Bug 57341 - Status header misinterpreted in KMail
Summary: Status header misinterpreted in KMail
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Alias: None
Product: kmail
Classification: Applications
Component: mime (show other bugs)
Version: 1.5
Platform: openSUSE Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: kdepim bugs
URL:
Keywords: triaged
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2003-04-16 23:37 UTC by Evan "JabberWokky" E.
Modified: 2015-04-12 10:03 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description Evan "JabberWokky" E. 2003-04-16 23:37:10 UTC
Version:           1.5 (using KDE 3.1.0)
Installed from:    SuSE
Compiler:          gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (SuSE)
OS:          Linux (i686) release 2.4.18-4GB

It appears that KMail does not follow RFC 2076: Common Internet Message 
Headers properly.  Specifically, the Status header is misinterpreted.  A
message with a Status flag of "O" set shows up as Read, whereas the "R" flag
is reserved for that state.  "O" is set by several mail synchronization 
programs and disconnected IMAP clients, indicating that the message has been
processed but not read by a mail client.  A blank or nonexistant Status 
header is apparently how KMail interprets a nonread message rather than the 
lack of an "R" flag - while the RFC allows that for a non "New" message, 
it does not implicitly mean "Read" - that's what "R" is for.  
   
   Follows is an excerpt from the RFC:
   
[--- start snip ---] 
   
   This field is used by some mail      Status:         Non-standard,
   delivery systems to indicate the                     should never
   status of delivery for this                          appear in mail in
   message when stored. Common                          transit.
   values of this field are:

   U    message is not downloaded
        and not deleted.

   R    message is read or
        downloaded.

   O    message is old but not
        deleted.

   D    to be deleted.

   N    new (a new message also
        sometimes is distinguished
        by not having any "Status:"
        header.

   Combinations of these characters
   can occur, such as "Status: OR"
   to indicate that a message is
   downloaded but not deleted.

[--- end snip ---]

--
Evan "JabberWokky" E.
Comment 1 Stephan Kulow 2003-09-27 13:49:15 UTC
someone who knows, please check 
Comment 2 Till Adam 2003-11-18 19:20:20 UTC
We do indeed show both old and read mails with the read icon in the headers list. Ingo, remind me why I changed that back to this behavior after having had it differently after the multi-status changes? Some backwards compat reason, I seem to dimly recall. Is this really a major bug?
Comment 3 Ingo Klöcker 2003-11-19 23:41:05 UTC
This is definitely no major bug because KMail only interprets the Status header if the index is regenerated (which is an exceptional situation). In normal usage this bug should never occur because the message status is either stored in the index file or received from the IMAP server through special status flags.
Comment 4 George Goldberg 2008-02-15 08:20:38 UTC
Is this bug still present in a recent version of KDE, such as 3.5.8 or 4.0.1?
Comment 5 Fernando Vilas 2008-11-09 17:31:38 UTC
I grepped all the files in my courier IMAP server, and I've only been using KMail to read it.  The flags seem set correctly, with the combinations "OR" or "RO" being used as described above.  Using KMail 1.10.1 (KDE 4.1.2)
Comment 6 Michael Leupold 2008-11-23 17:33:48 UTC
I'm pretty much unsure about wether this is fixed or not. As Ingo mentioned the Status header is not used on getting mails from an IMAP server. It seems to do something when downloading mails using POP3 but I'm not sure if that is right (not even sure if mails stored on a POP server should have a Status header). I don't fully get where this bug might apply either, but we decided to keep it around to recheck when akonadi is there.
Comment 7 Laurent Montel 2015-04-12 10:03:38 UTC
Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report.

KMail2 was released in 2011, and the entire code base went through significant changes. We are currently in the process of porting to Qt5 and KF5. It is unlikely that these bugs are still valid in KMail2.

We welcome you to try out KMail 2 with the KDE 4.14 release and give your feedback.