[Dovecot] Locking /var/mail/user issue with postfix and dovecot

[Stan Hoeppner]

On 10/25/2012 1:23 PM, Stan Hoeppner wrote:

> I forgot to mention one very important feature of Dovecot LDA:
> 
> New messages delivered by Postfix are indexed by LDA as they are written
> to the mailbox, flags updated at this time, etc.  Thus when a mailbox is
> opened in an IMAP MUA, new messages are displayed instantly (I don't use
> POP but it's probably faster as well).  With your current setup it can
> take from a few to many seconds to show new mail, depending on message
> count.  With LDA new message count seems to have no impact on the speed
> of display.

Robert JR, you posted relevant information to the Postfix list that you
omitted here, or at least I didn't see it.  This may directly affect the
advice myself and others gave you.

You stated there that you're using Dovecot POP only and not IMAP.  Given
the nature of POP, using LDA may not help much even if it eliminates the
filesystem locking contention between processes.  I don't know if
Dovecot will append an mbox file while reading the entire file.  This
Timo will have an answer to.

Timo may also state, as he has before on this list, that:

1. there are better, faster, POPers available
2. Dovecot is developed primarily as an IMAP server
3. the POP function has received little development for quite some time

-- 
Stan