why an SQL Database? (was: Re: Linux Wish List ( Email Client ))

[M. Fioretti]

On Sat, Nov 24, 2007 14:25:15 PM +0100, Jan Torben Heuer
(jtnews at mail2003.dnsalias.org) wrote:

> Richard wrote:
> 
> Hi
> 
> [kmail + sql backend]
> > in maildir or mbox format, its a better solution (But Sql Backend would be
> > better), plus Kmail has has better filtering than Outlook, but not as
> 
> Why people always want to save everything in an relational database? I can't
> see any benefit in it. Yes, a good index can speed up searches, but a sql
> backend is in my eyes simply overkill.

that may simply mean that _your_ own use of your email archives doesn't
need it.

What are the alternatives to find quickly, straight from the mail
client, things like "all the messages of all the threads about
OpenDocument, on several mailing lists, where Y replied to messages
which _I_ sent into those same threads" in an archive of ~10**5
messages? I do need answers to this or even more complicated queries
pretty often and will need to do something about it sooner or
later. And this should be independent from the email client I am using
or testing in any given moment, locally or remotely.

>From what I've read, the only thing that comes close to this is some
kind of relational database which can build virtual folders on the
fly. Which in practice, means using dbmail ( http://www.dbmail.org/ )

if there are other solutions to search mail with the same flexibility,
I'm very interested to hear them. I know about mairix, but last time I
checked I understood it simply couldn't do anything complex like the
example above.

Ciao,
	Marco
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