> It's possible but not the real problem. the real problem is inherent in > the mbox format, all the messages are kept in one file and the entire file > has to be read into memory. Maildir helps because each message is a > seperate file. (But the downside is it could waste more space on disk > though this can be worked around with by using file systems like > reiserfs.) Certainly.. this was just a workaround without changing how anything worked, as 6 months of mail and logs written to the /var and /home partitions definitely became quite fragmented.. maildir stuff shouldn't have this problem -- and I am using reiserfs, so regardless of the fact that I have ~13GB of free space to waste, I don't think the 4k thing will be a problem. > > In any case, I'm trying to find a way to make my IMAP access faster. > > I've considered converting to Maildir format but can't find an easy way > > to convert my existing mailboxes. > > Debians' uw-imapd package already has the maildir patches the other > respondent was talking about applied. So an easy way to do this would be > to: > > 1. Create a new mailbox as a maildir. Hrmf, how do I do this? Can't find any decent documentation, except on the basic _format_ of maildir.. I tried creating ~/Maildir, ~/.Maildir, ~/maildir, and ~/.maildir and a folder inside each called '.lists.debian-user' but I am unable to subscribe to this folder in any of the cases mentioned.. Read some info on the uw-imap maildir patch, but there appear to be several patches, all of which build on each other, and I don't know which Debian uses.. perhaps I need to change from sendmail to postfix first, as one of the patches suggested that if INBOX is a maildir, it will _then_ create new folders as maildir.. > 2. Using your mail client, move all the messages from the old folder to > the new one. > > The IMAP server will take care of the format conversion for you. > > although I've forgotten the exact voodoo right now, it is in fact easy to > make procmail deliver to maildirs. apparently all that's necessary is changing: :0: to :0 since maildir doesn't require locking, and adding a / to the end of mailbox names, i.e.: :0 * ^List-Id.*debian-user@lists.debian.org .lists.debian-user/ > > If there are ways that I can improve performance _without_ mucking my > > config around, it would be preferred, > > How about deleting some of your mail? :) NEVER!!! :) I have considered archiving some of it, but would prefer to consider this a future project after making _general_ performance more reasonable.. Thanks! -Justin -- Justin Ryan <justin@gnubian.org>
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