On Oct 1, 2008, at 6:06 PM, Chris Hilts wrote: > Scott Haneda wrote: >> Hello, I am running SquirrelMail 1.4.16, against EIMS Mail Server >> which support IMAP. >> >> SquirrelMail is very slow at loading mailboxes. EIMS stores mail >> in a >> single file, like UW IMAP server. If I telnet into the server, and >> select a mailbox, one in which I feel it is not that large, perhaps >> 3000 messages, I can get back a message count in under 3 seconds. >> > 3 seconds just to tell you how many messages there are. Now imagine > how > long it takes to fetch headers. I know, I feel it is slow as well. To better help me get this into perspective, what hardware examples can you give me as for cpu and drives, and how many messages you can select in what time? Is there no ability to select a range in the IMAP commands, seems strangely inefficient to select the entire box, or is this just a limitation of IMAP in genera? >> I have spoken with the developer, and he states that even though EIMS >> does not support sort and thread, that should have no impact on >> performance, and in fact it could slow it down. >> > Server-side sort is a huge win for webmail. On large mailboxes, it is > pretty much a requirement. That is what I thought as well. First, can you tell me why SM has to do three selects? At least, that is what I read, I am just curious as to why that is. Can you explain, technically, why sort is more or less a requirement? Here is a dialogue I had about my email server, and I would like to know as much about this as I can: /***** I stated this >>> I also am reading that the IMAP sort feature and one about thread, >>> can speed up access as well. Developer replied this >> Only when the client uses them (and most clients don't use them), >> and the client is slower than the server at sorting and threading. I stated this > It is my understanding that web based email IMAP systems are where > this really shines. Developer replied this >> That would only make sense if the webmail system for some reason >> couldn't sort the results as fast as the server. All the sort >> extension does is have the server sort the results before returning >> them. In some ways a search using the sort extension is actually >> slower than an ordinary search, as an ordinary search can start >> returning results as soon as they match. I stated this > This is the main page I am reading: > http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/SpeedWithUW (ignore the top parts, > not relevant to EIMS) Developer replied this > It ignores things like checking how much disk space a user is using > (which happens every time a user receives a message, tries to add a > new message to a mailbox, etc.) becomes a huge overhead with one > file per message. *****/ >> What is the trick to speed up web email? Or, can anyone give me any >> insight as to what my email server is doing wrong. Can someone give >> me some rough select times on mailboxes that have a lot of messages >> in >> them as well? >> > I have 2651 messages in a folder using Cyrus IMAP. SELECT returns > instantly, the second I hit enter. Migrate to another IMAP server. I > recommend Cyrus or Courier, although I also hear good things about > dovecot. I am looking at Dovecot very strongly. What hardware was your select against, and the drive setup as well? Do you have a case where you could do a select on something pretty large, maybe 50,000? Exactly what is considered too many messages to a IMAP mailbox? Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. -- Scott ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ ----- squirrelmail-users mailing list Posting guidelines: http://squirrelmail.org/postingguidelines List address: squirrelmail-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx List archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.mail.squirrelmail.user List info (subscribe/unsubscribe/change options): https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/squirrelmail-users
