Closed Bug 834201 Opened 11 years ago Closed 3 years ago

Cannot save GNU/Linux mailspool (movemail) in local folders

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Movemail, defect)

x86_64
Linux
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: dchmelik, Unassigned, NeedInfo)

Details

(Whiteboard: [support])

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:18.0) Gecko/18.0 Firefox/18.0
Build ID: 20130119195224

Steps to reproduce:

I set up the UNIX mailspool (movemail) account for my username, and tried to have the mail saved to 'local folders.'


Actual results:

There was no option to save it to 'local folders.'


Expected results:

There should have been an option to save it to 'local folders.'
OS: Windows 7 → Linux
Hardware: x86 → x86_64
http://www.pantz.org/software/thunderbird/thunderbirdandmovemail.html 

Please press the advanced button in the accounts server settings and see if it provides an option to specify what inbox to use. I believe movemail accounts have that, just like POP accounts do.
Flags: needinfo?(dchmelik)
There is no 'advanced' button in my movemail account's server settings.
Flags: needinfo?(dchmelik)
If I recall correctly, the problem is if you use a POSIX-type system, and you want to use something such as ~/mail for both your local folders, and local UNIX mail for your username (that owns that folder,) such as if your username is an alias for root or if you get mail on a LAN... Thunderbird will not let you use a folder in your user directory for both its movemail account and your Thunderbird local folders... in the last several versions of Thunderbird (and I am now using 17.0.6) do not think it is a question of whether there is an 'advanced'--you set the folder for the mailboxes somewhere else such as maybe 'server settings.'
near the end I meant 'I do not think...'
You can change the location of Local Folders to some location outside of your profile. Copy that directory wherever you want it, select "Local Folders" in the account settings (not one of its children) and then select its new location using the browse button next to the "local directory" setting. If it was a real account you'd do that in the server settings for the account but Local Folders is a pseudo account so it doesn't have server settings. 

Or you could move the entire profile somewhere else per http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird . In general, you can move the profile almost anywhere except the applications installation directory.
(In reply to Eric Moore from comment #5)
> You can change the location of Local Folders to some location outside of
> your profile.

That is how I have always used Thunderbird on POSIX-type systems; my local folders are saved  in ~/mail... I just want to be able to still use it with movemail, and I know one used to be able to with Thunderbird: one could have it use ~/mail for one's mailboxes and still use that folder with command-line mail clients. Maybe it is not extremely important, but when I am using movemail, then I often get messages in a shell 'you have mail' and want to be able to use a command-line client as well.
Then move the entire profile there, rather than just Local Folders. It sounds like your problem using a command line client is because you can only specify one mail storage location using command line arguments, and you have at least two (one for your movemail account, and another for your other accounts)
(In reply to Eric Moore from comment #7)
> Then move the entire profile there, rather than just Local Folders. It
> sounds like your problem using a command line client is because you can only
> specify one mail storage location using command line arguments, and you have
> at least two (one for your movemail account, and another for your other
> accounts)

I have no problems with command-line clients (mail, re-alpine, and I used others,) and actually, I originally set, and still have, my Thunderbird folders to be in the folder I still use with those: '~/mail,' and it used to be (and I finally relearned alpine and did this again today) that if I close Thunderbird and, use re-alpine, and restart Thunderbird, any new mail that was in re-alpine would be there. Of course '~/mail' is not actually the mailspool. I am just saying, if even mail and re-alpine can (or do) use '~/mail' and transfer movemail there, Thunderbird should be able to.

I do not want to move my thunderbird profile from ~/.thunderbird to ~/mail, and I am not sure my command line clients could even deal with the change, since one automatically uses '~/mail,' then I would have tens of Thunderbird configuration files & folders appearing in my command-line client as if they were mbox files, and it would be a nightmare.

Actually it was not until the last few years that I was trying to do this. After I learned more about POSIX-type systems, I stopped using root as my account but have more and more reasons that mail will be sent to root, and I am setting up a LAN... so I still want to use movemail, but I had almost forgotten how. Apparently POSIX-type systems normally use mailspool  files for each username, saved in '/usr/spool/mail' or '/var/spool/mail,' etc., and older-style mail clients can be set to transfer mail from that mailspool to a user's mail folder in their home folder. It seems Thunderbird does not even use a normal mailspool. It almost seems like I should open another bug, but I want to discuss this more first.

In fact, maybe because I had forgotten some things about pine, my report was not as good as it could have been. Now that I relearned how movemail works, I see it should not really even be a question of where the mail is saved: obviously Thunderbird should be accessing a standard movemail inbox file, i.e. mbox mailspool file in a location like I mentioned (though I have recently read that there are new types.) Instead of doing that, it seems Thunderbird makes, within its folder, a folder that has to do with movemail (but I do not see what it has to do with movemail at all... the folder has several mbox files,) rather than Thunderbird opening the user's mailspool on the system. Maybe it does in my case without me knowing it, but it is still saving to neither my local folders nor the arbitrary folders Thunderbird created for the account, that really have nothing to do with it. I made & removed my movemail account in Thunderbird several times, eventually not changing its folder (and it was when I did that I noticed Thunderbird's movemail accounts have folders rather than a mailspool mbox file,) sent several test mails to myself, and they are arriving when I use the programs mail and re-alpine, but not Thunderbird... I do not recall if I ever actually ran Thunderbird this way, to mail myself on my own system or LAN, but as I have described parts of how it works, it should be the simplest thing a mail program can do...

So, I do not know what to say now... I still have the bug, but I do not know if that is the whole problem, or if it is if Thunderbird no longer uses mbox files, or if I should report another bug.
Actually, what I originally said about using re-alpine, was of course about pine... I started using that sometime from 1997 to 2000 and then each renamed version.
David, did you get it sorted out?
Component: Untriaged → Movemail
Flags: needinfo?(dchmelik)
Product: Thunderbird → MailNews Core
Whiteboard: [closeme 2016-02-15][support]
Version: 17 Branch → unspecified
(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk, use Needinfo for questions) from comment #10)
> David, did you get it sorted out?

No.
Flags: needinfo?(dchmelik)
Whiteboard: [closeme 2016-02-15][support] → [support]
James, 
Being a user of movemail, do you have problem in your configuration as the reporter describes here?
Flags: needinfo?(james.marchant)
I can't comment on this anymore as I can't upgrade to Thunderbird 60, since it breaks support for some add-ons that I really like.

Support for Movemail has been removed as of version 87 per Bug 1625741

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
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