223272 - what does "when it is time to clean up messages:" mean?

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Documentation Graveyard :: Help Viewer, defect)

Description

[timeless]

10/20-04
open mailnews
edit account settings
select a news server
select offline & disk space

look for "when it is time to clean up messages:"
try to figure out what that means.

click help.

    *
    * When it is time to clean up messages: Click one of the three choices to
specify when newsgroup messages should be deleted. Unless you choose "Keep all
messages," enter the number of days to keep messages or the number of newest
messages to keep.
    * Keep only unread messages: Select this option to delete messages
immediately after you read them.
    * Remove message bodies only older than __ days: Select this option to
delete messages after the number of days you specify.

[ Return to beginning of section ]

That's nice. but:
1. I still have no clue what it means
2. There are some other check boxes below the radios which don't seem to be
mentioned.

Comment 1

[R.J. Keller]

Kovu, Nilson, Daniel:
Any suggestions for rephrasing? Let's wait until bug 95770 for this to be fixed.
Once caillon gets all the CVS log stuff transfered, we/I can think about making
a patch for this.

Comment 2

[Nilson Cain]

Maybe "When it is time to remove old messages"?

Comment 3

[timeless]

that doesn't help me. when is that time?

fwiw there's another bug i touched shortly after i filed this bug which suggests
redoing the panel in question, it even suggests what action is probably
connected to the preference.

Comment 4

[Stefan Borggraefe]

timeless is refering to http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=222940#c31
in his last comment.

Comment 5

[Stefan Borggraefe]

> that doesn't help me. when is that time?

I tried to figure this out by code inspection. I don't really know C++ so take
this with a graint of salt. I think "time to clean up messages" is

- when compacting folders
- when getting new messages
- when selecting a newsgroup

The clean up is done my the method ApplyRetentionSettings. So if you want to
verify my findings, this lxr query may be a good starting point:

http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/ident?i=ApplyRetentionSettings

Comment 6

[Daniel Wang]

it literally means "when it is time to clean up messages". So if you choose
"keep all messages", it's never. If you choose messages bodies older than 30
days, it's "when there are downloaded messages older than 30 days". If you
choose "Keep the newest 30 messages", it's "when you have >30 messages"

A better description might be "Options to keep messages:"

the change probably belongs to bug 222940

Comment 7

[timeless]

daniel: i'm fairly certain you're wrong.

remember that to the user "compact folders" doesn't relate to "keep all messages".

Comment 8

[Daniel Wang]

The "compact folders" menu item is disabled for newsgroups. I don't know /when/
Mozilla clean up old downloaded news messages. It could be when the user
re-sync/downlad new messages. It could be when Mail & Newsgroups is loaded. But
most users probably aren't interested in the details. That's why the label "when
it is time to clean up messages" should be changed to "Options for keeping
messages:" It's more clear and leave out unnecessary details.

Comment 9

[David :Bienvenu]

I think Daniel is on the right track. What this really means is which news
headers (and thus messages) should we keep in the .msf file. If we delete a news
msg hdr from the .msf file, we've effectively removed your ability to see the
message as well.

However, the last check box refers to message bodies stored for offline use and
not message headers. It *is* indirectly involved in folder compaction. That
check box will cause us to delete messages from the offline store, but the space
savings will only be realized when the offline store is compacted. If you've set
the "cleanup disk space when it will save more than XX KB" setting, that will
cause the offline store to be compacted.

Comment 10

[Stefan Borggraefe]

The term "When it is time to clean up messages:" is no longer in the UI since
the patch for bug 222940 was checked in.

What should happen with this bug now?

Comment 11

[Daniel Wang]

resolve as wontfix and do bug 226188 ?