understanding refcount=0, where is my deleted message?

[Marc]

I have migrated beginning this year from mbox to mdbox, but I am still struggling with the concept of refcount=0 and where these message stay.

This is my test mailbox (shell script uses 'doveadm mailbox status -u')

[@ sbin]# mailbox-ls.sh testtest size
listing mailboxes of testtest:
Archive  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2011  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2012  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2013  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2014  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2015  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2016  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2017  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2018  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2019  msgs=3435 vsize=277MiB
Archive/Archive  msgs=1 vsize=2.4KiB
Deleted Messages  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Drafts  msgs=4 vsize=1.1KiB
INBOX  msgs=1329 vsize=211MiB
INBOX/test2  msgs=3 vsize=187KiB
Junk  msgs=2 vsize=2.0KiB
Sent  msgs=20 vsize=13KiB
Trash  msgs=47 vsize=752KiB

[@ sbin]# doveadm -o mail_location=mdbox_deleted:/home/popusers/testtest/mdbox:INDEX=/home/popindex/testtest/index mailbox status -u testtest 'messages vsize' '*'
Sent messages=0 vsize=0
Drafts messages=0 vsize=0
INBOX/test2 messages=0 vsize=0
Junk messages=0 vsize=0
Deleted Messages messages=0 vsize=0
Trash messages=0 vsize=0
INBOX messages=0 vsize=0

Now I am deleting 1 message from inbox with thunderbird, and I am getting this expected result, 1 message less in inbox, 1 message more in Deleted messages.

[root at mail04 sbin]# mailbox-ls.sh testtest size
listing mailboxes of testtest:
Archive  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2011  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2012  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2013  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2014  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2015  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2016  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2017  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2018  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2019  msgs=3435 vsize=277MiB
Archive/Archive  msgs=1 vsize=2.4KiB
Deleted Messages  msgs=1 vsize=433B
Drafts  msgs=4 vsize=1.1KiB
INBOX  msgs=1328 vsize=211MiB
INBOX/test2  msgs=3 vsize=187KiB
Junk  msgs=2 vsize=2.0KiB
Sent  msgs=20 vsize=13KiB
Trash  msgs=47 vsize=752KiB

[@ sbin]# doveadm -o mail_location=mdbox_deleted:/home/popusers/testtest/mdbox:INDEX=/home/popindex/testtest/index mailbox status -u testtest 'messages vsize' '*'
Sent messages=0 vsize=0
Drafts messages=0 vsize=0
INBOX/test2 messages=0 vsize=0
Junk messages=0 vsize=0
Deleted Messages messages=0 vsize=0
Trash messages=0 vsize=0
INBOX messages=0 vsize=0


Now I right click trash in thunderbird and choose empty trash, and I am getting this expected result, Deleted messages is empty. (Notice Trash stays at the same message count)

[@ sbin]# mailbox-ls.sh testtest size
listing mailboxes of testtest:
Archive  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2011  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2012  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2013  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2014  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2015  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2016  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2017  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2018  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Archive/2019  msgs=3435 vsize=277MiB
Archive/Archive  msgs=1 vsize=2.4KiB
Deleted Messages  msgs=0 vsize=0B
Drafts  msgs=4 vsize=1.1KiB
INBOX  msgs=1328 vsize=211MiB
INBOX/test2  msgs=3 vsize=187KiB
Junk  msgs=2 vsize=2.0KiB
Sent  msgs=20 vsize=13KiB
Trash  msgs=47 vsize=752KiB


So this message should have refcount=0. But where is it, this still shows 0 messages everywhere?

[@ sbin]# doveadm -o mail_location=mdbox_deleted:/home/popusers/testtest/mdbox:INDEX=/home/popindex/testtest/index mailbox status -u testtest 'messages vsize' '*'
Sent messages=0 vsize=0
Drafts messages=0 vsize=0
INBOX/test2 messages=0 vsize=0
Junk messages=0 vsize=0
Deleted Messages messages=0 vsize=0
Trash messages=0 vsize=0
INBOX messages=0 vsize=0