UW IMAP - Message flags are not propagated in mbox file
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| uw-imap (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
Binary package hint: uw-imapd
Accessing mail on a uw imap server (with mbox format), and then setting a flag (including deleting the mail) results in an immediate change of the status flag on the imap mail folder file. Anyway, this is not true with mbox (the Inbox mail file). If the mail client doesn't send an EXPUNGE, or CLOSE, or LOGOUT command, (when you close the mail client, for example) the mbox file doesn't get updated. This leads to frustrating results, like deleted mail reappearing in the Inbox.
Depending on the used mail client, you can see or not see this behaviour (as an example, Apple Mail seems unaffected, presumably because it always send one of the aforementioned command that makes uw-imapd sync flags. You can see this problem using Mozilla Thunderbird, which happens to be our organization default mail client).
Please note that this doesn't seem to be one of the common multiple sessions/lock file problems, because it happens also if just one session is used.
This started with Hardy (uw-imapd 7:2007~dfsg-1)
| description: | updated |
| description: | updated |
| Roberto (roberto-colnaghi) wrote | #1 |
| Changed in uw-imap (Ubuntu): | |
| status: | New → Confirmed |
I reproduced the same bug on a fresh installation of Hardy, without any other mail software (not event he MTA), just uw-imap. So this bug is definitely confirmed, and it is not caused by conflicts. Anyway, since the upgrade to Hardy I had 3 users' inboxes corrupted, I don't know if this is related, but I think it is (different processes trying to write in the inbox, I suppose). As you can understand, this can't be tolerated on a production environment, so I just moved to Dovecot. Still, I really think this bug deserves attention, because the consequences are critical, and is not so easy to spot until the Inboxes get corrupted. It truly surprises me that no one else has noted this, now that I know for sure that is not setup/configuration related.