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

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> > > 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.

The problem probably stems from the aborted initial conversion - after
the conversion completes correctly you should be presented with a
dialogue box that tells you about local_mbox.


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

The permissions all look fine - the reason I ask about the filesystem is
that I've seen issues where people try to use an NFS mounted filesystem
as their $HOME and locking becomes a major issue.  You should also see
the mess when someone was using an SMB filesystem as their home.


> 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?)

Because that's the Maildir standard - or rather in this case Maildir++

>   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 ?

Again that's the Maildir standard - received messages are initially put
in tmp, then when the whole of the message is written, they are moved to
new.  When an MUA reads the message it is moved to cur.  This storage
method is to ensure the integrity of the message during various
operations.

The other files you see are Evolution specific and contain indexes and
meta data to speed up searches.

There is information out there on the net about Maildir - I would
suggest wikipedia, but the article about Maildir is not brilliant!

P.