[err msg] SEARCH unsupported argument

[Joseph Koenig]

I'm using Pine to handle my email at my email-provider (gmx.de) via
IMAP. When doing so, I regularly encounter the following behaviour:

I'm deleting several (often 100 or more) (Spam) messages by repeatedly
pressing the "d" key. When trying to "x" (expunge) these messages, PINE
freezes and displays the above mentioned message:

SEARCH unsupported argument

After that, Pine is frozen for about 10-100 seconds. ==> I'm unable to
intervene in these situations. Neither "Ctrl-c", "Ctrl-g", "Ctrl-d",
"<esc>" or the like are capable of interrupting this state.

Pine 4.58 - Linux 2.4.22 - i686 - Slackware 9.1

Cheers and TIA

Joe

[Mark Crispin]

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004, Joseph Koenig wrote:
> SEARCH unsupported argument

This is not a Pine problem. It's an IMAP server problem. IMAP servers
are required to implement SEARCH by the IMAP specification.

gmx.de is well-known not to run a real IMAP server.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

[Joseph Koenig]

Mark Crispin <m...@CAC.Washington.EDU> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Jan 2004, Joseph Koenig wrote:
>> SEARCH unsupported argument
>
> This is not a Pine problem. It's an IMAP server problem. IMAP servers
> are required to implement SEARCH by the IMAP specification.

Mark, thank you very much for your reply.
I'm certainly not questioning your statement concerning the
standard-compliance of the gmx.de-imap-server. Still, sometimes it
seems not to be sufficient to tell the "zealots in charge" that the
inventor of IMAP has suggested/ordered to switch.

Not being familiar with the IMAP protocol, just having thrown a short
glance at RFC 2060 and having worked with IMAP clients where this
behaviour does not occur: Why does Pine have to issue the SEARCH
command when trying to expunge some messages?

I assume that it wants to check whether these messages are still present
on the server? Aren't the messages identified with a unique ID? What
would be the problem if the client would request to delete some messages
which are not present on the server?

Joe

[Mark Crispin]

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004, Joseph Koenig wrote:
> I'm certainly not questioning your statement concerning the
> standard-compliance of the gmx.de-imap-server. Still, sometimes it
> seems not to be sufficient to tell the "zealots in charge" that the
> inventor of IMAP has suggested/ordered to switch.

I agree with you; it's probably better to fire gmx.de as your IMAP
provider and instead use a provider which understands IMAP. Life is too
short to waste in arguing with providers which sell broken services.

Perhaps gmx.de is less expensive than other providers. There's an old
saying about "you get what you pay for."

> Not being familiar with the IMAP protocol, just having thrown a short
> glance at RFC 2060 and having worked with IMAP clients where this
> behaviour does not occur: Why does Pine have to issue the SEARCH
> command when trying to expunge some messages?

I didn't write that portion of Pine; so I have to make an educated guess.
I believe that Pine is probably trying to count the number of messages
which are deleted, including checking for messages which were deleted by
some other IMAP session, in order to report how many messages would be
expunged and to ask you if you really want to expunge those messages.