On Mon, Apr 08, 2002 at 10:14:05AM -0400, Mohamed M. Abbas wrote:
> On 5 Apr 2002, Kenneth Porter wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 2002-04-05 at 05:17, Jesus Cea Avion wrote:
> >
> > > A simple and efficient database (key/value) used to store messages. For
> > > example, BerkeleyDB (http://www.sleepycat.com/)
> > >
> > > Qpopper would have six operations:
> >
> > Not Qpopper, though. You want to make this work with *all* mail systems,
> > not just one POP3 server. So make this an API, perhaps with a support
> > daemon. You then provide Qpopper with a configuration option to use the
> > API. You also need to add the API to sendmail, procmail, UW-IMAP, Cyrus,
> > etc., any system that needs to talk to mail spools. You can then add
> > configurable back-ends that know how to talk not only to Sleepycat DB
> > but also to traditional formats like mbox and maildir.
Basically the same thing I was suggesting, but from a different
angle. (I was focusing on "you have to make Qpopper interface with a
general mailbox API", Kenneth is focusing on the "you have to provide a
general mailbox API for mail software to interface with.")
> Why would you have to muck around with sendmail. You'd just have to write
> an MDA that understands the API and the underlying Database/File Scheme
> and just tell sendmail to use that.
You can, though then you have to fork/exec your separate MDA. An API
would give you the option of direct integration to MTAs so they don't
need to fork, which turns out to be very significant for performance.
For instance, postfix claims to deliver 3-4 times as many
messages/second when doing local delivery with its native (persistent)
"local" daemon, vs. when using procmail, and my initial tests seem to
bear that out. If we are talking about overall mail server efficiency,
that's not to be sneezed at.
-- Clifton
--
Clifton Royston -- LavaNet Systems Architect -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"What do we need to make our world come alive?
What does it take to make us sing?
While we're waiting for the next one to arrive..." - Sisters of Mercy
