I'm currently using mbox and mbx with UW-IMAP, mbox for space efficiency and mbx for folders with lots of messages for time efficiency without a large space cost. I've avoided maildir because it has a relatively high space cost; mbox has no inter-message cost while maildir wastes on average half a sector plus an inode for each message.
What other formats are there, and has anyone come up with a good format that gives both good time and space characteristics without sacrificing reliability?
(I'm aware of the file format list in the UW-IMAP distro: <http://www.washington.edu/imap/documentation/formats.txt.html>)
On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 22:38, Kenneth Porter wrote:
I'm currently using mbox and mbx with UW-IMAP, mbox for space efficiency and mbx for folders with lots of messages for time efficiency without a large space cost.
The reason why mbx takes more space is that it uses CR+LF linefeeds instead of just LF..
I've avoided maildir because it has a relatively high space cost; mbox has no inter-message cost while maildir wastes on average half a sector plus an inode for each message.
AFAIK ReiserFS doesn't lose any space (or much).
What other formats are there, and has anyone come up with a good format that gives both good time and space characteristics without sacrificing reliability?
(I'm aware of the file format list in the UW-IMAP distro: <http://www.washington.edu/imap/documentation/formats.txt.html>)
UW-IMAP's author is thinking of some hybrid format where a single mailbox could be built from multiple files, but a single file could contain multiple messages. I think this could be made to work pretty well and reliably. I don't know more about his plans though, I didn't find any discussion about it in c-client list at least.
--On Wednesday, February 25, 2004 7:43 PM +0200 Timo Sirainen <tss@iki.fi> wrote:
On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 22:38, Kenneth Porter wrote:
I'm currently using mbox and mbx with UW-IMAP, mbox for space efficiency and mbx for folders with lots of messages for time efficiency without a large space cost.
The reason why mbx takes more space is that it uses CR+LF linefeeds instead of just LF..
I was thinking mbox vs maildir. mbx isn't much bigger than mbox, mainly adding the metadata at the front, about 1k per folder.
I've avoided maildir because it has a relatively high space cost; mbox has no inter-message cost while maildir wastes on average half a sector plus an inode for each message.
AFAIK ReiserFS doesn't lose any space (or much).
Interesting point. I hadn't considered using ReiserFS for my mail directories. Sounds like a good motivation to try it out.
UW-IMAP's author is thinking of some hybrid format where a single mailbox could be built from multiple files, but a single file could contain multiple messages. I think this could be made to work pretty well and reliably. I don't know more about his plans though, I didn't find any discussion about it in c-client list at least.
He mentioned a new format in passing on the comp.mail.imap group, still in the experimental stage.
participants (2)
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Kenneth Porter
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Timo Sirainen