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.
someone who knows, please check
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?
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.
Is this bug still present in a recent version of KDE, such as 3.5.8 or 4.0.1?
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)
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.
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.