[Evolution] Re: [Evolution-hackers] mbox

[Florin Andrei <fandrei1 home com>]

        You were right. The discussion is not for evolution-hackers. I'm moving it to
evolution-users.

Jeffrey Stedfast wrote:
> WHAT!?!?!?!?!?
>
> If you want to talk about probability, then the more files you have the
> more likely one is to get "hit" and thus lost/corrupted/whatever.
> *sigh*

        Ok, so this is a carbon-copy discussion of the one that plagued the mailing
lists of many MTAs: maildir vs. mbox/mh. It's like those flamewars Linux vs.
*BSD or something. They never get to an end.

        The idea with maildir is that, having more objects, it is indeed more
probably (as a strict mathematical reason) to lose something from time to
time. But what you lose then is just a small piece. With the other two formats
you loose the entire mailbox!
        Anyway, i feel that the code is simpler when it comes to handling maildir,
than for other formats. So, the risk to lose something decreases (simpler code
==> less oportunities to screw something). So, actually, there might be a
lesser overall risk to loose something when working with maildir.
        Qmail is an example. Read Qmail-related documentation spreaded all over the
'Net and you'll find a lot of good reasons to use maildir. Not that i'm some
sort of Qmail-lover (i prefer Postfix), but the idea is good. Or see Cyrus
IMAPD, which is another fine piece of software (arguably, the best POP/IMAP
opensourced daemon) - they use maildir too.

        This is why i believe maildir is a better option for the default format for
Evolution.

-- 
Florin Andrei
mailto:florin linuxstart com
http://members.linuxstart.com/~florin/
"I trust Linus over BIOS vendors, every single time" - Alan Cox