[Dovecot] Newbie: unable to access mailbox more than once

[Mr Matthew Petoe]

> ________________________________________
> From: Mr Matthew Petoe
> Sent: 22 July 2009 23:42
> To: dovecot at dovecot.org
> Subject: RE: [Dovecot] Newbie: unable to access mailbox more than once
>
> I can fix the problem by deleting the index files for each non-compliant mailbox. eg: /.indexes/.Sent/dovecot.index
>
> Dovecot then recreates the index files. The ownership and permissions of the new & deleted indexes are the same.
>
> However, these index files soon get corrupted. I think it might be imapsync corrupting them because I can access the > mail using Thunderbird, and run imapsync successfully *once* (again), but after that the index files appear to be > corrupt because the mailbox stops allowing access until I delete the index files again.
>
> Anyone have any experience with index files becoming corrupted or inaccessible? Maybe I should try moving them off > the network drive....
>
>
> cheers
> matt p


Hi again,

I went to the trouble of comparing the contents of a 'corrupt' index file and a fresh one. I have no idea what the format of an index file is, but the corruption occurs within the first 300 bytes or so. There's also one final difference 43 bytes from the end.

Here's the header bytes:

fresh:
07027800680100000C000000010000009242644A000000009242644A14030000130300000000000013030000000000001403000014030000000000000B000000D81D0000D81D0000000000000000000000000000E0C9654A0100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000240000000000000000000000000007006D61696C64697200CC19674A9142644A00000000CC19674A9C14674A000000009C14674A000000002E93000000000000940000000000000008000200010008006B6579776F726473040000000000000000000000000000000800000000000000100000000000000019000000246C6162656C31004E6F6E4A756E6B00244D444E53656E740024466F72776172646564000000000000000000

corrupt:
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

here's a list of differences, (index, fresh -> corrupt):
21: 0 -> 2
61: B -> A
65: D8 -> 94
66: 1D -> 36
69: D8 -> 94
70: 1D -> 36
145: CC -> D3
146: 19 -> 16
157: CC -> D3
158: 19 -> 16
161: 9C -> D3
162: 14 -> 16
9761: 8 -> 88


Dunno if this is going to help anyone, much less myself....