On Mon 03 Jun 2024 at 14:08:46 (-0500), Chris M wrote: > I am needing a "refresher course" on mail clients that use the .mbox > format to store emails. > It's been years since I've used this kind of mail client. > > Is there any "dangers" I need to know about? Like, keeping the mailbox > a certain size? > or a certain amount of emails per folder etc? > > The last client I used, before I went FULL TIME LINUX, was Eudora 7.1 > on Windows 10. And you had > to keep the .mbx files TINY TINY TINY or else, you'd face corruption. > > I always go offline, and then compact my folders after I get done > reading emails.
AIUI the critical issue here is how and where the active INBOX is stored, as you have no control on when an incoming email is going to arrive. I pay the professionals who host my domain to handle that for me, and then I access the INBOX with IMAP, using mutt as my MUA. If you use mbox, then you need to make sure that file-locking is working with every program involved in delivery, filtering etc. I've trusted mutt for over 25 years with my local mbox files. Size isn't an issue AFAICT, with individual boxes up to 500MB with 7000 entries. Meanwhile IMAP is handling a 600MB and 38000 entry INBOX. Cheers, David.
