Hi,
I do store mail in mdbox format of 150m in size (dovecot 2.3.9).
Once in a while I do experience mdbox files of smaller size, even after applying 'doveadm purge' and previous expunges by the users. like:
-rw------- 1 vmail dovecot 104854595 Feb 9 2019 /var/mail/.maildirs/userX/storage/m.22 -rw------- 1 vmail dovecot 29088478 Mar 8 2019 /var/mail/.maildirs/userX/storage/m.31 -rw------- 1 vmail dovecot 98210890 Mar 20 2019 /var/mail/.maildirs/userX/storage/m.39
(Currently the counter is at file number 129.)
Well, I never experienced missing mail or alike, but these "holes" in filesize irritates me, and yes, it is more or less a cosmetic issue.
Nevertheless, I do sometimes want to get rid of these "holes" by backing up all mail and re-injecting the backup into a vanilla account of that user. And I used this approach when I wanted to store all mail messages in larger mdbox files; again, rather a cosmetic issue.
BUT that takes a very, very long time contrary to the speed of 'doveadm purge'. Unfortunately, that command starts somewhere with more recent mdbox files and never from scratch (oldest mdbox file).
Whishlist: Would it be much of an effort to implement an option like:
'doveadm purge -f'
and '-f' standing for 'force' or 'from scratch' or 'from the very first message found' or 'you name it'?Thanks in advance and thanks for Dovecot and with kind regards, Michael