Tim here. I don't know which file-system you're running, but if your home directory is on ZFS, you can enable transparent compression. I have my mail/cache directory as a specific ZFS dataset and get roughly 60% compression out of my mostly-plain-text mail-cache files: $ zfs get -H -ovalue compressratio zpool/usr/home/tim/Mail 1.31x I believe that works out to around 75% compression because mail (whether mbox or maildir or MH) usually has a lot of easy-to-compress data in it. Alternatively, you might be able to tell your MUA (whether Claws or Thunderbird or Seamonkey or mutt/neomutt) to interact directly with files on the server (usually via IMAP; it's more annoying to do via POP3 because it only has the idea of a mailbox, not a hierarchy of folders). Most still cache things locally so you'll have some local disk-space consumption, but most should give you controls over how large that grows (or you can enforce it by putting your mail-cache directory on its own mount-point and giving it a limited size/quota) -tim On December 18, 2021, Linux for blind general discussion wrote: > So this came to mind earlier, and I'm wondering if I can do > anything about it, and it was prompted by an idea I had to save > disk space. > > > I've read up on the difference with POP3 vs IMAP, and I like how > Seamonkey/Thunderbird/Claws/etc handle mail in a much easier to > read format than webmail interfaces. > > But I'm wondering if there's a middle ground, if I can have a > client that lets me access my mail, but doesn't clutter up my disk? > I was told both POP3 and IMAP eat up disk space on a computer after > all, and I'm both not sure how true that is, and wondering if I can > do anything to mitigate that? > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list