Re: [Evolution] POP3 mbox performance and auto-expunging?



On Wed, 2008-08-20 at 17:43 -0400, Jeff wrote:
Hello,
I'm considering using Evolution for my aunt who let her Thunderbird
POP3 mailbox corrupt itself again.

It's the second time that her inbox grows over 2 GiB (4.7 GiB this
time). When that happens, well, the mail client will be slow as
molasses and return the wrong messages (or nothing at all) when trying
to open them, indicating a corrupt mailbox index at first glance.
You'd think that just deleting those Thunderbird index files would fix
the problem, but no, it deletes the mail.

So, I've had enough, and want to stop screwing around with that mail
client that can't handle decently all the
powerpoint-crap-coming-down-the-pipe, and make her use my beloved
Evolution for the POP3 account. I guess it would be in mbox format,
since, reading this mailing list, that there doesn't seem to be an
easy/official way to use maildir(?).

I'd like to ask a few questions regarding Evolution's performance
under a theoretical worst-case scenario.

Let's imagine that evolution has a 10 GiB mbox file for the inbox
(worst case scenario). Has any of you experienced corruption or big
performance problems with situations like that?

Secondly, as I understand from looking at
http://www.go-evolution.org/FAQ#I_deleted_a_bunch_of_mail_but_my_mailbox_is_just_as_big_as_before._Why.3F

...it seems to me that 
- expunge = compressing the mbox file of a folder to make it more
efficient
- emptying the trash = compressing all the mbox files.

As I know that there is an option in the preferences to empty the
trash "on exit", "daily", "weekly" or "monthly", if I activate it, can
I safely assume that, as long as my aunt puts big/useless mails in the
trash, they will be completely purged automatically, and that the
inbox folder size should not grow to unmanageable sizes, therefore
acting like an "autoexpunge/cleanup" option? I want something that
requires ZERO interaction here, because said user has the bad habit of
replying "No" to "do you want to compress the folders" prompts and
such.

To summarize my questions:
- will setting the trash to empty itself daily ensure that when the
user trashes mail, it doesn't sit there for years "waiting to be
compressed" like in thunderbird?
- in the event that this does not prevent a huge mailbox (>1 gb),
would evolution still be able to manage multi-gigabyte mailboxes?
- has anyone experienced mbox index corruption much?

Of course, I know that I can ask for no guarantee or anything, I just
wish to hear your stories of reliability so far. If that matters, the
system uses Evolution 2.22.x on Ubuntu 8.04.1.

I look forward to your insights and experiences. 
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Evolution-list gnome org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list

would the following scenario work:
setup the pop3 account ala defaults - this would have all the mail going
into mbox.

Then, create a maildir local account.
Then, create a filter on 'Source Account' ( the previously setup pop3
account ) to move all mail to the maildir account on receipt.  Then you
don't have to worry about managing a 2GB+ file.




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