GNU bug report logs - #31590
25.1; malformed email address in RMAIL

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Olivier <Olivier.Nicole <at> cs.ait.ac.th>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 25.1; malformed email address in RMAIL
Date: Fri, 25 May 2018 10:54:14 +0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi,

When trying to read the new messages in RMAIL, I get the error
"Malformed email address" on one message (it did happen in the past,
once every 2 years maybe). As a consequence, messages following the
malformed one cannot be read and no message is deleted from the INBOX,
resulting in reading the same messages over and over again.

This time I managed to identify and keep a copy of the
concerned message.

I am reading my mail through POP3, with movemail installed as part of
mailutils-3.1.1_3.

Emacs installation is pretty standard, build from FreeBSD ports.

Trying to read the same message with Thunderbird (POP3 and IMAP) did not
give any error message.

I have been using Emacs for over 30 years and I have always been
completely happy with it, but that bug bugs me.

Attached is a copy of the message.

Best regards,

Olivier

---------------------------

[1527175267.96401_1.mail.cs.ait.ac.th:2,S (application/octet-stream, attachment)]

[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]

In GNU Emacs 25.1.1 (amd64-portbld-freebsd10.3, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2017-03-07 built on banyan.cs.ait.ac.th
Windowing system distributor 'StarNet Communications Corp.', version 11.0.8100
Configured using:
 'configure --localstatedir=/var --with-gameuser=games:games
 --disable-acl --without-canna --with-dbus --with-gnutls --with-modules
 --with-x --with-xml2 --with-file-notification=kqueue --with-sound=oss
 --with-x-toolkit=athena --without-cairo --with-gif --with-jpeg
 --with-imagemagick --with-png --with-rsvg --with-tiff --with-xpm
 --with-gconf --without-gsettings --with-m17n-flt --with-libotf
 --with-toolkit-scroll-bars --with-xft --with-xim --without-xwidgets
 --x-libraries=/usr/local/lib --x-includes=/usr/local/include
 --prefix=/usr/local --mandir=/usr/local/man --disable-silent-rules
 --infodir=/usr/local/share/emacs/info/
 --build=amd64-portbld-freebsd10.3 'CFLAGS=-O2 -pipe -fstack-protector
 -fno-strict-aliasing' CPPFLAGS= 'LDFLAGS= -fstack-protector''

Configured features:
XAW3D XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK SOUND DBUS GCONF NOTIFY
GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS
LUCID X11 MODULES

Important settings:
  locale-coding-system: nil

Major mode: RMAIL Summary

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  buffer-read-only: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent messages:
Showing message 906...done
Showing message 906...done
Getting mail from the remote server ...
movemail: cannot append message 1: Malformed email address
(No new mail has arrived)
Computing summary lines...done
0 new messages read
Showing message 906...done
Showing message 906...done
Showing message 906...done

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow emacsbug thai-util thai-word nnmail gnus-int gnus-range
mail-source gnus gnus-ems nnheader wid-edit sort thingatpt mail-extr
warnings misearch multi-isearch shr-color color url-util url-parse
auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs url-vars shr seq byte-opt gv
bytecomp byte-compile cl-extra cconv dom subr-x browse-url qp rmailsum
rmailmm message idna sendmail dired format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec
password-cache epg epg-config gnus-util mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode
mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader mail-parse rfc2231 rmail rfc2047 rfc2045
ietf-drums mm-util help-fns help-mode easymenu cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib
mail-prsvr mail-utils time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric
uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win
term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe
tabulated-list newcomment elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page
menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock
syntax facemenu font-core frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang
misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms
cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian
cyrillic chinese charscript case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help
simple abbrev minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces
cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format
env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote
dbusbind kqueue dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting
x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 221608 18023)
 (symbols 48 35501 0)
 (miscs 40 1219 1822)
 (strings 32 41659 5678)
 (string-bytes 1 1109439)
 (vectors 16 18863)
 (vector-slots 8 551619 12631)
 (floats 8 408 491)
 (intervals 56 3225 748)
 (buffers 976 27))

-- 

Message #8 received at 31590 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Olivier <Olivier.Nicole <at> cs.ait.ac.th>
Cc: 31590 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31590: 25.1; malformed email address in RMAIL
Date: Fri, 25 May 2018 11:26:02 +0300

> From: Olivier <Olivier.Nicole <at> cs.ait.ac.th>
> Date: Fri, 25 May 2018 10:54:14 +0700
> 
> When trying to read the new messages in RMAIL, I get the error
> "Malformed email address" on one message (it did happen in the past,
> once every 2 years maybe). As a consequence, messages following the
> malformed one cannot be read and no message is deleted from the INBOX,
> resulting in reading the same messages over and over again.
> 
> This time I managed to identify and keep a copy of the
> concerned message.
> 
> I am reading my mail through POP3, with movemail installed as part of
> mailutils-3.1.1_3.
> 
> Emacs installation is pretty standard, build from FreeBSD ports.
> 
> Trying to read the same message with Thunderbird (POP3 and IMAP) did not
> give any error message.
> 
> I have been using Emacs for over 30 years and I have always been
> completely happy with it, but that bug bugs me.
> 
> Attached is a copy of the message.

Thank you for your report.

Trying to read the message you attached gave me a different error:

  Invalid mbox file

If I use the 'C-u g' command in Rmail to get new mail messages from
that file, I get this error message:

  Message is not a valid RFC2822 message

The message you attached is indeed invalid for the mbox format: it
doesn't start with a "From <address>" line, which is mandatory for the
mbox format used by Rmail.  Once I fixed that (by adding the missing
"From" line manually), Rmail could read and display that message just
fine.

When some email message in the received mbox file is invalid, Emacs
cannot continue processing email, because doing so could completely
ruin your inbox.  Emacs expects you to manually repair the incoming
mbox file, and then try again.  So I think Emacs does TRT in this
case.

So the problem with malformed email address cannot be reproduced with
this message.  I tried both Emacs 25.1 and the current release
candidate of Emacs 26.1, and they both show the error messages
described above, not the one you reported.  From your bug report, I
see that the "Malformed email address" message comes from the movemail
program, not from Emacs.  I don't find such a message in the version
of movemail we distribute with Emacs, and since you say you have
Mailutils installed, I guess you should report this problem to the
Mailutils developers.

Message #13 received at 31590-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Olivier Nicole <olivier2553 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 31590-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#31590: 25.1; malformed email address in RMAIL
Date: Fri, 25 May 2018 11:51:54 +0300

[Please keep the bug address on the CC line.]

> From: Olivier Nicole <olivier2553 <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 25 May 2018 15:39:08 +0700
> 
> It is not in mbox format because my sever uses maildir, but it is the
> exact file that would be queried by movemail from the POP server and
> happened to ~/RMAIL.

Well, then I'm afraid I don't see why movemail complained about an
invalid address.

> > From your bug report, I see that the "Malformed email address"
> > message comes from the movemail program, not from Emacs.  I don't
> > find such a message in the version of movemail we distribute with
> > Emacs, and since you say you have Mailutils installed, I guess you
> > should report this problem to the Mailutils developers.
> 
> Thank you, I will do so. I don't remember why I installed movemail
> from Mailutils, but there must have been an excellent reason. :)

Probably because Mailutils support secure POP3 connections, something
our version doesn't.  So you did right when you installed Mailutils.

However, the current version of Mailutils is 3.4, so maybe try
upgrading and see if the issue is already fixed.

> Thank you for looking at the problem.

I'm closing this bug report for now.  Feel free to reopen if the
problem turns out to be in Emacs after all.

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