35338 - Overzealous blocking of cross-posting to multiple hosts

Status: NEW

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect, P5)

Description

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

two parts to this bug:

the first part:

the code that determines if you are trying to cross post to multiple hosts is 
too strict, and reports false positives.

the second part:

what's worse, is the error message never pops up, so you don't know why the 
message didn't post or why the compose window won't go away.

Comment 1

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

I have the fix for at least part of this bug in my tree at home.  will check in
for m16.

Comment 2

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

ok, the good news is the alert now shows up if you attempt to cross post to 
multiple servers.

the bad news is we are still being over-zealous.

Comment 3

[selmer (gone)]

Seth, I think you fixed the P1 part of this.  The overzealous part doesn't seem 
critical for M16.  If you disagree, please explain in the bug and move it back.

Comment 4

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

now that we have hostinfo.dat support, I can fix this.

Comment 5

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

this should be fixed for beta2.

Comment 6

[leger]

Putting on [nsbeta2+] radar for beta2 fix. 

Comment 7

[David :Bienvenu]

Do we have a reproducible case for this?  Probably wouldn't hold beta2 for this
unless we know how to reproduce it.

Comment 8

[scottputterman]

removing nsbeta2+ and asking for consideration to cut from beta2.

Comment 9

[Jay Patel [:jay]]

Putting on [nsbeta2-] radar.  Not critical to beta2.  Adding "relnote" keyword 
for PR2 release. 

Comment 10

[laurel]

Will look at this and see if it warrants release note in beta2. Changed relnote
to relnote2

Comment 11

[laurel]

Well, I don't know about the cases Seth was referring to, but in the cases I've
tried I do see an alert telling me I can only post to one server at a time. I
tried posting a message to the same server, but specifying one group by group
name "netscape.test" and the other by url (to the same server)
"news://news.mozilla.org/netscape.public.test.  It errored, but told me why it
was complaining and as soon as I changed back to group name I was ok and posting
posted.

Will wait for seth's comments later, removing relnote.

Comment 12

[Marcelo Vanzin]

Using both the M17 build and the M18 nightlies, I can't post to more than 1
group even in the same server (when replying to messages, at least. Haven't
tried to post a new message.).

And, most annoying, the message telling I can't post to more than one server
pops up one time for each group in the list...

Comment 13

[scottputterman]

marking nsbeta1-.

Comment 14

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

clearing milestone, m17 and m18 are meaningless now.  these need to be triages
along with the rest.

Comment 15

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

adding phil, he just got bit by this.

I just talked it over with bienvenu, and I'll fix it to do what we did in 4.x

Comment 16

[scottputterman]

removing mozilla0.9 and nominating for nsbeta1

Comment 17

[scottputterman]

marking nsbeta1- but if you have the fix (I saw something go into the perf
branch) then check it in.

Comment 18

[Garth Wallace]

This happens in 0.8.1. I get a warning when trying to reply to a message that 
was crossposted in n.p.m.wishlist and n.p.m.ui.

Comment 19

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

*** Bug 77147 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 20

[Garth Wallace]

This violates GNKSA section #3a: "When creating either a new article or a 
followup, the user MUST be allowed to specify multiple newsgroups, and the 
software MUST cross-post (not multi-post) to them if more than one is 
specified". Blocks bug #76449 and bug #12699.

Comment 21

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Comments From Marcelo Vanzin 2000-08-11 15:17:
> Using both the M17 build and the M18 nightlies, I can't post to more than 1
> group even in the same server (when replying to messages, at least. Haven't
> tried to post a new message.).

I see the same. I have several news servers in my profile. Marcelo, Garth, you too?

If the bug happens only in this case, I don't think that it blocks GNAKSA
compliance.

Comment 22

[Garth Wallace]

nope, only one news server for me (news.mozilla.org, specifically)

Comment 23

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

we never multi-post to multiple servers.  we do allow cross posting.

the problem is if you have multiple servers set up, the code I wrote can
incorrectly determine that you are attempting to cross post to two servers and
not allow you to post at all.

Comment 24

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Seth, yes, that's exactly what I guessed. But that doesn't explain Garth's problem.

Comment 25

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

When you fix it, please make sure that I can cross-post, even if only one of the
newsgroups appears in more than one of my servers, if that is not unreasonably
hard to implement.

E.g. I am subscribed to
news.myisp.com
  mozilla.mail-news
  alt.netscape-sucks
news.mozilla.org
  mozilla.mail-news
  mozilla.editor
Now I cross-post to mozilla.mail-news and mozilla.editor. It should succeed,
posting to news.mozilla.org.

Comment 26

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

garth:  you only had one news server, right?  were you subscribed to either
group you attempted to post to?  are you still able to reproduce this?  please
start a new bug on your problem.

benb:  your scenario is exactly the one I'll be trying to fix when I get some
cycles for this bug.

Comment 27

[Garth Wallace]

I'm subscribed to wishlist but not ui. That's probably the problem.

Comment 28

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

garth, that should work fine.

if you can still reproduce this, can you take this to another bug?  we'll figure
it out there.

Comment 29

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

Seth, we had some regression posting to two newsgroups on the same server (as
noted in bug 77147), but today on both Mac and Linux, I can cross-post to
netscape.test and netscape.public.test, so seems the regression was fixed and
this bug can now return to its regular scope ;-)  Sorry for the noise.

Comment 30

[Garth Wallace]

When 0.9 comes out I'll try to reproduce it. If it's still there, I'll file the 
new bug.

Comment 31

[Håkan Waara]

(This bug is quite terse, IMHO.) Can someone explain to me:

* What's the expected behaviour?
and
* What's our current behaviour?

Thanks.

Comment 32

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

*** Bug 115205 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 33

[Felix Miata]

Bug 115205 is distinguishable from this bug in that it has nothing to do with
attempting to post to multiple servers. Bug 115205 is therefore not a dupe.

Comment 34

[Jean-Marc Desperrier]

Testing with 0.9.9 branch, build 2002031108

I think bug 115205 and this one are more or less the same things.
bug 115205 is reported as fixed, and indeed some situations are solved.

If you try to cross-post to one group you are subscribed too and another you are
not subscribed too, now you can.

If you try to cross-post to one group that exist, and another that doesn't
existe on your newsserver, you can and you have no warning. I don't consider
this as ideal. I think you should be allowed to do that, but with a warning. Now
any striking error in a cross-post will send your message to nowhere.

But the problem is that despite that, the exact problem described in comment #22
is still there !

Steps to reproduce :
- have an account on newsserver A and B.
- be subscribed to both groups X and Y on server B, but only to group X on server A.
- try to answer to a message on server B that is crossposted between X and Y.
This will fail with the error "you can only send a message to one news server at
a time". Don't close the message windows.
- Remove the subscription to group X on server A.
- Retry sending the message windows you didn't close. Now it works.

It doesn't really seem to matter whether A is before B or not in your list of
servers.

Comment 35

[Felix Miata]

Looks like this and bug 54911 could really be the same problem and fix: bug
80542. Severity major and not w32 only.

Comment 36

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

*** Bug 172115 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 37

[Felix Miata]

Any plans to make the newsreader usable by fixing this P1 bug?

Comment 38

[Frank Widmaier]

according to description 1 in bug 172115.

when will it be fixed? (1.7a, Gecko/20040109)

Comment 39

[kevin]

This bug still exists and is quite annoying. Using Mozilla 1.7.1, Gecko/20040707.

I want the normal ability to crosspost -- without being forced to unsubscribe to
every group I am crossposting to on my other news servers.

Comment 40

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

sorry for the spam.  making bugzilla reflect reality as I'm not working on these bugs.  filter on FOOBARCHEESE to remove these in bulk.

Comment 41

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

Filter on "Nobody_NScomTLD_20080620"