96975 - MailNews hangs on exit after network disconnect

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Networking, defect)

Description

[Jason Goodman]

Configuration:
  Redhat 6.2 machine w/ Helix GNOME, connected to Internet via PPP modem link 
  and to LAN via eth0.  MailNews is configured for one IMAP connection (w/SSL 
  authentication) to [e-mail], and to two news servers 
  (news.earthlink.net, mitgcm.org)

Reproducing the problem:
  Start "usernet".  Click on the PPP status box to start PPP.
  Start mozilla at the command line (mozilla &).  Open MailNews.  Log in to mail 
    and news accounts.
  Click on Usernet's PPP status box to stop PPP.  (Or, wait for **** ISP 
    to terminate the connection for no reason.)  Click on close box in MailNews
window's title bar.

Behavior:
  MailNews window does not go away.  MailNews accepts no mouse clicks or 
  keyboard entry, and the window is not redrawn when other windows obscure it. 
Reconnecting to the network does not seem to fix the problem.  Mozilla can be 
  stopped by foregrounding the mozilla process in the shell which launched it, 
  and typing ctrl-c.

Comments:
  This could be an IMAP bug or a NNTP bug, or a general networking bug.  I have 
  not tried removing either the NNTP or the IMAP server to isolate the problem; 
  I'll do that after I enter this bug, and report back.

Comment 1

[Jason Goodman]

Verified that problem does not lie in NNTP: I deleted the NNTP servers, and the
problem persisted.  I have not tried deleting the IMAP server, because that's a
royal pain to reconfigure.

Guess: When MailNews exits, it tries to clean up the IMAP mail folders (remove
deletions, etc.)  It fails gracelessly when the server has disappeared.

Comment 2

[Keyser Sose]

Marking NEW.

Comment 3

[castagna]

Configuration:
  Redhat 7.0 machine w/ Ximiam GNOME.  MailNews is configured for one IMAP
connection (without SSL). If you want my server is dmi.ens.fr.

This bug does not happen only when the network is disconnected but simply when 
trying to exit (both by quitting or by closing the mailer window) when off-line.

The error always reproduces, both when I'm connecting via PPP or when I've my
laptop directly connected on the same Ethernet network as my IMAP server (so
it is not a modem or PPP problem ;-)

This problem happens both with 0.9.5 and with the nightly 2001101611.

All the rest is exactly as described by Jason

Comment 4

[castagna]

Just let me add a small precision to my previous comment as I reproduced it at
home again

The bugs (at least with the nightly 2001101611) happens in two cases:

1. When closing or quitting the mailer in on-line mode and the network is
unreachable
1. When closing or quitting the mailer in off-line mode independently from
whether the network is unreachable or not

Comment 5

[James Ross]

I'm using build 2001121103 on Windows 2000, and I think I've got the same
problem: if there is any problem with the 'net connection when you try to close
Mail/News, in my case at least, the windows does close, but the rest of Mozilla
does not respond to anything - mouse, keyboard, etc.

I've also, on a few occasions, closed Mail/News, only to be give a 'Cannot
connect to server' message 15-30 seconds later. I have to agree with Jason
Goodman on the cause of this... namely Mail/News IMAP cleanup (since I have two
IMAP accounts, and one NNTP one).

Comment 6

[John Levon]

*** Bug 122793 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Russell Odom]

Related to/dupe of bug 76686?

Comment 8

[James Ross]

I've found that the current Mozilla Mail is doing something a bit more explainable:

If I disconnect from the 'net, when I close it I get a couple of 'Cannot connect
to <x>' for each account I have set to clear Trash on exit. This sometimes takes
a while, since the requests appear to be done one after another, and must time
out in each case.

If I put Mozilla into off-line mode, however, it really does just hang. I can
see a related thing in ChatZilla - if I'm in off-line mode, and try to connect
to a server, I get the 'connecting to <x>' message, then nothing. Not even an
error from netlib.

This is where I think the problem might be. Mailnews is trying to connect, and
waiting for the connection - but you don't get a connection *or* an error when
in off-line mode. So Mailnews waits indefinatly, effectivly hanging Mozilla. As
such, I am of the opinion that this is a netlib problem (i.e. not returning an
error when in off-line mode) and not specific to Mailnews.

Comment 9

[XFox]

I have never used Mozilla's email client, so nothing is configured. When I
clicked a mailto: link from Mozilla, it tries to walk me through the mail setup.
When I clicked Cancel and then Exit, Mozilla crashed. This problem is
reproducable in 20040706 as well as today's 20040707 on Windows XP. The email
address can be anything. It doesn't matter if I disconnect my internet
connection or not since this can be reproduced offline as well.

Comment 10

[XFox]

Attachment: testcase

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

is problem gone for you?
(reporter email address is toast, xfox's issue is unrelated)

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

WFM