1755271 - File -> "Get next X News Messages" does not work

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Networking: NNTP, defect)

Description

[max]

Steps to reproduce:

I can not get older messages for an active NNTP news group. Maybe I just confused something, but I was able to do it on 2021-05-31. The date is taken from browser history for the https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1023505 page. I do not remember what version daily builds had that time. A side note: it is hard to discover this feature (see Bug #322337).

• Subscribe to some active newsgroup, e.g. gmane.emacs.devel on news.gmane.io
• Get first bunch of messages (I have tried default 500 or just 10)
• File -> Get Next ... News messages

Actual results:

Nothing.

OK, there is "GROUP" request to the server, but older messages are not appeared in the folder.

Expected results:

Next bunch of earlier messages appears in the folder.

• I have tried to change size of bunch in the account preferences but it does not help.
• Notice that unsubscribing is not a workaround because of lost "seen" status of read messages.
• It can be reproduced with daily build 99a1.

Comment 1

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

Daily was version 90.0a1 on 2021-05-31.

Testing with Thunderbird 98.0b1 on Fedora 35 Workstation, Gnome 41 desktop.

• I subscribed to alt.comp.os.windows-10 on Aioe, which had a total of 112,665 messages.
• Selected 250 and did not mark remaining headers as read.
• Downloaded the messages.
• Selected File > Get Next 250 News Messages.
• Status bar showed "There are no new messages on the server".
• I waited for 15 minutes, and tried again. One new message was downloaded.

So it works for new messages, but not previous unread messages.

Comment 2

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

Tested with the Fedora build of 91.5.0, Thunderbird 91.6.0 on Fedora 35 Workstation and was able to download the next 250 messages with both.

Same with version 91.6.0 on Windows 10.

Next being older messages.

Doesn't download the next 250 messages using 98.0b1 on Windows or Fedora, and I don't see any error messages in the Error Console.

Comment 3

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

Reporter,

Could you try setting mailnews.nntp.jsmodule to false using Settings > General > Config Editor?

When I do that, I get the next xxx news messages using the beta and daily versions on Windows and Linux.

Comment 4

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

Attachment: Bug 1755271 - Support getting old messages in nntp-js. r=mkmelin

Update MsgKeySet.getLastMissingRange to return old missing range.

Comment 5

[max]

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #3)

Could you try setting mailnews.nntp.jsmodule to false using Settings > General > Config Editor?

When I do that, I get the next xxx news messages using the beta and daily versions on Windows and Linux.

Thanks, I am able to get older messages with such setting for version 99a1 daily as well.

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #2)

Tested with the Fedora build of 91.5.0, Thunderbird 91.6.0 on Fedora 35 Workstation and was able to download the next 250 messages with both.

Same with version 91.6.0 on Windows 10.

I initially tested thunderbird-91 on my primary profile and actually faced another more subtle bug present in daily build with the setting suggested above.

If you ever do "Mark -> All read" or "Mark Newsgroup Read" than messages fetched by "Get Next X News Messages" appear in the "read" state. Till such action they are added as unread. When total amount of messages is huge enough that it is hard to notices difference in total number in the status bar. The number of unread messages does not change, so messages were hidden.

Mark all read should affect already fetched messages only.

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #1)

Daily was version 90.0a1 on 2021-05-31.

So it works for new messages, but not previous unread messages.

There is much more prominent "Get Messages" button to get newer messages. The developer who was reimplementing the action in JS might got "Next" wrong. The menu item label is confusing.

Comment 6

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

Thanks, I didn't know about the "Get Next X News Messages" until this bug.

If you ever do "Mark -> All read" or "Mark Newsgroup Read" than messages fetched by "Get Next X News Messages" appear in the "read" state. Till such action they are added as unread. When total amount of messages is huge enough that it is hard to notices difference in total number in the status bar. The number of unread messages does not change, so messages were hidden.

Mark all read should affect already fetched messages only.

I agree with you, at least "Mark -> All read" should only affect fetched messages. Do you mind filing a new bug?

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/b31ac46fd2c7
Support getting old messages in nntp-js. r=mkmelin

Comment 8

[max]

(In reply to Ping Chen (:rnons) from comment #6)

If you ever do "Mark -> All read" or "Mark Newsgroup Read" than messages fetched by "Get Next X News Messages" appear in the "read" state. Till such action they are added as unread. When total amount of messages is huge enough that it is hard to notices difference in total number in the status bar. The number of unread messages does not change, so messages were hidden.

Mark all read should affect already fetched messages only.

I agree with you, at least "Mark -> All read" should only affect fetched messages. Do you mind filing a new bug?

See Bug #1755659. Filing bugs is like chain reaction with multiplication factor noticeably greater than 1.

Comment 9

[max]

Thank you, I have tried a daily build and now "Get Next..." works with default settings. I hope, this rarely used feature is implemented reliably.