Interviewed by CNN on 15/09/2011 00:42, Alex Baer told the world: > Is there really an index for maildir needed? I assume, maildir would work > quite well without an index, because each message is a file, and every file > has an "index" in the file system. In fact, I don't see index files in > maildir filesystem folders.
Well, mail headers usually have lots more information than a file directory entry. Sender name/e-mail, "read" flag, "replied" flag, "forwarded" flag, "has attachments" flag... all of these would have to be mapped to some sort of extended attributes on the file system. Oh, and the subject line too -- it can't be simply used as the filename, because (a) it's not guaranteed to be unique, and (b) it has different constraints in terms of allowable characters etc. The problem is, not all filesystems support extended attributes, or they might prove insufficient to the task. Say you want to use Seamonkey Portable in a flash drive (which is usually formatted with FAT32); what then? Therefore, maildir has to have some sort of indexing, at least as fallback if the filesystem does not provide the needed features. But then, if you are going to have to code the index system anyway, why bother doing the routines to use the filesystem? It's easier to always use your custom index. > Regardless, if my assumptions above are correct, my experience is, that > KMail is quite a bit faster working on folders with many thousands of > messages than Seamonkey Mail. But I have to add, that operations where this > speed difference becomes evident, are rarely used, such as copying large > bunches of mails between mail folders. So it's noticeably, but not something > that would prevent anyone from using Seamonkey Mail. Yes, that IS one of the strong points of maildir, particularly in a filesystem that has advanced linking (like hardlinks and symlinks). Instead of copying a message, the program can just create hardlinks; moving messages does not involve copying data and then deleting from the source, but just changing pointers in the filesystem. Moves can also be done in a very safe manner, by linking to the destination folder before delinking from the origin folder. Even in a brain-dead filesystem like FAT32, moving is still fast, although copying probably won't be. Still, the "one database to rule all" approach favored by Microsoft Outlook, which is just about diametrically opposite to maildir, also has its own good points, at least in theory (although I can't think of enough bad words about Microsoft's implementation). So, different usage patterns might fit better different storage models. Fortunately, the people working on maildir for Thunderbird/Seamonkey (bug 58308) decided to collaborate in developing a modular system (bug 402392), where in principle you could choose your own storage model. -- MCBastos This message has been protected with the 2ROT13 algorithm. Unauthorized use will be prosecuted under the DMCA. -=-=- ... Sent from my Voyager space probe. *Added by TagZilla 0.066.2 running on Seamonkey 2.3.3 * Get it at http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/modifiedmailnews.html#tagzilla _______________________________________________ support-seamonkey mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
