Re: mysql as a backend

[john s anderson <jacobs@azstarnet.com>]

On 9 Nov 1999, Randal L. Schwartz wrote:

> has anyone done any work on hooking up a database like mysql as a back end?

I've done a small bit of preliminary noodling on implementing a SQL-based
mail archive. I was planning on making it non-MUA-specific, so that if
something better than Gnus came along (inconceivable!), switching my MUA
wouldn't affect my mail archiving. (I've been burned on that before, with
the Postilion->Gnus switch I did some months ago.)

I was planning on providing hooks to tie into in the archiving and
searching interfaces, and hoping that eventually someone would tie it into
Gnus.

> I was thinking of a few approaches:
> 2) write a Perl program that would ensure clean input/output using DBI/DBD
>    but with an easily parseable command interface, then wrap that

This was the approach I was planning on; I've got some Perl that slurps
mail folders, parses headers, and does a half-ass intertwingle thing. 
(That's mostly in the design of the SQL database, actually.)  That's about
as far as I've gotten; my hacking time has been pretty limited of late.

> Any thoughts?  Am I crazy?

This is something I would _love_ to have; finding old stored mail is
starting to become a real PITA. Please let me know if you do start working
on something, if there's any way I can help, if you'd like my pitiful
code, etc.

john.

-- 
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John S Jacobs Anderson                       jacobs@genehack.org
www.genehack.org        <-----  GeneHack (bioinfo*linux*opinion)