[HLUG] Content filtering server, email server, domain controller

[Mark Broadbent]

On Feb 11, 2009 12:25am, Julian Robbins <joolsr at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> >> The main differences are whether you want to use mbox, or maildir
> >> formats, ie whether  every email is stored as a file, or whether a
> >> folder in your email client is stored as a single file. Each has its
> >> pros and cons.
>
> > Can you elaborate please?  The vast majority of emails are text only (we
> > have HTML email disabled in Thunderbird by default) and have no
> > attachments.  Most are customer queries and replies so are relatively
> > disposable.
>
> mbox and maildir are the formats that unix mail systems store the actual
> mails (and their attachments) in. I can never remember which is which,
> but maildir I think effectively is 1 file for a whole users email folder
> such as their inbox. This is good in terms of simplicity, but if you
> need to restore a mail, it will be in a probably huge maildir file to
> retrieve. Whereas, mbox (assuming i've got it the right way around),
> stores every single users emails as flat file single files, so if you
> have 1000 mails in a folder, that folder in the filesystem will have
> 1000 mbox files.  Smaller files, but lots of them !

Sorry, Julian, you got it the wrong way round. :-)

Maildir stores each mail as a single file and mbox stores the entire
mailbox in one file.  TBH, you would have to have good reason not use
Maildir IMO, it's almost impossible to corrupt a Maildir store,
whereas with mbox the entire file has to be rewritten everytime a mail
is deleted, modified or added.  I have had problems in the past with
moderate volume mail boxes get corrupted due to a mail client checking
for new mail and the server trying to put mail in.

Also with regard to spam/AV scanning.  Have you considered a managed
service?  Without trying to sound like an advert, it can reduce your
mail server hardware requirements and admin overhead (and traffic as
well!).

Thanks
Mark