On Friday, October 12 at 11:06 AM, quoth Daniel Watts:
What actually ARE the advantages of a 'one file per folder' format??
It depends on the environment. It's exceedingly efficient at storage:
on a filesystem with 4k blocks, three 1k messages take up 1 block
(4k), where in a one-file-per-message format they take up 3 blocks
(12k). Some filesystems have mechanisms of coping with files that only
occupy a partial block, but those mechanisms tend to be expensive, and
are often only employed when strapped for space. The
one-file-per-folder arrangement also helps when doing sequential reads
(i.e. searches, or loading it into memory, or processing it with a
filter, or whatever else): when the OS spools the file from disk, it
loads it up a block at a time, which in a one-file-per-folder format
is several messages, but in a one-file-per-message format is only ever
a single message.
I've often contemplated setting up a separate mbox-based namespace in my Dovecot setup (e.g. everything in the Archive folder is saved as an mbox), just for the space savings.
~Kyle
Only the fool hopes to repeat an experience; the wise man knows that every experience is to be viewed as a blessing. -- Henry Miller