weird paths in notmuch database

weird paths in notmuch database

[Davide Mancusi]

Hi all,

I have noticed that notmuch ends up with non-existing paths to some
messages. For instance:

$ notmuch search --output=files 'path:/home/**'
/export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
/export/home/username/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
[...] # more follow

Note that my mail folder is /export/home/username/mail. The first path
does not exist. However, I have a symlink from /home/username/local to
/export/home/username. Could that be the problem?

Also, is there a way to get rid of these non-existent paths in the
database? They are fed to another program in a script and it chokes on
them.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,
Davide

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[David Bremner]

Davide Mancusi <arekfu@yahoo.it> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> I have noticed that notmuch ends up with non-existing paths to some
> messages. For instance:
>
> $ notmuch search --output=files 'path:/home/**'
> /export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
> /export/home/username/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
> [...] # more follow
>

I'm not sure if there are really bad paths in the database, or notmuch
is just handling illegal search syntax badly. To quote
notmuch-search-terms(7):

   The directory must be specified relative to the top-level maildir
   (and without the leading slash).

Please try with correct search syntax in order to narrow down the
problem.

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[Davide Mancusi]

2015-11-06 14:09 GMT+01:00 David Bremner <david@tethera.net>:
>> $ notmuch search --output=files 'path:/home/**'
>> /export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
>> /export/home/username/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
[...]
>
>    The directory must be specified relative to the top-level maildir
>    (and without the leading slash).
>
> Please try with correct search syntax in order to narrow down the
> problem.

The unusual search was just to illustrate the problem. I get the paths
even with tag searches, like so:

$ notmuch search --output=files
'id:20151106102835.GA2711@hostname.domain.com'
/export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
/export/home/username/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[Tomi Ollila]

On Fri, Nov 06 2015, Davide Mancusi <arekfu@yahoo.it> wrote:

> 2015-11-06 14:09 GMT+01:00 David Bremner <david@tethera.net>:
>>> $ notmuch search --output=files 'path:/home/**'
>>> /export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
>>> /export/home/username/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
> [...]
>>
>>    The directory must be specified relative to the top-level maildir
>>    (and without the leading slash).
>>
>> Please try with correct search syntax in order to narrow down the
>> problem.
>
> The unusual search was just to illustrate the problem. I get the paths
> even with tag searches, like so:
>
> $ notmuch search --output=files
> 'id:20151106102835.GA2711@hostname.domain.com'
> /export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
> /export/home/username/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S


How is the symlink exactly shown in  ls -l /path/to/symlink  output ?

(you can do the s/$USER/username/ conversion :)

Tomi

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[Davide Mancusi]

2015-11-06 16:14 GMT+01:00 Tomi Ollila <tomi.ollila@iki.fi>:
> How is the symlink exactly shown in  ls -l /path/to/symlink  output ?

$ ls -l /home/username/local
lrwxrwxrwx 1 username group 21 Jan 23  2015 /home/username/local ->
/export/home/username

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[Tomi Ollila]

On Fri, Nov 06 2015, Davide Mancusi <arekfu@yahoo.it> wrote:

> 2015-11-06 16:14 GMT+01:00 Tomi Ollila <tomi.ollila@iki.fi>:
>> How is the symlink exactly shown in  ls -l /path/to/symlink  output ?
>
> $ ls -l /home/username/local
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 username group 21 Jan 23  2015 /home/username/local ->
> /export/home/username

And notmuch config get database.path prints /export/home/username/mail 
I presume ?

If that is the case then this symlink should have no effect.

Is there any symlinks inside /export/home/username/mail 
( find /export/home/username/mail -type l ) (provided that
was the database.path -- and sure there are no bind mounts ;D?)

Tomi

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[Davide Mancusi]

2015-11-06 16:24 GMT+01:00 Tomi Ollila <tomi.ollila@iki.fi>:
> And notmuch config get database.path prints /export/home/username/mail
> I presume ?

Correct.

> If that is the case then this symlink should have no effect.
>
> Is there any symlinks inside /export/home/username/mail
> ( find /export/home/username/mail -type l ) (provided that
> was the database.path -- and sure there are no bind mounts ;D?)

No symlinks and no bind mounts.

Cheers,
Davide

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[Tomi Ollila]

On Fri, Nov 06 2015, Davide Mancusi <arekfu@yahoo.it> wrote:

> 2015-11-06 16:24 GMT+01:00 Tomi Ollila <tomi.ollila@iki.fi>:
>> And notmuch config get database.path prints /export/home/username/mail
>> I presume ?
>
> Correct.
>
>> If that is the case then this symlink should have no effect.
>>
>> Is there any symlinks inside /export/home/username/mail
>> ( find /export/home/username/mail -type l ) (provided that
>> was the database.path -- and sure there are no bind mounts ;D?)
>
> No symlinks and no bind mounts.

Ah, so path /export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S

does not exist? It probably used to be (?) (via some long-gone symlink?)
and now it is just garbage in the database (that does not go away)...?

>
> Cheers,
> Davide

Tomi

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[Davide Mancusi]

2015-11-06 16:34 GMT+01:00 Tomi Ollila <tomi.ollila@iki.fi>:
> Ah, so path /export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
>
> does not exist? It probably used to be (?) (via some long-gone symlink?)
> and now it is just garbage in the database (that does not go away)...?

No, it never existed. I'm positive about that.

...however, I just noticed that my muttrc config contains

set folder="/home/username/local/mail"

Maybe mutt-kz is screwing up things when it calls notmuch internally?

Davide

Re: weird paths in notmuch database

[Davide Mancusi]

2015-11-06 16:37 GMT+01:00 Davide Mancusi <arekfu@yahoo.it>:
> 2015-11-06 16:34 GMT+01:00 Tomi Ollila <tomi.ollila@iki.fi>:
>> Ah, so path /export/home/username/mail//home/username/local/mail/archive/cur/1446805732.2711_9.hostname:2,S
>>
>> does not exist? It probably used to be (?) (via some long-gone symlink?)
>> and now it is just garbage in the database (that does not go away)...?
>
> No, it never existed. I'm positive about that.
>
> ...however, I just noticed that my muttrc config contains
>
> set folder="/home/username/local/mail"
>
> Maybe mutt-kz is screwing up things when it calls notmuch internally?

For the record, I ended up dumping and restoring the database. That
got me rid of the non-existing paths.

Davide