[HN Gopher] Bichon: A lightweight, high-performance Rust email a...
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Bichon: A lightweight, high-performance Rust email archiver with
WebUI
via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46429250
Author : rendx
Score : 43 points
Date : 2026-01-10 19:29 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| Onavo wrote:
| Note the rustmailer project mentioned is heavily proprietary
| licensed. Don't expect to be able to use any of this.
| DetroitThrow wrote:
| This one appears to be AGPL and safe to use, but I just read
| the main project license and frowned. I'm not sure I understand
| who that project is for.
| sea-gold wrote:
| Bichon is in fact AGPL:
| https://github.com/rustmailer/bichon/blob/main/LICENSE
|
| It must not be using any RustMailer code.
| copirate wrote:
| If it's the same author they can reuse the code. They can
| copy the code but they can't link it.
| jszymborski wrote:
| actually the rustmailer licensing is a bit confusing. The
| license file in the repo has the text of the BSD Zero and
| Apache license but the README describes it as "source-
| available"?
| DetroitThrow wrote:
| I read the license MD and there are some clauses that make it
| incompatible with Apache. I think you might just have seen
| the disclosure text for Apache/BSD zero.
| sea-gold wrote:
| RustMailer (a separate project) has a commercial license:
| https://github.com/rustmailer/rustmailer/blob/main/LICENSE
|
| > RustMailer is source-available. The code is open on GitHub,
| but requires a valid commercial license key for production use.
|
| License Purchase: https://rustmailer.com/pricing
|
| The mention of BSD/Apache is from here[1] and looks to be a
| listing of open-source licenses that this project uses.
|
| [1]
| https://github.com/rustmailer/rustmailer/blob/main/license.h...
| znnajdla wrote:
| I'm been meaning to build something like this myself. Seems like
| this was designed to be run on a server, however. What if I want
| to run it locally on a laptop that's not always on? Does it
| recover gracefully from restarts and such? Is it a SQLite
| database I can query myself? Does it have an immutable
| archive/backup mode with trash recovery?
| sea-gold wrote:
| Sorry, I don't know all the answers. However, I do know this
| (from the README):
|
| > Core Engine (Storage & Search): Tantivy[1] > Acts as both the
| primary storage for email content and the full-text search
| index. This unified approach ensures high performance and
| eliminates data redundancy.
|
| [1] https://github.com/quickwit-oss/tantivy
| wwfn wrote:
| If looking for local email, why not a traditional client
| (thunderbird, claws, even outlook) or the more flexible/cli
| friendly maildir and notmuch? There are a bunch of front ends,
| including WebUIs https://notmuchmail.org/frontends/
|
| Is what you're looking for a pretty good fit for how email was
| originally used? Or am missing something obvious
| tosapple wrote:
| I've got bichons, and they're great dogs.
| V__ wrote:
| A small warning for anyone wanting to use this in a setting with
| legal requirements:
|
| > Please note that the term "sync" in Bichon may be
| misleading--"download" might be more accurate. [1]
|
| If an email is deleted before bichon can download it, then it may
| not get archived. Most of the time the legal requirements are,
| that all emails hitting an inbox have to be archived, regardless
| of user action.
|
| For those cases, a solution like mailpiler is better. Just BCC
| any incoming and outgoing mail to mailpiler and that is it.
|
| [1] https://github.com/rustmailer/bichon/wiki/FAQ-(Frequently-
| As...
| jszymborski wrote:
| Thank god! I hacked together some awful pipeline where Sieve
| copies mail to a folder and a python script read, stored, and
| deleted the email. Super fragile, using an email folder as a
| queue kinda sucked.
| nubg wrote:
| Ah this is so close. If it could have a s3 backend for storage of
| the email blobs (should be trivial since the email files are just
| key values from email id to email bytes) one could use it as a
| backup tool, too.
|
| Author, is anything like that possible/planned? (the index itself
| can stay filesystem only)
| sea-gold wrote:
| Here is a very similar project: https://emailengine.app/
|
| Similar to Bichon, it also has a commercial license[1]:
|
| > EmailEngine is not free open-source software. It is "source
| available" software, meaning you can view and copy the source
| code, but you need a paid subscription[2] to run it beyond the
| free 14-day trial. Each EmailEngine instance comes with this
| trial, so you can test EmailEngine without any commitment.
|
| EmailEngine is based on ImapFlow[3], a modern and easy-to-use
| IMAP client library for Node.js that is MIT-licensed.
|
| [1]
| https://github.com/postalsys/emailengine/blob/master/LICENSE...
|
| [2] https://postalsys.com/plans
|
| [3] https://github.com/postalsys/imapflow
| isaachinman wrote:
| For anyone reading, I would highly recommend steering clear of
| EmailEngine.
| mbStavola wrote:
| Bichons and Rust? I'm already sold!
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(page generated 2026-01-10 23:00 UTC)