From: "Heiki Kask" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> I have following problem with Cyrus/Outlook express:
>
> - user opens INBOX and clicks on one unseen mail.
> - This mail is marked as Read on Outlook Express.
> - user clicks on Send/Recv button to check new mail.
> - Outlook Express marks previously marked email as Unread again (if
> Synchronizaton setting is All Messages) or notifies about new mail
received (if
> Synchronization setting is Do Not Synchronize).
>
> Server is Debian 2.2, Cyrus IMAP 2.0.16 compiled from sources and
otherwise
> working fine (with Mozilla, Mutt).
>
> I have another IMAP server (bundled with some old Slackware distribution,
> introduces itself as "IMAP4rev1 v12.258 server ready") for comparision and
using
> this server does not produce situation described above.
>
> I'd blame Outlook Express but unfortunately I have another working IMAP
server
> for comparision ;)
>
It's a problem with Outlook Express interacting with the Cyrus-IMAP server.
What is happening is that OE is connecting to the Cyrus-IMAP server twice
(one to write the seen state, and one to re-sync the internal cache with the
server). This causes the re-sync to download the seen state before it is
stored on the IMAP server, which causes OE to reset it in the internal cache
(a second re-sync should show the correct state).
I also see this OE problem, when reading messages in a folder, leaving it,
and then immediately going back to the folder. The messages that I had read
are now shown as closed yellow envelopes (OE unread, but downloaded state).
Wait for OE to re-sync the folder and then OE shows the messages as read
(white open envelopes).
When Cyrus-IMAP writes the seen state, it first makes a copy of cyrus.seen
to cyrus.seen.new(?). This allows other IMAP connections to read the seen
state from cyrus.seen, while the first connection is updating
cyrus.seen.new(?). When it finishes it moves the file to cyrus.seen.
The reason you are not seeing this problem with the UW-IMAP server
(IMAP4rev1 v12.258), is because the UW-IMAP server stores all messages in
one file (i.e. unix mbox format). This requires the UW-IMAP server to lock
the file when it is writing to it, which prevents other connections from
reading the file, until the lock is removed.
You'll find other annoying problems with OE:
Problem: New message arrives, select it in OE, OE shows it marked
deleted and doesn't show the contents.
Fix: Right click on folder, choose properties, select local tab, click
delete, compact, and OK buttons. Then re-sync the folder and read the
new message.
Scot
