> On Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:05:10 -0800 > Ron <[email protected]> wrote: > >> A DB makes most sense for email messages - index-able, ACID >> compliance (depending on DB), fast, etc. > > Databases are the WORST possible way to store arbitrary files. > Microsoft tried to make a database-backed filesystem. They tried very > hard. They failed so badly at it they abandoned WinFS. And they had > previously built Microsoft Exchange on databases anyway. They didn't do > it because it was a good idea (it isn't). They did it because NTFS was > *worse*. NTFS is notoriously rubbish with large numbers of small files. > Throwing all of it into a MS SQL Server database was an "easy" way to > get acceptable performance.
As a blast from the past, it is a shame that ReiserFS was abandoned, for obvious reasons, it was a great file system for many small files. It is the perfect file system for a mail server. A database makes sense for the indexing and organization of email, but storage for the files itself makes no sense. That being said, MAYBE, just maybe, SQLite could do it. > > >> when a message is marked "Read", the *file name* is changed to >> reflect the change in status! > > It's efficient, consuming one byte of RAM when referenced and zero RAM > when not, and consuming zero space on the filesystem depending on how it > stores metadata. It's fast, faster than any database could ever hope to > be on the same filesystem. It's Atomic and Consistent, and it's as > Isolated and Durable as anything on the filesystem can possibly be. > ACID without any of the overhead of running a database server. It's > brilliant in its simplicity. > > >> Designed to be *fast* at up-to a couple hundred terabytes. > > Designed to compete with Microsoft Exchange on Windows, more like. > Stalwart runs on Windows which means it needs to perform acceptably on > NTFS, and the "easy" way to do that is throw it all in a big ol' > database. > > -- > \m/ (--) \m/ > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
