26547 - [IMAP-UW]Unable to move/copy mail from INBOX to mail subfolder

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Networking, defect, P3)

Description

[Andreas Premstaller]

Observed on:
M13 build, nightly build 2000020310, WinNT

Symptom:
The attempt to copy or move a message from the INBOX to a mail subfolder
(folder/subfolder) produces this error message from the mail server:
"Alert: The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded:
[TRYCREATE]UID COPY failed: No such destination mailbox."

It is possible to copy/move mail from INBOX to folders directly at the root of
the mail-tree.
It is also possible to copy/move mail from any folder or subfolder except INBOX
to any folder/subfolder (including INBOX).

Maybe this is mailserver-specific (compare Bug #23312)
Here is the first line of my imap-log:
172[19afd30]: mail1.uibk.ac.at:NA:CreateNewLineFromSocket: * OK mail1.uibk.ac.at
IMAP4rev1 v12.258 server ready

Comment 1

[Andreas Premstaller]

Attachment: IMAP mailserver logfile (stripped down)

Comment 2

[Andreas Premstaller]

The imaplog contains these two lines:

(1) 164[15ece30]: mail1.uibk.ac.at:A:CreateNewLineFromSocket: * LSUB () "/" 
Uni_Innsbruck/Allgemein

folder/subfolder are separated by slash (/) here.

(2) 164[15ece30]: mail1.uibk.ac.at:S-INBOX:SendData: 17 uid copy 452 
"Uni_Innsbruck|Allgemein"

folder/subfolder are separated by "|" (what is it called?) here, and the 
mailserver obviously doesn't understand that.

Comment 3

[Andreas Premstaller]

This is written in the IMAP logfile when I copy from another folder (not INBOX) 
to the same subfolder as before:

40[15eeec0]: mail1.uibk.ac.at:S-Chemie:SendData: 17 uid copy 22 
"Uni_Innsbruck/Allgemein"
40[15eeec0]: mail1.uibk.ac.at:S-Chemie:CreateNewLineFromSocket: 17 OK UID COPY 
completed

In this case the folder/subfolder-combination is (correctly) separated by "/" 
and my clever mailserver understands the command, while there is a "|" when 
copying from INBOX.

(probably has nothing to do with bug #23312, so I remove jefft from the cc-list)

Comment 4

[jefft]

Adding myself back to cc'ing list. This may have something to do with the 
changes I made for namespace.

Comment 5

[Scott MacGregor]

jeff, this looks like it could be related to some of the name space and folder
delimeter stuff you've been working on. re-assigning to you. feel free to send
back =)

Comment 6

[Karen Huang]

Adding UW on the summary to specify UW IMAP server!

Comment 7

[jefft]

Is this still happening with the most recent builds? 

Comment 8

[Andreas Premstaller]

Yes, just tried with nightly build 2000021615 on WinNT. Same error message as
before.

Comment 9

[jefft]

Okay, I think I know the problem. For UW Imap servers, a mailbox can be either a 
folder mailbox or a message mailbox. It cannot be both. A folder  mailbox can 
have sub folder mailbox or sub message mailbox. It cannot contain any messages. 
Same as for a message mailbox, it can only contain messages but not sub 
folder/message mailbox. In 4.x, the name of a folder only mailbox displayed as 
gray text. When selecting to it nothing happens. Of course, you cannot move/copy 
messages to a folder only mailbox. We have to do the same thing for 5.0. I think 
we might want to consider this for a beta1 stopper.

Comment 10

[Phil Peterson]

> For UW Imap servers, a mailbox can be either a folder mailbox or a message 
> mailbox.

Right, but only if you're using mbox format, right? You don't have to use mbox 
format. Anyway, I agree it's would be good to fix this interop bug for b1.

Comment 11

[Karen Huang]

Following are the bug#2734 comments:

****************************************************************************

------- Additional Comments From [e-mail]  2000-01-31 16:47 -------
> (This bug imported from BugSplat
[...]
> Server allows folders containing messages and subfolders checked

For the record: This setting is wrong for the UW server.

------- Additional Comments From [e-mail]  2000-01-31 17:01 -------
So, do you mean that it should be "Unchecked" Server support folders containing
subfolders and messages? Can you explain why this setting is wrong for the UW
server?

------- Additional Comments From [e-mail]  2000-01-31 17:38 -------
Karin,
Yes, you have to uncheck it for the UW-IMAP server.
Why? It doesn't support these hybrid folders due to its mailbox format.

*****************************************************************************

So if you don't have to use mailbox format, what it should be?

Comment 12

[leger]

Putting on PDT+ radar for beta1.

Comment 13

[jefft]

There are much more work than I have expected. First we need to make sure that 
all the folder flags are stored/read from the database. This involved the pref 
and identity work as well. Not to mention the notification to change 
the folder icon bitmap. Secondly, we need to display a non selectable folder 
differently, say grey out. We should not allow user to move copy message into a 
non selectable folder.  Not to grant the select command when user select the 
non-selectable folder........

Comment 14

[Phil Peterson]

Is the real bug here that we don't have good UI when a folder is /noselect and 
we can't copy messages to it? If we wouldn't have been able to copy messages to 
it anyway, I'd take the simplest possible change for this, and leave the fancy 
UI until after B1. 

Comment 15

[jefft]

Yes. We could take it out from the PDT radar I guess. You can still copy 
messages to a the message only mailbox.

Comment 16

[Andreas Premstaller]

It seems to me this is getting a little bit off the original problem. It 
is very well an issue that Mozilla does offer the possibility to copy to a 
folder mailbox that can not contain messages using an UW-IMAP server. This is 
an issue of offering the average user a non-existing possibility. 
The problem observed by me - and not knowing the source I can't tell how far if 
it is at all related to the UW-IMAP/non UW-IMAP (or folder containing only 
subfolder or messages vs. folder containing both) server story - is that I can 
not copy *from* INBOX *to* any message-only-subfolder that is contained in a 
subfolder-only-folder. And this problem (humbly me not being a programmer) has 
it's origin in the fact that a wrong command is sent to the mailserver, namely 
"...uid copy nnn "folder|subfolder"..." (note the hyphen (|)) instead of "...uid 
copy nnn "folder|subfolder". This problem causes me to *not be able at all* to 
perform this filing operation using Mozilla, and is not just about giving me or 
not an invalid possibility.

For clarity (sorry if you get annoyed by my insistance). this is what my 
maildirectories look like:
root - INBOX
     - message-only-containing-folder1(=folder1)
     - message-only-containing-folder1(=folder2)
     - subfolders-only-containing-folder - subfolder1
                                         - subfolder2
I can not copy from INBOX to subfolder1, I do not want/and do not try to copy to 
"subfolders-only-containing-folder".

Comment 17

[Andreas Premstaller]

Sorry, should have been in the posting above:
"...uid copy nnn "folder|subfolder"..." (note the hyphen (|)) instead of "...uid 
copy nnn "folder/subfolder". 
(note the slash (/)!)

Comment 18

[Phil Peterson]

Ok, I understand now. You're prevented from performing a legal copy, which seems 
like a beta1 stopper. If you were permitted to try an illegal copy, and not 
given good UI feedback, I would not hold beta1 for that.

Comment 19

[jefft]

Thanks andreas. To my surprises, menu item "Copy Messages" does nothing and 
messages can only be drag and drop copying from one folder to another (with 
wrong directory separator). I thought those two features were all working. I 
hate regressions. :-( Apparantly, I was on the wrong direction (and that's a big 
problem to us too). I'll look into .... Sigh .... 

Comment 20

[Karen Huang]

Jeff, do you think that this is blocked by bug#27396?
I am wondering even users try to copy message to the subfolder(message-only) 
under the folder-only folder. It may be blocked by bug#27376??

Comment 21

[Karen Huang]

I mean bug#27396...

Comment 22

[jefft]

No.

Comment 23

[Karen Huang]

Yes. I saw that, too....regression again!!....
256[aefd6d0]: sspitzer.mcom.com:S-INBOX:SendData: 27 uid copy 2 
"fdronly|fdronly_sub1|fmsgonly_sub1_1"

Comment 24

[jefft]

I have a fix ready for review and check in. I'll log another bug to address the 
/NoSelect folder issues.

Comment 25

[jefft]

Fix checked in.

Comment 26

[Karen Huang]

Verified on WinNT 02-24-09-M14 commercial build
Can move/copy mail from INBOX to UW mail subfolder now....

221[b44eb10]: sspitzer.mcom.com:S-INBOX:SendData: 27 uid copy 12 
"fdronly/fdronly_sub1/fmsgonly_sub1_1"
221[b44eb10]: sspitzer.mcom.com:S-INBOX:CreateNewLineFromSocket: 27 OK UID COPY 
completed

Marking as verified