> On 4:30:58 pm 05/25/04 "Thomas Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I converted all of my mbox mailboxes to mbx. I've noticed an increase >> in performance for my web-based IMAP client. However, I continue to >> have a problem that existed prior to the conversion. >> >> As I understand it, mbx is more memory efficient than mbox. This being >> the case, shouldn't it consume less RAM while a mailbox is being read >> by an IMAP client? This doesn't seem to be happening in my situation. >> For example, I use SquirrellMail for webmail. There are system-wide >> resource restrictions on RAM usage preventing any user from utilizing >> more than 8 MB of RAM via SquirrellMail. >> >> My Sent folder would always exceed this amount when I selected "View >> All"--there are over 3700 emails stored there. I continue to get the >> error after the conversion to mbx. >> >> Am I missing something or did I misinterprete what I read? > > > The 8MB restriction in squirrelmail is the PHP limit for script > execution (php.ini setting). In the case of "show all" on 3700 messages > squirrelmail is building a header list in memory of all messages, which > combined with the other memory requirements of squirrelmail, pops the > limit. Remember that in this case the IMAP client does not care what > kind of mailbox the IMAP server uses, it uses the same commands to > retrieve information. A mailbox type with a zero memory footprint (in > terms of the IMAP server memory usage) would still not alter the amount > of memory the PHP script needs to store the fetched header values. I > recommended to the squirrelmail developers not so long ago that they > remove the "show all" links when the IMAP folder is over 500 messages, > specificly to address this type of issue.
"show all" isn't the only time I've had the problem--it's also ocurred with about 400 emails. I was able to "show all" but if I tried to forward a message that contained a 1.2MB attachment SquirrellMail would generate "memory exceeded" errors. >From what you describe, SquirrellMail stored the header data of those 400 emails and when I tried to forward the 1.2MB email SquirrellMail fetched it (while retaining the 400 emails' header data in RAM) and attempted to load the additional 1.2MB into RAM--thus exceeding the 8MB limit. Sound right?
