[jira] [Created] (INFRA-12024) Permalink permanence

["Sebb (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

Sebb created INFRA-12024:
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             Summary: Permalink permanence
                 Key: INFRA-12024
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/INFRA-12024
             Project: Infrastructure
          Issue Type: Bug
          Components: Mail Archives
            Reporter: Sebb
            Priority: Critical


A permalink to a mail message should always be able to find the same mail.

This is achieved for the existing mail archives by using the message-id.

However the Pony Mail solution (as installed) uses a shorter hash generated from some of the mail contents.

As a result, message links in future will be of two forms:

http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/httpd-dev/201606.mbox/%3CCACsi252b-KUB-HtPQTe7Ti%2Bxrek2XK%2B%3DuKvfcO9diCN0Dg1kKQ%40mail.gmail.com%3E

and

https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/Zfp0souj6y08k06

The latter link is obviously much shorter, but has the disadvantage that it cannot be compared with existing links. Also one cannot see which mailing list it is from.

Futhermore, the hashes are not stored in the mbox file, so it's not possible to search for the message in offline copies of the mail. AFAICT the hash only works with the correct version of the PonyMail software.

I think the same permalink style must be retained for any mail archive system that is used by the ASF.

What happens if (when) the mail archive software is changed again?
Will there be 3 different permalink styles?

I think this needs to be addressed urgently, before too many new style permalinks are published.



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