On Sun, Jan 30, 2022 at 07:49:56PM -0900, justina colmena ~biz wrote: > On January 30, 2022 6:30:44 PM AKST, Sam Kuper wrote: >> On Sun, Jan 30, 2022 at 06:17:49PM -0900, justina colmena ~biz wrote: >>> On January 30, 2022 5:46:53 PM AKST, dove...@ptld.com wrote: >>>> Storing mail in a db... at the end of the day isn't it still just a >>>> file (.db file) on the drive? >>>> >>>> Aren't you just adding bloat and complexity vs just storing the >>>> mail directly (maildir format) to a file on the drive? [...] >>> >>> You'll get better indexing and fast full text search by storing your >>> emails in a database rather than a flat file, hopefully after >>> decoding any attachments. Especially for spam scoring, analysis, and >>> classification. Much better performance deleting or moving specific >>> messages, too. >> >> Do you have evidence to back up these claims, specifically re: mail >> servers? >> >> Like-for-like benchmarks, for instance? > > Just ideas.
OK, no then. > Removing or deleting a single message from near the beginning of a > large flat file takes an inordinate amount of time because the > remainder of the flat file has to be rewritten all the way from the > point of the deleted message to the end of the file and then > truncated. You might want to look up what Maildir is before making bold but apparently unfounded claims about it. Maildir is not a "large flat file". It is a set of conventions that amount to a database specification, in the traditional sense of the word "database": a system for storing data. (Not a relational database.) DJB developed Maildir to gain performance and reliability improvements over mbox files. Unlike Maildirs, mbox files *are* "large flat files". Best wishes, Sam -- A: When it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: When is top-posting a bad thing? () ASCII ribbon campaign. Please avoid HTML emails & proprietary /\ file formats. (Why? See e.g. https://v.gd/jrmGbS ). Thank you.