Re: db-backed mail back end

[Jorge Godoy <godoy@conectiva.com>]

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Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Jorge Godoy <godoy@conectiva.com> writes:
>
>> Oversimplifying things:
>>
>>    * Gnus parses message headers 
>>
>>    * Finds the, e.g., From: line (or any other configurable header /
>>      pattern) 
>>
>>    * Looks at the LDAP database for an entry with that address
>>
>>    * Split the message to the correct folder (or /dev/null ;-)) 
>>
>>    * After writing the message there, before/after updating the
>>      indices that exists there, Gnus looks for some score information
>>      and also update it to the correct file (if needed or if this
>>      information is not in the LDAP server)
>
> Well -- what do you gain by sticking this in an LDAP server instead of
> just keeping it in Lisp?

Taking BBDB again as an example.

If I was using it, I'd have to load it's database on memory. For a 15k
entries database it would be really slow and memory consuming.

If I was using LDAP, I'd have to make queries to the LDAP server,
which is specialized in this kind of query and would not have all the
15k entries eating up my RAM. Not to tell the amount of time saved on
not-loading these entries and parsing them. Oh! And not to tell the
safety improvement on avoiding data corruption. Also avoiding data
duplication. Not to talk having already corporative databases ready to
use, without having to import them every time some entry changes. 


I see several advantages on having LDAP to do that instead of Lisp. 

Each tool doing what it was written and optimized for. Lisp is good,
but not for databases or address books.


With regards to the information on splitting, it would be available to
other tools as well. I would have to maintain only my LDAP rules and I
would be able to use them with my webmail, my procmail, my Gnus,
etc. If I decide to stop using procmail, I won't have to rewrite
everything. And, as one can do with BBDB, you can also attach one
splitting rule to each person/e-mail address.


The biggest improvements are: less RAM used, faster access to the
information. 

-- 
Godoy. <godoy@conectiva.com>

Escritório de Projetos		-- 	  Conectiva S.A.
Projects Office			--	  Conectiva Inc.

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