140212 - Mail folder with slash (/) in name causes strange results (usual local folder, not search/virtual folder), not IMAP

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect)

Description

[Kerry Shetline]

I created a mail folder named "Kinda Funny/Quotes". I wasn't sure if a slash was
acceptable or not, but I got no warning of the name being invalid, and it seemed
to work. I dragged one e-mail message into this folder before quitting.

I ended up having problems which appear to boil down to the slash having been
treated partly as a valid folder name character, but partly as path separator.

The next time I went to look at my mail, I had a folder simply called "Kinda
Funny", with an expansion widget next to it. I clicked the widget, and inside
there was a folder named "Quotes". It was only by clicking on the inner folder
that I could see the message I'd dragged in earlier.

I tried to move the message out of the inner folder into the outer folder --
that didn't work. I tried to drag the message into my Inbox -- that didn't work
either.

I was, however, able to drag the the inner Quotes folder into the Trash. Once in
the Trash, I was able to drag the saved message out and into the safety of my Inbox.

I then threw away the Kinda Funny folder, and tried to create a new one with the
same name, "Kinda Funny". I was told that there was already a folder with that
name. I closed my e-mail window and re-opened it, and indeed the once deleted
folder had reappeared.

I decided then to quit Mozilla, dig down into
~/Library/Mozilla/.../mail.myisp.com. and manually delete the unwanted mailbox
-- which, not too surprisingly, turned out to be a folder (meaning a file system
directory) rather than a mailbox, with a Quotes mailbox inside.

It looks like a bug where the either the slash shouldn't have been allowed in
the mail folder name in the first place, or where care has to be taken not to
completely literally use folder names as file names when some of the characters
in the folder name, such as a slash, might not be legal file name characters.

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

-> Mail

Comment 2

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Using Windows XP build 2002062109

When I try to create a mail folder with a slash in it, nothing happens when I
press the OK button in the new folder dialog. It clearly stops me from creating
the folder, but it doesn't tell my why. As soon as I remove the slash, the
folder is created when pressing OK. The same occurs with backslash.

In other words, I didn't get the same results as the reported. 

Expected results: It should display a warning saying something like "A folder
name cannot contain any of the following characters: [list of invalid chars]"

Suggest rename of summary to "Creating mail folder with slash/backslash in name
causes OK button to do nothing"

Maybe that's another bug than this one? 

Comment 3

[Greg K.]

Kerry, please provide the Build ID you're reporting against, as well as
simplified steps to reproduce the problem. Thanks.

Comment 4

[Kerry Shetline]

I simply right-clicked on my mail account, selected "New Folder...", and typed
in the folder name "Kinda Funny/Quotes" as described in the original bug report.

I suspect that since '/' is the path separator character in Mac OS X, but not in
Windows, that the behavior when testing this bug in Windows will be different
than with OS X. Perhaps trying to use a '\' in Windows will bring about a
similar result.

As for the build number when I first reported the bug: it was pre-RC 1, but I
don't recall now the exact build. In the build I'm currently using, 2002052918,
the same bug still exists.

Oddly, if I have an existing mail folder called "foo", and I try to create a new
folder named "foo/bar", I'm not allowed to do that. There's no clear error
message, it's just a matter of clicking "OK" being ignored when I try to enter
the folder name. I'd guess that at some level the first part of new name before
the slash is being detected as the same as an existing folder, causing the
entire new name to be rejected.

Even without having examined the guts of the related code, to me this bug is not
in the least bit mysterious. The slash character '/' simply can't be part of an
OS X (or any Unix) file or directory name. Creating new mail boxes and mail
folders causes same-named files and directories to be created. If nothing is
done to exclude illegal file name characters from mail box and mail folder
names, and nothing is done to escape or otherwise encode such characters before
literally including them in file/folder names... something is going to break.

Comment 5

[FZiegler]

Confirming -- this also happened to me the other day, exactly as the reporter
describes. (Mozilla 1.1b for Mac OS X, 2002072203.) When the user asks Mozilla 
to create a folder named `foo/bar', the actual result is a subhierarchy:

Local Folders
  foo
  foo.sbd
    bar

(and later foo.msf and bar.msf). The expected result is that Mozilla should
either refuse that name (as in XP, comment 2); or it should behave like the OS X
Finder, i.e., create a folder named `foo:bar' in the filesystem, but still
display its name as `foo/bar' in the GUI.

Comment 6

[Jo Hermans]

*** Bug 169642 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Mats Palmgren (inactive)]

*** Bug 170038 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 170299 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9

[Koike Kazuhiko]

Linux/Windows build freezes if you create a folder with "/".

Comment 10

[Koike Kazuhiko]

*** Bug 168595 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Fix for bug 117385 has improved treatment of illegal characters in folder name
and the fix is already applied on tested build.
0x5C(\,real filename will be "00000072.msf") and 0x7C(|,real filename will be
"00000092.msf") cases were resolved by this fix on MS Windows environment.
But problem of bug 140212 still remains even on MS Windows system.

[Environment] 2002111508-trunc/Win-Me

[Test Procedure and Result]

(1) Create a folder named "TEST"
 -> "TEST", "TEST.msf" were created
(2) Create a folder "/"(0x2F) under "TEST" folder
 -> Mozilla freezed(CPU 100%,probably loop)
 -> "TEST.sbd" was created. Under TEST.sbd, "00000045" was created.
 But I could not find "00000045.msf" file.
(3) Kill Mozilla
(4) Restart Mozilla
 -> Folder name of "TEST" was changed to "/" (Real file names are
"TEST","TEST.msf","TEST.sbd" on file system)
 -> Under new "/" folder, folder named "00000045" apeared.
  (This is normal because "00000045" file exists under "TEST.sbd" directory)

Folder named "/" could not be moved, deleted nor renamed.
To clear, delete "TEST","TEST.msf","TEST.sbd" files/directory and restart Mozilla.

Special care will be required for "/" since this is path separator in URI too.

Comment 12

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 181282 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 13

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 160441 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

*** Bug 181772 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[Jo Hermans]

*** Bug 187436 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16

[Jonas Westberg]

I noticed another character that does funny things with folders. I used the "#"
character in a foldername and all the messages in that folder went blank (the
preview-window did not change view and if I opened a mail it was blank). When I
tried to rename it again an alert said:
  "The folder culd not be renamed. Perhaps the folder is being reparsed, or the
new name is not a valid foldername."

I got this when I renamed it from "test#test" to "test". After that, the emails
in that folder was not visible with Mozilla. I got them back by renaming the
folder-files and restarting Mozilla.

Version: Mozilla 1.3b, Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.3b)
Gecko/20030210

Comment 17

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Jonas, "#" related problem is handled by Bug 94124.
Bug 124287 (Meta bug: Problems with folders having names with illegal
characters) will help you.

In addition to above illegal character cases, rename related problem( Bug 65303
) is reported even for legal folder names.

Comment 18

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

*** Bug 203491 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 19

[Michel Plungjan]

Still the case in 1.4a when importing outlook express folders

Comment 20

[WD]

*** Bug 205822 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 21

[Samuel Sieb]

*** Bug 205829 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 22

[WD]

*** Bug 209763 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 23

[Daniel Wang]

*** Bug 210412 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 24

[Alfonso Martinez]

*** Bug 211836 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 25

[Hideo Oshima]

Recent Linux trunk build cannot create mail folder with /, but WinMe can.
Is the bug morphing?

Comment 26

[Oleg Sidletskiy]

how about changing summary to reflect that it's not just /, but also many other
characters, if those character cause problems, they should at least not be
allowed to be used in a folder name.

also, IMO this bug is a blocker, it stops me from working in Mail/Tb, side
effect include messages dissapearing/reappearing from folders, inablility to
delete folders, not even having the ability to rename a folder back using legal
characters.

Comment 27

[Oleg Sidletskiy]

*** Bug 223262 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 28

[Arndt Klawitter]

Actual Version Mozilla 1.6 stable, german localization, Windows 2000 on PC,

Same behavior as described in Comment #16 with " / " in the name.

Comment 29

[Conure]

I renamed a folder with a "/" by mistake and it took the name fine.  I am not
able to get into the folder or delete it.  If I try to rename it again I get the
message saying thtat the folder can not be renamed.  

I can read the file with notepad ( it was renamed to some cryptic name, but I
can not do anything with it in Mozilla.

Comment 30

[Zook Valem]

Yea, that is the worst part of this bug.  So, you're not the only one here.

Comment 31

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

*** Bug 89986 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 32

[Sterling]

Does this allow me to add to the bug? If it does:

* I was able to rename an existing mail folder with a slash in the name.
* This deleted the mail folder
* I could not then rename the folder back.
Mozilla 1.6
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

Comment 33

[Boying Lu]

Attachment: patch v0

Comment 34

[Boying Lu]

Comment on attachment 149892 [details] [diff] [review]
patch v0

Can you give r?
Thanks

Comment 35

[Kevin Hollenshead]

I noticed in my case where I renamed a folder using a "/" that it took it and
appeared to rename the folder but the operation never completed.  The UI
displayed the folder name but the read/unread counts went to "???" and nothing
displayed when the folder was selected.  I noticed on disk that the folder had
been renamed to "5ba0f997" and appeared to still be there.  I exited mail,
renamed the folder and .msf and then restarted and recovered the contents of the
folder.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040616

Comment 36

[Jo Hermans]

*** Bug 254286 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 37

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 258067 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 38

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

See bug 219586, bug 257986

Comment 39

[David Hollman]

A related problem with folders with slashes in the name: Trying to drag and drop
another folder into one with a slash in the name does not work. There is no
feedback to the user... it just doesn't do it.

Steps:
1. Create a folder "a / b"
2. Drag another folder "c" into "a / b"
3. The mouse icon changes as though this will be allowed
4. Release the mouse button
5. Nothing happens

Thunderbird 0.7.3 on Windows XP.

IMO the proper fix for these bugs is not to restrict the characters the user can
use when naming folders. It would be very inconvenient not to be able to use all
restricted characters from all platform Thunderbird supports.

To put it another way, the user's ability to name folders should not be
dependant on the file naming rules of the operating system / filesystem.

Comment 40

[Mike]

I recently experienced this problem with Mozilla's Mail program (1.7.3) when I
named a folder with a / in it and found that it would create the files to keep
track of the folders but sometimes would show them in the folders and have had
mixed results in deleting the badly created folders, sometimes getting a
read/write error.

Comment 41

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Folder of "/" could be created and used with no errors by both Mozilla Suite
latest-trunk(1.8a5) and Thunderbird 0.9(and latest nightly) on Win-2K.
( file set of "HEXA-string" and "HEXA-string.msf" was created )
Mscott has successfuly resolved this lo---nglived bug, I believe, by fix for Bug
219586 and Bug 264467, post fix of Bug 264071 is required though.

Comment 42

[Gregor Rosenauer]

See also Bug 245905 for Thunderbird-specific issues.

"/" in the foldername causes no problems for Thunderbird 1.0, but unexpectedly
creates a folder with a subfolder in it ("a/b" => new Folder "a" with new
subfolder "b").

Comment 43

[Frank Wein [:mcsmurf]]

*** Bug 294367 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 44

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #42)
> but unexpectedly creates a folder with a subfolder in it
> ("a/b" => new Folder "a" with new subfolder "b").

When usual local mail folder, Thunderbird latest-trunk(Win-2K) created file of "72130ad9" and "72130ad9.msf" and directry of "72130ad9.sbd" for folder name of "a/b" ("a/b" is kept in "72130ad9.msf" only.)
And message filter points it thru "mailbox://[e-mail]/Test/72130ad9".
This indicates no possibility of creation of directry/file of "a" or "b",
if only usual local mail folders are involved.
Is you problem when "Virtual folder"("Saved search folder") is involved?
If yes, virtualFolder.dat contains string of "a/b" in path of the virtual folder, then problem of Bug 286523 may occur.
Your problem is Bug 286523, isn't it.

Comment 45

[Eduardo Brasil]

I have the same problem with slash ("/") on folder names. I'm using the version 2.0.0.0 (20070326) and the problem still happening. I can't create a folder with name "until 01/04/2007". The program creates a subfolder on each "/".

Comment 46

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #45)
> The program creates a subfolder on each "/".

Same problem as which comment? Isn't it search folder(virtual folder)?

This bug is for usual local folder, and already resolved, but is kept open because WORKSFORME cannot be applied and it's still unclear which patch/bug had resolved. (No one can close this bug except developer who resolved this bug's problem.)

As I wrote in Comment #44, different Bug 286523 occurs when search folder(virtual folder), and "subfolder(and/or directory) on each /" is phenomenon of Bug 286523.

Comment 47

[Eduardo Brasil]

Sorry. My reply is not related to Comment #46. It's related to the first comment... Kerry Shetline   2002-04-25 20:03:00 PDT. I can't create folders with "/" in the name, like "messages 01/01/2007". The program creates 3 folders. "message 01" than "01" and than "2007". I'm using version 2.0.0.0 (20070326)on Windows.

Comment 48

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #47)
> I can't create folders with "/" in the name, like "messages 01/01/2007".
> The program creates 3 folders. "message 01" than "01" and than "2007".
> I'm using version 2.0.0.0 (20070326)on Windows.

To Eduardo Brasil (comment poster of comment #45 & comment #47) :     
Could you please describe exact/detailed operations you did when you encountered your problem (or you re-create your problem), with description about directory/file status for mail folder (what file/directory is created, renamed or deleted) before&after each step. (like Bug 286523 comment #1)

Comment 49

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

(In reply to comment #48)
> Could you please describe exact/detailed operations you did when you
> encountered your problem (or you re-create your problem), with description
> about directory/file status for mail folder (what file/directory is created,
> renamed or deleted) before&after each step. (like Bug 286523 comment #1)

WADA, this can be easily reproduced on an IMAP server. I tried with Local Folders or POP3 were it is working like expected. But if you create a folder like '2007/04/25' as a new root folder or as a subfolder of any existing folder you get following tree:

[x] 'existing folder'
    [x] 2007
        [x] 04
              25

If we need an IMAP log I could create one.

Comment 50

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #49)
> this can be easily reproduced on an IMAP server.

To Henrik Skupin :    

Oh, IMAP case...
You don't seem to understand why I added "usual *LOCAL* folder" in summary and comment #44, but I say sorry to you for my lack of attention on IMAP cases.
(I always forget IMAP case because I don't/can't use IMAP, and I don't know about IMAP well...)

Please see dependency tree of Meta Bug 124287, and see at least Bug 29926 for "/" related issue(s) when IMAP.
When IMAP, some use "/" as delimiter of folder hierarchy but some use "."...

To Eduardo Brasil (comment poster of comment #45 & comment #47) :
Is your problem when IMAP?

Comment 51

[Eduardo Brasil]

(In reply to comment #50)

Yes, I tested now. It's only on IMAP servers. Could be a problem of my IMAP server?

Follow my steps to get the problem:

I open thunderbird (version 2.0.0.0 (20070326) running on Windows XP SP2) and get my e-mail messages. I don't use the local folder to store my messages. I have one disk folder to each mail account.

I right click on Inbox(of IMAP account) then I click on "New Folder" and type something like "10/01/2007" as folder name. Then I click OK e thunderbird creates three folders. The first with name "10", under "10" a new folder called "01" and under this last folder, another with name "2007".

I follow the same steps on Local Folder (POP3) and works fine. No problems.

> (In reply to comment #49)
> > this can be easily reproduced on an IMAP server.
> 
> To Henrik Skupin :    
> 
> Oh, IMAP case...
> You don't seem to understand why I added "usual *LOCAL* folder" in summary and
> comment #44, but I say sorry to you for my lack of attention on IMAP cases.
> (I always forget IMAP case because I don't/can't use IMAP, and I don't know
> about IMAP well...)
> 
> Please see dependency tree of Meta Bug 124287, and see at least Bug 29926 for
> "/" related issue(s) when IMAP.
> When IMAP, some use "/" as delimiter of folder hierarchy but some use "."...
> 
> To Eduardo Brasil (comment poster of comment #45 & comment #47) :
> Is your problem when IMAP?
> 

Comment 52

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

(In reply to comment #51)
> Yes, I tested now. It's only on IMAP servers. Could be a problem of my IMAP
> server?

You can test this with another mail client which is capable to use IMAP. I tested with Outlook and it works fine. But we should stop here and move over to bug 29926.

Comment 53

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Changing to FIXED (already worksforme because fixed by some other bugs)

Comment 54

[Atlanx]

Is this really finaly fixed? - Thank you all, this was sooooo an anoying and dangerous bug.

Im really happy :)  Thank you all!!!

Comment 55

[David Tenser [:djst]]

(In reply to comment #54)
> Im really happy :)  Thank you all!!!

This comment made me happy too! :)

Comment 56

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Comment on attachment 149892 [details] [diff] [review]
patch v0

This looks to be an obsolete patch on a bug now marked as fixed (by other bugs). Therefore clearing request. If it is still required, please refile on a new bug.