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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Warning: KMail eating mail
From:       Matthias Kalle Dalheimer <kalle () dalheimer ! de>
Date:       2000-08-03 17:45:05
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Am Don, 03 Aug 2000 schrieb Don Sanders:
> Hi,
>
> Kalle, I'm going to take a guess at what happened.
>
> I think when logging out, KMail terminated abnormally. I remember Simon
> Hausmann discussing how the fact icons have been all appearing bunch
> together in the top left corner might be because some process was being
> killed abruptly during logout, perhaps this bug could also have effected
> KMail. Now I'm not sure exactly how it happens but we have reports that
> when KMail terminates abnormally index files can become corrupted, (perhaps
> this only occurs when KMail is in the middle of a sensitive operation like
> syncing files on exit).
>
> This alone wouldn't cause you to lose any valuable data (like the contents
> of your inbox), but when you logged into KDE again and KMail restarted it's
> possible that because your inbox index file was corrupted, no mails were
> listed in your inbox. Now if you then quit KMail and had the 'compact
> folders on exit' option turned on (which has recently been turned on by
> default) then your inbox could have been compacted away to an empty file.
>
> That's a somewhat intricate story but it's also the simplest explanation I
> can think of.
>
> So two questions.
> Did the desktop icons bunch up together when you logged in?
> Do you have compact all folders on exit turned on?

Yes and yes, so your explication is probably true.

I implemented a temporary solution by having a cron job backup my inbox 
regularly...

>
> What I think I'll do no matter what the outcome is to have KMail write a
> 'false' value into to some .kmail-exited-normally file when it starts up
> and then just before it exits (normally) write a 'true' value into the
> file. When KMail starts up it checks the file and if it contains the false
> value, a warning dialog will pop up informing users that:
>
> "KMail has terminated incorrectly and some data has been left an
> indeterminate state. KMail must regenerate this data.
>
> Note: Regenerating this data will mean some mails that have been deleted
> from folderes recently may be undeleted".
>
> And then all folder files will be touched forcing their corresponding index
> files to be regenerated, this should ensure no data is lost.

Good idea!

Kalle

-- 
Matthias Kalle Dalheimer
President & CEO / Verkställande direktör
Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB
email: kalle@dalheimer.de, fax: +46-563-540028

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