[Dovecot] Using MySQL to store email?

[nodata]

> So Timo,
>
> Have you considered the idea of storing all the email in a MySQL
> database?

dovecot already writes to a storage backend optimised for this task - the
filesystem.

> Seems to me that MySQL could somplify all the backend stuff
> that everyone struggles

Who is "everyone"?

What problems are you having?

> with and with replication one could create very
> massive and reliable systems. What would it take to use MySQL that way?

Massive and reliable? What examples can you give where a MySQL backend for
a mail system would improve things? How would it improve them?

Putting everything in a database would provide one benefit:
* Less storage space needed due to duplicated e-mail

NOT putting everything in a database provides plays to Linux's strengths:
everything is a file, meaning we can use all of the standard file-focused
text processing tools. If everything is a file, backups and restores are a
piece of cake.