Subj : Max Messages...
To   : Peter Knapper
From : Mike Bourne
Date : Sun Aug 10 2003 04:06 pm

 MB> The question I have is:  With Squish and a *.msg 
 MB> message base, is there a maximum message number that 
 MB> can be handled?  

 PK> I think you may find that its more a file system limitation than
 PK> anything else. .msg format is pretty inefficient when you start
 PK> talking about thousands of messages. Even with 500 messages, .sqd
 PK> format performance beats .msg by quite a large factor. The reason
 PK> relates to the structure used for FAT directory space when it needs
 PK> to expand, its just not that good for larger numbers (IE over about
 PK> 500 files).

There are performance issues when you go to the secondary blocks for the index, 
but even on this 386/40 it is not that bad.

 PK> If I recall correctly, the Squish API holds the message base index
 PK> in memory, so its probably more of a memory limitiation than
 PK> anything else. I have heard of people with 50,000+ message stored
 PK> in one Squish area, but I have not done that myself...

Well, that helps quite a bit.  I only have about 3300 messages, it is just the 
message numbers that are getting up there.

 MB> And I am using *.msg format because I have become 
 MB> rather comfortable with them over the last 15 years or 
 MB> more of being a point, and why change a known good 
 MB> thing?  :-)

 PK> Sorry, I wouldn't can't call FAT good for much these days....;-),
 PK> except perhaps some level of transportability, which is moot given
 PK> the ease of Networking machines these days.

This PC has been running virtually non-stop for 24/7 with Binkley and a couple 
different message readers since November 1992 (used one until Y2K, then had to 
change as it was not compliant). I added a hard drive and some memory 7 or 8 
years ago.  I am often out of town for a week or more at a time, and it just 
keeps picking up the mail.  The whole family has been away as long as 21 days 
at a time, and it just keeps picking up the mail.  I do tend to re-boot every 
few months when I do a cleanup of the message bases and a defrag of the drive, 
but have gone as long as 6 months.  I usually shut down over Christmas holidays 
and clean out the dust and cat hair.

I like reliability.  :-)

 PK> Regardless of File system and memmory availability, I am pretty
 PK> sure the Squish API allows for at least 2,000,000 messages
 PK> (probably even 4,000,000) in a message base. Is that enough? 

I guess that I will not worry too much about it.  :-)

Mike Bourne

--- timEd 1.10.y2k
 * Origin:  A Point at the Edge of Town, Ft Worth TX USA  (1:130/41.3102)

.