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Bug#582953: Kmail deleted all my local mail



Hi there, I just had a very unpleasant experience with kmail.

I searched the Debian BTS, and this seems to be the closest report, so
my report over here.

I opened kmail this morning, and all my mails were gone. Checked the
~/.kde/share/apps/kmail folder, and basically empty, rather than the
700 MB of mail files I normally have there.

Fortunately I had made a backup from a few days ago, so I restored that.

Started kmail up again, and it deleted all those mails again during
startup. WTH?

Well, there are some unsual things on my side that are contributing
towards this.

1. My ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail folder is really a symlink to a
secondary encrypted location (an encfs directory).

2. I sometimes forget to mount that encfs share before starting kmail.
Normally in this case, kmail annoyingly removes my symlinks, and makes
new folders, so I have to go and tidy up after it to get to my mail
again. Really annoying.

3. My kmail settings files over here, aren't symlinks into an
encrypted location:

 ~/.kde/share/config/kmail*

So basically in this case, I started kmail up (before mounting my
crypt area), and it did it's normal annoying thing with my
~/.kde/share/apps/kmail symlink.

So I did my normal routine of mounting my crypt area, moving the new
'kmail' directory out of the way, restoring my symlink, and then
starting kmail.

After which, kmail promptly proceeded to delete all my mails under
~/.kde/share/apps/kmail (in my crypt area).

And it did the same again, when I restored ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail
from my encrypted offsite backup drive

What I _think_ is happening here is this:

1. kmail starts up, and sees that  ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail looks
weird, so it removes it and makes a new folder

(WTH number 1, but I'm used to that by now).

2. It then proceeds to make a new set of profile settings under
~/.kde/share/config/kmail*, replacing my old settings

(WTH number 2 - now I'd need to manually re-create those settings, or
restore from backups)

3. Later, when I replace the new  ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail with a
symlink to my encfs directory, and then start up kmail again, it sees
that my new ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail directory contents are now
inconsistent with the "~/.kde/share/config/kmail*" settings files, and
then kindly proceeds to tidy things up, to match the config files -
deleting my 700 MB of mails, not just once (initially), but a second
time too, when I tried to restore from backups and test it again.

This is the biggest WTH. Kmail should never delete all the local mail
files like that automatically, in an attempt to tidy things up to
match the settings, without even warning the user.

Granted, I have a really unusual setup, but it's conceivable that
kmail's "fix up the user's mail directory at any costs" (parts 1-3)
logic are going to cause some major problems for other people at some
point.

Also, it would be nice if kmail didn't always delete my kmail folder
symlink at startup, if they (at that time) point to non-existent
directories. Please instead give a warning dialogue, and ask the user
what to do at that point.

Kind regards,

David.

PS: Also for your reference, my reportbug headers can be found below:

-------
Subject: kmail: Kmail deleted all my local mail
Package: kmail
Version: 4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
Severity: important

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.0.0-1-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_ZA.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_ZA.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages kmail depends on:
ii  kdebase-runtime         4:4.6.5-1
ii  kdepim-runtime          4:4.4.11.1-2
ii  kdepimlibs-kio-plugins  4:4.6.5-1
ii  libakonadi-contact4     4:4.6.5-1
ii  libakonadi-kde4         4:4.6.5-1
ii  libc6                   2.13-20
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.6.1-10
ii  libgpgme++2             4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkabc4                4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkcal4                4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkcmutils4            4:4.6.5-2
ii  libkde3support4         4:4.6.5-2
ii  libkdecore5             4:4.6.5-2
ii  libkdepim4              4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
ii  libkdeui5               4:4.6.5-2
ii  libkhtml5               4:4.6.5-2
ii  libkimap4               4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkio5                 4:4.6.5-2
ii  libkldap4               4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkleo4                4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
ii  libkmime4               4:4.6.5-1
ii  libknotifyconfig4       4:4.6.5-2
ii  libkontactinterface4    4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkparts4              4:4.6.5-2
ii  libkpgp4                4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
ii  libkpimidentities4      4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkpimtextedit4        4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkpimutils4           4:4.6.5-1
ii  libkresources4          4:4.6.5-1
ii  libksieve4              4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
ii  libktnef4               4:4.6.5-1
ii  libmailtransport4       4:4.6.5-1
ii  libmessagecore4         4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
ii  libmessagelist4         4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
ii  libmimelib4             4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
ii  libnepomuk4             4:4.6.5-2
ii  libphonon4              4:4.6.0really4.5.0-5
ii  libqt4-dbus             4:4.7.3-8
ii  libqt4-network          4:4.7.3-8
ii  libqt4-qt3support       4:4.7.3-8
ii  libqt4-xml              4:4.7.3-8
ii  libqtcore4              4:4.7.3-8
ii  libqtgui4               4:4.7.3-8
ii  libstdc++6              4.6.1-10
ii  libthreadweaver4        4:4.6.5-2
ii  perl                    5.12.4-4
ii  phonon                  4:4.6.0really4.5.0-5

Versions of packages kmail recommends:
ii  gnupg-agent                   2.0.18-1
ii  gnupg2                        2.0.18-1
ii  pinentry-gtk2 [pinentry-x11]  0.8.1-1

Versions of packages kmail suggests:
pn  clamav | f-prot-installer                                 <none>
pn  kaddressbook                                              4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
pn  kleopatra                                                 4:4.4.11.1+l10n-1
pn  procmail                                                  <none>
pn  spamassassin | bogofilter | annoyance-filter | spambayes  <none>

-- no debconf information
-------



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