difference between mbox and maildir?

[Albert Shih]

 Le 28/05/2006 à 14:50:05-0800, Noah a écrit
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> might somebody send me to a website that explains the differnce between mbox
> and maildir?  Or maybe you can just explain the differences in a response.
> 

mbox --> one file for all message

Maildir --> One file for each message


Advantage :

	mbox --> You can use old commande like «mail» to read you mail
		 and...I search...

	Maildir -> Very scalable.
		-> Fast

Disavantage :

	mbox --> with big mbox every access (by qpopper or other mail
		deamon) need to open the file, and close. This need
		many time. 
	     --> If there are some problem during the open/close time
		 the all mbox is corrupt.

	Maildir -> You can not use «mail» command.

Conclusion :

	If you don't have mail server and you want to install one --> Use
	maildir 

	If you have old mail server using mbox --> Think to swap to maildir.


Regards.



--
Albert SHIH
Universite de Paris 7 (Denis DIDEROT)
U.F.R. de Mathematiques.
7 ième étage, plateau D, bureau 10
Heure local/Local time:
Tue May 30 22:20:06 CEST 2006