Subject: imap-2000 imapd loosing messages?

From: Jason Spangler <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 14:09:21 -0500

Since upgrading to the imapd from imap-2000.BETA I've had some messages
disappear from my mailbox.

Fox example, using Netscape Messenger would have a message from Jeremy in my
inbox.  I left Messenger running, left the computer room, and came back about an
hour later.  The message from Jeremy had disappeared from Messenger, and had
disappeared from my spool file on the mail server as well.

I've also noticed that some messages will disappear from my mail spool file, but
Messenger won't notice that the message is gone: it still shows the message as
existing, but when I select the message it appears blank.

Anyone else having this problem?  I'm switching back to the previous version of
imapd so I don't loose any important email.
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From: Yiorgos Adamopoulos <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 22:20:03 +0300

On Tue, Jun 06, 2000 at 02:09:21PM -0500, Jason Spangler wrote:
> :
> :
> Anyone else having this problem?  I'm switching back to the previous
> version of  imapd so I don't loose any important email.

Actually, you are not missing messages.  I had the same problem, but when
I switched back to 4.7c2 I was seeing all the messages (and in the
``expected'' order).
-- 
# more coffee

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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 12:17:43 -0700 (PDT)

Is your mail spool directory protected 1777?  (drwxrwxrwt)

If not, make sure that it is.  You probably should also check your mail logs,
since there undoubtable are "mailbox vulnerable" warning messages telling you
about the problem.

This is not a new problem in imap-2000.  An inability to lock because of bad
mail spool directory protection has always been a problem, and corrupt mail
files has always been a risk.

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From: Jason Spangler <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 14:33:04 -0500

> Is your mail spool directory protected 1777?  (drwxrwxrwt)

Nope, no sticky bit and no writable by others.  It was:
drwxrwxr-x   2 root     root         1024 Jun  6 14:21 /var/spool/mail
and after chmod 1777 /var/spool/mail is now:
drwxrwxrwt   2 root     root         1024 Jun  6 14:22 /var/spool/mail
 
> since there undoubtable are "mailbox vulnerable" warning messages telling you

I can't find any "mailbox vulnerable" messages in my logs.
 
> files has always been a risk.

The Red Hat RPM of imap (which I modified for imap-2000.BETA) builds imap with
the -DIGNORE_LOCK_EACCES_ERRORS=1 option, could the problem be related to this?

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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 13:07:00 -0700 (PDT)

On Tue, 06 Jun 2000 14:33:04 -0500, Jason Spangler wrote:
> Nope, no sticky bit and no writable by others.

Ah, that's the problem.  Unless you have an /etc/mlock installed, there's no
way for imapd to lock the mailbox.l

> I can't find any "mailbox vulnerable" messages in my logs.

The -DIGNORE_LOCK_EACCES_ERRORS is responsible for suppressing the message.

> The Red Hat RPM of imap (which I modified for imap-2000.BETA) builds imap
> with the -DIGNORE_LOCK_EACCES_ERRORS=1 option, could the problem be related
> to this?

Yes!  If you have -DIGNORE_LOCK_EACCES_ERRORS set, then you are saying that
you know that all locking will be done by flock() and/or there is an
/etc/mlock program installed.

Unfortunately, there have been people who have set that flag to silent the
"mailbox vulnerable" warning messages, but not doing anything about the
vulnerability.

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From: Jason Spangler <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 15:14:55 -0500

> way for imapd to lock the mailbox.l

I don't know anything about an /etc/mlock, sorry.  I'll have to look that up.
 
> The -DIGNORE_LOCK_EACCES_ERRORS is responsible for suppressing the message.

Doh.
 
> "mailbox vulnerable" warning messages, but not doing anything about the

So I should try following?

chmod 1777 /var/spool/mail
rebuild without -DIGNORE_LOCK_EACCES_ERRORS=1

BTW, thanks for the help!

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From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 13:17:13 -0700 (PDT)

> rebuild without -DIGNORE_LOCK_EACCES_ERRORS=1

Yes, that will do it.