Re: messages not being marked as read on IMAP server

[Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

Mike Kupfer <m.kupfer@acm.org> writes:

> I have a couple different systems that I use to connect to an IMAP
> server.  I've noticed that messages that I had read--or at least marked
> as read--using Gnus on system A sometimes show up as unread using Gnus
> on system B.  I've finally tracked it down to this scenario:
>
> - a message is unread and flagged (ticked) on the IMAP server.  Gnus
>   shows it and the next message in the summary buffer as ticked.  (I'm
>   not sure that status of the second message is critical for reproducing
>   the problem, but it seems to help.)
> - in the Gnus summary buffer, I type "d" for the first message.  The
>   message is marked "r" in the summary buffer, as expected.
> - I exit the summary buffer and type "s" in the Group buffer
> - I check the folder using Thunderbird; it shows the first message as no
>   longer flagged, but it's still shown as unread.
>
> I expect the first message to be shown as read ("seen").

Hm...  I think "unread and flagged" is something that Gnus isn't
expecting.  It thinks that everything that's ticked (i.e. flagged) is
also read, which explains why it's not pushing the readedness change to
the IMAP server (because it doesn't think that the readedness has
changed).

I think.

> With the debugger I captured the following stack trace while exiting the
> summary buffer:
>
>     Debugger entered--entering a function:
>     * nnimap-send-command("UID STORE %s %sFLAGS.SILENT (%s)" "257948" "-" "\\Flagged")
>       nnimap-request-set-mark("INBOX" (((257948) del (tick))) "beehive")
>       gnus-request-set-mark("nnimap+beehive:INBOX" (((257948) del (tick))))
>       gnus-update-marks()
>       gnus-summary-update-info()
>       gnus-summary-exit()
>       call-interactively(gnus-summary-exit nil nil)
>       command-execute(gnus-summary-exit)
>
> I didn't notice any calls to set the Seen flag.

Yup.  I'm not quite sure what the right approach to fixing this is...
hm...

> I tried figuring out what's going on in gnus-update-marks, but it's a
> bit confusing, because there's both a gnus-newsgroup-seen list and a
> gnus-newsgroup-unseen list.  Though this bit of code seems odd:
>
> 	(when (eq (cdr type) 'seen)
> 	  (setq list (gnus-range-add list gnus-newsgroup-unseen)))

Yeah, that seems awfully weird, especially since the unseen list is
computed as the inverse of the seen list...

(defun gnus-compute-unseen-list ()
  ;; The `seen' marks are treated specially.
  (if (not gnus-newsgroup-seen)
      (setq gnus-newsgroup-unseen gnus-newsgroup-articles)
    (setq gnus-newsgroup-unseen
	  (gnus-inverse-list-range-intersection
	   gnus-newsgroup-articles gnus-newsgroup-seen))))

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no