Path: csiph.com!news.swapon.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail From: Michael Torrie Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: Getting data out of Mozilla Thunderbird with Python? Date: Wed, 09 Dec 2015 23:23:34 -0700 Lines: 25 Message-ID: References: <56680c59$0$1591$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de Qy3x+lrbCRXbye2Wq65FEAKXUKe1Z9wSrkAgz6UyK80A== Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.004 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 0.99; '*S*': 0.00; 'configure': 0.04; 'subject:Python': 0.05; 'default.': 0.07; 'anymore.': 0.09; 'storage.': 0.09; 'subject:Getting': 0.09; 'will,': 0.09; 'files.': 0.13; 'file,': 0.15; '*less*': 0.16; 'corrupt': 0.16; 'from:addr:torriem': 0.16; 'from:name:michael torrie': 0.16; 'maildir': 0.16; 'received:io': 0.16; 'received:psf.io': 0.16; 'space)': 0.16; 'storing': 0.16; 'uncommon': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.16; 'am,': 0.23; 'header:In-Reply-To:1': 0.24; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.26; '(which': 0.26; 'error': 0.27; 'disk': 0.27; 'wasting': 0.29; 'too.': 0.30; 'certain': 0.31; 'run': 0.33; 'point': 0.33; 'problem': 0.33; "d'aprano": 0.33; 'picking': 0.33; 'steven': 0.33; "i'll": 0.33; 'message-id:@gmail.com': 0.34; 'file': 0.34; 'server': 0.34; 'on,': 0.35; 'exist': 0.35; "isn't": 0.35; '(and': 0.36; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.36; 'subject:?': 0.36; 'subject:: ': 0.37; 'thanks': 0.37; 'received:org': 0.37; 'files': 0.38; 'format': 0.39; 'received:192': 0.39; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.40; 'subject:with': 0.40; 'back': 0.62; 'here.': 0.62; 'charset:windows-1252': 0.62; 'mailbox': 0.64; 'periodically': 0.66; 'potentially': 0.67; 'faster.': 0.84; 'safer': 0.91; 'mailbox.': 0.93 X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at torriefamily.org User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.7.0 In-Reply-To: <56680c59$0$1591$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20+ Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:100220 On 12/09/2015 04:11 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > Maildir is also *much* safer too. With mbox, a single error when writing > email to the mailbox will likely corrupt *all* emails from that point on, > so potentially every email in the mailbox. With maildir, a single error > when writing will, at worst, corrupt one email. > > Thanks Mozilla, for picking the *less* efficient and *more* risky format as > the default. Good choice! Not so long ago, many filesystems were very poor at storing lots of small files. For disk efficiency, storing them in one big file, periodically compacting the file, was seen as a better way to go. After all mbox format has been around for a very long time for certain reasons (which no longer exist today). Maildir came later. Back when hard drives were smaller, it was also not uncommon to run out of inodes in a file system on a server that had many small files. Neither of these issues is much of a problem these days. Ext4 added the ability to store small files right in the inode, so internal fragmentation (and wasting of space) isn't a big issue anymore. It's good to know I can configure Thunderbird to use maildir for local storage. I'll have to make the change here. Will make my backups a lot easier and faster.