[kdepim-users] Crash and lost kmailrc

[Ingo Klöcker]

On Wednesday 12 August 2009, Günther J. Niederwimmer wrote:
> Am Dienstag 11 August 2009 21:37:23 schrieb Ingo Klöcker:
> > > > > On Monday 10 August 2009 11:27:36 Günther J. Niederwimmer 
wrote:
> > > > > > Have any also my problem ;)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I have installed KDE 4.2.4 in the last time I have a KDE
> > > > > > (XOrg) crash on my system, no possible input from mouse or
> > > > > > keyboard.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > after a new start (reset) I lost my kmailrc and all in
> > > > > > ../KDE4/share/apps/kmail/imap
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I have a openSUSE 11.1 running ..
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Is this problem known?
> > > > >
> > > > > Ignore my last post.  My brain has just gone into gear. 
> > > > > Since this is imap, the messages should all still be on your
> > > > > server. What is in that directory is the link to your server
> > > > > account, so probably what really is causing the problem is
> > > > > the loss of kmailrc.  If you have a backup of that I think
> > > > > you'll be OK.
> > > >
> > > > ;)
> > > >
> > > > Now I have a backup from kmailrc ;), but it is not the best
> > > > sometime to reset the computer :(.
> > >
> > > You wouldn't need to reset if you can shut down kmail and copy
> > > kmailrc in. You'd just need to restart kmail, I think.
> > >
> > > > In ./KDE4/share/apps/kmail/imap are the hold time info and the
> > > > pointer to the last read mails and more.
> > >
> > > OK - I know there are a few files related to the directory that
> > > gets created there.  I could be wrong, but I think that when you
> > > get kmailrc back in, restarting will set up all that directory
> > > again for you.
> > >
> > > > On a crash i have open "normal" two programs kmail and
> > > > konqueror but only the kmail config are lost ?
> > >
> > > I think data usually only gets lost if an operation was in
> > > progress at the very moment of the crash.
> >
> > This is correct. Unfortunately, modern file systems may delay
> > writing changes to the disk for several minutes unless they are
> > told to write the changes immediately. So potentially "the very
> > moment of the crash" can be a pretty long moment.
> >
> > There were a few heated discussions on the Linux kernel mailing
> > list about whether the loss of files due to crashes of the system
> > is the fault of the file system or of the applications which fail
> > to force the changes to be written to disk. In the end some
> > adjustments were made in the file system code.
> >
> > If your system crashes a lot, then doing regular backups is your
> > best option to protect yourself against lost files.
>
> Have Kmail his config (kmailrc) always open ?

I have checked with lsof which files KMail 1.9.10 (KDE 3.5) has open:
- index files of a few folders
- cache of the INBOX of my two actively used IMAP accounts

kmailrc is not open. But, as I wrote above, if kmailrc has been written 
shortly before the crash then it might be lost.


> OK, I can understand the open IMAP filer config from the list is
> lost, when I read EMails, but not all of the directory
> ..kde4/share/apps/kmail/imap ?

I guess that would be unusual, but I don't really know that much about 
file systems to make guesses what might get lost when the system 
crashes. The problem is that KMail assigns unique IDs to your IMAP 
accounts. If you lose your kmailrc then those unique IDs are lost. If 
you now re-create your IMAP accounts then KMail will assign other 
unique IDs to them. OTOH, you said you restored kmailrc from a backup. 
So this unique IDs shouldn't be a problem.


> On my system I mean a newer XOrg is crashed and the result is lost
> files ?

Did only XOrg crash? Or did the whole system crash?


> Ingo, why is the hold time info from Imap in the directory from
> ..kde4/share/apps/kmail/imap and not in a config file?

I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean by "hold time info". Do you 
mean "expiration settings"?


Regards,
Ingo
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