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Re: using movemail directly in .emacs


From: Robert Thorpe
Subject: Re: using movemail directly in .emacs
Date: Sun, 25 May 2014 20:54:18 +0100

lee <lee@yun.yagibdah.de> writes:

> Hikaru Ichijyo <ichijyo@macross.sdf.jp> writes:
>> Is any of this impossible or misguided?  I'd just strongly prefer my 
>> mailbox in the system spool area where most UNIX tools expect it to
>> be.
>
> It`s not impossible, yet it doesn`t make much sense.  Using a single
> file like the spool file is an anachronism (and apparently doesn`t work
> too well over NFS).  A single file is very awkward to work with: When
> you delete an email somewhere within the file or set a flag (like read,
> answered, etc.), the whole file needs to be rewritten.  That wouldn`t be
> ideal with a file of over 4GB.
>
> In any case, the file can easily be damaged, in which case you might
> loose all your email.  What happens when your computer crashes while
> it`s copying or rewriting your 4GB+ spool file?

Spool files are a temporary storage area for email.  A user reads their
mail using a program (a "Mail User Agent" or MUA) which takes the mail
from the spool file and stores it elsewhere.  For most MUAs all mail is
moved from the spool file to somewhere in the user's home directory.
For some MUAs the "inbox" is the spool file, normally for those the user
is expect to move stuff out into other files.

The problem here isn't that spool files are an anarchonism, it's that
they're not made for storing large amounts of mail.  It may now work on
some system too because they have scripts that delete very large spool
files.  (Notice I'm not saying that spool files aren't an anachonism.
Multi-user *nix computers that are never switched off are going the way
of dinosaurs and spool files with them.)

BR,
Robert Thorpe



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