The Future of Thunderbird Email Handling?

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WildCelt
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The Future of Thunderbird Email Handling?

Post by WildCelt »

I know this question may be premature, but as I become more comfortable with Tbird and like it more and more, I am accumulating email (that I intend to save) in the program. Is there going to be either: 1. No significant changes to the way Tbird stores email in the profile or, 2. A way to export mail, etc. that one wants to save. I would hate to lose important email because of a change in structure, and would like to know now if I have to take safeguards for certain messages (i.e., continue to use Outlook).
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rakhesh
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Post by rakhesh »

Check <a href="http://www.texturizer.net/thunderbird/faq.html#2.10">this</a> FAQ entry.

While it doesn't directly answer your question, you can take hope in the fact that your mails are stored in a standard plain text "mbox" format, and so can be read by other email clients (meaning your mails can be easily exported). And being a standard format for storing messages, I don't think Thunderbird will be changing (atleast I don't see any reason why Thunderbird might want to change).

HTH,
Rakhesh
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WildCelt
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Post by WildCelt »

Good info. Thanks!
Surge
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Post by Surge »

rakhesh wrote:Check <a href="http://www.texturizer.net/thunderbird/faq.html#2.10">this</a> FAQ entry.

While it doesn't directly answer your question, you can take hope in the fact that your mails are stored in a standard plain text "mbox" format, and so can be read by other email clients (meaning your mails can be easily exported). And being a standard format for storing messages, I don't think Thunderbird will be changing (atleast I don't see any reason why Thunderbird might want to change.


Interesting, what has happened with the idea I read back in 98 that Mozilla Mail would use Berkeley-DB to store mail? I guess storing letters in plain text is a bit outdated, considering the amount of stuff that arrives. My Thunderbird now stores around 3000 e-mails, if they are stored plain text - this explains why it takes so long to load the program. :(
Do you know if there were any plans to implement new file format that will use something like B+Trees?
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Rhubarb
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Post by Rhubarb »

Hmm... as an advanced feature, you might envision the option to store it per account either in 'db' format or in 'mbox' format, with the functionality to switch from one to the other.

Just my 2c...
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bijugc
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Post by bijugc »

Surge wrote:stored plain text - this explains why it takes so long to load the program. :(
Do you know if there were any plans to implement new file format that will use something like B+Trees?
It seems they also use an index file. Which also have info like Sender/to/cc address, subject etc. So it should be faster and compact than a General purpose database
8) Biju
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