GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 350759
Cannot write to Unix mailbox
Last modified: 2012-10-15 14:59:35 UTC
Distribution: Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux) Package: Evolution Severity: Normal Version: GNOME2.14.2 2.6.x Gnome-Distributor: Red Hat, Inc Synopsis: Cannot write to Unix mailbox Bugzilla-Product: Evolution Bugzilla-Component: Mailer Bugzilla-Version: 2.6.x Description: Description of Problem: Setting up evolution to use Unix mail. Pathname is /var/mail/<login>. Can read mailbox just fine. However when trying to empty trash, nothing happens. Going in through mutt shows that the mailbox is in original condition. Steps to reproduce the problem: 1. Start evolution, read mail from Unix mailbox 2. Delete mail 3. Try and empty trash Actual Results: Nothing happens Expected Results: Mail in trash should disappear How often does this happen? Every time Additional Information: makes evolution useless! ------- Bug created by bug-buddy at 2006-08-10 15:31 -------
you don't have write access to the mail directory. expunging messages writes to a temp file in the same directory as the original mbox, then, after successfully writing this temp file, the temp file is rename()'d overtop of the original. This needs to be done to minimise the risk of losing data in case of a crash, power failure, etc happening during the mbox rewrite. also, it's not recommended that you use "Unix mbox spool or directory" accounts with /var/mail spools, it is recommended that you use "Local Delivery" due to file locking conflicts that may happen when using "Unix mbox spool" accounts.
1) Probably wasn't clear... expunging (^E) works fine, it's the "Empty Trash" menu directive that doesn't work. 2) You write: >> also, it's not recommended that you use "Unix mbox spool or directory" accounts with /var/mail spools, it is recommended that you use "Local Delivery" due to file locking conflicts that may happen when using "Unix mbox spool" accounts. << I was not able to get "Local Delivery" to work - apparently, it wants a directory, not a file. If I specified /var/mail/<login> as the pathname, it would hang while "Loading". I was able to specify "/var/mail" but then I got all the mailfiles in that directory which I could then click on, but I didn't want all that information.
Hi John.Ata, if you have time, could you please check again whether this issue still happens in Evolution 3.2.3 or 3.0.3 and update this report by adding a comment and changing the "Version" field and provide information about your distribution? Thanks a lot.
Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!