Subject: Re: Problem with WinPine not updating INBOX

From: Portia Shao <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Mar 1995 14:09:13 -0700 (PDT)

On Mon, 6 Mar 1995, Philip Nelson wrote:

> I have been trying to get Windows Pine to work with the latest PMDF
> IMAP server.  Everything is working except for the automatic updates
> to the INBOX.  If I delete a message in the INBOX and eXpunge the
> INBOX will be updated but if left to the automatic 5 min. updates
> nothing happens.. Pressing ^L will flash the * in the upper left
> corner indicating network access but no update will occur.  Has
> anyone been able to get this to work correctly?
> 

this is the known behavior for current versions of client (Pine or
ECSmail) and server (PMDF IMAP). Basically to get at new mail messages in
VMS MAIL, the server has to close the folder, and reopens it again. This
is an expensive operation which when done automatically every 2.5 minutes
on a large mailbox with hundreds or thousands of messages is not very
"friendly". Pine does not close or reopens the folder explicitly, and the
IMAP server does not do it implicitly. So the folder is not updated. 

Currently if you eXpunge the folder, then the server is forced to reopen 
it so you do get the new messages. (this will still be true in the future)

Techincally, let's say I had 177 messages in my inbox, and 64 of which 
are NEW (RECENT or unread) when I opened it from Pine. Then I got a new 
message. On Pine, I pushed the down arrow at the last message, and 
Pine issues the NOOP command, to which PMDF's IMAP server 
responds with the number of RECENT (unread) messages, and the number of 
messages in the folder as
* 177 EXISTS
* 65 RECENT

the number of EXISTS messages is not changed because the server's internal
state of the folder is not changed. The number of RECENT messages is
something the server got from the VMS MAIL's newmail count, which is a
separately obtainable without having to close/reopen the folder. 
Apparently the answer is not enough to trigger Pine to know there are new 
messages.

I would imagine Pine will be updated to use the CHECK command when the 
user forces a new mail check. PMDF's IMAP server is updated in the next 
version of PMDF to close and reopens the folder when the CHECK command is 
received.

	/portia		[email-masked]
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