Kmail maildir folder "new" permanently empty?!

JosipBroz · 12-02-2008, 11:14 AM

Hi, everybuddy!
Can anybody tell me where does Kmail keep new pop3 mails? The problem surfaced when I was trying to configure Conky to scan Kmail's folders for new mails and notify me -- with no success whatsoever. After much cussing and gnashing of teeth I discovered old Conky wasn't to blame after all! It scanned the correct folders alright, fact is -- they actually were empty, although Kmail itself was showing new mails in the inbox. Isn't the ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/inbox/new the right location (in KDE3.x) where I should be looking for new pop3 mails? Or does Kmail just bundle all mail into the "cur" folder, relying on its internal indexes to distinguish new mails from old ones? Would anyone be kind enough as to check their ...inbox/new folder just to confirm it's always empty indeed?
Any input dearly appreciated.

billymayday · 12-03-2008, 04:45 AM

man maildir will give you a good description of how the whole system works.

JosipBroz · 12-03-2008, 07:32 PM

Hey, thanx for the reply. Unfortunately, after reading man maildir (and lots more) I am none the wiser. Maildir not being exactly a standard, every developer apparently implements it a bit differently. Oh, the delights of open standards! Bakunin and Kropotkin would have loved them!

billymayday · 12-03-2008, 07:41 PM

The short answer is mail should either be in new or under cur but not having a capital S after the final comma (if there's a comma at all), but ignoring ",S=xxxx"

have a look in your cur directory an see what the file names before and after reading.

The key part from that man page is

Code:

       Look for new messages in the new subdirectory. Rename new/filename, as cur/filename:2,info. Here,
       info represents the state of the message, and it consists of zero or more boolean flags chosen from
       the following: "D" - this is a 'draft' message, "R" - this message has been replied to, "S" - this
       message has been viewed (seen), "T" - this message has been marked to be deleted (trashed), but is
       not yet removed (messages are removed from maildirs simply by deleting their file), "F" - this
       message has been marked by the user, for some purpose. These flags must be stored in alphabetical
       order. New messages contain only the :2, suffix, with no flags, indicating that the messages were not
       seen, replied, marked, or deleted.

I've noticed some clients manage to add other crud with the basic flags - lowercase "e" for example.

JosipBroz · 12-08-2008, 01:01 PM

I've tried to follow your indications. I could finally see some method in Kmail's file naming. In several days of observing its folders, though, I've yet to see it use the "new" folder. Either it never gets used or the files get moved to the cur folder immediately. Apparently, Conky is not too good at following that. Maybe it doesn't even read file suffixes, it just counts the number of files in the folder(s).
Oh well, I guess I'll manage without Conky notifying me of incoming mail...
Cheerz!

cgr · 03-08-2011, 03:58 AM

If your Kmail folders in their default location appear to be empty, it may be because they've been put somewhere else.
(This won't apply to you on a new install of course, this is just for people Googling).
Check ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc for a line in the [General] section that says folders=<address on your system>