Re: Loopback filesystems for mail storage
On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 09:59:57AM -0400, Kumar Appaiah wrote:
> Hi.
>
> This may be slightly OT, but I hope people don't mind much.
>
> I'd like to come up with an efficient way to store and access my
> e-mail using a loopback file, so I wanted some advice from experienced
> people on the list. Currently, I've been using only vanilla ext[34]
> file systems, but my Maildir has now grown to a large size. So, I
> wanted to come up with a better solution.
>
> One approach I thought of is a loopback file. That makes things
> simpler, since I don't really have to repartition, and backing up is
> rather easy. So, here are my questions:
>
> 1. What is the best filesystem for Maildirs with several tens of
> thousands of messages?
>
> 2. Is there a massive performance hit if I use a file mounted as a
> loopback filesystem, rather than a physical one? I don't mind a small
> hit for my desktop use, but if it nixes the whole utility of changing
> the filesystem, then I'd like to know.
>
> 3. What filesystem would allow quick file access? I'd like to be able
> to view the Maildirs in Mutt, and index and search it using
> notmuch. XFS is something searches on the interwebs revealed, but I've
> also heard people mention Btrfs, JFS etc. If this is too long to
> answer, I'd appreciate a pointer to a resource that I could read.
Oh, and this:
4. Would it be easy to enlarge/grow a file that contains a filesystem?
i.e., if I create a container file of 5 GB and want to expand it to 7
GB? Of course, I don't mind creating a new file for 7 GB and moving
the mails as well…
Thanks.
Kumar
--
We are Pentium of Borg. Division is futile. You will be approximated.
-- seen in someone's .signature
Reply to: