Ximian Evolution question

[Peter L. Peres]

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003, Keith Mastin wrote:

>
> > The problem I see with IMAP is the number of files and directories, and
> > the difficulty with intrusion detection etc (system keeps changing all
> > the time).  No major ISP will likely run IMAP unless they make a server
> > that uses a database as a backend imho.
>
> Number of files and directories, I could see being an issue eventually.
> Intrusion detection is not an issue though. What vulnerabilities are you
> thinking of?

F.ex. 10,000 tiny little files for 3000 emails belonging to only 5 or 6
people, and a virus checker that runs on the server every X minutes. Every
time the files move the virus checker sees a 'new' file to check. Ouch.

> Generally, I try not to run tripwire on the mail files. :)

No, but seeing the file count or directory count jump up or down by
thousands at a time every day on a supposedly secure and low volume server
is not my idea of fun.

I think that this can be solved by putting the mail in a database and
running an IMAP daemon that manipulates this database through some
middleware (that does not exist afaik). Unlike what others said a database
is not 'one big file', it's an oganized and optimized big file or
volume(s), and locking problems are non-existant (or solidly solved). The
database would have to be *solid* to trust it with all user (and your own)
mail all the time (including during crashes power outages and H. Acker
attacks). Afaik such a thing does not exist to date.

Peter

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