294037 - Message filter criteria "begins with", "ends with", and "is" behave like "contains" on manual run.

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(MailNews Core :: Filters, defect)

Description

[Benjamin Kraus]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Thunderbird version 1.0.2 (20050317)

When manually running a filter, the operators "is", "begins with", and "ends
with" act like "contains" instead of the way I would expect. In addition,
"isn't" behaves like "doesn't contain". This is true when searching the
"Subject" or a custom header field, such as "X-Spam-Level". When the filters are
run automatically on incoming mail, they behave as I would expect them to behave.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
I. Set up a filter as follows: 
  1. Click "Tools" -> "Message Filters"
  2. Click "New"
  3. Name "Test Filter"
  4. Select "Match all of the following"
  5. Enter the criteria: "Subject", "is", "TESTTEST"
  6. Perform these actions:
    "Move to folder ..." (select a test folder)
  7. Click "OK"
  8. Make sure "Enabled" is checked.
  9. Repeat steps 2-8 with "begins with", "ends with" and "contains" instead of
"is".
  10. Close "Message Filters" window.
II. Test filter with incoming mail:
  1. Send yourself (or wait for) mail that matches the selected criteria.
  2. Check mail and make sure it was properly sorted (filters work).
III. Test filter by running manually:
  1. Move messages that were previously sorted back to the INBOX.
  2. Click "Tools" -> "Message Filters"
  3. Select the test filter.
  4. Select the INBOX
  5. Click "Run Now"
  6. Repeat steps 1-5 with each of the filters created in step 9.
Actual Results:  
I sent myself five test messages with the subjects:
1. "This is a TESTTEST it is"
2. "This is a TESTTEST"
3. "TESTTEST this is"
4. "TESTTEST"
5. "This is a test"

When the filters ran automatically on the incoming mail, the messages sorted
properly. When run manually, the filters behaved as follows:

Operator:
"is", All messages but number 5 (without "TESTTEST") were moved to the test folder.

"begins with" and "ends with" exhibit the same behavior as "is" (moves all
messages containing the word "TESTTEST").

"contains" worked as expected (exact same as the previous three).

"isn't" and "doesn't contain" both moved only message 5.

Expected Results:  
"is", only the message with the subject "TESTTEST" (4) should have been moved,
because it is the only message where the entire subject matched the search pattern.

"begins with", only the two actually beginning with "TESTTEST" should have been
moved (3 and 4).

"ends with", only the two actually ending with "TESTTEST" should have been moved
(2 and 4).

I found similar reports which may be the same underlying bug, but I am not certain:
Bug 176283
Bug 272374

Thunderbird version 1.0.2 (20050317)
Windows 2000 SP4

Extensions:
Enigmail 0.89.6
Mnenhy 0.7.2
Mail Redirect 0.6
No New Window on Double Click 0.2.2
Buttons! 0.5.1
Display Mail User Agent Extension 1.0.1

Comment 1

[Benjamin Kraus]

I forgot to mention that I am working with IMAP folders.

Comment 2

[Benjamin Kraus]

I did some additional testing, and it seems that the filters work properly when
run on local folders instead of IMAP folders.

I also found a comment in Bug 202558 (comment #10), which states "searching for
IMAP messages doesn't even *allow* Begins With / Ends With as match modes".

My guess is that this bug is related to the difference between parsing a new
header when it arrives as opposed to searching existing messages using an IMAP
search command, and IMAP's lack of support for "is", "begins with", and "ends
with" searches.

Considering TB can see the subjects (in order to list them in the table of
contents), it should be able to search them locally. Either that, or "begins
with", "ends with", and "is" should not function when run manually (I would
prefer that *filters* match nothing than incorrectly match more than they
should, *searching* is another situation).

Comment 3

[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
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Thank you for your help in this matter.

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Comment 4

[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.

Comment 5

[Ollie]

Hi!

I am experiencing the same problem with thunderbird. However I am not using IMAP folders (I use POP instead). In addition, I have noticed that the problem occurs consistently and both when running manual filtering and auto filtering (i.e. as mail arrives). Any chance this bug be re-opened?...

Note that I have tested this with the To: field only.

My system configuration is:
- ThunderBird v1.0.7
- Windows 2000 SP4
- Extensions:
 - Buttons 0.5.1
 - Minimize to Tray 0.0.1
 
BR,

Ollie