Re: Re[2]: help with site+database
On Thu, 19 Jul 2001 15:48, Kevin J. Menard, Jr. wrote:
> CS> if i was running a news spool or a large Maildir/ spool, i think i'd
> CS> stick with reiserfs but this is my workstation, where i have lots of
> CS> large files (incl. huge mbox files) so i think i'll be switching to
> XFS.
>
> But don't you want synchronous writes for your mail spool? I was under the
> impression that journaling filesystems don't support this (yet?).
Synchronous writes are supported. The issue is that Linux by default does
not make link() a synchronous operation. If you create a link and then
fsync() the parent directory then you are certain that the link is in place.
Some mail servers rely on link() being synchronous and can theoretically
perform incorrectly if the power fails at the wrong moment.
There are patches available for Qmail to make it fsync() the directory. I am
not sure how Postfix handles this, or Procmail. Perhaps Craig can advise on
this as he knows more about Postfix and Procmail than me.
I haven't bothered investigating this in depth. If one of my servers crashes
the possibility that one message may be lost is really the least of my
concerns (email client programs crash far more often and lose much more mail).
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