On 24/04/2013 11:21, Neil Bothwick wrote: > On Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:00:06 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote: > >>>> - avoid Postfix and Qmail >>> >>> Why? I ask because I have a mail server with reiserfs on the mail >>> spool, it's been running for several years and behaved impeccably, >>> but if there is a good reason to switch, I will. >> >> It's one of those maybe-it-is, maybe-it-isn't scenarios. >> >> Wiki has a pretty accurate description of the scene wrt mail spools: >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReiserFS#Criticism > > "Some directory operations (including unlink(2)) are not synchronous on > ReiserFS, which can result in data corruption with applications relying > heavily on file-based locks (such as mail transfer agents qmail[9] and > Postfix[10]) if the machine halts before it has synchronized the disk." > > So I can lose stuff if the computer crashes. I don't see that as a > specific problem with MTAs. although they do tend to have a lot of file > throughput. On the other hand, I think the fact that maildir uses so many > files is one of the reasons I went with ResierFS in the first place, > running out of inodes on a mail server would not be my idea of fun.
I solve that problem for me in the obvious way: I pay less attention to choice of filesystem and more attention on rigging systems that don't crash! Admittedly, I have the luxury of being able to do that, I don't work for Google (who need an entirely different approach due to scale) -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
