Lost my folders after installing POP3 server!
Peter C. Chapin
I recently installed a POP3 server on my Linux machine using the yum
package manager (this is a Fedora Core 4 system). That went fine. However,
right after doing this all the existing pine users started having trouble
with their folders. Specifically: instead of looking in ~/mail, pine is now
looking in ~/Mail/mail.
I checked /etc/pine.conf and /etc/pine.conf.fixed to see if the
installation of the POP3 server package caused these files to be changed in
some undesirable way. However, they have not been modified recently and
nothing in those files looks out of place to me. In my .pinerc (and this
should be the same for most other pine users), I have
folder-collections="Main" mail/[]
We discovered that by using an absolute path here, the problem can be
worked around. It seems like a path has been changed from ~ to ~/Mail and
pine is adding /mail to the end of that path to generate ~/Mail/mail
instead of ~/mail as it once did.
Any suggestions on what I should be looking at to fix this?
Peter
NM Public
It sounds like your system has been configured with:
set mail-subdirectory Mail
This was probably done in either the source code of your (UW)
POP3 server or in one or the other (or both) of these files:
/etc/c-client.cf
~/.imaprc
I discuss this here:
Setting Up UW IMAP and the "Dangerous" imaprc File on OS X (and
other systems)
<http://deflexion.com/2006/01/setting-up-uw-imap-and-dangerous>
Please let us know what caused this on your system. If Fedora
Core 4 uses a non-default 'mail-subdirectory', I will document
that on my web pages.
Thanks,
Nancy
--
Nancy McGough ~ <http://www.ii.com> ~ <http://deflexion.com>
Eduardo Chappa
:) I recently installed a POP3 server on my Linux machine using the yum
:) package manager (this is a Fedora Core 4 system). That went fine.
:) However, right after doing this all the existing pine users started
:) having trouble with their folders. Specifically: instead of looking in
:) ~/mail, pine is now looking in ~/Mail/mail.
It looks like the source code of Pine has been modified. One way to do
this is by modifying the file env_unix.c. If this is the case, you may
have to modify the way you configure Pine. Try pressing M S L and editing
the option "Path:" for the mail collection. Leave that value empty, then
create a symbolic link from Mail to mail (or rename mail to be called
Mail). Most Linux distributions use Mail/ instead of mail/ so that all
e-mail programs share their folders (if possible, of course). Hopefully
that will take care of the issue.
Another thing you can do is to build Pine on your own. A clean copy of
Pine works the way you expect it to work, and you would not have to modify
anything.
--
Eduardo
Patches/Help: http://www.math.washington.edu/~chappa/pine/
XML/RSS feed: http://www.math.washington.edu/~chappa/pine/pine.xml
Please send spam to webmaster@localhost
Mark Crispin
> It looks like the source code of Pine has been modified.
More likely, the c-client library which was probably built as a shared
library. Remember, he said that all he did was update his POP3 server and
it broke Pine.
This is an example of why we decided NOT to build with shared libraries in
the UW distribution.
> One way to do
> this is by modifying the file env_unix.c.
Correct.
Another way is to modify the c-client library configuration files; the
/etc/c-client.cf and ~/.imaprc files that I tell people "do not use" but
they use anyway. This is particularly nasty, since it even affects the
people who don't use shared libraries.
Sadly, I am aware of third party distributions which modify the source
code to insert that "Mail/" prefix. I am also aware of third party
distributions which install a c-client library configuration file to
insert it.
Guess what happens when a combination of distributions ends up doing both.
I've seen it happen.
The dark and evil side of the GNU religion is the practice of allowing
unknown hackers to make unilateral changes to your system configuration,
most often without notice to you that it's being done.
> Another thing you can do is to build Pine on your own. A clean copy of
> Pine works the way you expect it to work, and you would not have to modify
> anything.
I agree with this suggestion; but note that an essential part of this is
to get the unmodified UW distribution and discard the hacked third-party
distribution.
The unmodified UW distribution is on:
ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/pine
or
http://www.washington.edu/pine/getpine
-- Mark --
http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
Eduardo Chappa
:) On Thu, 6 Apr 2006, Eduardo Chappa wrote:
:) > It looks like the source code of Pine has been modified.
:)
:) More likely, the c-client library which was probably built as a shared
:) library. Remember, he said that all he did was update his POP3 server
:) and it broke Pine.
:)
:) This is an example of why we decided NOT to build with shared libraries
:) in the UW distribution.
Ok, makes sense.
:) Sadly, I am aware of third party distributions which modify the source
:) code to insert that "Mail/" prefix. I am also aware of third party
:) distributions which install a c-client library configuration file to
:) insert it.
:)
:) Guess what happens when a combination of distributions ends up doing
:) both. I've seen it happen.
:)
:) The dark and evil side of the GNU religion is the practice of allowing
:) unknown hackers to make unilateral changes to your system
:) configuration, most often without notice to you that it's being done.
I think that the problem is that the person that maintains one package
does not talk to the person maintaining the other. In this case, the
server and the client. I personally do not like the idea of shared
libraries because it makes it really hard for me to update my packages in
SuSe, so although I understand why anyone would like to distribute shared
libraries, I see it causes a huge harm too.
I agree with your position in this regard.
Mark Crispin
> I think that the problem is that the person that maintains one package
> does not talk to the person maintaining the other. In this case, the
> server and the client.
In this case, there was no reason for a POP3 server to change the mail
operating directory at all because POP3 is INBOX-only!
Thus, the POP3 server install (which evidentally made the change) would
not show any effect from the change to the mail operating directory. It
just causes collateral damage to other applications.
> I personally do not like the idea of shared
> libraries because it makes it really hard for me to update my packages in
> SuSe, so although I understand why anyone would like to distribute shared
> libraries, I see it causes a huge harm too.
The problem is that people do not realize that changing defaults can have
far-reaching unintended consequences. They just think that it is a "fix"
to the original developer's "stupidity" in setting a "wrong" default.
Hence my comment several years ago about "mandatory defaults." Even if
the default is wrong (and all too often the "wrongness" is someone's
misunderstanding rather than an error), much more harm is caused by
changing the defaults in someone else's system!
> I agree with your position in this regard.
Thanks.
Peter C. Chapin
news:Pine.OSX.4.64.0...@crqeb-tf-pbzchgre.ybpny:
> It sounds like your system has been configured with:
>
> set mail-subdirectory Mail
>
> This was probably done in either the source code of your (UW)
> POP3 server or in one or the other (or both) of these files:
>
> /etc/c-client.cf
This was the problem. My c-client.cf contained the mail-subdirectory
setting just as you suspected. I removed the setting and all is once
again well in the universe.
> Please let us know what caused this on your system. If Fedora
> Core 4 uses a non-default 'mail-subdirectory', I will document
> that on my web pages.
Apparently it does.
Thanks to you and to all those who responded. You were most helpful.
Peter
NM Public
>
>> It sounds like your system has been configured with:
>>
>> set mail-subdirectory Mail
>>
>> This was probably done in either the source code of your (UW)
>> POP3 server or in one or the other (or both) of these files:
>>
>> /etc/c-client.cf
>
> This was the problem. My c-client.cf contained the
> mail-subdirectory setting just as you suspected. I removed the
> setting and all is once again well in the universe.
Very interesting... can you post the entire /etc/c-client.cf that
was used? I'm curious what other trouble they might be causing by
screwing around with the defaults. I agree with Mark that the
defaults should be used and only people who know what they're
doing should screw around with the defaults. This (not using
defaults) is a very common problem in the Procmail world too.
My motto: Use the defaults Luke!
Glad all is once again well in the universe!
Peter C. Chapin
news:Pine.OSX.4.64.0...@crqeb-tf-pbzchgre.ybpny:
> Very interesting... can you post the entire /etc/c-client.cf that
> was used? I'm curious what other trouble they might be causing by
> screwing around with the defaults. I agree with Mark that the
> defaults should be used and only people who know what they're
> doing should screw around with the defaults. This (not using
> defaults) is a very common problem in the Procmail world too.
My c-client.cf contained only two lines. The first was
I accept the risk of using UW-IMAP
The second was the mail subdirectory setting (which I removed).
Peter
Vwake
>
> My c-client.cf contained only two lines. The first was
>
> I accept the risk of using UW-IMAP
>
> The second was the mail subdirectory setting (which I removed).
I had the same when I used Mandrake and had some tough problems before
Mark helped me fix it.
# cat /etc/c-client.cf.org
I accept the risk of using UW-IMAP
set mail-subdirectory Mail
V.
Mark Crispin
> My c-client.cf contained only two lines. The first was
> I accept the risk of using UW-IMAP
> The second was the mail subdirectory setting (which I removed).
Yes, I am familiar with that variant of c-client.cf
The person who distributed that package obviously had hostile intent.
The key to enable c-client.cf is "I accept the risk".
Mark Crispin
> I had the same when I used Mandrake and had some tough problems before Mark
> helped me fix it.
The real fix is to delete the file entirely.