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<div dir="ltr">iRedMail does not store emails in a database. It stores account information in a database. Emails are stored on the filesystem.</div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> dovecot <dovecot-bounces@dovecot.org> on behalf of Robert Moskowitz <rgm@htt-consult.com><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, February 24, 2022 9:48:11 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> dovecot@dovecot.org <dovecot@dovecot.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: email location - files or sql</font>
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On 2/23/22 19:12, Ralph Seichter wrote:<br>
> * Robert Moskowitz:<br>
><br>
>> What I am seeing is that many of the packages seem to roll the<br>
>> messages into some SQL database.<br>
> Do they?<br>
<br>
Packages like iRedMail list email stored in the database of your <br>
choice. Of course this is just their web blurb, and I have yet to find <br>
one of these that suit my needs. More and more, I am looking at rolling <br>
my own again. Challenge has always been integrating the anti-virus. <br>
Clamav has been quite the challenge.<br>
<br>
>> My Dovecot setup uses the /home/vmail/doman/../{cur,new,etc} tree<br>
>> structure.<br>
> That's the classic Maildir format. Widely supported, works fine if file<br>
> system nodes are not a scarce commodity. Dovecot supports other formats<br>
> (see <a href="https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/)">https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/)</a> as well, but<br>
> I still use Maildir because it is required by Notmuch, which is my<br>
> software of choice for handling all my mailing list subscriptions.<br>
<br>
I liked Maildir at the time and still do. Only a 1,000+ emails a day. <br>
My wife keeps a lot (10K messages) on the server, I keep all of my <br>
various boxes on the server small. So do my other users.<br>
<br>
> Personally, I would not use a relational database as a mail store unless<br>
> specifically required by the mail system of your choice. Email is not<br>
> organised in a way that benefits from a RDB.<br>
<br>
I was there for the beginning of RDB. Almost had NOMAD shoved down my <br>
throat (UNIVAC) and did work with RIM (BCS) then R:Base. Was gamma <br>
release site of DB2, where we worked out how to do a UNION which was not <br>
supported in the original design. I have seen email systems that stuff <br>
the messages into RDB and really wonder if the hammer really fits.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
><br>
>> Is there some nice packed mailserver I can drop on a Centos-arm server<br>
>> that has Dovecot under the covers and I can easily rsync my current<br>
>> mail store to it?<br>
> As far as migrating content is concerned, you're better off using some<br>
> form of IMAP synchronisation. This method is not dependent on the<br>
> underlying mail store format, and it preserves the IMAP flags for your<br>
> existing messages.<br>
<br>
I did see that mentioned once, and have down to research it. Thanks for <br>
the pointer.<br>
<br>
<br>
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