Removing a mailbox with a very long name

[J. Roeleveld]

On Wednesday 24 November 2010 15:32:51 David Mayo wrote:
> Can someone suggest the best way of deleting a mailbox that has gotten
> too long?
> 
> This one is stopping our daily "quota fix" command from running:
> 
> Nov 24 06:40:07 imap.bath.ac.uk quota[12707]: [ID 240394 mail.error]
> IOERROR: opening quota file
> /opt/etc/imapd/quota/a/user.abc20.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.toINBOX.INB
> OX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.
> INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INB
> OX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.
> INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INB
> OX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.
> INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.Deleted Messages: File name too long
> Nov 24 06:40:07 imap.bath.ac.uk quota[12707]: [ID 335833 mail.error]
> DBERROR: error fetching
> user.abc20.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.I
> NBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.I
> NBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.I
> NBOX.INBOX.Deleted Messages: cyrusdb error
> Nov 24 06:40:07 imap.bath.ac.uk quota[12707]: [ID 857756 mail.notice]
> skiplist: unlock while not locked
> Nov 24 06:40:07 imap.bath.ac.uk quota[12707]: [ID 809228 mail.error]
> failed building quota list for '*': System I/O error: Bad file number
> 
> I have managed to delete all the parent folders, but not this one.
> 
> cyradm won't even let me enter a mailbox name this long, but I can use a
> "*" which LISTs and DELETEs all the mailboxes apart from this one.
> 
> cyradm output:
> 
> imap.bath.ac.uk> dm "user.abc20.INBOX.*"
> Deleting mailbox
> user.abc20.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.I
> NBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.I
> NBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.I
> NBOX.INBOX.Deleted Messages...Invalid mailbox name
> 
> And IMAP telemetry log:
> 
> <1290605708<9 RLIST "" "user.abc20.INBOX.*"
> 
>  >1290605708>* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "."
> 
> "user.abc20.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.I
> NBOX.
> INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.IN
> BOX.IN
> BOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.
> INBOX.
> INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.IN
> BOX.IN BOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.Deleted Messages"
> 9 OK Completed (0.000 secs 2 calls)
> <1290605708<10 DELETE
> "user.abc20.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.I
> NBOX.
> INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.IN
> BOX.IN
> BOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBO
> X.INBO
> X.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.
> INBOX.
> INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.IN
> BOX.IN BOX.Deleted Messages"
> 
>  >1290605708>10 NO Invalid mailbox name
> 
> My "cyrus" user has "create" permissions on the mailbox, so it's not an
> ACL issue.
> 
> I have removed the mailbox from the filesystem and run a reconstruct,
> but this (predictably) just recreates the folder on the filesystem.
> 
> We're running Cyrus 2.3.13.

Hi Dave,

This has come on this list before, check the archives for March 2010.
Thread was called:
 "Nested "INBOX" folders - hard to delete"

From my quick read, it might be possible to do it with "cyradm", but you need 
to have "delayed expunge" turned off as, I believe, 2.3.x has/had a bug you 
might encounter otherwise.

--
Joost