Maildir

E792074

Maildir is an email storage format that saves each message as a separate file in a structured directory hierarchy to improve reliability and concurrency over traditional mbox files.

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Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf email storage format
file format
advantageOverMbox better performance with large mailboxes
no need to rewrite entire mailbox file when changing a message
reduced risk of mailbox corruption
allows easy backup and restore at file level
per-message file permissions
avoids file locking issues common in mbox
canBeAccessedBy IMAP daemons
local mail user agents
commonlyUsedBy Courier Mail Server NERFINISHED
Dovecot NERFINISHED
Postfix (with configuration) NERFINISHED
qmail NERFINISHED
commonlyUsedIn Unix-like systems
comparedTo mbox
compatibleWith IMAP servers that understand Maildir layout
deliveryMethod message written to tmp then moved to new
designedFor storing email messages
designedToImprove concurrency
reliability
doesNotRequire locking for appending messages
locking for reading messages
fileSystemRequirement requires filesystem that supports atomic rename
hasDirectory INBOX/cur
INBOX/new
INBOX/tmp
introducedBy Daniel J. Bernstein NERFINISHED
messageFileNaming unique filenames
messageFlagsExample Flagged
Replied
Seen
messageFlagsLocation stored in filename suffix in cur directory
originatedIn qmail ecosystem
purposeOfCurDirectory holding messages that have been seen
purposeOfNewDirectory holding newly delivered messages
purposeOfTmpDirectory holding messages during delivery
storesEachMessageAs separate file
supports concurrent access by multiple processes
flags encoded in filenames
hierarchical folders via multiple Maildir trees
safe crash recovery for delivered messages
server-side mail storage
user-level mail storage
typicalBaseDirectory ~/Maildir GENERATED
uniqueFilenamesAchievedBy combining timestamp process ID and host name
uses directory hierarchy

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

qmail supportsMailboxFormat Maildir