300752 - Creating a new IMAP folder without permission fails silently

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Nick Johnston]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050414
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050414

When creating a new subfolder from a read-only IMAP folder, no folder is created
and no "permission denied" message is given. The IMAP server does return "NO:
permission denied", so Thunderbird should be able to relay this information. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
(Requires an IMAP account set up with a read-only shared folder subscribed to.) 
1. Right click on read-only IMAP folder. 
2. Select "New subfolder".
3. Enter name of subfolder, for example foo. 

Actual Results:  
No such subfolder is created, and no error message has been given.

Expected Results:  
An error message saying "Cannot create the folder 'foo', permission denied".

Related to bug 247075 - better POP3/IMAP error messages.

Comment 1

[Thomas Buchanan]

Could it be the Bug 49397, which was reported several years ago as specific to LINUX systems, has resurfaced in Windows XP?

In brief, the problem is that with Mozilla IMAP a user without administrator rights cannot effectively set his "sent"-folder on the provider server; a user with administration rights can. I want to set up  my "sent"-folder to read "Gesendete Objekte", and this is not successful. 

My operating system data are Microsoft Windows Version 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_Spw_gdr.050301-1519: Service Pack 2). I use Mozilla 1.7.12.

Comment 2

[Nick Johnston]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Could it be the Bug 49397, which was reported several years ago as specific to
> LINUX systems, has resurfaced in Windows XP?

I don't think so - the bug I reported is simply (as far as I can tell) a case of the error message not being reported to the user. It's nothing to do with where Mozilla or Thunderbird gets run from.

I don't see how user rights on the client machine that Thunderbird is running on should affect how Thunderbird reports error messages returned rom the server.

Comment 3

[Thomas Buchanan]

Maybe the bug I reported in my comment from February 25 is a new bug. Incidentally this bug is reproducible, at least on my computer.

My suggestion regarding how the bug I described is related to Bug 49397 is, of course, just a hunch.

It is a generally accepted insight that 98% of all UNIX problems—a better approximation is 100%-- are due to incorrect access rights settings though. Quoting from Comment #18 in the discussion to Bug 49397:

“Non-root users also are unable to deselect the option to save a copy of
outgoing mail. Root can deselect it fine.

Non-root users can uncheck the box, but it has no effect.  Every time the
Account Settings screen is brought back up, "Place a copy in:" is selected
Under Copies & Folders, and any different options besides "Sent Folder" are undone.”

This definitely sounds like a rights access problem.

The fact that a user without administration rights cannot set his &#8220;sent&#8221; folder has the ramification that sent mail is not stored in a &#8220;sent&#8221;-folder, which generates an error message, which in turn necessitates an investigation as to what is the path of the &#8220;sent&#8221;-folder on the provider server. The required full path for the provider server is &#8220;<my email address>/inbox/&#8230; . &#8220;Gesendte Objekte&#8221; is the &#8220;sent&#8221;-folder name for the German version of Outlook Express, my work-around.

The bug in Mozilla Mail is a pity. A lot of users got into internet at home, mainly because they wanted email, and Mozilla Mail is proving itself to be too buggy. 

Comment 4

[Brian Salomaki]

This bug seems related to bug 312703 in that we just need better reporting of errors from the IMAP server.  My specific case today was trying to create an IMAP folder with a quote in it, an illegal character.  Thunderbird just failed silently, rather than telling me it can't create that folder because of its invalid name.

I have an IMAP log of trying to create a folder with an illegal name and trying to create a folder that already exists.  The IMAP server returns an error in both cases, and we should just be able to pass this on to the user through a dialog:

36572160[16b47ba0]: 248b200:salomaki.pobox.stanford.edu:S-INBOX:SendData: 13 create "INBOX.Harmonics.Shows.15yr Reunion.Hobee's"^M36572160[16b47ba0]: ReadNextLine [stream=16b482d8 nb=28 needmore=0]36572160[16b47ba0]: 248b200:salomaki.pobox.stanford.edu:S-INBOX:CreateNewLineFromSocket: 13 NO Invalid mailbox name

...

36572160[16b47ba0]: 248b200:salomaki.pobox.stanford.edu:S-INBOX:SendData: 15 create "INBOX.Harmonics.Shows.15yr Reunion.Hobees"^M36572160[16b47ba0]: ReadNextLine [stream=16b482d8 nb=30 needmore=0]
36572160[16b47ba0]: 248b200:salomaki.pobox.stanford.edu:S-INBOX:CreateNewLineFromSocket: 15 NO Mailbox already exists

Comment 5

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

Reporter, does the issue still occur in the latest supported 2.0.0.x / Shredder trunk nightlies?

(1.5.0.x is now end-of-life and the latest supported 2.0.0.x is 2.0.0.16)

Comment 6

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESO INCO per lack of response to last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond to this bug with your reasons why.