Re: Balsa question

[Jack <ostroffjh sbcglobal net>]

On 2009.08.07 06:01, Peter Bloomfield wrote:
> Hi Jack:
>
> On 08/06/2009 07:08:14 PM Thu, Jack Ostroff wrote:
> > Out of curiosity, how does balsa number messages in a maildir  
> > mailbox?  In an mbox file, they are numbered by message order within  
> > the file.  I mostly use mbox, but I have one maildir mailbox set up,  
> > and for some reason, the message numbers caught my eye, and I can't  
> > figure them out.  #1 is the newest message and the highest number  
> > happens to be the oldest, but I can't see any other pattern.
> >
> > Thanks for any response or even which fine manual I should read.
>
> Balsa uses g_dir_read_name() in a loop to find all the message files,  
> and assigns message numbers in that order.  So it's determined by the  
> way the file system manages the directory and glib reads it--I would  
> guess that if you start with an empty folder and only ever add  
> messages, it's the order in which you add them, but I'm not sure  
> that's guaranteed.  If you expunge a message, does the next one to be  
> added take the empty slot?

Ildar - I do sort by date, with JWZ threading.  I only noticed the  
numbering issue as a curiosity, not because I expected any particular  
behavior.

Peter - Given that the oldest message currently has the highest number  
and the newest is #1, it does appear that slots get reused.  Actually -  
I just got one more message in that mailbox, and it is now the highest  
number.

To me, this just means that message number doesn't really mean anything  
in a maildir mailbox.  In an mbox, on the other hand, I have used the  
message number in the past to help me debug problems with both mime  
decoding issues and with garbled mbox files.

Thanks all for the responses.

Jack