[aclug-L] Re: MTAs & maildir vs mbox (was Re: Virtual POP3 and IMAP server)

["Ryan Hunt" <rhunt@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree 100% Maildir rocks, I think maildir is extremely faster than mbox
when it comes to qmail anywase..

-Ryan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Saner" <ssaner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <discussion@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 11:58 AM
Subject: [aclug-L] Re: MTAs & maildir vs mbox (was Re: Virtual POP3 and IMAP
server)


>
> On Fri, Oct 19, 2001 at 10:31:38AM -0500, Jonathan Hall wrote:
> >
> > Another question I have is maildir vs. mbox?  I'd discussed this with
some
> > others, and came to the conclusion that mbox would be more efficient for
me
> > since 99% of my users will dowload their mail w/ POP3, then delete it.
mbox
> > uses far fewer inodes... and sequential messsage access should be much
> > faster for mbox over maildir... right?
>
>
> I will weigh in on this issue, since I haven't seen anyone else do
> it. The word on the street is that Maildir rocks, period, end of
> statement. There have been benchmarking tests done, and really there
> isn't much difference in terms of speed unless you are dealing with
> huge amounts of email. Yes Maildir does require more inodes, but in
> today's cheap hardware world, that really isn't an issue (again,
> unless you are are doing huge things). The major advantage of Maildir
> is reliability. One message can not clobber the entire mail box. Also,
> if a customer does have a bad message, you can delete the file, rather
> than try to edit the mbox. If you want to think about moving your mail
> spool to an NFS mounted box at some point, then this is about the only
> way to do it to avoid bad file locking issues.
>
> A cool trick that I learned about that you can do with Maildir is a
> flexible pop bulletin like thing (I know that was one of your
> requirements). You can create a file that has the message, and then
> write a simple script to add a symbolic link to that file in each
> customer's Maildir that you want to get it. When they check the mail,
> they download it and then the POP server deletes the symbolic link, as
> if it was a normal message.
>
> I have had my time as a pro mbox person, but I see advantages in
> changing that.
>
> In my working with these things, I have looked at the following:
>
> sendmail for MTA
> procmail as a delivery agent that will deliver to Maildir
> Courier IMAP for a Maildir IMAP server
> Solid POP for a simple Maildir POP server
>
> However, if you really want to do virtual email, I'm afraid that
> looking at the QMail solution, may be the best (only?) way of doing it.
>
> Steve
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