247566 - problems using the same FAT file system for Windows and Linux

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(MailNews Core :: Database, enhancement)

Description

[Michael Burger]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de-AT; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040608
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de-AT; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040608

My e-mails are stored on a FAT partition on my computer, so that both my Linux
and my Windows boot-up are able to access all e-mails. This is a very good help
for me and works generally very well!
I've created symbolic links to the (FAT) mail directories at the Windows profile
from my (ext3) Linux profile directory.

But there are some small problems with file naming problems at the Linux FAT driver:
- Index files are re-created quite often, which sometimes takes several minutes,
and therefore, the number of e-mails and unread files are not visible without
clicking on the mail folder
- Few mail filters don't find their target mail folders

Especially folder names shorter than 8 characters in mixed case caused problems
in the past.

I haven't found a concrete rule when these index files cannot be used any more
and have to be recreated, because this only happens with some (rather few) of
the folders and both for Mozilla running under Linux and Windows. It happens
almost every time after changing the operation system.

Furthermore, mail filters are hard to reactivate, if the filter cannot find its
target folder even after updating this target folder.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set up a Windows / Linux dual boot system (another idea: SAMBA under Linux)
2. Set up a POP mail account and put the mail data on a FAT partition (using the
"Local Directory" option) after having set up all. This means for Windows XP:
you can delete the original "Mail" directory on NTFS and use a directory under FAT.
3. Set up the same account under Linux in and extXfs environment, but delete the
"Mail" folder afterwards and put a symbolic link to your "Mail" folder on the
mounted FAT system there instead.
4. Get mails by this POP account and change the OS by booting. Special Tests:
Use Mixed case folder names, use short (up to 8 chars) and long folder names.
5. Enhanced test: Install mail filters on one OS and check the filter behaviour
on the other system

Actual Results:  
Some index files haven't been accepted and have been recreated, mostly on the
Linux system, but quite often also on the Windows System.
There are two mail filters which are not accepted on the opposite operating
system and report that the folder cannot be found, even if the folder spelling
in the error message is correct.

Expected Results:  
Find the folders, use the old index files.

Two ideas:
1. Check for the file system type (that's difficult, I agree), if it's FAT,
accept both spell cases and no special characters
2. Just use "simple" characters in one case (upper case) and display a more
complex name (for example stored in the index file) for the front-end

Another idea of enhancement: While creating the mail account, ask for a
different Mail folder location, independent from the other profile settings.

Comment 1

[Christian Eyrich]

> Index files are re-created quite often,

See bug 232047. I stopped this by following comment #12 though I directly access
the mailfolders on the FAT partition from Linux (changed the local directory
under Server Settings) and don't use links from Linux partition to FAT.

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
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If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

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Comment 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.