Problem with IMAP Server and Header Cache

Wed Jan 25 18:54:49 UTC 2023

Hey,
I am using mutt usually in a long running screen session to read mail 
from a local IMAP server (Dovecoat in this case). 

For some reason, whenever mutt disconnects and I want it to reload a 
mailbox with 100k messages in it, it usually hangs for very long until 
it finally disconnects. It's possible to re-connect and then it seems to 
load the mailbox just fine.

I have lived with that problem for some time already, but today I 
thought, it might make sense to actually create a muttdebug file, so 
here I am :)

This is an extract of the muttdebug file:

[2023-01-25 11:44:17] 4< * STATUS Drafts (RECENT 0 UIDNEXT 2 UIDVALIDITY 1464715206 UNSEEN 0)
[2023-01-25 11:44:17] 4< a0075 OK Status completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
[2023-01-25 11:44:19] mutt_complete: completing =git
[2023-01-25 11:44:19] 4> a0076 LIST "" "git%"^M
[2023-01-25 11:44:19] 4< * LIST (\HasNoChildren \UnMarked) "." git
[2023-01-25 11:44:19] 4< * LIST (\HasNoChildren \UnMarked) "." github
[2023-01-25 11:44:19] 4< a0076 OK List completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
[2023-01-25 11:44:20] mutt_complete: completing =gith
[2023-01-25 11:44:20] 4> a0077 LIST "" "gith%"^M
[2023-01-25 11:44:20] 4< * LIST (\HasNoChildren \UnMarked) "." github
[2023-01-25 11:44:20] 4< a0077 OK List completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
[2023-01-25 11:44:20] Mailbox is unchanged.
[2023-01-25 11:44:21] Reading configuration file '/home/chrisbra/.mutt/profile.256bit.de'.
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] Reading imap://localhost/github...
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] Selecting github...
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4> a0078 CLOSE^M
a0079 STATUS "Entwurf" (MESSAGES)^M
a0080 SELECT "github" (CONDSTORE)^M
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< a0078 OK Close completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * STATUS Entwurf (MESSAGES 0)
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< a0079 OK Status completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft $Forwarded)
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft $Forwarded \*)] Flags permitted.
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * 113560 EXISTS
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] Handling EXISTS
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] cmd_handle_untagged: New mail in github - 113560 messages total.
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * 0 RECENT
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * OK [UNSEEN 4] First unseen.
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * OK [UIDVALIDITY 1384369187] UIDs valid
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * OK [UIDNEXT 351036] Predicted next UID
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< * OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 166330] Highest
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] 4< a0080 OK [READ-WRITE] Select completed (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
[2023-01-25 11:44:22] Reading uid seqset from header cache
[2023-01-25 14:24:42] Fetching flag updates... 0/113560 (0%)
[2023-01-25 14:24:42] 4> a0081 UID FETCH 1:351000 (FLAGS) (CHANGEDSINCE 166043 VANISHED)^M
[2023-01-25 14:24:42] 4< * BYE Disconnected for inactivity.
[2023-01-25 14:24:42] Handling BYE
[2023-01-25 14:24:42] Disconnected for inactivity.
[2023-01-25 14:24:44] Fetching message headers... 0/113560 (0%)
[2023-01-25 14:24:44] Error opening mailbox
[2023-01-25 14:24:45] In mutt_reflow_windows
[2023-01-25 19:47:18] In mutt_reflow_windows

As you can see, mutt seems to be busy reading the header-cache file until the server finally disconnects.

Any idea on how to fix this issue or work-around it?

Mutt version below, should come straight from Ubuntu 20.04.

Thanks,
Chris

#v+
chrisbra at 256bit:~$ mutt -v
Mutt 1.13.2 (2019-12-18)
Copyright (C) 1996-2016 Michael R. Elkins and others.
Mutt comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `mutt -vv'.
Mutt is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `mutt -vv' for details.

System: Linux 5.4.0-137-generic (x86_64)
ncurses: ncurses 6.2.20200212 (compiled with 6.2)
libidn: 1.33 (compiled with 1.33)
hcache backend: tokyocabinet 1.4.48

Compiler:
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/9/lto-wrapper
OFFLOAD_TARGET_NAMES=nvptx-none:hsa
OFFLOAD_TARGET_DEFAULT=1
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 9.4.0-1ubuntu1~20.04.1' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-9/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,ada,c++,go,brig,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++,gm2 --prefix=/usr --with-gcc-major-version-only --program-suffix=-9 --program-prefix=x86_64-linux-gnu- --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --with-default-libstdcxx-abi=new --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-vtable-verify --enable-plugin --enable-default-pie --with-system-zlib --with-target-system-zlib=auto --enable-objc-gc=auto --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --enable-multilib --with-tune=generic --enable-offload-targets=nvptx-none=/build/gcc-9-Av3uEd/gcc-9-9.4.0/debian/tmp-nvptx/usr,hsa --without-cuda-driver --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 9.4.0 (Ubuntu 9.4.0-1ubuntu1~20.04.1)

Configure options: '--build=x86_64-linux-gnu' '--prefix=/usr' '--includedir=\${prefix}/include' '--mandir=\${prefix}/share/man' '--infodir=\${prefix}/share/info' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--localstatedir=/var' '--disable-silent-rules' '--libdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' '--libexecdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' '--disable-maintainer-mode' '--disable-dependency-tracking' '--with-mailpath=/var/mail' '--enable-compressed' '--enable-debug' '--enable-fcntl' '--enable-hcache' '--enable-gpgme' '--enable-imap' '--enable-smtp' '--enable-pop' '--enable-sidebar' '--enable-nntp' '--enable-dotlock' '--disable-fmemopen' '--with-curses' '--with-gnutls' '--with-gss' '--with-idn' '--with-mixmaster' '--with-sasl' '--without-gdbm' '--without-bdb' '--without-qdbm' '--with-tokyocabinet' 'build_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/mutt-30uNgF/mutt-1.13.2=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now' 'CPPFLAGS=-Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2'

Compilation CFLAGS: -Wall -pedantic -Wno-long-long -g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/mutt-30uNgF/mutt-1.13.2=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security

Compile options:
-DOMAIN
+DEBUG
-HOMESPOOL  +USE_SETGID  +USE_DOTLOCK  +DL_STANDALONE  +USE_FCNTL  -USE_FLOCK
+USE_POP  +USE_IMAP  +USE_SMTP
-USE_SSL_OPENSSL  +USE_SSL_GNUTLS  +USE_SASL  +USE_GSS  +HAVE_GETADDRINFO
+HAVE_REGCOMP  -USE_GNU_REGEX
+HAVE_COLOR  +HAVE_START_COLOR  +HAVE_TYPEAHEAD  +HAVE_BKGDSET
+HAVE_CURS_SET  +HAVE_META  +HAVE_RESIZETERM  +HAVE_FUTIMENS
+CRYPT_BACKEND_CLASSIC_PGP  +CRYPT_BACKEND_CLASSIC_SMIME  +CRYPT_BACKEND_GPGME
-EXACT_ADDRESS  -SUN_ATTACHMENT
+ENABLE_NLS  -LOCALES_HACK  +HAVE_WC_FUNCS  +HAVE_LANGINFO_CODESET  +HAVE_LANGINFO_YESEXPR
+HAVE_ICONV  -ICONV_NONTRANS  +HAVE_LIBIDN  -HAVE_LIBIDN2  +HAVE_GETSID  +USE_HCACHE
+USE_SIDEBAR  +USE_COMPRESSED  +USE_INOTIFY
-ISPELL
SENDMAIL="/usr/sbin/sendmail"
MAILPATH="/var/mail"
PKGDATADIR="/usr/share/mutt"
SYSCONFDIR="/etc"
EXECSHELL="/bin/sh"
MIXMASTER="mixmaster"

To contact the developers, please mail to <mutt-dev at mutt.org>.
To report a bug, please contact the Mutt maintainers via gitlab:
    https://gitlab.com/muttmua/mutt/issues
#v-