hello, What is the max. file size for an .mbx file? The reason is that there are some users who have huge email files. They tell me they need to keep them for various reasons ( legal, in case someone calls back for old drawings [engineers]..etc.) So....what is the max or a safe max file size to let a .mbx file get to? And more importantly, what is the wise or recommended thing to do once it reaches that size? I recall seeing someone post something about dbmail.org. This seems like a good idea....but what do the people with heavy mail server experience have to say? I would think that the best thing for large mail stores is to use a database.....oracle comes to mind with their collaboration suite. I'm not suggesting to use oracle as a database for emails.....dbmail or something like that would probably be a more logical choice. Thanks, Oskar
* Oskar Teran (pheonix1t@houston.rr.com) [030430 16:28]:
What is the max. file size for an .mbx file?
The maximum file size, see: http://www.suse.de/~aj/linux_lfs.html but the mail clients don't nec. have large file support.
So....what is the max or a safe max file size to let a .mbx file get to?
Eventually the mail client will choke on it and crash but we've had users here reading 1G mboxes with netscape. It's not so much what's safe as what is practical--a 1G mbox over NFS would pretty painful.
And more importantly, what is the wise or recommended thing to do once it reaches that size? I recall seeing someone post something about dbmail.org.
If you convert them to maildirs then the size really isn't any issue anymore since each message is seperate file. -- -ckm
Christopher Mahmood wrote:
* Oskar Teran (pheonix1t@houston.rr.com) [030430 16:28]:
What is the max. file size for an .mbx file?
The maximum file size, see: http://www.suse.de/~aj/linux_lfs.html but the mail clients don't nec. have large file support.
So....what is the max or a safe max file size to let a .mbx file get to?
Eventually the mail client will choke on it and crash but we've had users here reading 1G mboxes with netscape. It's not so much what's safe as what is practical--a 1G mbox over NFS would pretty painful.
And more importantly, what is the wise or recommended thing to do once it reaches that size? I recall seeing someone post something about dbmail.org.
If you convert them to maildirs then the size really isn't any issue anymore since each message is seperate file.
OK...so the quick solution is to use maildir instead of .mbx....ok.....since uw-imap was setup....maildir is cyrus or courier right? so i'll have to move it over from uw-imap to courier or cyrus. My next question ..... does anyone know if maildir format is supported by outlook? I've tried connecting to a maildir mailbox with outlook and had no luck. just sees imap or pop3. this was with outlook 2000 or 2002. I didn't look too much into the outlook maildir issues....but if anyone has already seen this and has links or experiences to share that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Oskar
On Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 09:07:55PM -0500 or thereabouts, Oskar Teran wrote:
So....what is the max or a safe max file size to let a .mbx file get to?
OK...so the quick solution is to use maildir instead of .mbx....ok.....since uw-imap was setup....maildir is cyrus or courier right? so i'll have to move it over from uw-imap to courier or cyrus. My next question .....
There is another IMAP server designed especially for Maildir, called BINC.
does anyone know if maildir format is supported by outlook? I've tried connecting to a maildir mailbox with outlook and had no luck. just sees imap or pop3. this was with outlook 2000 or 2002. I didn't look too much into the outlook maildir issues....but if anyone has already seen this and has links or experiences to share that would be greatly appreciated!
Any MUA does not "see" a maildir, but rather uses a server, either POP3, or IMAP, it does not read or connect to a maildir directly. I do know that Outlook 2000 does not have a provision to utilize IMAP protocol, just SMTP. Do not know about Outlook 2002, as it has been years since I used that virus/worm magnet. -- Gary
* Oskar Teran (pheonix1t@houston.rr.com) [030430 19:05]:
If you convert them to maildirs then the size really isn't any issue anymore since each message is seperate file.
OK...so the quick solution is to use maildir instead of .mbx....ok.....since uw-imap was setup....maildir is cyrus or courier right?
Well, the really quick solution is to educate the users that keeping large mboxes is a pain in the ass for the admins and them. Maildir isn't a silver bullet--a directory with 100K directories in it is pretty slow as well.
so i'll have to move it over from uw-imap to courier or cyrus. My next question ..... does anyone know if maildir format is supported by outlook?
I seriously doubt it but it shouldn't matter since you're using imap. -- -ckm
participants (3)
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Christopher Mahmood -
gary -
Oskar Teran