[Alpine-info] Saving messages is incredibly slow in 1.10

[Mark Crispin]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009, Matt Ackeret wrote:

>> This "improvement" is a horrible burden for traditional UNIX format, since

>> there is no way to prevent random programs from adding messages.  For the

>> record, I opposed the "improvement".

> What does it actually improve? (I presume it improves some typical use case.)


It makes things a little bit easier for lazy IMAP client authors.


> So I realize this probably isn't a new idea, but..

> Since they're strictly ascending values, does it at least search the file

> from END to beginning?  That way, once it finds a UID, it knows it doesn't

> have to go any farther....?


You're right; it isn't a new idea.  It isn't done.

Remember that one of the tasks is to fix up problems from random other 
programs that muck with mbox files (and there are a lot of these on UNIX). 
Worse, because of a general lack of control on what is injected into a 
traditional UNIX mailbox, your suggested hack opens a security hole.

That's the problem with a lot of these clever ideas which are "good 
enough" for most cases; and that's why we have so many security problems 
in software today.  "Good enough" just ain't good enough any more.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.