216467 - "mail server responded: APPEND failed: Unknown flag: $MDNSent" when moving messages from local Sent folder to remote server

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, defect)

Description

[Daniel Liston]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030718
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030718

Interoperability problems with IMAP server.  When I try to move messages from
the "Local Folders" to folders on the remote server, I get a pop-up "Alert" with
the following text; "The current command did not succeed. The mail server
responded: APPEND failed: Unknown flag: $MDNSent".  I assume this means my
remote server does not yet suport $MDNSent in imap, but since I can only control
my client and not the server, I need a way to disable the use of this command in
my client.  If I telnet to my IMAP server, I get this banner; "* OK [CAPABILITY
IMAP4REV1 LOGIN-REFERRALS STARTTLS AUTH=LOGIN] daniel IMAP4rev1 2001.315rh at
Sun, 17 Aug 2003 14:10:59 -0500 (CDT)"

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Mail client is configured to save copies of sent mail in local folders.
2. Send an email to anyone, anywhere
3. Try to move the message copy from the "local folders/Sent" to any folder on
the remote IMAP server.

Actual Results:  
ALERT

The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded: APPEND failed:
Unknown flag: $MDNSent

Expected Results:  
I expected the messages to be moved to the remote server without errors/complaints.

I only use the default theme/skin.  I do have multiple IMAP accounts configured
in a single profile.

Comment 1

[David :Bienvenu]

Could you attach an imap protocol log by following these instructions?

http://www.mozilla.org/quality/mailnews/mail-troubleshoot.html#imap

I suspect your server is falsely advertising the ability to set arbitrary
keywords on the imap folder. But we shouldn't be setting the $mdnsent flag either...

Comment 2

[Daniel Liston]

Interesting effect:  When I add the environment variables to enable IMAP
logging, I am suddenly able to move messages from my workstation "local folders"
to the remote imap server.  This of course makes the log worthless because the
task suceeded.  If I remove the variables "NSPR_LOG_MODULES Value: IMAP:5" and
"NSPR_LOG_FILE    Value: c:\tmp\mailnews.imap.debug" from the environment (and
reboot) the imap move produces the same old $MDNSent error again.

Looking at "about:config" in mozilla, I see mail.mdn.report.* and
mail.server.default.mdn_* settings, all with a "default" status.  I am on the
1.5a build of mozilla.

Comment 3

[David :Bienvenu]

Oh. Please upgrade to a 1.5b build. This is most likely fixed.

Comment 4

[Daniel Liston]

Considering the bug has never been reported until now, I doubt it is fixed in
1.5b, but I am willing to try.  I went to the ftp site and the home page, but
can not find this release.  I also tried to create a new attachment with debug
output captured showing the failure, but kept getting a "Page contains no data"
error when I tried to attach the log file.

Comment 5

[David :Bienvenu]

there was a bug that had similar symptoms, in the sense that turning on logging
suddenly made the problem go away - there was a regression where the host name
for a protocol object was not getting set when running a url, and this caused
some strange problems. Logging had the side effect of setting the host name, and
making the strange problems go away.

here's a link to the most recent 1.5b build -
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/nightly/latest/mozilla-win32-installer-sea.exe

Comment 6

[Daniel Liston]

Thank you for the link.  I have downloaded and installed 1.5b 20030815 and still
have the imap problem trying to move local messages to remote folders.  $MDNSent
I will try to attach the most recent debug log.  Even with this version of
mozilla, I am unable to attach files to this bug report.  I get an alert
"document contains no data" when I hit submit.

Comment 7

[David :Bienvenu]

Daniel, you could try just e-mailing me a log of a session - even one where the
copy works would be interesting. I take back my comment that we should not be
setting the mdn sent flag - we set the flag in the local sent folder to make
sure we never send an mdn response if you click on a message with an mdn
request. We probably shouldn't do that if there's not an mdn request header in
the message but up til now, it was harmless. 

Comment 8

[David :Bienvenu]

Attachment: proposed fix

this moves the call that sets the host name to ::ProcessCurrentUrl instead of
::ProcessSelectedStateUrl (Append is not a selected state url). This should fix
the problem. I've also removed some ifdeffed out code.

Comment 9

[David :Bienvenu]

I think there's a possibility that this fix might help with problems copying
messages to the sent folder on some servers because setting the host name on
non-selected state urls might bring the multiple connection protection code into
play.

Comment 10

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

Comment on attachment 129992 [details] [diff] [review]
proposed fix

r/a=sspitzer for 1.5 beta

Comment 11

[David :Bienvenu]

fix checked in.

Comment 12

[Daniel Liston]

I tried the latest build, but still get the same results.  I am now running
mozilla 1.5b 20030822 with no change to the original report.  I am unable to
attach the debug log to this report.  Is there somewhere I can email or ftp this
report?  I can not move messages from the local folders/sent to a remote IMAP
server.

Comment 13

[Daniel Liston]

Please see note from 8-22 and today.

I tried the latest build, but still get the same results.  I am now running
mozilla 1.5b 20030827 with no change to the original report.  I am unable to
attach the debug log to this report.  I can not move messages from the local
folders/sent to a remote IMAP server, unless I close all mozilla windows,
restart the mail client, and make the message moves the first action during the
session.  If I send additional messages during that session, they will be
unmovable until the following session, and then, only if it is the first action
performed.

Comment 14

[David :Bienvenu]

I'm pretty sure your server is at fault, from the logs I've seen. That makes it
harder to fix this.

Comment 15

[Daniel Liston]

Is there a recommended/compatible imap server for linux kernel 2.4.20 that I
should try?  I am willing to do just about anything (except switch MUAs) right now.

Comment 16

[David :Bienvenu]

from the log, I think you're running the 2001 rh dist imap server - there are
several versions of the server released since then that potentially fix this bug
- I don't know anything about compatibility with the 2.4.20 kernel, though. It
might also be the way the mail store is configured with your server. This server
has several options for mailbox formats and other formats may not have this bug.

I don't think the cyrus server has this problem...in fact, I don't really know
of any server that does have this problem, other than the one you seem to be using.

Eventually (e.g., for moz 1.6), I'd like to make it so these messages in your
local sent folder don't have the mdn sent flag set, unless an MDN request was
made. But you'd still have this problem with existing messages in your sent
folders. 

Comment 17

[Tim Riker]

Same error message here

Mozilla 1.4
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624

running against exim-tls 3.35-3woody1 on Debian stable.

Seems to only happen when moving messages that were copied to a local Sent
folder up to an imap folder.

I tried adding a temp local folder and moving all the messages from set to that
new folder, that went ok. Then moving the messages from the temp folder to an
imap folder still gives this same error and does not do the move. I expect
$MDNSent is an extension for local folders and should be cleared when moving to
an imap folder.

Comment 18

[mark]

I am experiencing this bug now:  

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113
imap-2001a-18/Redhat 9

Cannot move or copy a message from Local Folders/Set to IMAP/Sent.  Error
message as reported in this Bug.

I managed to work around the problem by creating a folder on the IMAP server
called temp1 and then moving the messages to this folder instead of the Sent
folder.  Then I was able to move them from the temp1 folder to the Sent folder.

Mark

Comment 19

[John K. Humkey]

Didn't experience with 1.6 but am now with Mozilla 1.7.  ONLY on Windows 2000,
the Windows 98SE box at home works perfectly.  It does move the mail ok if I try
one at a time, its only a problem on multiple moves.

Comment 20

[A. Gill]

I also experience this with Thunderbird version 0.7.3 (20040803).

My IMAP server banner:
* OK <servername> IMAP4rev1 v12.261 server ready

Comment 21

[David :Bienvenu]

Have not heard of any reports of this in years...

Comment 22

[Daniel Liston]

Thunderbird 3.1.7 on Fedora 14.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) 

I no longer have the redhat IMAP server to connect to, but this version is working.  I can successfully copy multiple "local" sent folder messages to a remote Sun IMAP server, running on Solaris 10 x86.  Here is the interesting
part of the IMAP banner;

IMAP4 service (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 7.3-11.01 64bit (built Sep  1 2009))

I think enough years and revisions have passed in client and server OSs, IMAP server, and "now" thunderbird (which defaults to saving to the sent folder on the remote server now) that the problem is no longer valid.  At least not for 
my environment.  Sorry, I don't have any redhat 9 servers hosting my IMAP service any more to give an authoritive response.