Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
Export TheBat -> unix MBOX format
skwire:
Then I took the plunge and built myself an IMAP4 email server on linux using spare hardware, a decision that has paid off handsomely. Nowadays I'm free to try any email client as I please, without being held up by any proprietary databases.
-mwang (September 09, 2009, 01:15 AM)
--- End quote ---
Likewise. I've been running my own IMAP server for nearly eight years now and also love the ability to try out any email client I want. I've been a Rebecca/Becky user for almost ten years now but I also like Claws-Mail and Mulberry.
Innuendo:
30,000 doesn't sound like a huge no. (I've 100,000+), and I think any decent email client today should handle that amount of mail reasonably well.-mwang (September 09, 2009, 01:15 AM)
--- End quote ---
No...30,000 doesn't sound like a huge number and you would think that any decent email client in the year 2009 would handle that amount of mail reasonably well...but they don't. >:(
Most email clients have database issues if you try to store too many emails (Outlook I'm looking at you!) or store emails in a 1-email-per-file arrangement which gets around the database issues, but really bogs the clients down when you start trying to deal with massive amounts of messages.
Your method is probably the way of the future for those of us who deal with huge email archives, but most people don't keep any emails for any length of time which is probably why email clients today are still having trouble with huge email archives. It's just not a feature that is in high demand.
But enough of the off-topic banter. It's detracting from f0dder's escape from The Bat!.
f0dder:
Innuendo: you're not going offtopic imho, since issues like yours are pretty relevant when picking an email client.
Thunderbird uses MBOX files, which are pretty retarded (but at least it keeps index files... kinda funny when you have a crash and the index file is corrupted, until you figure out that they need rebuilding). Iirc at least it creates a new MBOX files when the previous one grows too big... but it's still not optimal.
One-file-per-mail isn't a good option on Windows, at least not without dividing into subfolder; while NTFS isn't a bad filesystem, it doesn't deal well with zillions of small files in one folder (perhaps it's more of an issue with explorer and other apps than NTFS, but the net effect is that you don't want to browse those folders, or delete from explorer :)). I'm not sure what the optimal thing to do, if I was to code a mailstore myself, would be - I'd probably lean towards a binary format split to into multiple files based on size, along with external index files... but there's issues with internal fragmentation and all sorts of other things.
Innuendo:
you're not going offtopic imho, since issues like yours are pretty relevant when picking an email client.-f0dder (September 09, 2009, 05:50 PM)
--- End quote ---
Just wanted to be sure. Some people don't take kindly to potential topic derails to their threads.
Thunderbird uses MBOX files, which are pretty retarded (but at least it keeps index files... kinda funny when you have a crash and the index file is corrupted, until you figure out that they need rebuilding). Iirc at least it creates a new MBOX files when the previous one grows too big... but it's still not optimal.
--- End quote ---
I keep wanting to like Thunderbird. Coming from The Bat!, though, Thunderbird has plain-jane looks with plain-jane functionality. I thought I'd be able to snazz it up with some extensions, but there just are not that many available.
One option that may look interesting is the latest Eudora beta. They've gone open source & are building the Eudora functionality and interface into a Thunderbird codebase.
f0dder:
I really like Thunderbird's pretty simple user interface, as opposed to TheBat's option-cluttered skinned mess :) - haven't really missed anything except for the mail-ticker so far.
Last time I used Eudora was back pre-2000 I think... didn't like it too much back then.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version