Re: Strange behaviour in SMPmW118 Mailer

Christer Jacobsson wrote:
> Dave Yeo wrote:
>> Christer Jacobsson wrote:
>>> As Salaam Aleikum!
>>>
>>> Sorry for the resending of this msg, but She must add some important
>>> information after the text below:
>>>
>>> She uses SMPmW118 as a mailer client and up until a week ago it handled
>>> junk mail properly, i.e. when a junk mail arrived, the Junk icon flashed
>>> on and the junk mail was moved to the Junk folder. But now SMPmW118 just
>>> sets the flag but don't move the mail to the Junk folder, so She has to
>>> unjunk the offending mail, and mark it as Junk again, then it goes to
>>> the Trash folder instead. Are there some settings in prefs.js that can
>>> be done to cure this problem? The change must obviously be done when
>>> SMPmW118 is closed down, so THAT trap She knows about. Just now a junk
>>> mail appeared in the Inbox with the Junk flag set, and She had to unjunk
>>> it, mark it as Junk again and the mail when to the Trash folder
>>> directly.
>>>
>>> What's worse is that another mysterious problem have cropped up in
>>> SMPmW118 - if She tries to change profile data, either in the "Mail and
>>> news account settings" or "Preferences", the changes don't stick.
>>> Clicking OK should close the abovementioned settings but the windows
>>> DON'T close and save the changed settings: hitting Cancel closes the
>>> windows but when She opens the relevant Preferences settings and check
>>> the settings, they remain the same as before She tried to change this.
>>>
>>> Can this problem be fixed if She edits prefs.js "by hand" when SMPmW118
>>> is closed down, or can this errant behaviour be attributed to some
>>> damaged code in the SMPPmW code tree?
>>
>> Something is broken in your profile. Do you have a backup from before
>> the problem started? If so you could restore everything except the
>> mail and news directories.
>
> This She suppose are the top files in the Profile tree, i.e. where the
> prefs.js, bookmarks.htm and other files are stored? Here is a file list
> She prepared just now and which She quotes below:
>
> <$quote>
>
>   Volume in drive Y is MOZ_SOUND      Serial number is 3F93:3413
>   Directory of
> Y:\mozilla.org\Mozilla\Mozilla\Profiles\cribo.jacobsson\ffml759q.slt\*
>
> 16-05-04  22.41         <DIR>        0  .
> 16-02-28  14.13         <DIR>        0  ..
> 16-05-04  22.37         <DIR>        0  Cache
> 16-02-28  14.16         <DIR>        0  Calendar
> 16-02-28  14.16         <DIR>        0  chatzilla
> 16-02-28  14.16         <DIR>        0  chrome
> 16-02-28  14.16         <DIR>        0  copy
> 16-02-28  14.17         <DIR>        0  Mail
> 16-05-04  20.34         <DIR>        0  News
> 16-04-15   2.31          19.372      0  78476851.s
> 14-10-05  10.29          13.635      0  78476851.w
> 14-01-27  12.10              88      0  90820967.s
> 16-04-29  13.49         440.421    124  abook.mab
> 16-05-01  18.46         172.032      0  bookmarks-1.html
> 16-05-04  13.35         553.358      0  bookmarks.html
> 10-11-20   7.02             418      0  bookmarks.html.new
> 16-05-04  13.35         360.448      0  cert8.db
> 16-05-04  13.08          57.666      0  cookies.txt
> 16-05-04   8.43         130.823      0  downloads.rdf
> 14-11-30  10.41           1.784    124  Drafts.msf
> 16-05-04  13.35      83.002.071    124  history.dat
>   7-06-15  17.02           1.423      0  history.mab
>   7-08-11   8.29              91      0  hostperm.1
> 16-05-04   8.43      12.927.286      0  junklog.html
> 16-05-04  13.35          16.384    124  key3.db
>   8-10-07  20.53          16.384      0  key3.db.old
> 16-05-04   8.43          22.099      0  localstore.rdf
>   2-12-18   0.03             499      0  mailViews.dat
> 14-10-07   9.42          13.968      0  mimeTypes.rdf
> 14-11-30  10.41           1.722    124  nstmp-2.msf
> 14-11-30  10.41           1.722    124  nstmp.msf
> 16-05-04  13.35          10.233    124  panacea.dat
>   8-01-05   1.00           1.402      0  panels.rdf
>   7-06-14  15.04               0      0  parent.lock
> 13-11-06   3.27               0      0  prefs-1.js
> 13-10-18  19.33          31.074      0  prefs.current
> 16-05-04  13.35          37.394      0  prefs.js
> 14-01-29   2.18          31.569      0  prefs.js.20140129
> 14-01-29   2.18          31.569      0  prefs.sj
> 16-05-04  22.41               0      0  profile.txt
> 14-11-30  10.41          43.771    124  Saved messages.msf
> 13-10-22  15.15             438      0  search.rdf
> 14-10-16  12.52          16.384    124  secmod.db
>   8-10-03  15.24          16.384    124  secmod.db.old
>   8-10-02  20.58          16.384      0  secmod.old
> 14-11-30  10.41           1.940    124  Templates.msf
> 16-05-04  19.13       3.611.946    124  training.dat
> 16-02-03  15.27              64      0  URL.tbl
> 16-05-04  13.35              10      0  virtualFolders.dat
> 15-03-20  14.37           5.120      0  webappsstore.sqlite
>       101.609.376 bytes (96MB) in 41 files and 9 dirs
>    12.317.349.376 bytes (11GB) free
>
> </$quote>
>
> So which of these files are essential to backup and which files can be
> left out?

Simplest would be to back up everything except Cache/ which is probably 
the biggest part of your profile and easiest to rebuild.

Go up from your profile and delete XUL.mfl (with SM closed) as it often 
gets corrupt and will get rebuilt.

> And She will investigate the backup tapes to see if prefs.js
> is good: if the backup is older than two weeks (she had trouble with the
> tape station for awhile but that was cleared up by obtaining a fresh
> cleaning tape: ran it two times in the tape station and after that it
> has worked just fine), then perhaps it contains a healthy prefs.js file.
> Are there other files that must be restored to make SM work properly?

I can't think of any, but it has been awhile and I may well have forgot.

> Btw, why does the *.msf files exist in the top directory AND in the
> Mail->mail1.901.telia.com (Telia is Her ISP)?

Good question, they probably shouldn't be there.

>
>> Otherwise, there are some files that get corrupted and can be deleted
>> but it has been a long time since I used SM 1.x and can't really
>> remember besides deleting XUL.mfl.
>> Mozilla profiles are fragile and it is a good idea to keep a couple of
>> generations of backups.
>
> As She kicks off SMPmW118 from a .cmd file which look like this:
>
> <$quote>
>
> setlocal
> set LIBPATHSTRICT=T
> set BEGINLIBPATH=y:\mozilla.org\mozilla\SMPmW118
> rem set NSPR_LOG_MODULES=smtp:1
> rem set NSPR_LOG_FILE=y:\mozilla.org\mozilla\SMPmW118\smtp.log
> set MOZILLA_HOME=Y:\mozilla.org\mozilla
> set MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=y:\mozilla.org\mozilla\plugins
> set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
> seamonkey.exe -P default -mailer
> rem cdd y:\mozilla.org\mozilla\mozilla\Profiles\cribo.jacobsson
> rem xcopy ffml759q.slt savedprofile /S /E /V /H /T /R /O
> endlocal
>
> </$quote>
>
> Notice the rem'ed out xcopy statement: She used it a long tima ago, but
> it took a long time to execute, so She rem'ed them out. But if She knows
> which files are absolutely essential to backup, then the best strategy
> would be to zip them up just before seamonkey.exe is invoked; if SM
> crashes and takes down some important files by the crash, it would be a
> simple affair to unzip the archive, thus restoring the good files

I use rsync,
rsync -hia2X -del Z:\Mozprofiles g:\Mozprofiles 2>&1 | tee mrsync.log
which I run when closing SM etc and periodically zip up the archive.

>
>> At the worst you'll have to create a new profile and copy over your
>> mail and news
>> Dave
>
> And the security files too: namely those that has an ending of .s and .w
> plus cert8.db and secmod.db.  What function does the file panacea.dat
> have for SM?

I can't remember but if I remember correctly, that any *.dat file can be 
safely deleted (backup first)

Dave