Archives.
Test 5: Wrong mbox mail folder created instead of directory/mbox in Archives on
IMAP Server
This is exactly the same as in Test 3 but creating subfolder in Archives mail
folder as in
Test 3.
The result is the same as in Test 3 but the mail is now moved correctly in the
subfolder:
Thunderbird:
/Archive/ordner/otest mail folder with archived mail is created
IMAP server:
~/Archive/ordner/otest mbox file with the mail is created
Be aware: the archive action has been used *after* the folder ordner has to
been created.
Test 6: Archive Inbox mail will results in error if Archives folder exists and
is on imap
server a real fs directory
Now archive a mail from Inbox will result in a error message.
"The current operatio on 'inbox' did not succeed. The mail server for account
******@******
responded: indeterminate mailbox format: ~/Archives.
The mail will shortly removed in Thunderbird from Inbox view, but will recover
after
short time.
All these Tests are reproducible. The target server is a UW IMAP server with
mbox support
but without support for mails and dirs in same folder.
For the moment I tested it only on the given Debian stable release. I will add
more information
if I could test it an newer/latest thunderbird release.
My suggestion is that:
1. The Inbox archive function does not expect that the IMAP server does not
support folders
and mails in subfolder. No workound is known by me.
2. The archive does not create directories instead of maildirs if the option
"Folders only."
is selected in servers setup. Archive function does not respect this option.
Workaround is known: Create all folder structure manually which also contains
only
folders before archiving first mail by using "Folders only."
This could be brings more trouble if yeary and monthly option is used in
archive setup.
My suggested solution could be:
1. Create a /Archives/Inbox mail directory and archive all these mails to this
subfolder
instead directly to /Archives.
2. In respect with the server option "server support mails and dirs in same
folder" is not
set, maybe the same function must be used as the one which is used by manually
creating
with "Folders only" if the to be created folder does not stores mails (the leaf
folder of
the folder tree).
Cheers and thx for fixing the issue.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.4
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-6-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=
(charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: unable to detect
Versions of packages thunderbird depends on:
ii debianutils 4.8.1.1
ii fontconfig 2.11.0-6.7+b1
ii libatk1.0-0 2.22.0-1
ii libc6 2.24-11+deb9u3
ii libcairo-gobject2 1.14.8-1
ii libcairo2 1.14.8-1
ii libdbus-1-3 1.10.26-0+deb9u1
ii libdbus-glib-1-2 0.108-2
ii libevent-2.0-5 2.0.21-stable-3
ii libffi6 3.2.1-6
ii libfontconfig1 2.11.0-6.7+b1
ii libfreetype6 2.6.3-3.2
ii libgcc1 1:6.3.0-18+deb9u1
ii libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 2.36.5-2+deb9u2
ii libglib2.0-0 2.50.3-2
ii libgtk-3-0 3.22.11-1
ii libhunspell-1.4-0 1.4.1-2+b2
ii libpango-1.0-0 1.40.5-1
ii libpangocairo-1.0-0 1.40.5-1
ii libpangoft2-1.0-0 1.40.5-1
ii libpixman-1-0 0.34.0-1
ii libstartup-notification0 0.12-4+b2
ii libstdc++6 6.3.0-18+deb9u1
ii libvpx4 1.6.1-3+deb9u1
ii libx11-6 2:1.6.4-3
ii libx11-xcb1 2:1.6.4-3
ii libxcb-shm0 1.12-1
ii libxcb1 1.12-1
ii libxcomposite1 1:0.4.4-2
ii libxdamage1 1:1.1.4-2+b3
ii libxext6 2:1.3.3-1+b2
ii libxfixes3 1:5.0.3-1
ii libxrender1 1:0.9.10-1
ii libxt6 1:1.1.5-1
ii psmisc 22.21-2.1+b2
ii x11-utils 7.7+3+b1
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.8.dfsg-5
Versions of packages thunderbird recommends:
ii hunspell-de-de-frami [hunspell-dictionary] 1:5.2.5-1
ii lightning 1:52.8.0-1~deb9u1
ii myspell-en-us [myspell-dictionary] 1:3.3.0-4+deb8u1
Versions of packages thunderbird suggests:
pn apparmor <none>
ii fonts-lyx 2.2.2-1
ii libgssapi-krb5-2 1.15-1+deb9u1
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.4
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-6-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=
(charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: unable to detect
Versions of packages thunderbird depends on:
ii debianutils 4.8.1.1
ii fontconfig 2.11.0-6.7+b1
ii libatk1.0-0 2.22.0-1
ii libc6 2.24-11+deb9u3
ii libcairo-gobject2 1.14.8-1
ii libcairo2 1.14.8-1
ii libdbus-1-3 1.10.26-0+deb9u1
ii libdbus-glib-1-2 0.108-2
ii libevent-2.0-5 2.0.21-stable-3
ii libffi6 3.2.1-6
ii libfontconfig1 2.11.0-6.7+b1
ii libfreetype6 2.6.3-3.2
ii libgcc1 1:6.3.0-18+deb9u1
ii libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 2.36.5-2+deb9u2
ii libglib2.0-0 2.50.3-2
ii libgtk-3-0 3.22.11-1
ii libhunspell-1.4-0 1.4.1-2+b2
ii libpango-1.0-0 1.40.5-1
ii libpangocairo-1.0-0 1.40.5-1
ii libpangoft2-1.0-0 1.40.5-1
ii libpixman-1-0 0.34.0-1
ii libstartup-notification0 0.12-4+b2
ii libstdc++6 6.3.0-18+deb9u1
ii libvpx4 1.6.1-3+deb9u1
ii libx11-6 2:1.6.4-3
ii libx11-xcb1 2:1.6.4-3
ii libxcb-shm0 1.12-1
ii libxcb1 1.12-1
ii libxcomposite1 1:0.4.4-2
ii libxdamage1 1:1.1.4-2+b3
ii libxext6 2:1.3.3-1+b2
ii libxfixes3 1:5.0.3-1
ii libxrender1 1:0.9.10-1
ii libxt6 1:1.1.5-1
ii psmisc 22.21-2.1+b2
ii x11-utils 7.7+3+b1
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.8.dfsg-5
Versions of packages thunderbird recommends:
ii hunspell-de-de-frami [hunspell-dictionary] 1:5.2.5-1
ii lightning 1:52.8.0-1~deb9u1
ii myspell-en-us [myspell-dictionary] 1:3.3.0-4+deb8u1
Versions of packages thunderbird suggests:
pn apparmor <none>
ii fonts-lyx 2.2.2-1
ii libgssapi-krb5-2 1.15-1+deb9u1
-- no debconf information
