Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy archive.

[Arnold Opio Oree]

> Also you may run into client limits.... i ve seen this with outlook, 
> apple mail, thunderbird via imap in the past

Thanks for this note Robert, it was not really an aspect that I was
considering. 

We are operating our groupware services user access through both
Evolution Groupware and KDE Kontact / KMail on Debian Linux
workstations. Hopefully if there is a client issue it should be local
to only one groupware client. 

I will be sure to study / investigate in this - client - area should any issues that are not traceable to the server-side arise.

Many thanks,

Arnold Opio Oree
Chief Executive Officer
Parallax Digital Technologies

arnoldoree at parallaxdt.com

http://www.parallaxdt.com

tel : +44 (0) 333 577 8587
fax : +44 (0) 20 8711 2477

Parallax Digital Technologies is a trading name of Parallax Global
Limited. U.K. Co. No. 08836288

The contents of this e-mail are confidential. If you are not the
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-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Schetterer via dovecot <dovecot at dovecot.org>
Reply-To: Robert Schetterer <rs at sys4.de>
To: dovecot at dovecot.org
Subject: Re: Applying Dovecot for a large / deep folder-hierarchy
archive.
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:53:49 +0200

Am 27.06.2019 um 07:35 schrieb Aki Tuomi via dovecot:
> On 26.6.2019 22.12, Arnold Opio Oree via dovecot wrote:
> > Hello to you all,
> > 
> > I'd like to ask about my intended application of Dovecot to create
> > a folder-hierarchy for storing our enterprise emails, which are
> > treated as live data rather than archives for compliance or
> > occasional / reactive retrieval.
> > 
> > The data is presently not that large (a few gigabytes), but it is
> > expected to grow rapidly. Up to this stage the data has been
> > contained
> > in a Microsoft Exchange mailbox (2013), and then in an offline PST.
> > The move to the offline PST was by necessity, as the large number
> > of
> > folders, and depth of hierarchy to my best understanding caused the
> > exchange server / outlook / evolution mail clients to begin to
> > malfunction. To cope with this the archive was broken up and the
> > bulk stored in the offline PST and the most active components
> > stored in
> > online Exchange mailboxes.
> > 
> > I have some understanding of the fs mbox format, and also the
> > mitigations to be made for certain characters / strings. My main
> > concern is whether Dovecot is likely to be able to cope well with a
> > large number of folders / depth of hierarcy.
> > 
> > I will really appreciate any help / advice you can give.
> > 
> > Best regards,
> > 
> > Arnold Opio Oree
> > 
> 
> Hi!
> 
> Dovecot 2.2.34/2.3 supports unlimited folder depth, the only limiting
> factor is that the total name may not exceed 4096 bytes. Also
> individual
> folder names may not exceed 255 bytes.
> 
> Prior to that the limit is 255 per folder up to 16 levels.
> 
> I can't recommend using 'mbox' storage format, please consider using
> maildir or sdbox instead.
> 
> Aki
>