[bug-mailutils] mu-mh and +/tmp

[Mike Kupfer]

Hi, I'm fixing up the MH-E unit tests to work with Mailutils-MH.
Currently the tests for folders relative to the system root don't work.
While investigating, I discovered that I was getting garbage back from
the mu-mh folders command.

For example, with nmh I get:

    debtest$ /usr/bin/mh/folders -noheader -norecurse -nototal +/tmp 
    folders: unable to read folder /tmp/pulse-PKdhtXMmr18n, continuing...
    folders: unable to read folder 
/tmp/systemd-private-85986d3b3b7847dcb9757b16f919a9fa-rtkit-daemon.service-Ksqq9X,
 continuing...
    folders: unable to read folder 
/tmp/systemd-private-85986d3b3b7847dcb9757b16f919a9fa-upower.service-QrILG0, 
continuing...
    /tmp+                                                                       
       has no messages             ;        (others).
    /tmp/.ICE-unix                                                              
       has  1 message   (1018-1018).
    /tmp/.Test-unix                                                             
       has no messages.
    /tmp/.X11-unix                                                              
       has no messages             ;        (others).
    /tmp/.XIM-unix                                                              
       has no messages.
    /tmp/.font-unix                                                             
       has no messages.
    /tmp/emacs1000                                                              
       has no messages             ;        (others).
    /tmp/foo                                                                    
       has  2 messages  (   1-   2);        (others).
    /tmp/pulse-PKdhtXMmr18n                                                     
       has no messages.
    /tmp/ssh-AkZZ5BzrkURw                                                       
       has no messages             ;        (others).
    
/tmp/systemd-private-85986d3b3b7847dcb9757b16f919a9fa-rtkit-daemon.service-Ksqq9X
  has no messages.
    /tmp/systemd-private-85986d3b3b7847dcb9757b16f919a9fa-upower.service-QrILG0 
       has no messages.

With the Mailutils 3.5 bundled with Debian Buster, I get

    debtest$ /usr/bin/mu-mh/folders -noheader -norecurse -nototal +/tmp
    folders: cannot scan folder /tmp/pulse-PKdhtXMmr18n: Permission denied
    folders: cannot scan folder 
/tmp/systemd-private-85986d3b3b7847dcb9757b16f919a9fa-upower.service-QrILG0: 
Permission denied
    folders: cannot scan folder 
/tmp/systemd-private-85986d3b3b7847dcb9757b16f919a9fa-rtkit-daemon.service-Ksqq9X:
 Permission denied
                            has no messages;           (others).
                       URw  has no messages;           (others).

and I get similar results with the Mailutils 3.1.1 that is bundled with
Debian Stretch.

The +/foo syntax works in some cases, though, e.g.,

    debtest$ /usr/bin/mu-mh/folders -noheader -norecurse -nototal 
+/home/kupfer/Mail
                            has no messages;           (others).
                    action  has no messages.
                   debtest  has   13 messages (   1-  13).
                   deleted  has no messages.
                    drafts  has no messages;           (others).
                     inbox  has    3 messages (   1-   3).
                 mhe-index  has no messages.
            mhe-test-cases  has    3 messages (   1-   3); cur=   3; (others).
                       tmp  has no messages.
    debtest$ /usr/bin/mu-mh/folders -noheader -norecurse -nototal 
+/home/mhtest/Mail
                            has no messages;           (others).
                       foo  has    2 messages (   1-   2).

I don't think the problem is related to the "permission denied" errors.
I created some unreadable directories in /home/mhtest/Mail, and the
folders command still gave me the right results.

I've attached strace output and the output from "ls -Ual /tmp".  Could
the problem be related to the existence of sockets in some of the
subdirectories of /tmp?

Please let me know if you need more information.  Or, if "+/tmp" is not
supported, just let me know that.

thanks,
mike

strace.out
Description: strace output

lsUal.out
Description: ls output