On 2/23/22 19:12, Ralph Seichter wrote:> * Robert Moskowitz: > >> What I am seeing is that many of the packages seem to roll the >> messages into some SQL database. > Do they?Packages like iRedMail list email stored in the database of your choice.? Of course this is just their web blurb, and I have yet to find one of these that suit my needs.? More and more, I am looking at rolling my own again.? Challenge has always been integrating the anti-virus.? Clamav has been quite the challenge.>> My Dovecot setup uses the /home/vmail/doman/../{cur,new,etc} tree >> structure. > That's the classic Maildir format. Widely supported, works fine if file > system nodes are not a scarce commodity. Dovecot supports other formats > (see https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/) as well, but > I still use Maildir because it is required by Notmuch, which is my > software of choice for handling all my mailing list subscriptions.I liked Maildir at the time and still do.? Only a 1,000+ emails a day.? My wife keeps a lot (10K messages) on the server, I keep all of my various boxes on the server small.? So do my other users.> Personally, I would not use a relational database as a mail store unless > specifically required by the mail system of your choice. Email is not > organised in a way that benefits from a RDB.I was there for the beginning of RDB.? Almost had NOMAD shoved down my throat (UNIVAC)? and did work with RIM (BCS) then R:Base.? Was gamma release site of DB2, where we worked out how to do a UNION which was not supported in the original design.? I have seen email systems that stuff the messages into RDB and really wonder if the hammer really fits.> >> Is there some nice packed mailserver I can drop on a Centos-arm server >> that has Dovecot under the covers and I can easily rsync my current >> mail store to it? > As far as migrating content is concerned, you're better off using some > form of IMAP synchronisation. This method is not dependent on the > underlying mail store format, and it preserves the IMAP flags for your > existing messages.I did see that mentioned once, and have down to research it.? Thanks for the pointer.
iRedMail does not store emails in a database. It stores account information in a database. Emails are stored on the filesystem. Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: dovecot <dovecot-bounces at dovecot.org> on behalf of Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2022 9:48:11 AM To: dovecot at dovecot.org <dovecot at dovecot.org> Subject: Re: email location - files or sql On 2/23/22 19:12, Ralph Seichter wrote:> * Robert Moskowitz: > >> What I am seeing is that many of the packages seem to roll the >> messages into some SQL database. > Do they?Packages like iRedMail list email stored in the database of your choice. Of course this is just their web blurb, and I have yet to find one of these that suit my needs. More and more, I am looking at rolling my own again. Challenge has always been integrating the anti-virus. Clamav has been quite the challenge.>> My Dovecot setup uses the /home/vmail/doman/../{cur,new,etc} tree >> structure. > That's the classic Maildir format. Widely supported, works fine if file > system nodes are not a scarce commodity. Dovecot supports other formats > (see https://doc.dovecot.org/admin_manual/mailbox_formats/) as well, but > I still use Maildir because it is required by Notmuch, which is my > software of choice for handling all my mailing list subscriptions.I liked Maildir at the time and still do. Only a 1,000+ emails a day. My wife keeps a lot (10K messages) on the server, I keep all of my various boxes on the server small. So do my other users.> Personally, I would not use a relational database as a mail store unless > specifically required by the mail system of your choice. Email is not > organised in a way that benefits from a RDB.I was there for the beginning of RDB. Almost had NOMAD shoved down my throat (UNIVAC) and did work with RIM (BCS) then R:Base. Was gamma release site of DB2, where we worked out how to do a UNION which was not supported in the original design. I have seen email systems that stuff the messages into RDB and really wonder if the hammer really fits.> >> Is there some nice packed mailserver I can drop on a Centos-arm server >> that has Dovecot under the covers and I can easily rsync my current >> mail store to it? > As far as migrating content is concerned, you're better off using some > form of IMAP synchronisation. This method is not dependent on the > underlying mail store format, and it preserves the IMAP flags for your > existing messages.I did see that mentioned once, and have down to research it. Thanks for the pointer. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/attachments/20220224/02ccaeb6/attachment.htm>
On Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 08:48:11PM -0500, Robert Moskowitz wrote:> > > I liked Maildir at the time and still do.? Only a 1,000+ emails a day.? My > wife keeps a lot (10K messages) on the server, I keep all of my various > boxes on the server small.? So do my other users. > > > Personally, I would not use a relational database as a mail store unless > > specifically required by the mail system of your choice. Email is not > > organised in a way that benefits from a RDB. > > I was there for the beginning of RDB.? Almost had NOMAD shoved down my > throat (UNIVAC)? and did work with RIM (BCS) then R:Base.? Was gamma release > site of DB2, where we worked out how to do a UNION which was not supported > in the original design.? I have seen email systems that stuff the messages > into RDB and really wonder if the hammer really fits. >What is the opinion on repairs to problems that occur? Easier to fix in a DB? That does give a simple set of fixed points and dates to make repairs simple. I backup into a tar.gz and that preserves a timepoint, but how in the heck could a fix a problem that occurs? That seems like a nightmare problem. Does anyone have any method to do that? I'd love to know that if it exists. I love Maildir, but the backups are very large. I don't have a huge set of emails, but downloading a copy to home instead of my other server is a big task. Since I use a single ISP and once had a company shut down all servers, which makes me nervous. -- Hmm, Chris Bennett