On Fri, 3 Nov 2006, Brian Thompson wrote:
Two more questions - are the creation of the index and status files
in mix a function of the delivery agent (tmail) or a function of the
client agent (imapd/ipop3d)?
Creation of the metadata, index, status, and initial data files happens as
part of creation of the mix mailbox. Subsequent data files and the
sortcache file are created as needed.
Is there a utility or method to rebuild the status and index files if
all that's left is the data files?
Not yet.
There really is no way to rebuild a status file; you just start over with
an empty status file (which will reset all messages to recent with no
flags). However, you CAN replace the status file with one from an earlier
backup of the mailbox, which will restore all the flags to the state of
that backup. This works because the status file (and the index) key using
the UID instead of message number.
There will be a utility to rebuild the index file, but none exists yet.
Not sure if there would ever be a need to do so, but it would be
more comforting to know that the email itself wouldn't be lost in
the event that the summary/index files somehow become corrupt.
The email is stored in the data files. If the index file is corrupted and
recognized as being corrupted, then mix will decline to open the mailbox
and thus the data files are safe.
However, if the index file is corrupted and not recognized as such, then
any messages which are not loaded from the index file will effectively not
exist in the mailbox. If an expunge operation is subsequently done, then
the space in the data files which are not associated with existing
messages will be reclaimed.
An extreme example of the previous paragraph is replacing the index file
with an index file from an empty mailbox. Once a mailbox is opened with
such an index file, an expunge will happily delete all the data files.
This hasn't ever happened.
I *believe* that mix is more resistant to various forms of corruption than
other mailbox formats. This was a design goal from the onset. However,
only time will tell.
-- Mark --
http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
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