Re: [Evolution] Help me understand something please

[Tim McConnell <tmcconnell168 gmail com>]

On Wed, 2022-06-29 at 21:45 +0200, Jaroslaw Rafa wrote:
> Dnia 29.06.2022 o godz. 13:44:09 Tim McConnell via evolution-list
> pisze:
> > 1. I don't know Evolution doesn't show the size. Running `mail`,
> > `mailx` or `mutt` doesn't show any mail messages.
>
> This can mean you have set Evolution account to "Local delivery", so
> it
> moves all mail from the system mbox (where 'mail' or similar could
> have
> found them) to Evolution-specific location. This is also confirmed by
> what
> you answered to point 2.
>
> When you will have new local mail messages, before you start up
> Evolution,
> it would be good to do a 'ls -l' of the directory where the messages
> reside
> to view their actual size. BEFORE Evolution picks them up and moves
> them to
> its own storage.
>
> > 2. What ever Exim 4 uses. It's how my mail was set up. For IMAP I
> > used
> > Gnome online accounts and it was added to Evolution for me. If I go
> > into Edit-> Preferences-> Mail Accounts, it shows On this Computer
> > as
> > maildir and Localhost as mbox.I deleted the Local host account and
> > it
> > made no difference, same high CPU usage. 
>
> No, Exim has nothing to do with it. It's only the question what local
> account type you did set up in Evolution. It has of course to be
> consistent
> with what Exim uses, but I'm asking about the Evolution setting, not
> Exim
> setting.
>
> I checked that "mbox" is actually what is called "Local delivery"
> when you
> configure the account. The other account types are shown as
> "maildir",
> "spool" (single mbox) and "spooldir" (a directory of mboxes). It
> means
> Evolution picks up mail from your system mbox and moves it to "On
> this
> computer" set of folders. "On this computer" is the internal
> Evolution
> storage, you cannot modify or delete it.
>
> > 3. I don't know I DID NOT SET IT UP it's whatever Debian uses as
> > default via EXIM4.
>
> As far as I remember, Exim's default is to use mbox. This also seems
> to be
> consistent with your previous answers.
>
> > 4 ls -la /var/spool/mail/../mail
> > total 8
> > drwxrwsr-x  2 root  mail 4096 Jun 29 13:18 .
> >
> > ls -la /var/mail
> > total 8
> > drwxrwsr-x  2 root  mail 4096 Jun 29 11:43
>
> Are these full directory listings from the commands above?
> It seems impossible.
>
> /var/spool/mail/../mail (which is equal to just /var/spool/mail),
> listed
> with ls -la, should contain at least '.' AND '..'. Here I see only
> the first
> entry.
>
> On /var/mail listing, on the other hand, there is some subdirectory
> with an
> empty name (?) and NO '.' nor '..'
>
> Even with most broken filesystems I've never seen something like
> that.
>
> Normally, if Exim indeed uses mbox, either /var/spool/mail or
> /var/mail
> should contain a file with a name identical to your username that
> holds
> your mail. It can be a zero-length file if Evolution has already
> moved all
> the mail to its storage, but it should exist (unless Evolution "Local
> delivery" option deletes the file completely; I don't know as I have
> never
> used it, but other MUAs that use the "movemail" approach usually
> leave a
> zero-length file, which is why I suppose Evolution behaves
> similarly).
>
> Please show the full listings of /var/spool/mail and /var/mail
> directories.
>
> I suggest the following approach to your problem:
>
> As you already deleted the "localhost" account, this means Evolution
> *will
> not get any new local mail*. So try to start from scratch by cleaning
> up
> what is already in "On this computer" folders and check if the issue
> repeats.
>
> "On this computer" mail is actually stored in the following
> directory:
> /home/username/.local/share/evolution/mail/local . I suggest you
> backup the
> contents of that directory and then delete everything inside it. DO
> IT
> WHILE EVOLUTION IS NOT RUNNING.
>
> Then recreate your "localhost" account and wait for new mail. Check
> if the
> problem appears.
>
> If there will be no problem, it means there was something very
> specific in
> the old contents of your Evolution mail directory that caused the
> problem to
> trigger. If you can live without the old mail, you're done; if you
> need it,
> make a copy of the old directory you backed up, but without any top-
> level
> files (like folders.db, *.cmeta files etc.); the top-level directory
> should
> contain only subdirectories (these contain actual email messages).
> Try to
> add this copied directory as a new mail account of type "Maildir" and
> read
> the mail from that account. You will see if the problem reproduces.

ls -la /var/spool/mail/../mail
total 8
drwxrwsr-x  2 root  mail 4096 Jun 29 13:18 .
drwxr-xr-x 15 root  root 4096 May 19 18:51 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root  mail    0 Jun 24 12:43 root
-rw-rw----  1 tmick mail    0 Jun 29 10:21 tmick

ls -la /var/mail
total 8
drwxrwsr-x  2 root  mail 4096 Jun 29 11:43 .
drwxr-xr-x 15 root  root 4096 May 19 18:51 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root  mail    0 Jun 24 12:43 root
-rw-rw----  1 tmick mail    0 Jun 29 10:21 tmick

> Then recreate your "localhost" account and wait for new mail. Check
> if the problem appears.
Okay just to be sure I use the correct option, should it be maildir or
spool? I don't have any other programs other than Exim for mail
installed and it's there by default.