Version: 1.5 (using KDE 3.1.0) Installed from: compiled sources Compiler: gcc version 3.2 20020903 (Red Hat Linux 8.0 3.2-7) OS: Linux (i686) release 2.4.18-14 Hello, I have two IMAP accounts, one at work and one at home. I check them both with the same installation of KMail, at work. I get constant index out of date messages on both accounts. The my workstation is NTP synced with the local IMAP server, but there is no way to also sync the times of the workstation with the home-based IMAP server. I don't think KMail should be rebuilding the index for IMAP accounts constantly, and I don't think it should rely on sync'd times to solve the problem, because users with multiple or remote IMAP servers (where NTP syncing with the server isn't possible) will be out of luck.
The obvious solution is to sync the time of all machines with a public timeserver. As the "index out of date" warning can be disabled I change the severity to wishlist.
Syncing the time of all machines with a public server is completely unreasonable for user-level software. First off, the user might not have control of the system clock. Secondly, this machine is behind a company wide firewall, and couldn't sync with an outside machine. Thirdly, syncing with a machine outside the firewall would mess up the sync with the rest of the machines on my network, causing all sorts of other problems. Finally, this computer and a few others running Linux are in a Windows-centric environment. We don't have or control system-level policy, and could not affect it if we wanted to. Its unreasonable for something so user-level to be tied to a system level setting that requires network interoperation. Finally, disabling the index out of date warning is unclear: Does it just disable the warning but still rebuild the index? If it disables rebuilding the index, how do I check the state of the index when I'm actually concerned about it and really do want to rebuild it?
I just want to point out that I don't think my request is unreasonable, and I'm sorry if I seem a bit rude. Outlook and Eudora don't require clock synchronization for successful IMAP operation. Also, the environment I'm describing, one where the user does not have root access on his system or the network cannot be uncommon.
Subject: Re: constant index out of date messages with IMAP Is the "Do not show this message again" option really that unclear? Of course it just disables the warning but still rebuilds the index. For your information, the only thing that is new in KMail 1.5 is that you are now notified of the index regeneration. Previous versions of KMail silently rebuild the index whenever it seemed necessary. BTW, I have re-checked what causes the index regeneration. The index is regenerated if the locally cached message headers and the index of the messages seem to be out of sync (according to the timestamps of the corresponding files). This is completely independent of the IMAP server, i. e. it's irrelevant whether the system clock of the IMAP server and that of your workstation are in sync. Instead you have to tell your system administrators to sync the system clock of the NFS server and that of your workstation (as explained in the corresponding entry in the FAQ). KMail allows up to 5 seconds time difference. To answer your question how to force index regeneration: Simply delete the file the index is stored in. <sidenote> In my personal opinion the system clocks of all machines which are connected to the same network should be synced (e. g. a machine which serves as local timeserver syncs with a public timeserver and all other machines sync with the local timeserver). It's the system administrators' task to take care of this. There is no reason not to do this. Unfortunately almost nobody seems to care about this which is really a pity. </sidenote>
The 'Do not show this message again' option is unclear: There may be two desirable options, "don't rebuild indexes" and "silently rebuild indexes". Having a single check box makes this a bit unclear. Perhaps "don't rebuild indexes" is an unreasonable request, I'm not quite sure. In which case, I would request that the text of the check box simple be ammended to say "Silently rebuild indexes, don't warn again", or something similar. About what causes index regeneration: I'll make sure our NFS server is getting time-synced. I assumed it was, but perhaps thats the problem. Its good to know it is not dependant on the IMAP server, thanks for clearing that up. About time-syncing: I entirely agree with you, unfortunately, as you point out, almost no-one pays attention, and I think it would be dangerous for KDE to rely on it for end-user software. Then again, I think its fair to require NFS-shares to be NTP'd together. Anyway, thanks for clearing this up.
Hmm... I do not understand what remains as a wish here. And if I don't understand developers probably don't too and won't do anything. So I'm closing this. IF there is indeed a feature missing, please report back. Or maybe you file a new bug with an updated description?
Hello, I'm the original poster. I don't use KMail (or KDE) anymore, and don't work in that environment any more either. I doubt after nearly 7 years the bug is still relevant.