Mailbox deletion race: folders and files are never deleted

[Bron Gondwana]

On Fri, Feb 27, 2015, at 06:31 AM, Jeroen van Meeuwen (Kolab Systems) wrote:
> On 2015-02-26 16:51, Samir Aguiar wrote:
> > Proposed solution:
> > - Patch the mailbox_close() function to reload the index before trying 
> > to
> > clean the files (and merge the current index changes with the ones 
> > found)
> > - Because the above would still be skipped when shutting down Cyrus: 
> > expand
> > cyr_expire to find mailboxes with the deleted flag set (by looping 
> > through the
> > filesystem, and not by using the database) and try to remove them. This 
> > could
> > then be run periodically by administrators.
> > 
> > What do you think?
> > 
> 
> Please do not take my word for it, but I think Cyrus IMAP 2.5 introduces 
> a state flag of MBTYPE_DELETE for mailboxes [1] in the actual mboxlist, 
> so the related functions would still be able to find it after the facts 
> of the case.
> 
> IIRC, I ran in to this (particular MBTYPE) because it purges ACLs, and 
> rendered (discrete) murder topologies unable to ctl_mboxlist -m (as well 
> as made ctl_mboxlist -d segfault).
> 
> I think the intention is exactly what you describe is the scenario, but 
> if it is I'm not certain it also properly addresses it.

Yes, MBTYPE_DELETE would help for this, that was my first thought.

Its main purpose is to enable true master/master replication and all the
other good things like efficient JMAP mailboxListUpdates, but safe cleanup
is a win too.

Bron.


-- 
  Bron Gondwana
  brong at fastmail.fm