Adam D. McKenna wrote:
> I'm not arguing with you, but what's the difference in disk access between
> appending to an existing file (mbox) and creating a new file (maildir)?
>
> It seems like appending an existing file would take at least one extra
stat(),
> and the inode and free block tables would still have to be manipulated
> (wouldn't they?)
Appending does not require creation of a new inode. It seems that both would
need to grab from the free block table. However, there might be
pre-allocation of block algorithms (with the goal of reducing fragmentation)
that ease this burden.
I'm not the expert. I'm just asking. :-)
The alternative is not just the mbox format but other formats which store
multiple messages in one file using an internal kind of database. Mbox fits
in this category, but it's a really annoying database format.
- David Harris
Principal Engineer, DRH Internet Services
