363815 - inconsistent database content for newsgroup

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Arkady Belousov]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; ru) Opera 9.02
Build Identifier: http://mozilla.mirrors.tds.net/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/1.5.0.8/win32/ru/Thunderbird%20Setup%201.5.0.8.exe

Looks like tomorrow at news.openwatcom.org happen disaster and there again was losted some messages. Now, when I open some old/previous/recent posts, header in message list pane and header of post are different (see screen shot). This is a bug, which should be handled by TB. For example, when downloading article, TB should check header content and compare it with its index files; in case of difference, TB should fix content of index - automatically or after asking.

PS: Before TB will be fixed, is there a way to fix/refresh messages list content without loosing Read/Unread status for all messages?

Reproducible: Didn't try

Comment 1

[Arkady Belousov]

Attachment: Inconsistent list (top pane) and article content (bottom pane)

Comment 2

[Arkady Belousov]

     The more so, there is another bug. When I click on some message, which was lost (by server) and not replaced by new one, TB shows own messages about error message from server ("Bad article number" - see screen shot). In this message present link "Press here to remove old articles" (see blue text at bottom). But when I press on this link, then TB open its secondary window with same content (althouh in first instance looks like it removes message headers, which have no corresponding articles on server). On the other side, this not fixes other inconsistent headers. :(

Comment 3

[Arkady Belousov]

Attachment: TB' message, which should allow to fix inconsisten messages list

Comment 4

[Arkady Belousov]

     One more bug: when I reply (^R) to inconsistent message, then new message gets fields (Subject:, From:, Date:) not from real message, but from inconsistent message list.

Comment 5

[Arkady Belousov]

     Again bug: I know, into groups was sent new messages. I myself was sent message. But TB showns nothing new! *PLEASE! HELP! HOW TO REPAIR TB?!*

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Can you try without extensions and using the default theme?

Comment 7

[Arkady Belousov]

> Can you try without extensions 

     No extension.

> and using the default theme?

     I switch to default theme - nothing changed.

PS: In one group appeared new messages. I suggest, TB rejects to redownload messages, which have same number, as those, which was removed (see comment 2 about "Press here to remove old articles"). I.e., looks like in TB bases appeared something like "lost clusters" in FAT file system - in given case, some article numbers markes as already downloaded, even though they was should be removed.

Comment 8

[Arkady Belousov]

(In reply to comment #4)
>      One more bug: when I reply (^R) to inconsistent message, then new message
> gets fields (Subject:, From:, Date:) not from real message, but from
> inconsistent message list.

     The more so, when replying to news-post, TB opens post in composer with delay. Looks like it again redownloads post from server. Why?! TB already caches both post itself (if post was read in current session, then front end doesn't tries to redownload post again) and headers (see comment #4 above) - so, look like someone forget to reuse cache in Composer. Another bug?!

PS: Please, (help me) fix this bug (with (1) inconsistent headers and (2) lost posts, which TB rejects to redownload)! May this issue (temporarily) fixed by editing .rc file (by removing or by adding some numbers)?

PPS: May be, there is one more bug again: when I press F5 on News account, it shows one numbers in tree. For example:

o.cont...15131
o.u.c_...20112

But after clicking on groups, numbers are changed back:

o.cont...15126
o.u.c_...20095

The more so, if I switch from TB and then back, then with 1 second delay TB again shows another number for group, which currently open:

o.u.c_...20112

BUG-BUG-BUG???!!!

Comment 9

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

The reply issue is bug 341892.

As for the other issue, can you try a nightly branch build?
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-mozilla1.8/

Comment 10

[Arkady Belousov]

> The reply issue is bug 341892.

     For delaying in Composer - yes.

> As for the other issue, can you try a nightly branch build?
> http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-mozilla1.8/

     I may try this, but I (1) don't know how reproduce problem (I have no own News server, where I may add messages, remove them and then add next messages with same old numbers) and (2) don't know how to safely install, and then remove this beta/alpha without disturbing my working environment (currently installed TB, which is very important for me). :(

Comment 11

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

Arkady, I'm seeing what may be several issues here.

First, the incorrect unread numbers are well-known, and can be found in the various dependencies of bug 71728, most notably bug 79130, the so-called "phantom message" bug.

The other issue with the Composer has already been discussed.

The final issue is the one that is not discussed elsewhere, that the article and message index are not consistent. Does this issue still exist in TB 2.0.0.14 or latest trunk builds? If no response in 3 weeks, I will mark this as RESO INCO.

Comment 12

[Arkady Belousov]

Unfortunately, right now in my list of messages in this group missing entries for given time frame (I don't remember, but probably they disappear after "removing old articles"), so I can't open articles in question and confirm problem. Also, I can't reproduce it, because I have no own newsserver, where I may repeat disaster...

Now disaster reminds about itself only by very, very annoying twisted "number of unread articles in group", which jump between different values when I open news account and move between groups (how this happen: when opening account, previous "unread" values [a] replaced by new values [b]; when opening group value [b] replaced back by value [a]). Unfortunately, I can't say at which moment this count lies, becaus I can't count manually several thousands entries.

Comment 13

[Arkady Belousov]

Ops. Don't know how and why this happen, but I not changed status to "reso wfm", it changed itself.

Comment 14

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Unfortunately, right now in my list of messages in this group missing entries
> for given time frame (I don't remember, but probably they disappear after
> "removing old articles"), so I can't open articles in question and confirm
> problem. Also, I can't reproduce it, because I have no own newsserver, where I
> may repeat disaster...

Well, you have 3 weeks yet before I mark as WFM...

> Now disaster reminds about itself only by very, very annoying twisted "number
> of unread articles in group", which jump between different values when I open
> news account and move between groups (how this happen: when opening account,
> previous "unread" values [a] replaced by new values [b]; when opening group
> value [b] replaced back by value [a]). Unfortunately, I can't say at which
> moment this count lies, becaus I can't count manually several thousands
> entries.

Quite likely you are seeing some portion of bug 71728, most likely a combination of 79130 (reflected in newsrc), 24592 (servers lie to us), and 311774 (initial stats don't take into account filters). You can track each of those bugs yourself.

(In reply to comment #13)
> Ops. Don't know how and why this happen, but I not changed status to "reso
> wfm", it changed itself.

Your mouse must have slipped. Happens to me too. (Reopening bug)

Comment 15

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

I've been trying to think of the best way to handle this, but without even a hard example to base work off of, it's almost impossible to fix the problem.

If you need a newsserver to test stuff on, news.mozilla.org has a newsgroup mozilla.test that you can use.

In the meantime, however, I'm afraid that I have to RESO INCO as there is no way to reproduce the problem...

Comment 16

[Arkady Belousov]

(In reply to comment #15)
> I've been trying to think of the best way to handle this, but without even a
> hard example to base work off of, it's almost impossible to fix the problem.

     Problem (twisted messages counter) is permanent on my configuration. I don't know how reproduce it on others machines, but this not makes this problem on my machine less persistent.

> If you need a newsserver to test stuff on, news.mozilla.org has a newsgroup
> mozilla.test that you can use.

     I can't imitate disaster on this newsserver, it not under my control (although I anyway don't know how control newsserver).

> In the meantime, however, I'm afraid that I have to RESO INCO as there is no
> way to reproduce the problem...

     There is way: someone knowledgable may (with my help as doer, of course) investigate what happen in my configuration. May be some specific newsserver issue, may be broken TB configuration files, etc. Anything here limited by presence of knowledgable mans, not by reproducibility.