"undeletable" folders
Brian
I imported a bunch of mail from an old KMail installation using one of
the automatic tools, and while everything seemed to import OK I'm now
left with a bunch of folders which I can't delete (if I try, TB
prompts for confirmation, I tell it OK, and nothing happens). I have
checked all the permissions on the data directories, even to the
extent of doing a recursive chmod and chown, and yes, I definitely
have access. This is confirmed by the fact that I can rename them,
changing the name to something simple (e.g. x) works OK, for example.
No, I can't delete the renamed folder, either. Running fsck against
the drive shows no errors.
The folders do exist (checked from the command prompt). If I nuke the
folders from the command line, which is the only thing I can think of
left to try, is there any way to get TB to rebuild its folder list and
remove anything which doesn't exist, assuming it doesn't do so
automatically?
Thanks,
Brian.
Greywolf
What's in the folders? Normally, TB uses a mailbox structure for
"folders", not actual folders (directories), ie, the subfolders within
an account (Inbox, etc) are files, not folders.
AFAIK, TB's operation is basically the same across OSs, ie, the profile
data files are the same, and TB builds/rebuilds them the same way
regardless of OS. So if you have moved/copied the contents of the KMail
folders, you can nuke them. Then delete panacea.dat, which contains the
links to the mail and news accounts and their subfolders/subscribed
newsgroups, etc. TB will rebuild it at the next restart. NB that TB
keeps a record of all accounts and news groups here, including ones you
have deleted or unsubscribed. IOW, it's a good idea to delet it from
time to time.
However, back up the complete profile first. Just in case.
HTH
wolf k.
Christian Riechers
I'm not quite sure I fully understand your problem, you haven't
mentioned which folders you want to delete, and what type of account
they belong to.
As Greywolf mentioned in his post, a folder within Thunderbird is
actually a file in the profile.
You already checked permission, however, you don't need to have 'write'
permission to a file, in order to rename it.
The way Unix file system permission work, this is controlled via the
directory permission. A 'directory' is just a special type of a file. By
renaming a file within directory 'foo', you actually change the contents
of the file 'foo' in the file system. In other words, you need to have
'write' permission for the directory in order to rename a file inside
that directory.
That still doesn't explain your problem, but I just wanted to clarify
this. Perhaps you can provide more information on your problem.
--
Christian
Nir
> Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 running under Mandriva Linux.
>
> I imported a bunch of mail from an old KMail installation using one of
> the automatic tools, and while everything seemed to import OK I'm now
> left with a bunch of folders which I can't delete (if I try, TB
> prompts for confirmation, I tell it OK, and nothing happens). I have
> checked all the permissions on the data directories, even to the
> extent of doing a recursive chmod and chown, and yes, I definitely
> have access. This is confirmed by the fact that I can rename them,
> changing the name to something simple (e.g. x) works OK, for example.
> No, I can't delete the renamed folder, either. Running fsck against
> the drive shows no errors.
>
As Greywolf has already suggested, remove 'panacea.dat' file when Tb is
closed. Corruption of this file may result into this kind of issues.
Btw, do you have any folder with same name of the folder you are trying
to remove under 'Trash' folder?
If you Empty Trash folder before attempting to delete that folder does
it work[1]?
[1]"https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=228500"
Brian
Nuking the folders and data files (it was a multi-level structure,
i.e. nested folders) from the command line then renaming panacea.dat
with TB closed and then running up TB again resulted in an age of
disk-thrashing but finally TB came back up again and the problem had
indeed disappeared.
Thanks to those who replied.
Brian.
Brian
the old one - a little under 200 KB as opposed to just over 5 MB for
the old one.
Brian.
Greywolf
> P.S. It was noticeable that the new panacea.dat was FAR smaller than
> the old one - a little under 200 KB as opposed to just over 5 MB for
> the old one.
>
> Brian.
>
TBird thrashed because it was rebuilding panacea.dat, and you have too
much obsolete stuff in your profile, which it had to search through.
If you have never Compacted folders, do it now. Highlight the account, then
File > Compact Folders
Do this for each account
Also, shut down TBird, and navigate to
[your.profile]...\News\[your.news.server]. In there, you will find two
or three files for each newsgroup you ever subscribed to, whether or not
you have unsubscribed. Delete all the obsolete ones.
You can set TBird to Compact folders automatically. Start with Tools >
Options. I'm not going to tell you more, because you will find the hunt
instructive. Just don't reset too many options. :-)
In case you're not familiar with the concept, I've attached a little
essay on why compacting folders is essential housekeeping.
cheers,
wolf k.
Brian
> Brian wrote:
>> P.S. It was noticeable that the new panacea.dat was FAR smaller than
>> the old one - a little under 200 KB as opposed to just over 5 MB for
>> the old one.
>>
>> Brian.
>>
>
> TBird thrashed because it was rebuilding panacea.dat, and you have too
> much obsolete stuff in your profile, which it had to search through.
>
> If you have never Compacted folders, do it now. Highlight the account, then
> wolf k.
>
I backup TB's tree followed by a folder compaction on roughly a weekly
basis, give or take.
>
> Also, shut down TBird, and navigate to
> [your.profile]...\News\[your.news.server]. In there, you will find two
> or three files for each newsgroup you ever subscribed to, whether or not
> you have unsubscribed. Delete all the obsolete ones.
>
OK, now that bit I didn't know about.
> You can set TBird to Compact folders automatically. Start with Tools >
> Options. I'm not going to tell you more, because you will find the hunt
> instructive. Just don't reset too many options. :-)
>
Not particularly instructive, because there is no 'Options' item under
the 'Tools' menu. Perhaps you missed the magic word 'Linux' in my
original posting? :) Edit > Preferences for Linux users, at least with
V2.0.0.23
> In case you're not familiar with the concept, I've attached a little
> essay on why compacting folders is essential housekeeping.
>
Thank you, but I assure you I am. I might be a relative novice with
TB, but scientific database work has been my living for most of the
last 25 years. When a lab turns over 250,000+ samples per year,
archiving old samples (you're not allowed to delete them!) and then
purging the database becomes essential after a while.
Brian.
Greywolf
[..]
>> In case you're not familiar with the concept, I've attached a little
>> essay on why compacting folders is essential housekeeping.
>
> Thank you, but I assure you I am. I might be a relative novice with
> TB, but scientific database work has been my living for most of the
> last 25 years. When a lab turns over 250,000+ samples per year,
> archiving old samples (you're not allowed to delete them!) and then
> purging the database becomes essential after a while.
>
>
> Brian.
Good, but it never hurts to offer information. Better redundant
information than not enough ;-)
As for your work: Ouch!
Cheers,
wolf k.