[Dovecot] Delete mails in dovecot POP3 has a bug/feature

[Angel Marin]

Nuilte Infotech escribió:
> When a mailbox has abt 40 mails with 4-5 mb attachments , it is quite
> common for the pop3 connection to get timed out or disconnected esp. if
> user has dialup modem.
> 
> In this case , dovecot seems to REALLY HIT the user hard. Because it
> simply DOES NOT delete mails , even if user requested so. It only
> deletes the mails if users succesfully logs out. No other pop3 server
> has this problem so i would request this bugs is fixed ASAP.

Well that's how rfc 1939 mandates it. Quoting section 6:

"If a session terminates for some reason other than a client-issued
 QUIT command, the POP3 session does NOT enter the UPDATE state and
 MUST not remove any messages from the maildrop."

> Effect of this bug - user has to retry multiple times and download
> multiple copies of mail before it finally deleted.
> 
> Server Using ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn + standard apt-get dovecot.
> 
> Client end tested using getmail+BrokenUIDLPOP3Retriever
> 
> To be Fixed - dovecot should delete mail even if the client connection
> gets "broken" or disconnects "ungracefully". e.g. user hits CTRL+C with
> getmail.

Then don't use pop3 then, getmail supports imap too. Every *sane* pop3
server out there behaves this way; emphasis in sane :)

Regards,
-- 
Angel Marin
http://anmar.eu.org/