Re: [Evolution] Conversion failure, Datastructure mess, Crashes

[Jonathan Ryshpan <jonrysh pacbell net>]

Sorry for the delay replying.  I've been away from the list for a while.
I thank you for your help, despite it's occasionally sharp tone.

On Fri, 2011-07-08 at 09:29 +0100, Pete Biggs wrote:
> > I created the folder fred.  It appeared to be created in local only; nothing
> > showed up in local_mbox, though it did show up in evolution's folder list.
>
> Why would you expect it to be in local_mbox?  local_mbox is a copy of
> the old, unconverted local files from before the initial conversion.
> It's not used for anything.

Thanks for the info.  The info "It's not used for anything." is
extremely interesting, and not clear from the documentation or earlier
postings on this thread to the list.  I suppose now I can delete it, or
at least its contents.

> > While deleting the mail folder fred, this message appeared in a red error
> > panel:
> >         Error while Storing folder 'fred'.
> >         Cannot open maildir directory path:
> > /home/jonrysh/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/.fred: No such file or
> > directory

This problem has gone away for unknown reasons.

> After you created the folder within Evolution under local, does the
> directory ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/.fred exist?  What are its
> permissions and ownership?  What are the permissions on the directory
> ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local?

Directory ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/.fred does exist.
Permissions are:
        $ ll -d .fred
        drwx------. 5 jonrysh jonrysh 4096 Jul  6 12:07 .fred/

>          What is the output of the
> command 
>   ls -la ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/
        $ ls -la ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/ | head -20
        total 302276
        drwx------. 127 jonrysh jonrysh     20480 Jul 12 22:21 .
        drwx------.  11 jonrysh jonrysh      4096 Jul  6 11:55 ..
        -rw-rw-r--.   1 jonrysh jonrysh         7 Jul 12 20:40 ..#evolution.Junk.cmeta
        -rw-rw-r--.   1 jonrysh jonrysh        13 Jul 12 22:21 ..cmeta
        -rw-------.   1 jonrysh jonrysh   8080384 Jul 12 10:42 ..ibex.index
        -rw-------.   1 jonrysh jonrysh  17086516 Jul 12 10:42 ..ibex.index.data
        -rw-rw-r--.   1 jonrysh jonrysh         9 Jul  6 11:55 ..maildir++
        drwx------.   5 jonrysh jonrysh      4096 Jul  6 12:06 .Drafts
        -rw-rw-r--.   1 jonrysh jonrysh        13 Jul 12 21:55 .Drafts.cmeta
        -rw-------.   1 jonrysh jonrysh     17408 Jul 12 20:40 .Drafts.ibex.index
        -rw-------.   1 jonrysh jonrysh      8288 Jul 12 20:40 .Drafts.ibex.index.data
        drwx------.   5 jonrysh jonrysh      4096 Jul  6 12:09 .Outbox
        -rw-rw-r--.   1 jonrysh jonrysh        13 Jul 12 20:40 .Outbox.cmeta
        -rw-------.   1 jonrysh jonrysh      7168 Jul  6 15:09 .Outbox.ibex.index
        -rw-------.   1 jonrysh jonrysh         8 Jul  6 15:10 .Outbox.ibex.index.data
        drwx------.   5 jonrysh jonrysh      4096 Jul  6 12:09 .Sent
        -rw-rw-r--.   1 jonrysh jonrysh        13 Jul 12 22:16 .Sent.cmeta
        -rw-------.   1 jonrysh jonrysh    771072 Jul 12 21:47 .Sent.ibex.index
        -rw-------.   1 jonrysh jonrysh   1040308 Jul 12 21:47 .Sent.ibex.index.data

> What sort of filesystem is your home directory on?
        ext3

The datastructures are becoming clear.  It seems that each folder (say
fred) is matched by files and a directory in .../evolution/mail/local of
the form:
        $ lf .fred*
        .fred.cmeta  .fred.ibex.index  .fred.ibex.index.data
        
        .fred:
        cur/  new/  tmp/
with the files forming an index into the messages, which are stored
in .mackay/cur .  I hadn't thought to do an ls -A on .local, and so
didn't see any of these files.  (Why are these named .fred, etc rather
than fred?)  Also, what is the function of the visible files:
        $ lf local
        cur/  folders.db  new/  tmp/
that is to say, what kind of messages are stored in .../mail/local/cur ?

> > The folder mackay was converted from the 2.26.x version to the 3.0.x version.
> >
> > While moving a message from mail folder "Sent" to mail folder "mackay", this
> > message appeared in a red error panel:
> >         Error while Moving messages to
> > 'maildir:/home/jonrysh/.local/share/evolution/mail/local#mackay
> >         Cannot transfer message to destination folder: No such file or
> > directory
>
> That doesn't look like a valid path, it should end in mail/local/.mackay

I would think so too.  But the message was cut from the error box and
pasted into my posting.  This problem has also gone away after *copying*
a message into the folder "mackay".

> The bottom line is that all the things you are talking about work fine
> for everyone else.  One possibility is that you have corrupted binaries
> somewhere - you can test this by creating a new Linux account and
> setting up evolution on that - you don't need to connect it to a server
> or download any mail or convert anything.  You should be able to do the
> operations you are talking about (like create folders etc.) without any
> problems on the pristine evolution.  If you can't, then there is
> something seriously borked with your system.

I doubt corrupted binaries.  Evolution is a fresh install (now about 2
weeks old) made from a DVD that passed self check before installation.
I suspect that the trouble comes a very large message collection, the
result of archiving almost everything over a period of about 15 years.
I've had trouble with Evo in the past, which I cured by deleting all the
metafiles (<foo>.cmeta  <foo>.ibex.index  <foo>.ibex.index.data) from
the message database, and letting Evo. recreate them when started.  I'd
guess the database was borked -- I should have deleted the metafiles
*before* converting; but it's a little late now.