On 19/09/18 00:35, James Knott wrote:

On 09/18/2018 06:27 PM, gumb wrote:

...

'Would you like to compact your folders? This will save approximately 119MB of space?'

Wow! Sure, OK.

* a few seconds later *

'Done compacting. 3.8MB saved.'

I mean, this little ruse has only been going on for, what, the last 18 years. And I fall for it every time.

Does it ever work?  I'm on an IMAP server.

I can't really say for sure if it 'works' or not. I don't ever check. I manage multiple email identities but basically they all sit upon two accounts that I handle in Thunderbird, one of which I use as POP, the other IMAP. But I have mail archives of several gigabytes, so I don't ever check the storage directory usage before and after a Compact Folders event to see if it really makes the space saving it says it does. If however you mean 'works' just as in 'does the compacting without screwing anything up' then I guess, yeah. I mean, there's no visible negative effect. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 09/18/2018 05:27 PM, gumb wrote:

'Would you like to compact your folders? This will save approximately 119MB of space?'

Wow! Sure, OK.

* a few seconds later *

'Done compacting. 3.8MB saved.'

I mean, this little ruse has only been going on for, what, the last 18 years. And I fall for it every time.

Nothing fallen for -- it's actually something you should do regularly. When using mail, the mail stores are not updated (messages deleted, etc.) each time you delete a mail message. Instead, the index entry for the file is marked as deleted and the message isn't shown when the messages are loaded from your mail store. When you are prompted to compact, it is triggered by a setting in Tbird that says compact if greater than X megabytes can be saved. When the folder is compacted, the deleted emails are actually removed -- so it is good maintenance. There is no question that the reporting numbers are FUBAR, but it is most likely due to a compressed and uncompressed size being reported. I haven't looked at the code, but I suspect that the 119M number is tallied from the uncompressed mail store (a simple sum of the size of the deleted emails that can be removed). I also suspect the 3.8MB number is the difference in the resulting compressed mail store size (before the compaction and after). It is worth a bug report -- probably. Will it get a high priority -- doubtful... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org