Re: Gnus5, procmail, and reading mail lists.

[Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk>]

The speed of Gnus mail splitting with nnml/nnmh is almost solely
depending on what file system you use.  I have used Gnus mail
splitting with three different file systems:

NFS: Incredible slow.  You can read each split message in the
minibuffer several times, take a sip of your tea, and speculate about
the possible content before the next message arrives.

Linux ext2fs: Incredible fast.  You can see some flimmer in the
message area, but haven't a chance to see what they are about.  I get
the impression that the speed of mail splitting on Linux is limited by
how fast it can print those messages on the screen.

BSD-FFS: Somewhere in between.  You can read the messages if you stay
alert.

The reason is probably that NFS is write through, and that BSD-FFS
directory content is write through, while Linux ext2fs buffers
everything. 

Conclusions:

1. LINUX R00LZ!

   (but set nnmail-delete-incoming to nil, just in case...)

2. There is really nothing Lars can do to speed up mail splitting. 

3. Using procmail to split mail	instead of Gnus doesn't speed up
   anything, unless you deliver directly into the folders instead 
   spool files.

4. If you don't run Linux, consider using nnfolder instead of nnml.

5. Consider reading mail on the NFS server instead of a client.

6. Consider buying PrestoServe(TM) for your NFS server.