[Dovecot] strange email client problems

[Gabriel Granger]

I will set that option tonight and see how what happens when my users 
login tomorrow morning.  With regards to the load of the server its 
about 0.03 at present and when a user complained about "Loading 
messages" about 30mins ago, I checked the server and it was abut the 
same.  I'm really not sure how to see the load of the HD's from the 
console or even what I could compare it against.

Mem:   1035180k total,  1014672k used,    20508k free,    33556k buffers
Swap:  1052216k total,        0k used,  1052216k free,   920644k cached

  I  notice the server is using a lot of real memory but with loads of 
swap available for use if thats of any use.  When I used to use UW-IMAP 
i used to get a lot more CPU load which has since disappear now that 
I'm using Dovecot.  I take it that setting

> mbox_very_dirty_syncs = yes

will cause delays with users that have large mailboxes?

Regards

Gabe Granger

On 21 Mar 2005, at 12:42, Timo Sirainen wrote:

> On 21.3.2005, at 13:32, Gabriel Granger wrote:
>
>> Closing the email client doesn't kill the process, it does sometimes 
>> but normally have to wait a while (5mins or more).  When you refer to 
>> CPU load are you talking about on the server itself? if so I don't 
>> believe it is.  I will check next time this happens.
>
> Or the load in general? That sounds like Dovecot is busy re-reading 
> the mbox file.
>
>>  My largest users mailbox file is 200Mb with the total disk space 
>> used by all their mail folders is 6GB.  Is there any information 
>> regarding limits on what is a safe maximum size for a mailbox folder? 
>>  I try to get my users to keep their inboxes under 200 messages or 
>> 50Mb.  Currently I'm gettting my heavy users to reduce their inboxes 
>> from 150Mb down to something sensible.
> ..
>>>> The users get the "loading message" or "opening messages" and the 
>>>> egg timer goes round but never completes.  I managed to clear the 
>>>> problem by getting the user to close their email client and then 
>>>> kill their IMAP processes on the server, when the user logs in 
>>>> again the client responds correctly.
>
> OK, sounds like a new message has arrived to mbox and Dovecot re-reads 
> the whole mbox which takes a while. Although Dovecot 1.0-stable 
> doesn't anymore re-read the mbox as long as it's selected.. Maybe the 
> clients open another connection to server which.. Try setting:
>
> mbox_very_dirty_syncs = yes