Crazy imap unread counts

Crazy imap unread counts

[Dave Abrahams]

When I hit `g' in *Group*, my INBOX shows 187 unread messages there.
However, when I try to enter INBOX, Gnus says:

  How many articles from INBOX (available 218124, default 5000): 

and even the default of 5000 is insufficient to show me any messages.
(I've taken to entering 99999...)

Now if I enter the group and hit `M-g', the *Group* buffer says 214833
next to INBOX.  

Now if I exit INBOX the *Group* buffer says 86 next to INBOX.

There are so many problems that It's hard to know where to begin with
this...

To try to get a handle on the most annoying issue (unread counts in the
two-hundred-thousands), I started looking where article numbers are
persisted: in .newsrc.eld.  Below is the part of my gnus-newsrc-alist
that refers to INBOX.  As you can see, there's a range of article
numbers

  (35583 . 250593)

and (gnus-active "INBOX") is 

  (32470 . 250593)

I'm not sure if these numbers even reflect anything that's on the
server.  The problem *may* just be that the information is corrupt and
it keeps getting persisted.  But this is an IMAP server, which stores
marks. So is there a way to regenerate this information from the server?

Thanks

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
("INBOX" 3
  ((1 . 34860)
   (34863 . 34868)
   (34872 . 34875)
   (34877 . 34879)
   34881
   (34891 . 34897)
   (34899 . 34900)
   34904
   (34906 . 34913)
   (34915 . 34981)
   (34983 . 34990)
   (34992 . 34994)
   (34996 . 34998)
   (35000 . 35131)
   (35133 . 35138)
   (35140 . 35143)
   35150
   (35152 . 35158)
   35160
   (35162 . 35164)
   35169
   (35179 . 35180)
   35185 35187 35189
   (35197 . 35204)
   (35206 . 35220)
   (35222 . 35240)
   (35242 . 35247)
   (35249 . 35267)
   (35269 . 35288)
   (35290 . 35304)
   (35306 . 35307)
   (35309 . 35319)
   (35321 . 35344)
   35346
   (35348 . 35349)
   (35351 . 35354)
   (35356 . 35386)
   (35388 . 35389)
   (35391 . 35392)
   35394
   (35396 . 35397)
   (35399 . 35411)
   (35413 . 35470)
   (35472 . 35525)
   (35527 . 35552)
   (35554 . 35581)
   (35583 . 250593))
  ((seen 32470 32488 32592 32616 33589
         (33600 . 33604)
         34308 34453 34458 34502 34525 34694 34722
         (34724 . 34725)
         34729
         (34732 . 34737)
         (34739 . 34743)
         (34745 . 34747)
         (34754 . 34755)
         34757
         (34759 . 34763)
         (34765 . 34767)
         (34769 . 34771)
         (34777 . 34780)
         (34783 . 34784)
         34786
         (34788 . 34789)
         34793 34795 34797
         (34800 . 34806)
         34819
         (34828 . 34830)
         34840
         (34850 . 34857)
         (34860 . 34862)
         (34869 . 34874)
         (34876 . 34877)
         (34880 . 34890)
         34893
         (34896 . 34898)
         (34900 . 34906)
         (34909 . 34911)
         (34913 . 34914)
         34982 34991 34995 34999 35132 35139
         (35144 . 35149)
         35151 35159 35161 35163
         (35165 . 35168)
         (35170 . 35205)
         (35207 . 35222)
         (35224 . 35253)
         (35255 . 35271)
         (35275 . 35281)
         (35286 . 35287)
         (35289 . 35290)
         (35294 . 35333)
         35340
         (35345 . 35348)
         35350
         (35352 . 35404)
         (35407 . 35449)
         (35451 . 35452)
         (35454 . 35459)
         (35461 . 35481)
         (35483 . 35485)
         35487
         (35491 . 35492)
         (35495 . 35537)
         (35540 . 35542)
         (35546 . 35548)
         (35551 . 35555)
         (35557 . 35587)
         35590 35594
         (35599 . 35634)
         (35636 . 35690)
         35692
         (35694 . 35699)
         35701
         (35703 . 35710)
         (35712 . 35715)
         (35723 . 35724)
         (35731 . 35736)
         35742
         (35744 . 35747)
         (35759 . 35761)
         35763
         (35771 . 35774)
         (35776 . 35800)
         35802
         (35804 . 35811)
         (35813 . 35843))
   (forward 35187)
   (reply 34884 35139 35145 35175 35187 35189 35715 35763)
   (tick 32470 32592 34694 34852 35185 35187 35189 35438 35495 35643 35715 35763 35784 35794 35810))
  nil
  ((modseq)
   (uidvalidity . "639399117")
   (active 32470 . 250593)
   (permanent-flags %Answered %Flagged %Draft %Deleted %Seen gnus-save unknown-0 unknown-1 unknown-2 unknown-3 unknown-4 unknown-5 unknown-6 unknown-8 receipt-handled gnus-download Junk $Label1 NonJunk gnus-forward gnus-expire NotJunk $MDNSent $Junk Forwarded $Forwarded JunkRecorded $NotJunk %*)
   (auto-expire . t)
   (spam-process-destination . "nnimap+BoostPro:[Gmail]/Spam")
   (expiry-wait . immediate)
   (expiry-target . delete)
   (display .
            [not expire])
   (agent-enable-expiration . ENABLE)
   (agent-days-until-old . 1.5)))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: Crazy imap unread counts

[Andreas Schwab]

Dave Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

> To try to get a handle on the most annoying issue (unread counts in the
> two-hundred-thousands), I started looking where article numbers are
> persisted: in .newsrc.eld.  Below is the part of my gnus-newsrc-alist
> that refers to INBOX.  As you can see, there's a range of article
> numbers
>
>   (35583 . 250593)

This is part the range of read articles (there are a lot of holes in
that range).

> and (gnus-active "INBOX") is 
>
>   (32470 . 250593)

This is coming from the active entry.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

Re: Crazy imap unread counts

[Dave Abrahams]

on Fri Jul 15 2011, Andreas Schwab <schwab-AT-linux-m68k.org> wrote:

> Dave Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
>
>> To try to get a handle on the most annoying issue (unread counts in the
>> two-hundred-thousands), I started looking where article numbers are
>> persisted: in .newsrc.eld.  Below is the part of my gnus-newsrc-alist
>> that refers to INBOX.  As you can see, there's a range of article
>> numbers
>>
>>   (35583 . 250593)
>
> This is part the range of read articles (there are a lot of holes in
> that range).

I know that's what it means.  But I daresay I've never *actually* had article
numbers that high in this mailbox, so it's not clear where it could have
come from.

>> and (gnus-active "INBOX") is 
>>
>>   (32470 . 250593)
>
> This is coming from the active entry.

Yes, I know where it comes from, although in this case I don't know what
the active entry means.

Eventually, by removing the group, trashing all the agent files, getting
gnus to save the .newsrc.eld file, restarting emacs, and re-adding the
group, I was able to get everything back in synch again.  That said,
since *all the information I needed actually lives on the IMAP server*,
there oughtta be a way to do this kind of thing from within Gnus.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: Crazy imap unread counts

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Dave Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

> Eventually, by removing the group, trashing all the agent files, getting
> gnus to save the .newsrc.eld file, restarting emacs, and re-adding the
> group, I was able to get everything back in synch again.  That said,
> since *all the information I needed actually lives on the IMAP server*,
> there oughtta be a way to do this kind of thing from within Gnus.

It sounds like a bug, but the whole point of the Agent is that it will
override whatever the server says with what it thinks it knows.  So if
it saw an article with number 4343432, and the server later says
"nuh-uh, my highest article is 15 now, so there", the Agent will say
"nyah-nyah, I know about articles up to 4343432".

Which is a feature most of the time.

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