> [using SQL for mail store]
>
> Wasn't usa.net doing this? I seem to remember seeing a few messages in
> the past about this.
I don't know about usa.net, but I've been using PostgreSQL to archive a
mailing list for some time. In a setting like an archive where you will be
performing searches on the data, and would like to refine the search on
criteria such as date, time, keywords, subjet, etc., it's just what the
doctor ordered. However, for simple mail storage/retrieval, I don't know
if it would be such a good idea.
One of the largest detriments would be storage space. With PostgreSQL,
your database is usually about five times as large as if you had simply
stored the data in a text format. If your mail server is handling high
amounts of traffic, then five times the disk space, and a higher load on
the disk I/O isn't exactly what you want. : ) Of course, the overhead in
storage space is going to depend on the server in question, but you're
never going to break even.
The optimal solution is likely going to somewhat resemble an SQL server
that is stripped down and optimized only for mail, and with a more
streamlined API than SQL. You don't exactly need to do outer joins for
POP3 or IMAP, and features like stored procedures and user-defined data
types would only be wasted. : )
steve
