Re: [Evolution] IMAP speed

[Jeffrey Stedfast <fejj ximian com>]

On Tue, 2002-11-19 at 13:01, Scott Otterson wrote:
> Well, first, although the IMAP on 1.2 is supposed to be faster than
> 1.08, several of us have said that IMAP is actually slower.  Seems like
> this information would interest Ximian but on this list, anyway, it
> doesn't seem to be making much of an impression.
>
> Second, if a persistent tcp connection causes evolution to hang, then
> maybe evolution shouldn't be using one.

this is why there's POP :-)

IMAP, by definition, uses a persistent tcp connection.

> On reading your response, my first thought was, "Boy, linux must be
> lame," because on Windows, nothing hangs when you lose your PPP -- not
> outlook, not mozilla, not anything as far as I know.

wonderful about those win32 apis for finding out when the connection
goes down. Not available on linux.

>   But then I fired
> up mozilla on linux and found that it too survives having the modem
> unplugged: Read IMAP mail, unplug the modem, plug it back in again,
> reconnect, and mozilla is fine; for the same sequence, evolution hangs.
>
> So what does mozilla use that works better than a persistent tcp
> connection and should evolution be using that instead?

HTTP != persistent tcp stream. IMAP == persistent tcp stream.

HTTP connects, does a fetch, and then closes the connection. (well, HTTP
1.1 can have persistent streams to avoid
connect/disconnect/connect/disconnect but that's another issue).

IMAP connects and stays connected until the user explicitly logs off.
This is why I also mentioned that ssh (which also uses a persistent tcp
connection) also hangs for like 10 minutes.

If you don't like the wait, you are free to modify your kernel or submit
a patch to evolution.

Jeff

> Scott
>
> On Mon, 2002-11-18 at 12:45, Jeffrey Stedfast wrote:
> > On Mon, 2002-11-18 at 13:50, Scott Otterson wrote:
> > > Yeah, I'd have to agree.  IMAP is _much_ slower -- takes way longer to
> > > start up for the first time and if you disconnect, it's way slower to
> > > reconnect.
> > >
> > > The connection also hangs if my PPP dialup goes down -- I have to run
> > > killev before it can see email again.  This is the only network app I
> > > have that hangs when I loose PPP.
> >
> > I'm guessing you don't run any other apps that use a persistent tcp
> > connection then :-)
> >
> > fyi I am almost always connected to remote sites with ssh and irc, etc
> > and so when my internet connection drops, all those apps hang just as
> > long as Evolution does.
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> > PS: No, netscape/mozilla do not hold persistent tcp connections.
-- 
Jeffrey Stedfast
Evolution Hacker - Ximian, Inc.
fejj ximian com  - www.ximian.com