224805 - Converting Netscape 4.x mail - commas in folder names converted to underscores

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 87380

(MailNews Core :: Import, defect)

Description

[Alexander Zink :alex]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.6a) Gecko/20031030
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.6a) Gecko/20031030

When converting Netscape 4.x mail (a Netscape 4.x profile) to Mozilla 1.6a, all
'comma' characters in mail folder names are converted to 'undescores'. This does
not only affect the file stored on the hard disk (holding the mail folder
content) but also the actual folder name displayed in Mozilla Mail!

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a Netscape 4.x profile with some of mail folder names containing
'comma' characters
2. Start Mozilla and let the Netscape 4.x profile being converted
3. Alle 'comma' characters in Netscape 4.x mail folder names will be displayed
as 'undescore' characters in Mozilla
4. Renaming the folders manually in Mozilla keeps the same folder file name on
the hard disk, but displays the folder names correctly in Mozilla Mail



Expected Results:  
'Comma' characters in mail folder names should be displayed correctly in Mozilla
Mail after converting a Netscape 4.x profile

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Mozilla simply consider file name as folder name on importing Netscape 4.x mail.
So this is probably done by Netscpae 4.x.
Netscape 4.x has his own mechanism to avoid illegal file name character problem.
For example, if folder name is "\"(Backslash), real file name becomes something
like "_A", or "_B"(maybe "__A") if "_A" is already used.
I guess same(or near) mechanism of Netscape 4.x changed "." in folder name to
"_" in file name.

What is real file name of the mail folder in Netscape 4.x?

Comment 2

[Alexander Zink :alex]

If Netscape's mail folder name was "test, test", Mozilla's real file name will
be "test_ test" - and that is how it is displayed in Mozilla Mail after
converting the Netscape 4.x profile.
This behavior seems to be related to the problem described in bug 87380 - the
converter cannot read Netscape's original folder name but has to rely on
Netscape's file system names...
On the other hand the last statement in that bug report says that the behavior
should be improved. However it does still not work well with the very common
'comma' character...
Alex  :-)

Comment 3

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Bug 148915 Comment #3 says 
> The SNM files which contain the long name are a proprietary format from
> Neologic. This format can only be read with an official Netscape release
> that has licensed the code.
Folder name is probably saved in .SNM in Netscape 4.x as Mozilla saves folder
name in .MSF file if file name is not equal to folder name.

I think this is the reason why Seth Spitzer said "this should probably be marked
wontfix." in bug 87380 Comment #1.

Anyway, I think this is dupe of bug 87380 although the illegal file name
character is differenrt.

Comment 4

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 87380 ***