folders with leading spaces, other small issues...

[rwalker]

I've just installed Zimbra on FC4 to evaluate it's suitability as a replacement for my aging installation of Netscape Messaging (4.15). The server in question supports about 30 people, at the moment we have approximately 10GB of mailstore.

First let me say am very impressed by the completeness and self-containedness of the product. Great job.

I've run into a major snag, though: Zimbra appears to ignore leading spaces in IMAP folder names. It appears to simply strip them, which confuses my mail client (Thunderbird) and has broken migration of my store (I'm using imapsync).

Here's an example set of IMAP commands that illustrate the issue:

0 create "x"
0 OK CREATE completed
0 create " x"
0 NO CREATE failed: mailbox already exists
0 create {2}
+ 
 x
0 NO CREATE failed: mailbox already exists
0 create " y"
0 OK CREATE completed
0 select " y"
0 NO SELECT failed
0 select {2}
+ 
 y
0 NO SELECT failed
0 select {1}
+ 
y
* 0 EXISTS
* 0 RECENT
* OK [UIDVALIDITY 27706]
* FLAGS (\ANSWERED \DELETED \DRAFT \FLAGGED \SEEN $FORWARDED $MDNSENT FORWARDED $JUNK $NOTJUNK JUNK JUNKRECORDED NONJUNK NOTJUNK)
* OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\ANSWERED \DELETED \DRAFT \FLAGGED \SEEN $FORWARDED $MDNSENT FORWARDED \*)]
0 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed
0 list / *
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "INBOX"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "x"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "y"
0 OK LIST completed

Known issue? Easy fix?

I also have a few smaller issues:

• server config changes appear to require a restart before they take effect (e.g. clear text login)
• startup time is quite long
• the store is basically flat. 2 issues here: the message->folder db takes extra disk space (my db/data is ~300MB so far, and I've only migrated 34k messages, about 1.6G). Also, a db corruption means the store structure is lost (not so in Cyrus or Netscape).

Thanks for reading,
Rob

[dkarp]

Originally Posted by rwalker

I've run into a major snag, though: Zimbra appears to ignore leading spaces in IMAP folder names. It appears to simply strip them, which confuses my mail client (Thunderbird) and has broken migration of my store (I'm using imapsync).

That's a good point. The code for folder name normalization should have gone in the AJAX client rather than in the server. We'll have this fixed for the next milestone release.

[dkarp]

Originally Posted by rwalker

I also have a few smaller issues:
the store is basically flat. 2 issues here: the message->folder db takes extra disk space (my db/data is ~300MB so far, and I've only migrated 34k messages, about 1.6G). Also, a db corruption means the store structure is lost (not so in Cyrus or Netscape).

Since our interface is query-based -- a "folder view" is actually the result of an "in:foldername" search, and cross-folder searches are common -- the mailbox's folder structure really needs to be in the database. We can replicate this structure to the message files at a cost of 2 extra disk ops per move, but that's only really useful when you need to reconstitute a corrupted database. Given that you'd then have also lost your entire tag set, read/unread state, contact list, set of saved searches, calendar appointment state, etc., it's probably better to rely on the backup/restore system.

[rwalker]

Since our interface is query-based -- a "folder view" is actually the result of an "in:foldername" search, and cross-folder searches are common -- the mailbox's folder structure really needs to be in the database. We can replicate this structure to the message files at a cost of 2 extra disk ops per move, but that's only really useful when you need to reconstitute a corrupted database.

It's also useful when migrating a store out of a defunct and unsupported server . Having the messages on disk in RFC822 format in named folders is tremendously useful.

Given that you'd then have also lost your entire tag set, read/unread state, contact list, set of saved searches, calendar appointment state, etc., it's probably better to rely on the backup/restore system.

When Zimbra's used to its full potential, yes. However, in an installation where Zimbra is primarily an IMAP server, the foldering information has more value, and is more tedious to reconstruct by hand than any of the above (actually, I don't know if it's even possible to reconstruct by hand which messages should appear in whose folders).

Thanks again for reading.

-Rob

[avisser]

I have also experienced the same settings issues. I had to restart the server to get plain text logins to work.

[rwalker]

Restarting this topic a little, now that M2 is released and the IMAP server allows creation of folders with leading spaces in their name.

What's the plan for mixed-mode accessors? Most of my users are IMAP, but use the web client occasionally (in web kiosks, for example). What does the web client show when the account has IMAP-created folders with leading spaces? Does it strip the spaces for presentation? What about the case where this causes a conflict, e.g. two folders, named " foo" and "foo"?

Thanks,
Rob Walker

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by rwalker

Restarting this topic a little, now that M2 is released and the IMAP server allows creation of folders with leading spaces in their name.

What's the plan for mixed-mode accessors? Most of my users are IMAP, but use the web client occasionally (in web kiosks, for example). What does the web client show when the account has IMAP-created folders with leading spaces? Does it strip the spaces for presentation? What about the case where this causes a conflict, e.g. two folders, named " foo" and "foo"?

Thanks,
Rob Walker

It should display them. IF you see a problem with this let us know.

[shideg]

Originally Posted by dkarp

That's a good point. The code for folder name normalization should have gone in the AJAX client rather than in the server. We'll have this fixed for the next milestone release.

I'm having this issue now (Dec 2006), with version 4.04GA Network Edition.

The instances I've spotted, the mailbox names have 1 or 2 leading spaces.

Wasn't this supposed to be fixed?

[dkarp]

Originally Posted by shideg

I'm having this issue now (Dec 2006), with version 4.04GA Network Edition.

In the instance I've spotted, the mailbox name has TWO leading spaces. Does that make a difference?

What issue are you seeing? An IMAP issue, a web client can't-search issue, something similar?

[shideg]

Originally Posted by dkarp

What issue are you seeing? An IMAP issue, a web client can't-search issue, something similar?

IMAP issue.

imapsync gets confused after zimbra renames the folder.