Bug 166634

Summary:	MBOX modification date constantly changed.
Product:	[Unmaintained] kmail	Reporter:	A. Pfaller <apfaller>
Component:	index	Assignee:	kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED WAITINGFORINFO
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	luigi.toscano
Priority:	NOR
Version:	1.9.9
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	openSUSE
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description A. Pfaller 2008-07-15 16:51:13 UTC

Version:            (using KDE 3.5.9)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs
OS:                Linux

I keep a very large collection (>10GB) of past emails in an hierarchy
of email-folders (mbox). Most of these mbox files are static (e.g. because
they are archives of a mailing list from a specific year) and dont change
content. However kmail constanly changes the file modification time of
theses files causing several problems, e.g.

- incremental backups always save these files
- beagle/kerry constantly scans these files for modifications leaving
  me no other option of disabling beagle or excluding the mail directory
  from indexing although this would be one of the most useful area
  for a fast search index.

Given the amount of individual messages contained in these archives
maildir storage is not really usable.

It would be nice if kmail would only open mbox files for write if
it actually needs to modify a file.

Comment 1 Thomas McGuire 2008-07-15 21:36:21 UTC

See also bug 66409 and bug 166653.
KMail should only modify the MBOX when it recreates the index for it.
Normally, KMail shouldn't recreate the index when you don't add new messages to the MBOX.
Please run KMail from a console and check the debug output to see if anything like this happens. Find out what triggers the index regeneration.

Do you have clock problems (or using NTP), or is your MBOX file on NFS ?

Comment 2 A. Pfaller 2008-07-15 22:56:04 UTC

No NFS (for kmail) but I use NTP with no apparent problems.

The "constantly" is a little bit too strong. But here is some example

1)

[diavolo .2006.directory]> la
total 706M
drwx------ 2 apf users 4.0K 2008-04-21 02:31 .
drwxr----- 7 apf users 4.0K 2008-04-21 02:32 ..
-rw------- 1 apf users  16M 2008-03-27 12:31 .2006-Q1.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 127K 2008-07-15 22:23 .2006-Q1.index.ids
-rw------- 1 apf users  13M 2008-03-27 12:31 .2006-Q2.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 104K 2008-07-15 22:23 .2006-Q2.index.ids
-rw------- 1 apf users  15M 2008-03-27 12:36 .2006-Q3.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 113K 2008-07-15 22:23 .2006-Q3.index.ids
-rw------- 1 apf users  14M 2008-04-21 02:31 .2006-Q4.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 108K 2008-07-15 22:23 .2006-Q4.index.ids
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 967K 2008-04-21 02:31 .2006-Q4.index.sorted
-rw------- 1 apf users 177M 2008-03-27 12:31 2006-Q1
-rw------- 1 apf users 150M 2008-03-27 12:31 2006-Q2
-rw------- 1 apf users 164M 2008-03-27 12:36 2006-Q3
-rw------- 1 apf users 159M 2008-04-21 02:31 2006-Q4

2006 linux kernel mailing list archives after start of kmail at
"2008-07-15 22:23". Note that every ".index.ids" gets updated.
This happens at every start for every folder I have.

2)

[diavolo .2006.directory]> la
total 706M
drwx------ 2 apf users 4.0K 2008-04-21 02:31 .
drwxr----- 7 apf users 4.0K 2008-04-21 02:32 ..
-rw------- 1 apf users  16M 2008-07-15 22:35 .2006-Q1.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 127K 2008-07-15 22:35 .2006-Q1.index.ids
-rw------- 1 apf users  13M 2008-03-27 12:31 .2006-Q2.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 104K 2008-07-15 22:23 .2006-Q2.index.ids
-rw------- 1 apf users  15M 2008-03-27 12:36 .2006-Q3.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 113K 2008-07-15 22:23 .2006-Q3.index.ids
-rw------- 1 apf users  14M 2008-04-21 02:31 .2006-Q4.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 108K 2008-07-15 22:23 .2006-Q4.index.ids
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 967K 2008-04-21 02:31 .2006-Q4.index.sorted
-rw------- 1 apf users 177M 2008-07-15 22:35 2006-Q1
-rw------- 1 apf users 150M 2008-03-27 12:31 2006-Q2
-rw------- 1 apf users 164M 2008-03-27 12:36 2006-Q3
-rw------- 1 apf users 159M 2008-04-21 02:31 2006-Q4

Same as above after selecting the 2006-Q1 folder.
All files regarding this folder get updated.

3)

[diavolo .2006.directory]> la
total 707M
drwx------ 2 apf users 4.0K 2008-07-15 22:38 .
drwxr----- 7 apf users 4.0K 2008-04-21 02:32 ..
-rw------- 1 apf users  16M 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q1.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 127K 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q1.index.ids
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 1.2M 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q1.index.sorted
-rw------- 1 apf users  13M 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q2.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 104K 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q2.index.ids
-rw------- 1 apf users  15M 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q3.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 113K 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q3.index.ids
-rw------- 1 apf users  14M 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q4.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 108K 2008-07-15 22:38 .2006-Q4.index.ids
-rw-r--r-- 1 apf users 967K 2008-04-21 02:31 .2006-Q4.index.sorted
-rw------- 1 apf users 177M 2008-07-15 22:38 2006-Q1
-rw------- 1 apf users 150M 2008-07-15 22:38 2006-Q2
-rw------- 1 apf users 164M 2008-07-15 22:38 2006-Q3
-rw------- 1 apf users 159M 2008-07-15 22:38 2006-Q4

Again same as above after searching in the parent folder for
some word contained in the "Subject:" header (search includes
sub-folders). I did not select any found message for display.

There was no debug output at all except the non relevant
  WeaverThreadLogger: thread (ID: 2) suspended.
  WeaverThreadLogger: thread (ID: 1) suspended.
  WeaverThreadLogger: thread (ID: 3) suspended.
  WeaverThreadLogger: thread (ID: 4) suspended.
but I only have a non debug build at the moment.
If I find some time I will try building a debug version.

Comment 3 Myriam Schweingruber 2012-08-18 07:57:03 UTC

Thank you for your feature request. Kmail1 is currently unmaintained so we are closing all wishes. Please feel free to reopen a feature request for Kmail2 if it has not already been implemented.
Thank you for your understanding.

Comment 4 Luigi Toscano 2012-08-19 00:20:15 UTC

Instead of creating a new feature request, please confirm here if the wishlist is still valid for kmail2.