PMDF IMAP mailbox issue in VMS MAIL
Jeremy Begg
Hi,
This is (more or less) a copy of a case I've raised via Process Software
support. I'm posting it here in case another site has solved the same
problem, and would be willing to provide some assistance.
%PMDF-I-VERSION, PMDF version is PMDF V6.3-1
HP rx2660 (1.59GHz/9.0MB) running OpenVMS IA64 V8.3-1H1
PMDF_SHARE_LIBRARY version V6.3-1; linked 16:43:47, Dec 27 2006
Mail is stored in VMS MAIL and users rely largely on Microsoft Outlook to
access that mail via IMAP.
One particular user has a largish mail directory with lots of nested folders
and associated subdirectories. The user had a top-level folder called
QUEENSLAND with lots of subfolders. She decided to change the name of that
folder to "Sues Supplier Coms" and used her Outlook client to do this.
Unfortunately she closed Outlook before the operation completed, and now her
IMAP folder structure has become a mess.
From Outlook she can still see a top-level folder called QUEENSLAND and also
many of the sub-folders contained therein. However when she tries to access
some of these sub-folders, Outlook reports "Cannot display the folder. The
folder '<name>' cannot contain items. This is most likely a limitation of
your IMAP server. In order to create a folder that can contain items, be
sure not to append '/' to its name as you create it."
From soyMAIL she can see both the "QUEENSLAND" top-level folder and
sub-folders, and also the (new) "Sues Supplier Coms" folder and sub-folders.
In the VMS MAIL folder list (i.e. "DIR/FOLDER" command in VMS MAIL),
"QUEENSLAND" has been replaced by "Sues Supplier Coms".
It looks to me like the problem might be her PMDF_IMAP.MAILBOX file. This
contains all the folders which existed prior to her attempt to rename
QUEENSLAND, for example:
QUEENSLAND=
Queensland Contacts - Suppliers!
Queensland Contacts Suppliers!
QUEENSLAND/Supplier Contacts=
QUEENSLAND/OYSTER BAY - QLD=
QUEENSLAND/CASINO=
QUEENSLAND/CASTLEMAINE XXXX=
etc
but does not contain any mention of the "Sues Supplier Coms" folder or
sub-folders.
However *both* structures are listed in PMDF_IMAP.MBXDIR ...
QUEENSLAND [user.MAIL.01MIFON2NS2S005U2W]
QUEENSLAND/Angoves [user.MAIL.01MIK4VPR6QA00675N]
QUEENSLAND/Australian Regional Wines [user.MAIL.01MP0678GZ1C00F8I3]
QUEENSLAND/Brofleyn Pty Ltd - Rushi [user.MAIL.01MZV4AK40M0002A0U]
QUEENSLAND/CASINO [user.MAIL.01MRTY45YJ9W000BXK]
QUEENSLAND/CASTLEMAINE XXXX [user.MAIL.01MKWZD10GIE0011OA]
QUEENSLAND/Casella [user.MAIL.01MK6KBJ49VA00AD50]
QUEENSLAND/Casella/Staff Buying [user.MAIL.01MK7YCPYFL800AYHW]
QUEENSLAND/Clubmart QLD Advertising [user.MAIL.01MLJVLRRJ580042CY]
QUEENSLAND/Coral Sea - Australian Regional Wines [user.MAIL.01MS6GXGKBYM00019K]
QUEENSLAND/Fosters [user.MAIL.01MS6FOGXRRY00019B]
QUEENSLAND/Independent Distillers [user.MAIL.01MIV5HCHS2S007FCD]
QUEENSLAND/Island2Ilsand [user.MAIL.01MUJNVO5JV40069B3]
QUEENSLAND/Liquorstop QLD advertising [user.MAIL.01MQ5LFU3JVA00MXDX]
QUEENSLAND/McWilliams [user.MAIL.01MYLCYB4GFQ000I92]
QUEENSLAND/Pernod Ricard [user.MAIL.01MNAR7E3ZEM009LGE]
QUEENSLAND/Pooles Rock [user.MAIL.01MZUYWB782600280R]
QUEENSLAND/Premium Beverages [user.MAIL.01MX2LJSF16K00DNLB]
QUEENSLAND/Samuel Smith &- Sons [user.MAIL.01MPXG9HFKAI00JN7B]
QUEENSLAND/TABCORP [user.MAIL.01MQEIPM3ABG00JSSI]
QUEENSLAND/TBW - Rob Jenkins [user.MAIL.01MPYMVQ7PCE00IGMM]
QUEENSLAND/Taylors [user.MAIL.01MRHGHAVTLO00PHGF]
QUEENSLAND/Warburn Estate [user.MAIL.01MXW6E0TQNA00FDIV]
QUEENSLAND/Warburn Estate/John Rush [user.MAIL.01MXW6F7J83M00GKL0]
QUEENSLAND/Zilzie [user.MAIL.01MV1OM4LG8G0076YM]
Sues Supplier Coms [user.MAIL.01N19R6JV6CM000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/CASINO [user.MAIL.01N19R7MKCUI000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/CASTLEMAINE XXXX [user.MAIL.01N19R7MIDH2000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Casella [user.MAIL.01N19R7NRY2M000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Casella/Staff Buying [user.MAIL.01N19R7NUCV6000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Coral Sea - Australian Regional Wines [user.MAIL.01N19R7E9ZBM000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Fosters [user.MAIL.01N19R753P26000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Independent Distillers [user.MAIL.01N19R7175CU000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Island2Ilsand [user.MAIL.01N19R70Z4YE000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/McWilliams [user.MAIL.01N19R6WPQAM000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Pernod Ricard [user.MAIL.01N19R6V0N8M000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Pooles Rock [user.MAIL.01N19R6UYXI8000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Premium Beverages [user.MAIL.01N19R6UWLLO000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Samuel Smith &- Sons [user.MAIL.01N19R6U7GXA000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Taylors [user.MAIL.01N19R6R7I0M000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Warburn Estate [user.MAIL.01N19R6K4RN4000AD1]
Sues Supplier Coms/Zilzie [user.MAIL.01N19R6JUYMS000AD1]
As you can see, not all of the folders from QUEENSLAND made it into "Sues Supplier Coms".
It seems to me the simplest way to fix this would be to merge the entries
from "Sues Supplier Coms" into PMDF_IMAP.MAILBOX -- but I'm not sure how to
do this; the records in that file contain a "magic" character at the end of
each folder name and I'm not sure how to set it.
Somehow we need to get both sets of folders listed in IMAP. Any
suggestions?
Thanks,
Jeremy Begg
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Carl Karcher
The last character is either a = or !. If ! that means it's a deleted
folder, = means it's active. In my experience you can delete
pmdf_imap.mailbox and the *.UID files and they will be rebuilt. You may
also need to deleted the client's message cache. Never delete the
mail.mai-uiddir or hierarchy.name files. The pmdf_imap.mbxdir can be
rebuilt from the hierarchy.name files with
@pmdf_com:RESTORE_PMDF_IMAP_MBXDIR.
I have a working dcl script that moves a users' pmdf hierarchy to a
subfolder of another user to handle people that have left
(reconstructing pmdf_imap.mbxdir and mail.mai-uiddir files). The
comments there may be useful to you if you need to dive in deeper
--
--
-- Carl Karcher, Waisman Computing Services, Waisman Center, UW-Madison
-- kar...@waisman.wisc.edu