Inconsistency between tag database and notmuch search

Inconsistency between tag database and notmuch search

[Navin Kabra]

I've managed to get my notmuch tag database in an inconsistent 
state and
can't figure out how to fix it. Because of this I have "unread" 
messages sitting in my inbox permanently and I can't get rid of 
them.

Specifically, I have a few threads/messages that don't have any 
tags,
but still show up in notmuch search for those tags. And using
notmuch tag to remove (or add) any tags on these threads has no 
effect. Doing a `notmuch compact` does not fix this issue.

(I believe I managed to do this by running some notmuch commands 
while a
`xapian-compact` was running in the background.)

Here are some commands that demonstrate the problem:

    ~$ notmuch --version
    notmuch 0.23.5

    ~$ notmuch search thread:0000000000058ca0
    thread:0000000000058ca0  February 22 [1/1] Mandar Joshi; 
    Announcing TiECon Pune 2017 - Pune's largest, most energizing 
    startup event! ()

    ~$ notmuch search thread:0000000000058ca0 and tag:inbox
    thread:0000000000058ca0  February 22 [1/1] Mandar Joshi; 
    Announcing TiECon Pune 2017 - Pune's largest, most energizing 
    startup event! ()

    ~$ notmuch tag -inbox thread:0000000000058ca0 

    ~$ notmuch search thread:0000000000058ca0 
    thread:0000000000058ca0  February 22 [1/1] Mandar Joshi; 
    Announcing TiECon Pune 2017 - Pune's largest, most energizing 
    startup event! ()

    ~$ notmuch tag +inbox thread:0000000000058ca0 

    ~$ notmuch search thread:0000000000058ca0 
    thread:0000000000058ca0  February 22 [1/1] Mandar Joshi; 
    Announcing TiECon Pune 2017 - Pune's largest, most energizing 
    startup event! ()


As you can see from the `()` at the end of the notmuch search 
output, this thread has no tags associated with it. And still, it 
is showing up in the notmuch search output.

What should I do to get rid of these messages from the notmuch 
search output?

Re: Inconsistency between tag database and notmuch search

[David Bremner]

Navin Kabra <navin@smriti.com> writes:

>
> Specifically, I have a few threads/messages that don't have any tags,
> but still show up in notmuch search for those tags. And using notmuch
> tag to remove (or add) any tags on these threads has no effect. Doing
> a `notmuch compact` does not fix this issue.

0) As a first step, run xapian-check, something like

% xapian-check ~/Maildir/.notmuch/xapian

If your database is corrupted, there's not much notmuch can do about it
(except maybe make things worse).  I would think that compact would have
detected any corruption, but you never know.

>
>     ~$ notmuch search thread:0000000000058ca0 and tag:inbox
>     thread:0000000000058ca0  February 22 [1/1] Mandar Joshi; 
>     Announcing TiECon Pune 2017 - Pune's largest, most energizing 
>     startup event! ()

1) Can you also see the problem by looking at individual message-ids?,
   e.g. using notmuch show

2) In particular Does notmuch dump generate the correct output? If so,
   then dump your tags, rebuild your database, and reload the tags is
   one option.

Re: Inconsistency between tag database and notmuch search

[Navin Kabra]

Thanks for the quick response David.

xapian-check reports no problems.

Looking at individual message-ids using notmuch show does not show 
anything different. (In this case, the thread had just one 
message).

notmuch-dump seems to be working as expected, so I will try 
rebuilding my database from the dump in a few days, and report on 
whether that fixed the problem.

In the meantime, would anyone be interested in investigating this 
inconsistency so see if this is a notmuch bug that needs fixing? 
I'd be happy to run any commands and post the output.

thanks,
navin.

Re: Inconsistency between tag database and notmuch search

[David Bremner]

Navin Kabra <navin@smriti.com> writes:

> In the meantime, would anyone be interested in investigating this 
> inconsistency so see if this is a notmuch bug that needs fixing? 
> I'd be happy to run any commands and post the output.

If you can reproduce the situation, starting from a fresh database,
let us know exactly how. Otherwise it's not really feasible to debug,
IMHO.

Re: Inconsistency between tag database and notmuch search

[Navin Kabra]

> If you can reproduce the situation, starting from a fresh 
> database,
> let us know exactly how. Otherwise it's not really feasible to 
> debug,
> IMHO.

That's what I feared. 

I'll make one or two attempts to recreate the bug, and post here 
if I succeed. Otherwise, I'll give it up and move on.

Thanks.
navin.