Just a performance comment. Qmail is IO bound. Adding additional
subdirectories force additional stat'ing of inode/vnode structures. ...
Typically these are NOT in your cache as you get closer to the
user-directory. With access time (atime) enabled, adding a single
additional directory immediately before your final email user directory
could easily reduce throughput by 15-30%. If atime is disabled (NFS on
Solaris 7, FreeBSD, I don't recall Linux), delay is on the order of
5-15%.
Sam wrote:
>
> On Mon, 6 Sep 1999, Jukka Zitting wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm implementing maildir support for the GNOME's messaging library
> > Camel. Camel uses a provider abstraction for mail stores. A store
> > provider object allows a MUA to access mail folders and messages through
> > a simple storage-independent API. The folder abstraction has support for
> > both messages and subfolders although a provider is not required to
> > implement both.
> >
> > It was quite easy and straightforward to implement the basic message
> > handling operations for isolated maildir folders. I'm now wondering
> > whether I should also add support for subfolders. It doesn't seem too
> > difficult and I already have a few ideas for doing it. I'd like to know
> > if anyone has already implemented subfolders in maildirs and how it has
> > been done.
>
> Yes, I have implemented maildir subfolders in two separate applications:
> webmail CGI client, and a maildir-aware mail filter. I'm also working on
> a third application that uses the same layout.
>
> > I searched through the mailing list archives for more information about
> > maildir subfolders and found a number of messages discussing the matter.
> > There however doesn't seem to be any standard way to implement
> > subfolders. I'm asking anyone who's developed or used maildir subfolders
> > to share his/her experiences so I can make the Camel library support any
> > extensions to the maildir format.
>
> DJB does not have anything to say on this, so it's pretty much everyone on
> their own. When I looked at it ages ago, someone else on a mailing list
> mentioned how he was working on implementing maildir folders in his imap
> client. I don't believe that he actually finished it, but I just took his
> rough idea, and ran with it. Afterwards, I've also implemented a
> voluntary quota mechanism for maildirs and subfolders on top of the same
> layout.
>
> Before you go any further, you might want to take a look at how I did it.
> Look at: http://www.inter7.com/sqwebmail/ and
> http://www.flounder.net/~mrsam/maildrop/.
>
> In either package you want to take a look at the maildir subdirectory -
> it's the same in both packages. The subdirectory includes some
> documentation of what I did, plus some source code.
>
> Currently, the mechanism allows for one level of subfolders only. I'm
> currently thinking of ways to implement a subfolder hierarchy. For various
> reasons, I'm leaning against implementing a subfolder hierarchy using
> nested subdirectories. Instead, I'm leaning towards using a hierarchy
> separator character in the name of each subfolder, a'la IMAP.
--
Daemeon Reiydelle
Systems Engineer, Anthropomorphics Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
