diff options
author | John Denker <jsd@av8n.com> | 2012-06-01 18:58:45 -0700 |
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committer | John Denker <jsd@av8n.com> | 2012-06-01 18:58:45 -0700 |
commit | b732a73bc773789894466b0e5320b2f1fe42c7e9 (patch) | |
tree | 385358983f064a1f10a5080b33a3ba13010886db /INSTALL.maildir | |
parent | 634d365a03cb0581a062cd3cf4db9ae69f1cde26 (diff) |
original, as downloaded from http://www.qmail.org/netqmail-1.06.tar.gz
Diffstat (limited to 'INSTALL.maildir')
-rw-r--r-- | INSTALL.maildir | 59 |
1 files changed, 59 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/INSTALL.maildir b/INSTALL.maildir new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72373aa --- /dev/null +++ b/INSTALL.maildir @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +This file points out some reasons that you might want to switch from +mbox format to a new format, maildir. + + +1. The trouble with mbox + +The mbox format---the format of ~user/Mailbox, understood by BSD Mail +and lots of other MUAs---is inherently unreliable. + +Think about it: what happens if the system crashes while a program is +appending a new message to ~user/Mailbox? The message will be truncated. +Even worse, if it was truncated in the middle of a line, it will end up +being merged with the next message! Sure, the mailer understands that it +wasn't successful, so it'll try delivering the message again later, but +it can't fix your corrupted mbox. + +Other formats, such as mh folders, are just as unreliable. + +qmail supports maildir, a crashproof format for incoming mail messages. +maildir is fast and easy for MUAs to use. Even better, maildir works +wonders over NFS---see below. + +I don't want to cram maildir down people's throats, so it's not the +default. Nevertheless, I encourage you to start asking for maildir +versions of your favorite MUAs, and to switch over to maildir as soon as +you can. + + +2. Sun's Network F_ail_u_re System + +Anyone who tells you that mail can be safely delivered in mbox format +over NFS is pulling your leg---as explained above, mbox format is +inherently unreliable even on a single machine. + +Anyway, NFS is the most unreliable computing environment ever invented, +and qmail doesn't even pretend to support mbox over NFS. + +You should switch to maildir, which works fine over NFS without any +locking. You can safely read your mail over NFS if it's in maildir +format. Any number of machines can deliver mail to you at the same time. +(On the other hand, for efficiency, it's better to get NFS out of the +picture---your mail should be delivered on the server that contains your +home directory.) + +Here's how to set up qmail to use maildir for your incoming mail: + + % maildirmake $HOME/Maildir + % echo ./Maildir/ > ~/.qmail + +Make sure you include the trailing slash on Maildir/. + +The system administrator can set up Maildir as the default for everybody +by creating a maildir in the new-user template directory and replacing +./Mailbox with ./Maildir/ in /var/qmail/rc. + +Until your MUA supports maildir, you'll probably want to convert maildir +format to (gaaack) mbox format. I've supplied a maildir2mbox utility +that does the trick, along with some tiny qail and elq and pinq wrappers +that call maildir2mbox before calling Mail or elm or pine. |