Veracrypt 1.26.24 changed the default mount prefix from /mnt/veracrypt to /run/media/veracrypt within the recent Manjaro Stable update (appending X = number of the slot, 1..64).
For the Thunderbird profile folder I have a symbolic link /home/{user}/.thunderbird/{profilefolder} to /mnt/veracryptX/{path}/{profilefolder} for convenience.
~/.thunderbird/installs.ini and profiles.ini point just locally to {profilefolder}.
After TB first complained about missing profile I replaced the symbolic link by a new one to /run/media/veracryptX/{path}/{profilefolder} and hoped that would fix everything.
But TB, while still showing all accounts, only for a few of them shows the mail folders (two last of my ‘old’ POP3 accounts and two last of a bunch created later plus the Local folders). It seemed the profile was broken and all old mails lost…
Accounts
{user1}@{host1} # no folderlist to open! #
{user2}@{host2}
{user3}@{host3}
{user4}@{host4}
> {user5}@{host5} (nnn) # folders accessible, unread count shown #
> {user6}@{host6} (n)
...
After I manually created the folder /mnt/veracryptX and had veracrypt mounting the container there, Thunderbird came back with all mail folders in place. (No additional mount options, just defaults.)
Accounts
> {user1}@{host1} (nnn)
> {user2}@{host2} (nnn)
> {user3}@{host3} (nnn)
> {user4}@{host4} (nn)
> {user5}@{host5} (nnn)
> {user6}@{host6} (n)
> ...
Now I wonder what I am missing. In the shell the path traversal seems transparent:
$ cd {profilefolder}
$ pwd
/home/{user}/.thunderbird/{profilefolder}
$ ls
... # profile folder contents #
$ cd ..
$ pwd
/home/{user}/.thunderbird
I tried a different way using a bind-mount, but the effects are the same as with the symbolic link:
$ mkdir {profilefolder}
$ sudo mount -o bind /run/media/veracryptX/{path}/{profilefolder} /home/{user}/.thunderbird/{profilefolder}
- missing the same mail folders (i.e. most of them).
but
$ sudo mount -o bind /mnt/veracryptX/{path}/{profilefolder} /home/{user}/.thunderbird/{profilefolder}
- all in place.
Finally I used thunderbird --ProfileManager to create a ‘new’ profile and assigned directly the path to /run/media/veracryptX/{path}/{profilefolder} - these mail folders were missing again. But I had been convinced this should be the way for continued use of such a profile folder in a new installed system.
I did not yet try what happens if I physically copy the whole profile folder to ~/.thunderbird/, but my main question is what may cause thunderbird behave so differently depending on where the veracrypt container is mounted. The only differences I could spot are that the absolute path names are 6 characters longer, and Thunar (on XFCE) shows another device for the filesystem in the mounted container. All file systems are btrfs - I’d really be surprised if any of the files involved woud end up with a too long name including the absolute path.
Does Thunderbird read where the symbolic link points to and use behind the scenes the physical path, which it stores somewhere so that the path cannot be changed later? (And equally for the bind-mount?)
Or does possibly the pathname of my external storage (which carries the veracrypt container) somehow add to the length of the pathnames, leaving some files inaccessible? (It used to mount by GUID name as /dev/sdX1 on /run/media/{user}/{nnnnnnn-nnnn-nnnn-nnnn-nnnnnnnnnnn}. But I just put a label on the file system, now it mounts on /run/media/{user}/{Lbl} - much shorter. TB behaves the same.)
All I’m worried about is that I break either my thunderbird profile or access to it because some parameter becomes essential that seemed easily changeable.
Any ideas much welcome, thanks!
Dirk