Subject: Problem moving messages from new mbx folder

From: Rick Troxel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 14:43:35 -0400

Please Cc: [email-masked] in any responses.

Last evening we converted our few IMAP users who were relying on the
mbox driver's accumlating their mail in their home directories to the
mbx driver instead, moving their mail from ~/mbox to ~/INBOX with the
appropriate driver syntax.  We then replaced imapd with one that doesn't
have mbox driver support, so that our many (non-IMAP) users with mbox
files from bsd mail programs wouldn't get nasty surprises if they tried
out our new WWW/IMAP mail service.

One of the converted users reports a problem moving messages to other
folders.  The diagnostic is given below.  (I note at least one typo, so
take it with a grain of salt.)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Our imapd is version IMAP4rev1
2001.315, a.k.a. imap-2001a.

Many thanks,
-- 
      Rick Troxel      [email-masked]     301/435-2983
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
All effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his
heart is worship, if it  is prompted  by the  highest motives and
the will to do service to humanity.                 --Abdu'l-Baha

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Today I am not able to move e-mail from the Inbox to any other folder
when I am in Outlook Express. Previously I had no problems moving
messages to other folders. (I can still move messages in pine.)

When I try to move messages I get the following error message:

Your IMAP server wishes tom alert you to the following: IMAP4rev1 server
crashing: missing delimiter after message size: \

Help!

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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 19:45:15 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)

> crashing: missing delimiter after message size: \

This looks like a corrupted mbx format mailbox.  Check the FAQ for how to
go about diagnosing and fixing it.

Be wary of any external programs which may have modified a mailbox.  If a
traditional UNIX format program (e.g. procmail) appends to an mbx format
mailbox, you would get something like this.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.

---

From: Rick Troxel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 08:05:56 -0400

Hmm.  I can read a copy of INBOX with pine.  Does this rule out the
possibility of corruption?

Thanks,

--rdt

Yesterday (05/23/02) at 19:45 -0700, Mark Crispin wrote:

MRC>> When I try to move messages I get the following error message:
MRC>>
MRC>> Your IMAP server wishes tom alert you to the following: IMAP4rev1 server
MRC>> crashing: missing delimiter after message size: \
MRC>
MRC>This looks like a corrupted mbx format mailbox.  Check the FAQ for
MRC>how to go about diagnosing and fixing it.

---

From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 10:09:08 -0700 (PDT)

The problem may not be in the INBOX but in some other file.

Of more concern is the fact that "missing delimiter after message size" is not
an error message in UW imapd.  Are you using some third party driver?  Or, if
the user paraphrased the error message, what is the *exact* message?

---

From: Rick Troxel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 14:06:52 -0400

Today (05/24/02) at 10:09 -0700, Mark Crispin wrote:

MRC>The problem may not be in the INBOX but in some other file.

In the syslogs I see a second user has the same problem...

MRC>Of more concern is the fact that "missing delimiter after message
MRC>size" is not an error message in UW imapd.  Are you using some third
MRC>party driver?  Or, if the user paraphrased the error message, what
MRC>is the *exact* message?

Good catch.  The user's report was evidently case-insensitive.  The
system log reports

	IMAP toolkit slave process crash: Missing delimiter after
	message size: \

which corresponds to the imapd string,

	Missing delimiter after message size: %c

Q. Could this trigger in trying to save from an mbx-format INBOX to a
bsd-mail format folder?

Many thanks,

---

From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 11:16:00 -0700 (PDT)

Oh.  You're running a SVR4 based system (you unfortunate fellow you).

Try imap-2002 and see if the problem goes away.  There's been problems in the
SVR4 safe locking code.