[Evolution] Re: mbox vs. Maildir

[Alexander Skwar <ASkwar digitalprojects com>]

So sprach »Ricardo Amadeo Contreras« am 2001-08-20 um 12:57:25 -0500 :
> more cases.  For example, you only deleted (i gather from your post) a
> single message in each of your test cases.  What would happen if you

That's right, yes.

> deleted many messages scattered throughout and then 'expunged'. (If you
> have a >5000 message mbox, say deleting 10%... or about 50 messages
> scattered throughout the mbox file.)  how would this compare against
> maildir (or mh)?

Well, one thing is for sure - deleting messages is *ALWAYS* a lot faster
in Maildir.  After all, deleting a message in a Maildir (MH) mailspool
means that only one (or more) files have to be deleted.  In mbox, the
mbox file needs to be completely rewritten.  But your wish is my command
:)

I'll delete 500 messages and measure the time it takes.  To do so, I'll
sort the mbox by the authors name and then delete the first 500 (~10%).
This should make the messages fairly scuttered around the whole file.
The times are only for mbox.  Measuring Maildir wouldn't make sense - it
would of course be way faster.  Oh well - in mutt it took <1 second to
delete the same 500 messages.

mutt:                   4 seconds
elm:                    5 seconds
pine:                   21 seconds (29 seconds for the full rewrite)
evolution 0.12 mbox:    43 seconds
evolution maildir:      6 seconds

> And of course you're using a different mua, which may not handle message
> deletion in the same way as evolution/camel.  (I don't know mutt so I

That's right, so here are the stats for Evolution 0.12.

mbox:

First delete:           38 seconds
middle delete:          36 seconds
last delete:            38 seconds

Maildir:

First delete:           8 seconds
middle delete:          3 seconds
last delete:            3 seconds


> you select Action->Expunge (or Empty Trash).  Does mutt do each deletion
> at the time you mark a message for deletion or does it work similarly to
> Evolution's method?

It's using the Evolution method.  You mark a message for deletion, and
when you "sync" (think: Action->Expunge) the spool or change to a
different spool, mutt deletes the message(s).

> I usually read all of my mail messages and mark everything I don't want
> to keep for deletion... by the time I actually expunge (empty trash)
> there are probably 30-50 messages, maybe more, marked for deletion.

Yes, same here.  But the messages I delete are usually at the end of the
file.  This is because at the beginning of the file are mostly messages
I wish to keep.  "Leftovers" from previous "visits" to this spool.

> Thanx for the stats... 

np.

I noticed, that the overly long times of Evolution with mbox files are
because of the 2nd step "Ordner wird synchronisiert" ("Synchronizing
folder" ?).  This alone takes about 30 seconds each time.  I wonder why
this step takes so extremely long!?  When the folder is first opened,
this step doesn't take quite as long.

I suppose, someone should have a close look at what's causing this
tremendous break down so that Evolution also behaves nicely there.

Alexander Skwar
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