Re: linux/ext3 and /var/spool/mail (round 2)
From: John-Paul Stewart (jpstewart_at_binaryfoundry.ca)
Date: 05/06/05
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Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 11:40:52 -0400
cdr@stolaf.edu wrote:
> This thread is a followup on my previous postings related to
> performance degradation after several months use of a linux/ext3
> /var/spool/mail filesystem.
[snip long discussion of the problem]
OK, so your sysadmin is finally coming to the same conclusion that
others already did (albeit in a totally different manner and from a
totally different approach) that having a bunch of large mailbox files
in one directory (/var/spool/mail) is the root of the problem.
Spreading things around is the solution to that. Why not, as was
suggested in the first thread (if I'm remembering the right thread)
switch to maildir format? That's a fairly painless switch to make and
is certainly a lot easier and more straightforward than what your
sysadmin proposed.
Maildir will do three things for you: all of your existing mailbox
files will be replaced with subdirectories, so your data will then be
spread around that many subdirectories, instead of all in the root.
Plus the data in those mailboxes will be broken into individual files
per message, eliminating the need to parse gigantic files. Finally, the
fragmentation issues should decrease given that you won't be appending
to existing files nearly as much; you'll be creating new ones instead,
most of the time.
Why all the insistance on sticking with mbox and the resistance to
maildir like others suggested in the first place?
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