[Zope3-dev] Re: ZOPE3 Maildir implementation

[Philipp von Weitershausen]

Pjotr Prins wrote:
> I have a few questions regarding the ZOPE mailer implementation:
> 
> 1. Why did you go for a file system implementation - as ZODB objects
> are being made into a mail queue anyway?

The mail queue doesn't create persistent objects.

> The Maildir step could have been skipped, I suppose, just the
> connection to a mail server directly over the network interface would
> suffice. Is there a specific reason for the Maildir implementation?

The reason for queued delivery (as opposed to direct delivery) is that
you might send an email that is later aborted. For example, consider a
change notification email whereas the change itself is aborted. The
email would be lying about the state of the application. With queued
delivery, the email isn't sent when the transaction is aborted.

As Gary pointed out, the reason for using Maildir is a practical one. We
don't want to block.

> 2. The current implementation can only handle between 30-60 E-mail's a
> minute. This is mostly due to the naming convention used for maildir
> files (one a second - actually the Maildir naming allows in between
> numbers, but you don't use that).

Actually, the Maildir spec (http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) now
suggests "new fashion" Maildir names that are a lot "more unique" than
old fashion ones. Every major Maildir implementation I've come across in
the last two years uses new fashion Maildir names.

> The reason I am asking is not so much an interest in fixing it for
> mail,

Again, as Gary pointed out, it'd be great if you could help fix this.

Philipp