"doveadm altmove -r" not working ?

[Duc Anh Do]

Hi,

Your problem might be similar to mine a long time ago. IMO behavior of
"doveadm altmove -r" command with mdbox format is different to sdbox format:

   - With sdbox format, when you move back a message to primary storage
   (aka default storage), only the message and the file containing it are
   affected. There is nothing impacted.
   - With mdbox format, a file in storage contains multiple messages. When
   a message is moved back to primary storage, other messages in the same file
   storage will go with it. The whole file is moved as well.

My workaround for this case is: In the mdbox_altmove_add_files function,
after defining action for the message which is marked as MOVE_FROM_ALT, we
will continue checking other messages in the file storage. If they are not
listed in altmoves (they stay in alternate storage), their action will be
MDBOX_MSG_ACTION_MOVE_TO_ALT. That means they will be moved 2 times: to
primary storage as usual then to alternate storage again to ensure finally
they are in alternate storage.

   - Pros:
      - Simple
      - Do not impact other parts
      - Do not require to update other processes to perform MOVE_FROM_ALT
      messages
   - Cons:
      - Reduce performance when number of messages is big
      - Increase file storage counter
      - If you don't mind building Dovecot from source, give my patch a
      look.

If you don't mind building Dovecot from source, give my patch a look.


On Tue, 21 Mar 2023 at 05:26, Benoit Branciard <
Benoit.Branciard at univ-paris1.fr> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have some trouble using "doveadm altmove -r".
>
> Regular "doveadm altmove" is OK, selected mails were moved to alternate
> storage as expected. But I can't manage to get them back to original
> location, "doveadm altmove -r" has no effect.
>
> We are using Dovecot 2.3.4 (Debian Buster package).
>
> mail_location = mdbox:~/mdbox:DIRNAME=_@@_dbox-Mails_@@_:ALT=/slow%h/mdbox
>
> doveadm altmove -u myuser since 90d
>
> -> some message files are created under /slow/my/homedir/mdbox/storage
>
> doveadm altmove -r -u myuser all
>
> -> message files are still sitting under /slow/my/homedir/mdbox/storage,
> none were created into /my/homedir/mdbox/storage.
>
> Is there some known issues with doveadm altmove in this version ? Or am
> I missing something ?
>
> I can share more config details if needed.
>
> --
> Benoit BRANCIARD
> Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - DSIUN-SIS
> B405 - Centre PMF - 90 rue de Tolbiac - 75013 Paris
> Tel. 01 44 07 89 68
> http://dsiun.univ-paris1.fr
>
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