On Tue, Apr 08, 2014 at 11:53:52PM -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote: > As with any MUA directly accessing maildir files performance gradually > slows down over time with more and more mail files because they are > scattered across the filesystem, especially with EXT, much less so with > XFS. Seeking to 1000 files all over the disk to read the headers takes > time. mbox is quicker because you typically have far more messages > stored linearly on disk, thus you have much less seeking when reading > headers.
I intend trying out XFS on the next opportunity, just to compare the performance. > Mutt, as with other MUAs, creates a header cache so it only needs to > read the headers of new mail files. If you're slowing down with large > maildir folders, the most likely problem is that your header caching is > not working properly. I am not a mutt user so I cannot tell you which > knob to turn or which cache file to delete/recreate to fix this. I have > seen the same problem with many other MUAs and this is most often the > cause. See this thread from '08 for background on the excessive > seeking. The patch for this should already be in your mutt version if > it's current, but understanding what is being discussed may give you an > idea as to what is broken, and where to start looking: > > http://lkml.iu.edu//hypermail/linux/kernel/0812.2/00514.html The suggestion of using a header cache was what I wasn't aware of, and this helped speed up access significantly. Thanks for the suggestion and the link. Kumar -- Not only Guinness - Linux is good for you, too. -- Banzai on IRC -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140409113507.GB6452@odessa
