[Bug 210774] New: Too many open files when accessing IMAP

[David Jander]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=210774

           Summary: Too many open files when accessing IMAP
           Product: kmail
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Ubuntu Packages
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: kdepim-bugs at kde.org
        ReportedBy: djander at gmail.com


Version:            (using KDE 4.3.2)
Compiler:          gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu7) 4.4.1 
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

When I configure an IMAP account that has many IMAP folders (1000 or more),
kmail starts scanning all folders, and eventually starts displaying a storm of
error messages complaining:
'Cannot open file "XXX": Too many open files'.

The bug apparently is triggered by a call to KDE_fopen() in line 128 of the
file kmail/kmfoldermbox.cpp

For some reason a huge amount of control files is kept open (proportional to
the amount of IMAP folders) eventually hitting ulimit.

If I increase the hard- and soft limits of open files per process (originally
at 1024 on ubuntu), eventually kmail starts successfully, but I think kmail
should never keep all those files open at the same time. It seems like a
useless waste of resources, does not scale, and will cause problems (crashes)
for users with large IMAP accounts.

I selected severity:bug for this issue because it is not a "crash" in the
strictest sense of the word, but it has the same importance IMHO. Kmail is not
usable on such accounts if you are not allowed to increase your ulimit values.

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